Bill Barr: Trump Will Burn Down the GOP; Time for New Leadership

IMO a must-read.

I agree with ever word of this piece.

The only place I differ with Barr is personal and historical, not substantive: he was smart enough to support Trump in 2016; I wasn't.

As depressing as the situation is, it's exciting for me in an epistemic way: I came to almost all these conclusions on my own, and I developed admiration and respect for Barr more-or-less independently. So it's exciting to me that someone I really respect seems to be confirming my conclusions. 

Though I've read Barr's memoir, so there was probably some interaction between my views on Trump and my respect for Barr.

   Alright. Enough of that. The point is: I (currently, at least) enthusiastically...and yet regretfully...agree with Barr. Trump was a swing-for-the-fences, desperation candidate. He's really surprisingly good substantively--which most people neither know nor really care about--but a disaster personally. And those personal characterological facts matter. His temperament and demeanor--while sometimes admirable--are generally catastrophic. He's still better than the left--the collective character, temperament and intelligence of that faction are disastrously awful. But I don't want to go down that rabbit-hole here.

   Trump had his chance and did a great service to the country. As I've often said--and as Barr basically says--if he'd been 10% less Trumpy, he'd be President today, and we'd have been spared the catastrophe that is the Biden administration. But he isn't and we weren't. And now we absolutely have to win--and it's well within our power.

   As Barr says: time to move on.  Trump will try to play spoiler, of course. We're still living with the consequences of conservatives' desperate 2016 gambit.