Tuesday Superficiality: You Broke It, You Bought It, No Matter How Huge and Classy It Is

Somewhere back in the runup to the Iraq War (or perhaps after) Colin Powell famously referenced the "Pottery Barn Rule," i.e. "You broke it, you bought it." (That Pottery Barn had no such rule was par for the course for those fact-indifferent paragons of mendacity; however, the concept itself is valid enough.)

We can apply YBIYBI to the GOP and its base voters who propelled Donald Trump to the nomination. Some in the party seem to be acting as if Trump were an aberration, when in fact it is the logical (if batsh*t insane) culmination of forty-plus years of the GOP's cultivation of reactionary nativism under a veneer of pipe-smoking adult-sounding bromides. Trump's innovation, such as it is, was to reject the use of dog whistles and start belting out the quiet parts like Ethel Merman. And whaddaya know, the base not only drank it down, but are mad at the GOP establishment for having previously watered down the message.

Now we are treated to the spectacle of non-endorsement endorsements from the erstwhile Howard Bakers of the party, "he doesn't reflect our values," etc. Yeah, well, he does now, or he wouldn't be your nominee, now would he.

The big question, as always, is "What are you going to about it?"

Well?