A strange line of thought has emerged in the midst of Donald Trump’s latest and most broad-spectrum meltdown: that Hillary should offer Republicans a kind of buyout in exchange for their one-time support this November.

“She’s happy to make right-leaning voters feel a little better about fleeing Trump,” complained New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, “but she isn’t offering them substantive concessions, or seeking a grand centrist coalition.” He suggests she consider a more moderate reproductive rights, immigration, and fiscal policy agenda.

This thinking isn’t limited to conservatives with a rooting interest in seeing Hillary Clinton move right.

What if Hillary offered Republicans one SCOTUS pick? Would that open the floodgates for skeptical Republicans to rescind support for Trump? — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) August 2, 2016

It’s in some ways reminiscent of the way John Boehner and Mitch McConnell would try to mind-trick Barack Obama into weakening his own hand, by warning him that sticking to his guns was tantamount to provoking a wild animal. Conservatives will stick with this manifestly dangerous candidate, and might even get him elected, unless Clinton volunteers a ransom of some kind.



I can think of three reasons why this is ridiculous.