The most venerable and prestigious publication of the conservative movement is doing everything it can to discourage support for the candidacy of Donald Trump.  I cannot remember anything like it in the last half-century.  The cover story, "Conservatives Against Trump," features essays by 22 conservative notables ranging from libertarians to religious conservatives.  The return fire is already withering.

The first effect has been that the magazine has been disinvited by the RNC from participation in next week’s GOP presidential debate.  And as one of the 22 contributors, Steve Hayward admits, it is unlikely to stop the juggernaut.

Not that this will do any good, but I have joined a chorus of conservatives making our cases against Trump in the next issue of National Review.

Of course, Trump has fired back in his favorite disparaging manner, via Twitter:

National Review is a failing publication that has lost it's way. It's circulation is way down w its influence being at an all time low. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016

Very few people read the National Review because it only knows how to criticize, but not how to lead.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016

The late, great, William F. Buckley would be ashamed of what had happened to his prize, the dying National Review!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016

I have given up on making prognostications.  I see all the criticisms made by the writers here as valid, and yet they have not stuck to a candidate who is riding a wave of disgust with the government and the two political parties fighting over its spoils instead of changing its structural faults.  I share the fears of Thomas Sowell, as we are entering a very dangerous era:

After the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, we are entering an era when people alive at this moment may live to see a day when American cities are left in radioactive ruins. We need all the wisdom, courage, and dedication in the next president – and his or her successors – to save us and our children from such a catastrophe.

Is Trump up to the task?  He has not shown himself to be a serious student of world affairs, but he is full of testosterone.  Gutsy, ballsy, whatever you want to call it, he is no shrinking violet.

Mark Helprin sums it up:

A Trump presidency would be yet more adventure tourism for a formerly serious republic.

We are gambling with our future, no doubt about it.  We might win, we might not.

At least Trump scares the hell out of George Soros.  That’s a start…