Ross Douthat can’t stand Donald Trump, but he continues to hold out hope that Trump’s erratic nationalism can evolve into an ideology that is a better fit for the times than the warmed-over Reaganism of the GOP mainstream. As a result, he wrote a column last week calling for Republican intellectuals affiliated with the counter-establishment to help define “Trumpism.”
The problem with “Trumpism” is that it is already defined as blind faith in the vast powers of one Donald J. Trump to “win” for America. That’s it. Everything else is transient and negotiable.