Originally published at crisis magazine
This year’s presidential campaign recalls a criticism Benjamin Disraeli said about some of his fellow Tories on the issue of the Corn Laws. When a member of Parliament advocated for a position the opposite of his party’s traditional stance, Disraeli said, “The right honorable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.”
We have Ms. Harris suddenly announcing she believes in the wall at the border and mouthing populist rhetoric about the economy and military spending, meanwhile expressing her fervent belief that her “values” have not changed. The greatest value for a politician, it has been said, is getting elected. Most would say that they would not rather be right than president, for instance.
President Trump has also done his share of shape-shifting. It is possible to grant him that he always considered the abortion issue as a question for the states to decide individually, but it is impossible not to wince when he parrots the phrase “reproductive rights for women.” I used to say about some of Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks what a wag said
