THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK?

I don’t watch television.  If there’s breaking news I want to follow, I check my Twitter feed, where at least the biases in reporting are biases I’ve chosen.  That’s how I followed the events in Charlottesville yesterday, and I’m sensing a glitch in the matrix.

Donald Trump is clearly the worst president in our country’s history, and every day he gives us new proof of that dubious achievement.  In one sense, his pathetic comments about Nazi terrorism in Charlottesville are no different than literally hundreds of previous tweets and remarks.  No one who pays attention to Trump was surprised by what he said, or by what he didn’t say.

And yet the response to his failure of leadership yesterday has taken on a different tone.  It’s not just his usual critics who weighed in with their usual perfectly reasonable criticism.  Yesterday, even Republicans who have taken pains to avoid criticizing Donald Trump seem to be fed up. 

James Fallows, editor of The Atlantic, wrote:  “No one can ever predict what the defining moments of political eras will turn out to be.  GW Bush had no idea that Katrina would matter.  Trump faced that test today, and failed it more abjectly, nakedly, and cravenly than he has the other responsibilities of his office.”

“Heckuva job, Brownie” marked the beginning of the end of George W. Bush’s presidency.  Could it be that “many sides” and “cherish our history” is about to have a similar impact on Donald Trump?