Niall Ferguson ranks among the most respectable of conservative intellectuals, at least based on his mainstream credentials (Harvard professor, fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, author of numerous books from major publishing houses). You might think Ferguson would be a bit wary of handing power to an unhinged madman. You would be wrong.

Ferguson, in an op-ed for the Daily Mail, explains why democracy is not only safe in Donald Trump’s hands, but why Trump poses less of a danger to the republic than Kamala Harris. To protect democracy, Ferguson, suggests, we should elect Trump.

The eagerness with which even the most coddled right-wing intellectuals have justified Trump’s increasingly naked authoritarianism is a devastating indictment of the right’s teetering commitment to democratic norms, and the state of conservative thought in general.

It is possible to detect four arguments in Ferguson’s column. Let us walk through them step-by-step and behold their pompous vacuity.

First, he asserts that Trump cannot pose a serious danger to democracy because he is funny:

“Does Trump look or sound like Hitler? To answer that question, I refer readers to his hilarious performance at an annual fund-raising dinner for Catholic charities in New York on October 18.

Tradition dictates that presidential candidates in attendance tell jokes at their own expense. Harris broke with convention and appeared in an unfunny video rather than in person. Trump jokingly declined to send himself up, saying: ‘I guess I just don’t see the point of taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me for a hell of a long time.’ He proceeded to skewer the Democrats.

Or how about the good humour with which Trump dished out fries in a memorable election stunt at a drive-in McDonald’s. The Führer didn’t do stand-up. Nor did Mussolini serve fast food.”

This is a very puzzling claim. While Trump is capable of getting laughs, the examples Ferguson provides (crudely insulting his opponent rather than mocking........

© Daily Intelligencer