David French, Charles Kessler discuss Trump’s effect on politics of the right

The Notre Dame community showed up in droves to the debate “#NeverTrump? 2016 and the Future of American Conservatism,” sponsored by the Constitutional Studies Program. Charles Kessler, Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, and David French, staff writer at National Review and constitutional law attorney, discussed the rise of Trump and the future of the conservative movement. Doors of the Lafortune Ballroom were closed and locked before the event even began as the room had reached capacity.

Kessler, while supporting Trump, did not endorse him as an ideal candidate but rather as the lesser of two evils. He characterized Trump as a Jacksonian populist, more Republican than conservative.

According to Kessler, the stakes could not be higher in this election. In defending his position, he cited the projected consequences for the Supreme Court. Kessler expressed concern that the next president would be responsible not only for appointing a successor to Justice Scalia, but, due to an aging court, could be responsible for up to four appointments.

“If you liked the Warren Court, you are going to love what the Clinton Court is going to do,” Kessler said, referencing the liberal Supreme Court of Chief Justice Warren of the 1950s and ‘60s.

In Kessler’s opinion, there is no reason to fear an out-of-control president in Trump. If he is elected, Trump will not face a friendly Congress. Republicans are suspicious of him; Democrats despise him. It is more likely, Kessler predicts, that Clinton will press constitutional boundaries. Additionally, as a newcomer to politics, Trump is not equipped with the network to appoint 5,000 people to government offices. Kessler believes that he will delegate well and be surrounded by “more steady hands,” if only because he will have no choice but to appoint from the lists that conservative think tanks are eagerly preparing for him.

In contrast to Kessler, French called “Trumpism” “idiocy and megalomania in search of an ideology.” His criticism of Trump centered on one main thesis: Trump will say, do, and believe anything in order to accomplish his political ends, and as president, Trump will make decisions based on whatever is best for Trump in the moment.

French pointed out over a dozen cases of Trump changing his position on issues or arguing for contradictory stances during this election season. French claimed that Americans do not care nearly as much about politics as they do about entertainment, and he criticized the country’s lack of civic literacy. French pointed out that Trump has been famous since the Reagan administration. He has created a brand for himself around success, power, and authority, which people find entertaining and novel. Additionally, Trump managed to capitalize on the frustrations of the American right with overreaching government. Throughout the election, Trump has embodied “a middle finger at all the people [the public] hated.”

According to French, the worst-case scenario for the GOP and the country is if Trump becomes a long-term feature of our politics. The best-case scenario, he says, is a one-term Clinton presidency followed by a “real conservative.” French hopes that the conservative movement will repair itself and raise up a worthy candidate in the meantime, and he predicts that should Trump lose to Clinton, there will be a massive “blood-letting” within the Republican Party of all of those who allowed Trump to win the nomination. He says that this is far preferable to the legacy of Trump and the effect he will have on the nation in the long-term.

Kessler’s opinion on the effects of “Trumpism”, whether he wins or not, was that conservatism will never be the same. Kessler claims that Trump has brought issues to the surface of American conservatism that have divided the Republican Party and that future conservatives will have to adjust to accommodate Trump’s voters. Kessler criticized the Republican Party’s control over its nomination system and suggested that reform is necessary going forward. In the future, Republican leaders need to do a better job of making sure party interests are in play and recommended that one possible way to achieve this would be creating experiential criteria for candidacy. Kessler concluded, “[The] presidency shouldn’t be an entry level job.”

Junior Mimi Teixeira told the Rover, “I thought the event was great. I side with French in that I would never support Trump, but I think it was valuable for students to hear an intelligent defense of Trump. I think the narrative that Trump supporters are racists or idiots is extremely harmful, and Charles Kessler helped to dispel that.”

Keenan White is a sophomore living in Ryan Hall. You can contact her at kwhite11@nd.edu.