Excusing Trump is actually against conservative values

embrace some of them. Or, as a Wall Street Journal editorial put it this week: “There’s no guarantee Mr. Trump would agree to Mr. Ryan’s agenda, but there’s no chance if Mr. Ryan publicly refuses to vote for him.”

These are decent arguments. Unfortunately, they are completely unworkable.

For starters, this line of thinking is deeply anticonservative. Conservatives believe that politics is a limited activity. Culture, psychology and morality come first.

Ryan’s argument inverts this. It puts political positions first and character and morality second. Trump’s a scoundrel, but he might agree with our tax proposal. Sure, he is a racist, but he might like our position on the defense budget. Nobody calling themselves a conservative can agree to this hierarchy of values.

The classic conservative belief, by contrast, is that character is destiny. Temperament is foundational. Each candidate has to cross some threshold of dependability as a human being before it’s relevant to judge his or her policy agenda. Trump doesn’t cross that threshold.

Second, it just won’t work. The Republican Party can’t unify around Donald Trump for the same reason it can’t unify around a tornado. Trump undermines cooperation, reciprocity, stability or any other component of unity. He is a lone operator incapable of horizontal relationships. He has demeaned everybody who has tried to be his friend, from Chris Christie to Paul Ryan.

Some conservatives believe they can educate or civilize Trump. This belief is a sign both of intellectual arrogance and psychological naivete. The man who just crushed them is in no mood to submit to them. Furthermore, Trump’s personality is pathological. It is driven by compulsions that defy advice, political interest and common sense.

To make decisions, narcissists create a set of external standards, often based around admiration and contempt. Their criteria are based on simple division — winners and losers, victory or humiliation. They are preoccupied with anything that signals wealth, beauty, power and success. They take Christian, Jewish and Muslim values — based on humility, charity and love — and invert them.

They go out daily in search of enemies to insult and friends to degrade. Trump, for example, reportedly sets members of his campaign staff against each other. Each person is up one day and belittled another — kept on edge, waiting for the Sun King to decide the person’s temporary worth.

Republicans can try to be loyal to Trump, but he won’t be loyal to them. There’s no choice. Congressional Republicans have to run their own campaign. Donald Trump does not share.