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The Republican Party owns all of Trump, not just the parts they like
Found this thanks to a retweet from Tom Nichols.
Good column to send to any Republicans you know trying to excuse supporting Trump because of some of his policies.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-republican-party-owns-all-of-trump-20190716-wlqyl54zy5flngtn4cyybpumey-story.html
When we talk about people or a party being on the wrong side of history, it usually requires some hindsight, a position of informed advantage to see clearly missteps that were less clear at the time of events.
Not so now, with today’s modern Republican Party and its utter cowardice and complacency. We will not need half a century or even a decade to know that the GOP, in accepting, enabling and in many cases defending President Trump’s gleeful torching of long-cherished American ideals, norms and standards of decency, is on the wrong side of history. And for that, the party will pay dearly.
The Faustian bargain made by Republican lawmakers and many Trump voters was never sustainable, nor was it defensible. Early on in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Republicans were confronted almost daily with a clear choice: accept Trump’s overt appeals to the bigotry and racism festering in the bowels of the nation, or reject it wholly. Far too many chose the former.
-snip-
Of course, the people who made these bargains, who tricked themselves into thinking about Trump like a buffet where they could take what they want and leave what they didn’t, arbitrarily decided to imbue one group of things — policies, in most cases — with more significance than another group of things, like innate character.
-snip-
Here’s the problem: Trump’s corrosive agenda to divide America is the policy. Bigotry and otherism are both the ideas and the merits for Trump. The racist rhetoric is the agenda. Pretending they are separate or disconnected was, is and always will be a cop-out and a lie.
-snip-
Not so now, with today’s modern Republican Party and its utter cowardice and complacency. We will not need half a century or even a decade to know that the GOP, in accepting, enabling and in many cases defending President Trump’s gleeful torching of long-cherished American ideals, norms and standards of decency, is on the wrong side of history. And for that, the party will pay dearly.
The Faustian bargain made by Republican lawmakers and many Trump voters was never sustainable, nor was it defensible. Early on in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Republicans were confronted almost daily with a clear choice: accept Trump’s overt appeals to the bigotry and racism festering in the bowels of the nation, or reject it wholly. Far too many chose the former.
-snip-
Of course, the people who made these bargains, who tricked themselves into thinking about Trump like a buffet where they could take what they want and leave what they didn’t, arbitrarily decided to imbue one group of things — policies, in most cases — with more significance than another group of things, like innate character.
-snip-
Here’s the problem: Trump’s corrosive agenda to divide America is the policy. Bigotry and otherism are both the ideas and the merits for Trump. The racist rhetoric is the agenda. Pretending they are separate or disconnected was, is and always will be a cop-out and a lie.
-snip-
4 replies
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