Bret Stephens: Trump ‘Is Corroding and Corrupting and in Some Respects Destroying Our Culture of Governance’

EXCERPT:

BRZEZINSKI: "Joining us now columnist for 'The New York Times' Bret Stephens. And Bret, you had a column last week that a lot of people were talking about. It was entitled 'While I’m Still A NeverTrumper'. Explain what you argued especially as it pertains to the news in the past week."
STEPHENS: "You know, look, if you look at what the Trump administration has done across a number of policies, I actually agree with many of them. I think corporate tax cuts are a good idea. I think we should be spending more on the military. I favored decertification of Iran or moving the embassy to Jerusalem. You know, we can argue about that but those are policy questions. But the essence of my never Trumpism comes down to what the president is doing to our political culture. And conservatives used to care about the culture. If you remember 20-odd  years ago Bill Bennett came out with a book called 'The Death of Outrage'. Of course it was directed at Bill Clinton and what was happening then. But right now you have a president who is systematically corroding, corrupting, and in some respects destroying our culture of governance; basic things, respecting the officers and the agents who serve them in our intelligence community in the -- in -- in the FBI. Earlier in the program you were talking about libel laws, basic fundamental responsibility to preserve and protect and defend the Constitution. The fact that, you know, as you -- as you were mentioning, this is a president who lies five times a day. He lies voluntarily, involuntarily, knowingly."
BRZEZINSKI: "This is not normal and not good for our country."
STEPHENS: "And what worries me is that Trump isn’t — conservatives think they’re going to pocket a bunch of policy victories and then Trump is going to go away."
BRZEZINSKI: "No."
STEPHENS: "Trump is going to create a culture of governance that’s going to stay with us for generations."