The Wall Street Journal, a conservative opinion molder, may be a bellwether in the GOP primary campaign. Thinking Republicans and independents — generally savvy in business — not part of the Trump cult, pay heed. The WSJ offers what passes for intelligent, sometimes persuasive opinion pieces on the right these days. Progressives can learn from and generally respect WSJ opinions because they can be intellectually honest, not simply trying to score hyper-partisan points.
Unfortunately, they probably aren’t anywhere near a majority of Republican primary voters. We can only hope that such independent thinkers rally behind another candidate who scores an upset victory against Trump in the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire, and South Carolina primaries, mortally wounding the dangerous cult of Trump that if given a chance, will destroy the rule of law in America and democracy itself.
In numerous articles, the WSJ hints that it will support a third-party candidate from the group “No Labels” before it will support Donald Trump or Joe Biden. “No Labels says its polling shows the public is open to a third-party candidate—59% of all voters would consider a moderate independent, including 53% of Republicans and 59% of Democrats. No Labels is already on the ballot in five states and hopes to get on all 50…If the race is Biden-Trump the sequel, the group is likely to nominate a centrist ticket.”
The Journal taunted the former president for avoiding debates with fellow Republicans. “What’s he afraid of?” Refusing to debate, the WSJ editorialized, demonstrates a lack of respect for voters.
In another editorial, it accused him of pandering to voters, telling them what he thinks they want to hear without regard to facts or conviction, particularly on the issues of ethanol in Iowa and Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Mr. Trump’s fans say he’s willing to fight for what’s right, no matter how unpopular it might be. The reality is that Mr. Trump is more a prisoner of the polling than most of his rivals because he has so few core beliefs.”
When Trump was indicted by the US Justice Department for lies that fueled a Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, including three criminal conspiracies, the WSJ opined that his post-election behavior after the 2020 election was “deceitful and destructive…disgraceful.” Trump “typically resides in a performance artist, fact-free world of his own imagining” and “should have resigned in disgrace after the events of Jan. 6.”
At the same time, it expresses skepticism that DOJ special counsel Jack Smith will be able to prove his case based on a very broad definition of conspiracy and without showing direct ties as of yet between Trump and “the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys who planned to, and did, breach the U.S. Capitol that day.”
After Trump was indicted in June for withholding classified documents and revealing national secrets to supporters who had no security clearance, the WSJ called his actions “reckless, arrogant and remarkably self-destructive….he made it easier for his enemies as he always does. Once he received a subpoena for those documents, Mr. Trump should have known he was at legal peril if he concealed them or lied about having them. Yet if the indictment is correct, that is precisely what he did.” Trump “undercut his own defense. “The narcissism and wretched judgment are familiar, but still hard to believe…”
“Mr. Trump aided his own first impeachment with a phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky looking for dirt on Joe Biden. He undermined his credibility on Covid because he lacked the self-discipline to avoid brawling with reporters…His role in the disgrace of Jan. 6, 2021, is well known. But had he accepted the 2020 election results, he might now be coasting to the nomination and have an excellent chance to win.”
“If Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee, he is unlikely to defeat Joe Biden. But if he did win, the document fiasco is what a second term would be like. He wouldn’t be able to deliver the conservative policy victories that Republicans want because he can’t control himself. He’d be preoccupied with grievance and what he calls ‘retribution.’ The best people won’t work for him because they see how he mistreated so many loyalists in the first term.
“If Republicans really want to defeat Democrats, the press, and a hostile bureaucracy, they’ll nominate a candidate who won’t shrink from a fight but will also be smart enough not to blunder into obvious traps. If Republicans nominate Mr. Trump again, they won’t “own the libs,” as the faddish saying goes. The libs will own them.”
The WSJ famously urged Trump to resign in January 2021 to avoid a second impeachment. It denounced Trump for inciting the mob that ransacked the Capitol, and declared his behavior impeachable.
“May Trump soon reach his Waterloo,” WSJ columnist and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan opined. “The former president isn’t Napoleon, but there are similarities in the cults around both men.” She goes on to quote from a biography of Napoleon. She concludes that Napoleon and Trump are both bad men. Many Republicans know this. They know that several Republican presidential candidates could easily beat Joe Biden, but Trump cannot. Yet like those in the cult of Napoleon, they can’t tear themselves away from the Trump cult “because they fear him and his friends. They don’t want to be a target, they don’t want to be outside the in-group, they want to be safely inside. They curry favor.”
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400 Years of American Politics 
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