Beltway pundits who have for years told their adoring public that no matter how utterly craven Republicans may be, Democrats do it too are now very, very concerned about public cynicism. How can that be, they wonder.
Ron Fournier's performance this morning on Meet the Press was a textbook example of a so-called neutral thought leader who is now very, very worried about Trump's rise and the public's lack of confidence in their public institutions, and he was joined in that concern by fellow bothsiderist, Chuck Todd.
"I am concerned about half the country not accepting the result in November, and not in a 2000 type style response, where everybody laid down their arms," Todd worried, as he fingered the pearls in his pocket.
"I'm concerned not just about November in the way you are, but I'm concerned about the next Novembers, the next two or three cycles," Fournier declared. "We're in a time, much like we were at the beginning of the last century, when the public doesn't trust its institutions, doesn't trust the validity of elections."
"And when that happens, people do dangerous and totally improper things like egging a supporter from the other side," he added.
Later in the conversation, Fournier worried that the egging of a Trumpist "could devolve into a really serious violence, and in further destruction of our trust in the system."
I'm not condoning violence at rallies, nor do I think it's appropriate to egg someone you don't agree with. But how do you get from that to "really serious violence" that will somehow destroy trust in our system, again?
Let's review. On one side, we have a candidate who wants to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, deport 11 million people, has outward hatred for an entire religion, has no respect for an independent judiciary, is a fascist in word and deed, and would turn the direction of this country to a very dark place.
On the other, you have people who threw eggs, and somehow that is exactly the same thing and will lead people into distrusting government?
This, without mentioning the fact that a Supreme Court nomination has been held up for months now because Republicans want to win first so they can retain the conservative bent of the court, that no work is being done in Washington because the Republican Congress is hell-bent on building the perception that government doesn't work?
Yet the thing that has Fournier worried isn't any of that. It's simply that someone egged a Trumpist, because that's something that will surely wreck confidence in government sooner than anything else.
