Let’s not pretend that Trump is a normal politician with whom we merely have policy disagreements. That was the case for most major party candidates prior to 2015, but since then it has only been the case for one major party’s candidates. The previous rules of friendly competition and debate were thrown out then. By him.
Let’s not pretend that Trump is a normal politician
He’s a celebrity-turned-politician. But he’s running on a platform that’s been baked into the GOP since the Eisenhower Administration launched Operation Wetback.
That was the case for most major party candidates prior to 2015
I’m not saying the past hasn’t led us to this. I’m saying that the current GOP is corrupt and rotten to a level that it never was before, and their supporters’ opinion matters less than it ever did before. So
the current GOP is corrupt and rotten to a level that it never was before
More corrupt than when Bush used the phoney threat of nuclear terrorism to commit a Holocaust in Iraq?
More corrupt than when Reagan’s CIA was running cocaine through Latin America to fund death squads on behalf of the United Fruit Company and Coca Cola?
More corrupt than the multiple democracies overthrown by the Eisenhower Administration - from Brazil to Egypt to Iran?
More corrupt than Rutherford B Hayes ending Reconstruction for the House votes he needed to take the presidency?
Yes, because now they’re not bothering to hide it. They’re trying to normalize it. Worse still, they’re trying to paint people who don’t want their fascism as the strange ones. They’re so corrupt and rotten they aren’t even bothering with the thin veneer of respectability, and they’re succeeding in changing the character of the entire country.
Previous GOP regimes did evil things and made Americans complicit. Now they’re actively trying to make America evil.
The ones at the top of the ticket, sure. But the ones who are actually behind all of this—the Mitch McConnells and the other various GOP strategists—they’re pretty devious. Smart in an evil way. They got right-wing media on their side, and then they got the mainstream media to cover them as if what they were doing was normal, and only then did they start trying to make it seem like their brand of fascism was the norm and not something antithetical to American values. At which point they could run a candidate like Trump and not be completely ruining their image.
Though it does seem like Trump was worse even than they thought; much less coordinated and completely unsophisticated.
the ones who are actually behind all of this—the Mitch McConnells and the other various GOP strategists
Are increasingly being forced into the Democratic Party by the baser reactionaries in the GOP. Guys like Micheal Bloomberg and Bill Kristol and “The Lincoln Project” have largely decamped from the Republican organization and started clustering around guys like Joe Manchin.
Trump was worse even than they thought
He didn’t toe the ideological line. He committed blasphemy after blasphemy - shaking hands with our nation’s enemies, not offering enough lip service to The Troops, failing to keep a polite distance from Christian fundamentalists, ostrasizing too many domestic business interests and their media flaks.
He hurt the GOP coalition as much as the country overall. They’re no longer even pretending to be a Big Tent, like they claimed under Bush and Reagan.
Let’s not pretend that Trump is a normal politician with whom we merely have policy disagreements. That was the case for most major party candidates prior to 2015, but since then it has only been the case for one major party’s candidates. The previous rules of friendly competition and debate were thrown out then. By him.
He’s a celebrity-turned-politician. But he’s running on a platform that’s been baked into the GOP since the Eisenhower Administration launched Operation Wetback.
That’s completely ahistorical.
I’m not saying the past hasn’t led us to this. I’m saying that the current GOP is corrupt and rotten to a level that it never was before, and their supporters’ opinion matters less than it ever did before. So
doesn’t mean what it used to.
More corrupt than when Bush used the phoney threat of nuclear terrorism to commit a Holocaust in Iraq?
More corrupt than when Reagan’s CIA was running cocaine through Latin America to fund death squads on behalf of the United Fruit Company and Coca Cola?
More corrupt than the multiple democracies overthrown by the Eisenhower Administration - from Brazil to Egypt to Iran?
More corrupt than Rutherford B Hayes ending Reconstruction for the House votes he needed to take the presidency?
I’m not feeling it.
Yes, because now they’re not bothering to hide it. They’re trying to normalize it. Worse still, they’re trying to paint people who don’t want their fascism as the strange ones. They’re so corrupt and rotten they aren’t even bothering with the thin veneer of respectability, and they’re succeeding in changing the character of the entire country.
Previous GOP regimes did evil things and made Americans complicit. Now they’re actively trying to make America evil.
They’re absolutely worse now.
They’re not coordinated and sophisticated enough to hide it.
The ones at the top of the ticket, sure. But the ones who are actually behind all of this—the Mitch McConnells and the other various GOP strategists—they’re pretty devious. Smart in an evil way. They got right-wing media on their side, and then they got the mainstream media to cover them as if what they were doing was normal, and only then did they start trying to make it seem like their brand of fascism was the norm and not something antithetical to American values. At which point they could run a candidate like Trump and not be completely ruining their image.
Though it does seem like Trump was worse even than they thought; much less coordinated and completely unsophisticated.
Are increasingly being forced into the Democratic Party by the baser reactionaries in the GOP. Guys like Micheal Bloomberg and Bill Kristol and “The Lincoln Project” have largely decamped from the Republican organization and started clustering around guys like Joe Manchin.
He didn’t toe the ideological line. He committed blasphemy after blasphemy - shaking hands with our nation’s enemies, not offering enough lip service to The Troops, failing to keep a polite distance from Christian fundamentalists, ostrasizing too many domestic business interests and their media flaks.
He hurt the GOP coalition as much as the country overall. They’re no longer even pretending to be a Big Tent, like they claimed under Bush and Reagan.
Rats sinking a leaving ship.
Here’s hoping even more. They thought they could use him and found out they couldn’t control him.