Chaos? No, politics

What’s our word for today, kids? The word is “chaos.” Spelled funny, yes. Defined even funnier by the current knights of the keyboard. The New York Times summary of last night at the Republican National Convention: “Chaos erupted.” Other typical headlines: “GOP Convention Chaos … Chaos in Cleveland …Throwing Republican Convention into Chaos.”

Hmm. Merriam-Webster defines chaos as “complete confusion and disorder: a state in which behavior and events are not controlled by anything: the state of the universe before there was any order and before stars and planets were formed.” Physicists define chaos as “behavior so unpredictable as to appear random.”

Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech last night at the GOP convention and reaction to it satisfy neither of those definitions. When Preston Brooks beat Sen. Charles Sumner badly on the usually sedate Senate floor in 1856, that was disorder. When police and demonstrators clashed at the Democratic convention in 1968, that did seem chaotic. Last night was child’s play.

Cruz is both principled and long-range pragmatic, so for both sets of reasons his endorsement of Donald Trump was always unlikely. He has positioned himself well if Trump loses. With the exception of George W. Bush and now Trump, every Republican candidate over the past half-century had previously sought the nomination and lost.

I’ve been very critical of Trump, but liberal attacks (and maybe some conservative snobbery as well) are pushing me toward some sympathy.

So New York delegates led the booing of Cruz last night. No surprise, given that Cruz earlier this year criticized “New York values.” A Washington Post headline in April was prescient: “Ted Cruz and the Revenge of New York Values.” Old-timers remember how western Goldwater delegates at the 1964 GOP convention in San Francisco booed New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Big deal.

I’ve been very critical of Trump, but liberal attacks (and maybe some conservative snobbery as well) are pushing me toward some sympathy. So Melania Trump used the same boilerplate language Michelle Obama had used in her convention speech? Big deal. Why aren’t connoisseurs of chaos paying more attention to ISIS and Boko Haram internationally, and George Soros–backed organizations domestically?

WORLD senior editor Mindy Belz offers this discerning comment in the issue of WORLD Magazine that’s now in the mail to our members and will be available to members digitally tomorrow:

“It’s tempting to believe Hillary Clinton represents the traditional, sober political leader. … We should get over Hillary Clinton as the less tainted choice. Critics rightly demand Trump act more presidential, but they should also demand Clinton act less criminal.”