Ross Douthat Wakes Up Again.

++In today's New York Times,Ross Douthat makes "The Conservative Case Against Trump".

++Douthat believes the Reaganite vision that dominated the GOP for decades is threatened. That is a fusion of social conservatism,free-market economics and hawkish internationalism. Trump has " consistently arrayed himself against this vision". 

++Douthat admits that Trump paid lip service to certain ideas but the "core of his message was protectionist, nativist, comfortable with an expansive welfare state, bored with religious conservatism, and dismissive of the commitments that constitute post-Cold War Pax Americana". (The latter Douthat doesn't define." 

++"Reaganite conservatives who hep elevate Trump to the presidency,then, would be sleepwalking toward a kind of ideological suicide." 

++Douthat warns that "In a fully-Trumpized GOP, Reagan's ideological coalition would crack up,with hawks drifting toward the Democrats,supply-siders fading into crankery, religious conservatives entering permanent exile."

++Even if you thought populism might bring about some necessary creative destruction to a backward-looking GOP,you still have the matter of Trump himself.

++Douthat believes Trump is still unfit for an office as awesomely powerful as the presidency of the United States. His unfitness starts with basic issues of temperament. It encompasses race-baiting,conspiracy theorizing,the flirtations with violence, and the pathological lying that has been campaign-trail stock in trade.

++Douthat says Trump's authoritarianism makes him unfit for the presidency, his stated admiration for Putin and the Chinese Politburo, his promises to use the power of the presidency against private enterprises,the casual threats against party donors, military officers,the press, the Speaker of the House, and more.

++Trump is actively campaigning as a Caesarist and there is no reason any of this is just an act. 

++Douthat concludes that you might "answer "yes","maybe" or "not that, but" to Trump's proposals;but to Trump himself ,there is no patriotic answer except "no". 

++Well-reasoned and about time. He joins George Will and David Brooks in rejecting Trump.