Debunking the big lie about Trump and the GOP establishment: They’re identical and hocking the same

[applegrove]

Debunking the big lie about Trump and the GOP establishment: They’re identical and hocking the same brand of bullsh*t

by Amanda Marcotte at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/04/debunking_the_big_lie_about_trump_and_the_gop_establishment_theyre_identical_and_hocking_the_same_brand_of_bullsht/

"SNIP............



Despite some panicked claims otherwise, Donald Trump is not an evil genius. What this week showed, between Mitt Romney’s hypocritical anti-Trump speech and the ridiculous Fox News debate in Michigan, is that the Republican establishment has a few easily identified vulnerabilities that any charlatan with enough bombast and access to media could exploit. Trump, and this appears to be the theme of his entire life, just got lucky to be the right narcissist with the right connections and the right money at the right time.

That vulnerability, at its core, is hypocrisy. For decades, Republicans have positioned themselves as the backlash party, the people who will do everything in their power to stop and ideally reverse gains made by people of color, women, and LGBT people, all while running around in the media denying they hold any animosity towards the liberal ideals of equality and fairness. It’s been an incredibly effective campaign strategy, because it turned out that the majority of white people and men will repeatedly vote for a party that screws them over economically so long as they stick it harder to the other guy.

These voters have long understood and accepted the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. They understand why politicians need to pretend to support racial equality while undermining the economic and social rights of people of color. They understood why you can’t just openly say you want women back in the kitchen, even as you fight to destroy the rights that help women get out. But that kind of game really wears thin on people’s nerves and so really, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Trump, who clearly enjoys crossing the line and saying all those things you’re not supposed to say, would be killing with conservatives voters.

But what this week showed is that the Republican addiction to hypocrisy won’t be so easily defeated. Even though Trump has shown for months and months that taking umbrage at his antics only endears him more to conservative voters, for some reason, establishment Republicans decided the way to kill him off was to apply even more hypocritical umbrage. But voters will continue to see right through this posturing, because, at the end of the day, the only real difference between Trump and his Republican opponents is that he takes a blunter tone about things.



..............SNIP"