[David Post] An open letter to Volokh Conspiracy readers who are Trump supporters

Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Waukesha, Wis., on Wednesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Some weeks ago, in one of my periodic postings about Donald Trump’s lack of fitness to be president of the United States, I dropped a casual remark to the effect that I assumed that none of my readers were misguided enough to take him seriously, or to serve as a volunteer in his campaign. Several commenters took me to task for the remark; “what kind of bubble do you live in?” one asked.

It’s a fair question, and fair criticism. It did make me reflect a bit on the “bubble.” It is true that, for the first time in my life, spanning more than a dozen presidential elections, a major-party candidate does not have support from a single friend of mine — or even from a close acquaintance. Maybe it’s just because I spend most of my time either in the District or Vermont, and finding Trump supporters in either of those jurisdictions is a very difficult task. I suspect, though, that it reflects something more insidious, and that we are really, finally, collapsing into separate camps, each with its own favored newspapers, and websites, and TV news channels, and so on, and across whose boundaries nothing passes.

So in the spirit of constructive engagement, let me ask a couple of questions, regarding things that I really do not understand in connection with Trump’s candidacy. I understand many people’s hostility to Hillary Clinton, though I don’t share it to a great degree, and I understand the desire for “change” in Washington, and the notion that the ruling elites have failed miserably to address many of our problems. And I understand that people can have different, and more Trump-friendly, views than mine on all sorts of policy questions, on everything from immigration to gun rights to international trade and the rest.

I get all that. But here’s what I don’t get.  Trump is unstable — what the Arizona Republic newspaper, in endorsing a Democratic nominee for the first time in its 126-year history, called his “inability to control himself or be controlled by others,” and his “reckless … lack of propriety” — and unstable people should not be put in command of our armed forces and our nuclear codes.  The U.S. commander in chief has awesome, and virtually unconstrained, power to commit U.S. forces to battle and to dictate to the generals — generals sworn to obey his orders — how those battles should be fought, up to and including the use of nuclear weapons.

For me, the election conversation really starts, and ends, here, before you get to immigration policy, or climate change, or SCOTUS appointments, or international trade, or law and order, or any of the other issues the next president will have to deal with, and I don’t understand how Trump supporters get past this point.

So my question is: Which part of that formulation do you disagree with? That he’s dangerously unstable? Or that it matters, as a dispositive criterion for choosing a president? Trump has a secret plan to deal with the Islamic State; you trust that he will act reasonably and prudently in pursuit of that plan because …?

I don’t mean these as rhetorical questions, and I’m not trying to be snarky or sarcastic.  I genuinely cannot imagine an argument in support of putting that kind of power — the power to kill, and to get American soldiers killed — into this guy’s hands.

And please, if you do care to respond, I ask that you NOT tell me about how terrible you think Hillary Clinton is. I get that; many of you think she’s an abomination. Many of you may even think that she’s dangerously unstable and shouldn’t be entrusted with the commander in chief’s power. Fine; put that all aside. My question isn’t “Whom do you like more, Trump or Clinton?,” nor is it “Why aren’t you supporting Hillary Clinton?” (or Gary Johnson, for that matter). It’s a much simpler question, and it’s just about Donald Trump. For purposes of this question, it doesn’t matter who he’s running against; the failings of other candidates don’t affect his standing on the one test that matters most of all. If you’re a supporter, I assume that you’ve satisfied yourself that he will exercise the rather awesome and terrifying powers of the U.S. commander in chief in a reasonable manner, and I’m curious as to how you’ve done that.

And I have a second question: What makes you think that you’re not being scammed?  This guy’s the master of the scam — it has been his M.O. for years.  Short of tattooing “CON MAN” on his forehead, how much more obvious could it be? Trump University! The Trump “Charitable” Foundation!! The