George Will's lethal blow to previous prez

[JHB]

19. Read all of it before you pat Will on the back

Like every NeverTrumper, they can't simply attack the beast they created. They alway have to slap Democrats, and left-of-center Democrats in particular.

From Capitol Hill to city halls, Democrats have presided over surges of debt, inflation, crime, pandemic authoritarianism and educational intolerance. Public schools, a point of friction between citizens and government, are hostages of Democratic-aligned teachers unions that have positioned K-12 education in an increasingly adversarial relationship with parents. The most lethal threat to Democrats, however, is the message Americans are hearing from the party’s media-magnified progressive minority: You should be ashamed of your country.

Trump’s message is similar. He says this country is saturated with corruption, from the top, where dimwits represent the evidently dimwitted voters who elected them, down to municipalities that conduct rigged elections. Progressives say the nation’s past is squalid and not really past; Trump says the nation’s present is a disgrace.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/04/power-of-trump-in-gop-is-waning/

(paywalled, but it's quoting him, not filtered through a third-party)