TO THE EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW:

Just reread the article that was the last straw, "Has the Presidency Become Impossible?; No, but it is too hard for the incumbent" (2/24/20). I didn't try to cancel the dumn subscription, but I'm letting it expire. The writer Richard Brookhiser quotes academics, one of whom says the job hurts the health of Presiidents and they die young (tell Jimmie Carter and Bush 41). "Trump, a novice with no information, limited intelligence, and bad character, has held office for over three years without catastrophe . . ," writes Mr. Brookhiser. "What amazes and appalls are the noxious aspects of Trump's personality, the aura of insecurity . . His grotesqueries are so numerous they defy listing . . "

He quotes a professor who describes Trump as a man "lacking the attributes of a magnanimous soul . . " Brookhiser says his foibles "define a demagogue . . captive of popular passions . . (and) the rot goes back . . ultimately to Thomas Jefferson (a populist)." He then picks apart a quotation that is one of my favorite TJ quotes:

"The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in stronger or weaker degree . . State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."

So said the patron saint, along with Jackson, of the "Democratic" party, which has done a 180 and become the party of the elite academaniacs and billionaires. And too many Republicans subscribe to elitism, too. They used to be called country club GOPers, now "shiny shoe Republicans" by some. Many went to elite so-called universities and became more HIP than people who get their hands dirty on the job. They proved to have more in common with the liberals elites in 2020 than with traditional conservatives.

The insider GOP politicians always cashed in on pro-life votes but only with a sneer; they were secretly pro-abortion. As Rush Limbaugh often pointed out, they detested "one issue" fundamentalists. Brookhiser concludes:

"Statesmen in a democratic age must master the arts of popularity [but] they don't have to be little arts. It is hard. Too hard for the incumbent."

P.S. If I could unfriend Brookhiser on Facebook, I would. We can love our neighbor, our enemy, and God but still unfriend someone. Can't we? And can we get over labels such as "anti-intellectual" if we agree with one Thomas Jefferson?

PPS: The never-Trumper intellectuals probably thought they could say almost anything about him in 2016 and it wouldn't make any difference because he was going to lose anyway. My brother was a GOP insider, county chairman and so on, and when I told him that Trump was going to win in a landslide, you should have seen the look on his face. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall the night Hillary Clinton lost. Schadenfreud.