He tweeted:
The link takes you to a column already accessible, titled Trump, Grand Wizard of Birtherism
Let’s consider that title. It is given to the head of the Ku Klux Klan, who is labeled either the Grand or the Imperial Wizard, all the way back to Nathan Bedford Forrest.
It is not clear WHY the column will not hold, and whether Blow anticipates writing another between now and Monday, but this one is appropriately delicious, starting with its very beginning:
So, on Friday the Grand Wizard of Birtherism against President Obama admitted that birtherism was bunk, not by apologizing for his prominent role in the racist campaign — no, that would have been too right — but by suggesting that he deserved credit for dousing the flames he’d fanned.
This man is so low that he’s subterranean.
Now we need to be careful Blow is NOT, unlike Trump, making a suggestion of violence towards a political opponent — he is not saying that Trump should be dead a buried, but rather that it is impossible to readily describe how low he has gone.
Just wanted to be clear about that.
But of course there is more.
He provides an extensive list of the various conspiracy theories Trump has floated about President Obama, notes that the President is not the only target (for example, the father of Ted Cruz), then offers these words
This is what Trump does: he exalts gossip and innuendo, which has the direct and opposite effect of truth and honesty. He finds a lie in which the depraved have faith and he lifts it up as if it’s a secret that their opponents fear.
This is an enormous distraction, because it means that time and attention that could be put into exposing that Trump’s policies are either paper thin or laughably unworkable are instead diverted to disproving lies which usher forth from his mouth like water from a hose at full throttle.
“paper thin or laughably unworkable” are an apt description of what very few policies Trump has even offered. I would suggest that rather than a distraction from those qualities of his policies his conspiracies serve to keep him in the news and suck oxygen from any coverage of Clinton’s far better developed policies at the same time as preventing any discussion of policy at all, except for his outrageous proposals about Muslims and Mexicans. To me at least it seems like a deliberate choice to try to frame this election as devoid of policy and make it about personality, which is certainly better for Trump than making it about policy, when he is totally out his depth on any area of policy.
Let’s return to Blow, who notes that Trump doesn’t apologize and is doing far worse in destroying the notion of truth because
he is breaking the notion that truth should matter in the first place.
So yes, as of yesterday the media is finally using the word LIE about much of what Trump said, but if Blow is correct about the notion of truth, then that might not matter, not to those voters who have decided what the hell let’s just blow up the entire system because everyone lies. Again, in regularly accusing Clinton of his own sins Trump is trying to ensure not only that policy is ignored, but that his disparity in positive/negative ratings are not totally out of line with hers, which contributes to his entire idea of “what do you have to lose?” even for people who don’t really believe him.
That leads eventually to Blow’s conclusion,
No one who so proudly wears the mark of dishonesty and defamation possesses the power to grant the stamps of legitimacy and absolution.
We know that. Many political figures have said that. But if the water has been polluted enough, it may not matter.
I still believe that Clinton will win. But the political process has now been very seriously damaged, making it ever harder to have a meaningful and effective government “of the people, by the people and ofr the people.” It may be perishing before our eyes.