Kristol, Palin, Trump

In The New York Times this morning, news that William Kristol is among those planning for an “‘independent Republican’ ticket” if Donald Trump gets the Republican nomination. Such a ticket would, in Kristol’s words, “allow voters to correct the temporary mistake (if they make it) of nominating Trump.”

So the prospect of President Trump is too crazy for William Kristol — the same William Kristol largely responsible for Sarah Palin’s presence on the 2008 Republican ticket. William Kristol knows best! But Palin 2008 helped to make Trump 2016 possible: he’s another example of a colorfully packaged know-nothingism. The chickens have come home to roost, and now they’re running amok, all over William Kristol’s house. The carpets are ruined.

Is know-nothingism ever anything but amok?

[Merriam-Webster defines know-nothingism : often capitalized K&N :  a mid-20th century political attitude characterized by anti-intellectualism, exaggerated patriotism, and fear of foreign subversive influences.” The original Know Nothings were a nineteenth-century phenomenon.]