Fred Hiatt: Behold, The Trump Boomerang Effect

Not sure how much of this I buy, but it's certainly what I've feared and predicted will be Trump's effect on the political correctness debate. His typical approach is so dim-witted and ham-handedly obnoxious that it seems destined to energize opposition and drive fence-sitters in the wrong direction. The Muslim and transgender bans (travel and military, respectively) are pretty good examples. Particularly in the latter case, we seemed to be on a pretty reasonable trajectory: put things on hold and let the experts decide. Not only was that an intrinsically reasonable approach, but it was, I thought, a victory for reason in that it was a firm refusal to simply instantaneously collapse in the face of progressive demands. (These days, that counts as a monumental act of defiance...) Then Trump blows the whole thing by stupidly issuing a draconian policy, out of the blue, via fiat (and Twitter, no less). Even those who are dubious about the incoherent cultural juggernaut that is the PC theory of transgenderism are likely to be put off by this autocratic bullshit. Let's just hope he keeps his thumbs shut about Title IX and the rest of that lot... If he starts tweeting about that, we could end up with a guilty-until-proven-innocent standard of proof on campuses, nationwide "affirmative consent" laws, mandatory jail-time for "microaggressions," and "privilege" re-education camp for the lot of us.