What Charles still does not realize is he has it backwards: Trump is not leading Republicans with any new or fresh ideas or prejudices. He merely recognized the various prejudices of Republicans that preexisted and exploited them. He is shrewdly giving them the things they savor. It's basic politics. Look where it got him.
28
The media schism is almost entirely to blame for this.
I regularly read the mainstream right wing mouthpieces to see what many (most?) Americans are being served.
In short: a steady diet of misinformation, disinformation, and misdirection.
Republicans think Trump is a moral guy because that is what they are told ad nauseum. If 90% of your intake is pro-Trump messaging, then the 10% of opposing perspective that gets through feels contrary, engineered, and off kilter.
The "post-truth" era is terrifying.
24
I know of people who voted for Trump to stop US hegemony. Looks like this strategy may have worked for that outcome.
3
Trump has merely exposed the Republican Party for what it is and has been for a while, sans subtlety.
10
The Republican Party’s no more;
It’s the Trump-Lickin, foul at the core.
Pols shield and accept him,
Excuse and protect him,
A self-absorbed jerk they deplore.
6
Amazing, a Blow Oped about Trump (what other kinds are there?) that doesn’t have the word “stupid” in it. Hopefully the memory loss is only temporary and nothing permanent to worry about, Charles. Trump and his base owe your prolonged self-righteous condescension a real debt of gratitude. It just reinforced what they hated in Democrats most for.
5
I am not so sure Trump stole the Republican Party so much as he revealed it for what it truly is.
Nor is there someone "responsible" for inflicting Trump upon an unsuspecting populace. Not Goldwater, Nixon,Clinton (B), Clinton (H), or most incomprehensibly Obama (sorry Maureen) necessarily planned on Trump. The people who electing Donald knew exactly what they were doing, damn the consequences. They even knew he would probably be unable to deliver on his unhinged promises, it was enough that he was hated by those they hated.
12
After reading, I am ready for the West and East Coast to succeed and take our economy, innovations and can do attitudes with us. Let’s give those who see yellow and say it’s purple 2-3 years to relocate to be close with their like kind. I will take a compassionate hard working immigrant any day over these insecure, deluded and selfish Trump disciples.
11
Unless we completely break from a two-party system the Republican Party will survive the Trump. This ridiculous President will be remembered for his inexperience, hubris, corruption, leaks and narcissism. The party will always have a valuable icon in Lincoln.
6
Just heard Chris Christie saying to George Stephanopoulos on ABC that, in his view, Trump fired Comey because Comey treated Hillary Clinton unfairly (writing that letter ten days before the election). So just pretend that Trump was suddenly some completely different person from what we all know that he is. Why does Christie say such utter nonsense, why does ABC let it pass, and why does even a single listener believe such utter crap?
16
You’ve been saying the same thing about the Republican Party for as long as you’ve been preaching.
5
Democrats have always liked form over substance.
People of both parties liked Obama's personality, while Republicans liked his personality but disliked his autocratic policies.
People frequently dislike Trump's personality but like his policies and results.
Hillary's problem was that no one liked either her personality or results.
3
The Repubs finally have the president they’ve always wanted, someone who will pass whatever cockamamie legislation they want. They can now embrace their racism and sexism openly and without retribution. They can turn a blind eye to all of his moral failings. All of the faults of Trump and the current Republican party have been pointed out over and over. The real question is, what are the rest of us going to do about it? The best way to end this horrible nightmare is to vote them all out of office!
14
Brace yourselves. He will be reelected. I have no doubts. America is in true decline.
17
Republicans are a very selfish group who want more for themselves. They all want to do whatever they want because they feel entitled and self-righteous. They will continue to defend and support 45 as long as it benefits them but as soon as he becomes a liability, he will be gone.
4
Generalize much? As a member of a group that like to micromanage identity politics you're using a pretty wide brush.
2
Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors will cause his removal. He might not last thru fall.
---Working with Russia to get himself elected is treason.
---Paying off women for their silence is bribery.
---Cohen's and Trump accepting money for access to the office of the presidency for helpful policy is bribery.
---Obstruction of justice includes intent with firing Comey, with threatening Sessions/Rosenstein, and writing lies for Don Trump Jr. as Russians met at his home base in Trump Tower as a presidential candidate re: dirt on Hillary.
---Today we hear Paul Manafort is flipping on him.
Ouch.
10
It's a really funny proposition for me to hear that a substantive chunk of America is not racist. In a country built ( literally ) on the genocide of American Indians and slave labor, one has better chance denying gravity! And I am not, therefore, surprised that this racist chunk of America doesn't think it's racist. As Charles beautifully put it: They didn't have a problem, the rest of America was the problem. :)
12
where would Hillary rank?
In the Republican party?
Oh Charles, pleeez get over it!! Trump not only won but he is leading the country forward like no other recent president. He's holding his support from 2016 and picking up more in large chunks with each success, of which he has had many. He'll be here for a long while... you won't be.
7
Mr. Blow is being too kind. Democrats in the 1960s were finally willing to abandon racism as a platform in their party. Republicans not only picked up that mantle, they also, by the 1980s, realized they had a winning symbol in the Bible. Throw that book around, wrap yourself in the flag, and anything goes.
What Republicans have more obviously become these days is moral relativists. They're fine with adultery, pedophilia, lying, cheating, abortion, tax evasion, money laundering, even treason, as long as the man doing it is one of their own. Racism and misogyny, for many Republicans, don't even register on the moral scale; their unqualified, visceral hatred of Obama before he even took office testifies to the former; the latter is obvious in their policies.
20
"It is only in that alternate reality, in that other world, that Gallup could report poll results last week that found that three-quarters of Republicans believe that Trump provides strong moral leadership as president."
I figured it out, for ya, Charles!
You see, in "your world," "strong moral leadership" is supporting transgender bathrooms and forcing nuns to provide health insurance which provides for abortions.
In "my world," "strong moral leadership" entails fulfilling a promise to the Jews to move the US capitol to their ancient capitol, won back from the Arabs at a huge cost in 1967, after the Arabs forbade them to worship thee from 1948-1967. (Unfortunately, the past ten presidents always campaigned to move the embassy, to win Jewish votes, but then reneged. that is called, in my universe", bad moral leadership).
In your world, "strong moral leadership" demands the firing of Roseann Barr, and the wrist slap to Samantha Bee, or to Jamelle. In "my world," strong moral leadership is sending missiles into Syria to destroy a chemical weapons storage depot to let Assad and Putin (of "collusion" fame) that dead Syrian babies matter. In "your world," Obama gets a pass cause on "red lines," cause....he's Obama.
So, Charles, get over it. Maybe in the midterms, your world will conquer again and we can go back to really important "moral leadership" and advocate for really important things like making the Boy Scouts of America-gender neutral.
8
Ah yes, the strong moral leadership of Cadet Bone Spurs the Kitty Grabber, Liar Supreme, Mocker of the Disabled, and Defrauder of Students. You and mr. Blow live in two different realities indeed...
28
Donald Trumph, as POTUS, believes that he has extraordinary powers. He also is apparently on a mission to repair unfair actions of the past e.g. Scooter Liby's and Martha Stewart's convictions .He is an expert on real estate deals and has a desire to be friendly to Russia. We should expect him to tweet that he is reversing the most unfair deal in history, the 1867 Alaska purchase for a paltry 2 cents an acre and is returning Alaska to Russia, in return Putin will build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Alaska folks (except natives) can move to the states or opt to apply for Russian citizenship. This will only cost the Republicans 2 electorial votes and 1 vote in the House but may cost them the Senate majority.
1
Americans voted for Trump for one reason: To keep the liberals from destroying this country, when democrats can accept that fact, then maybe the democratic party has a real chance, by first heading back to the centrist position. If democrats don't abandon the liberal political point of view then its going to get a whole lot worse.
8
your man trump is destroying the country. wake up to that fact.
12
Here's the problem, at least in my part of the South, northeast SC. I am a Democrat. Neighbors agree with me on many issues that Dems have traditionally supported, such as equality for all, elimination of racism and xenophobia, better schools, better transportation, sometimes even women's rights. BUT, then they tell me they won't vote for a Democrat "again," no matter what.
They agree that Trump is dividing the country, is likely corrupt, has poor attitudes toward women and other races, BUT then they tell me they won't vote for a Democrat.
They have yet to tell me why they won't vote for a Democrat. It makes no sense to me, but that's the way it is. At least for now.
16
Barbara; The answer to your question lies within the article itself.
“ These people were already detached from reality, but Trump helped them to see a new reality, one in which their hatred and bigotry were not abhorrent, but rather markers of the mainstream. They didn’t have a problem, the rest of America was the problem. “
It appears that all of the progress in human existence that arose in the 20th Century which reversed the status of the Gilded Age has now come full circle back to that era. However, as noted by those who still read and avoid Fox “News” , that period effectively ended with 1929 and the rise of small minded people in Germany, Italy, and a few other places. What “Trumpism” is has been here before. Virtually every Trump supporter I personally know supports him for personal economic reasons. (ie: Taxes ) They don’t see or care about any other issues. Nor do they understand the Law of Unintended Consequences.
11
Trump's takeover and makeover of the GOP, along with some of his more notorious predilections, point to a new name for the party: the Repubicans. "I can get away with it" is one of his favorite boasts.
1
The Republicans lost their way long before Trump. He is just the manifestation of all that is wrong with the Party. But he adds to the rot inside of the RNC and the Congress. They can get all the dirty work done while Trump keeps us entertained(sic).
Until the Republicans in Congress puts country above party it will remain so.
It is why Trump is getting away with unprecedented behavior while he is in office. The fact that the Republicans are aiding and abetting him in his endeavors to tear up our Constitution bears witness to their lack of morals, civic duty and pride.
When Nunes uses his Intelligence chairmanship to try and interfere with the Mueller investigation, I would think the words Obstruction
of Justice would come to mind.
When Ryan uses his Leadership position to coddle Trump, dereliction of duty should come to mind.
When McConnell uses his Leadership position to not allow the Senate Democrats to speak ala Elisabeth Warren, freedom of speech, or lack thereof, comes to mind.
They behave in the same manner as Trump. They are kindred spirits in politics and mayhem.
It all smacks of a bit of fascism.
12
Sorry Charles,I agree with most of what you say ,however it's that last sentence" he's leading them to ruin" that I have issue with.Trump voters are not going anywhere any time soon and right wing media and falsehoods will keep them in line.The next two and half years don't look promising for Democrats.They might be able to take back the house however Republicans have a good chance of keeping their senate majority or even increase it.The house will began investigations while Trump will pack the courts with more conservative judges that will be there for decades.It started with Ronald and it will end when we have a more educated voter
8
It will end when we have a more educated voter?
When millions of dollars ( domestic and foreign) are spent on molding the increasingly uneducated mind and thought process as well as the mind numbing effect of TV and Cable “News” one has little hope of that. But hope does prevail as long as the 1st Amendment stays in force. Even George Will understands that. Trump does not...
2
I once attended a workshop about ex-hate group members. in interviews they talked about several things that helped them leave.
1 - gradually realizing their leaders were hypocrites about the virtues they claimed to defend - family, community. one of the hardest obstacles to overcome was the view that everyone's a hypocrite. "attack/defense mode" made it easy to continue to blame everyone else for being "just as bad"/"worse". getting to know people with genuine integrity in the outside (real) world and witnessing them act consistent with real values helped them see through the lie.
2 - waking up to the fact that they weren't living their core values. the most effective process was often gentle; they had forgotten the person they wanted to be. it was hard to admit their values didn't line up with who they were. they were able to admit mistakes in trusted relationships when it was safe to be vulnerable, forgiveness was possible, and their basic goodness could be reaffirmed. this is a tall "ask", it's not possible for everyone to be this person in everyone's life, but if you can build trusted relationships, avoid asking "why do you think that" - this puts people into an automatic justification/defense mode. instead ask "tell me more about that" - this allows an open-ended opening to admit doubts.
3 - maturing views of responsibility, better supports, healthy belonging. often people are targeted for cults because they're vulnerable and isolated. stability made a difference.
3
I'm starting to get a suspicion that the only way Trump will leave the White House is under arrest.
Is it possible he might intervene during the next election? We may not survive this as a unified nation.
7
Despite all of the whining by Charles, Democrats and other self appointed media guardians of the national morality this is not a productive way to improve the Democrats chances of winning in 2018, 2020 or 2022. They all lose sight of the fact that they are increasingly concentrated in a few enclaves and that their support is breaking down badly in the rest of the country. They have no message besides impeach Trump, hate Republicans, raise taxes, open borders, sanctuary cities, Medicare for all, free tuition and transgender bathrooms. Not really a strong platform. Plus, as we've already seen and will see again tomorrow, a lot of Democrat primaries are pushing their candidates even further left and that will result in candidates that are much less electable in general elections across most of the country.
Unless Charles, Democrats and media savants who think like him come up with some better, more positive messaging they can look forward to 6-1/2 more years of whining and wandering impotently in the wilderness with less and less actual political power. And it will be all their own fault.
4
A "poll found that two-thirds of Republicans believe that 'Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.'"
The same poll found that "an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people."
Looked at properly, both beliefs are correct. 0 = 0
8
Make no mistake: "Trump's party" IS the same old Republican party we grew up with. Trump is simply the logical conclusion of an ideology rooted in racism and class warfare--just without the dog whistles and plausible deniability. This was decades in the making.
2
I really just hope that your last sentence will be true in November or in 2020!
1
How often, in my lifetime, have I heard of the demise of the Republican party? Three times, four? Only to have them rise again stronger, more hateful and poisonous than ever. I no longer believe they will ever die, but it will be we who end up dead.
2
the republican party has been headed down this anti american road for the last 20 years. it is absolutely no surprise that it elected trump or that his authoritarian fascist policies are greeted with such enthusiasm. republicans has been working with the wealthy and large corporations to transfer wealth from the middle and lower economic classes to the top 1 percent all the while seducing the victims of their policies with racist and nationalistic slogans. as a member of the privileged class these policies wont adversely affect me. but it is disappointing to see the efforts of the last 75 years to expand the wealth and opportunity offered by america go down the toilet.
5
Trump is doing for the Republican Party what he did for the USFL. USFL? They no longer exist. They followed Trump's big game play of suing the NFL for monopoly. They won the case, but the meager $ award buried them.
1
Not to whine, Mr. Blow, but I feel like the anti-LGBTQ?etc. tendencies of Trump & Co. are a little underrepresented in this column.
The thing I think Trump supporters just don’t get is he doesn’t care...about them, the country, or the world. And he is a congenital liar, and he lies to them. And when it all comes crashing down, then they might see him for the fraud that he is. I hope the country can be revived.
7
Mr Blow ,you live in a liberal bubble. Everybody who disagrees with you is a racist. Trump fights back and very effectively. I do not agree with many of his policies but the reason he won is because Republicans are tired of the gangster liberal media beating up on Republican nominees and they NEVER fight back. John McCain and Mitt Romney are classic examples.
I bet you have never voted for a Republican yet you try to come off as a moderate. Why not talk about record low black unemployment ? Yes ,I am a 62 year old black man and am never returning to the liberal plantation !
6
Dad was a KKK supporter and rent discriminator; Donnie Bonespurs learned his lessons well.
4
The only reasonable conclusion that one can draw about people who assert that Trump is ethical, and not-racist, is that they themselves are lacking in ethics, and are racists.
Because let's be real: there is no reasonable support of Trump's worldview. If you agree with it, if you praise it as "ethical" and "not-racist," either you are (i) extremely uniformed, which seems almost impossible given the media's focus on his actions and words, (ii) complicit.
We're constantly told that the left is "alienating" red state voters for calling them out as racists, but absent a systemic ignorance of his actions and words (that simply cannot exist), the ONLY other conclusion is that they share Trump's abhorrent belief system.
In short: if 40% of Americans support Trump, and if 75% of GOP voters think he is ethical, then 75% of the GOP party, and 40% of Americans, are stone-cold racists. Any other conclusion is illogical and very likely fueled by racism itself.
6
Trump does indeed treat women with the same respect he treats women, and blacks with the same respect as whites -- because he doesn't respect anyone.
How Trump treats you depends entirely on whether you are useful to him, or saying something he believes at the moment. If so, he will praise you to the moon. If he does not perceive you as having anything he wants, or you criticize him or defy him, he will insult and belittle you.
Sure, if you're a minority or a female, he has stereotypical insults to fall back on, but even if you're a straight WASP male, he'll think of some playground insult to hurl. Because it isn't about you. Trump is only ever about himself, no one else really matters, not even rich white men.
3
Trump was a racist Queens real estate guy and now he's a racist president. No changes here. New Yorkers knew this and I can't believe the rest of America couldn't figure it out. This exceedingly dangerous nonsense is what people voted for. So they could feel better about poking a finger into the eye of "elite, educated, liberal, East Coast" city folk. You know, like Trump.
6
What is happening is that Trump continues to campaign city after city bringing his narrative of hyperbole, misleading statistics, denigration of opponents to one cheering expansive crowd after another. And there is no one in either party out there campaigning for leadership or countering what many find outrageous. His poll numbers are currently rising. At this rate his style is going to be a shoo-in for reelection in 2020.
4
The only real satisfaction Trump gives to his adoring fans is the vicarious experience of irritating educated people.
6
This is how democracies die.
10
We have been told repeatedly since the last election to reach out, to listen, to have conversations with those who disagree with us.
"And yet, the same April Quinnipiac poll found that an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people."
How on earth is one supposed to engage with someone who believes that?
8
Regarding polls: People will sometimes claim to believe something that they actually don't, because, for whatever reason, they want to be perceived as believing it.
In other words someone might tell a pollster that he believes Trump is as respectful of people of color as he is of white people while knowing that is not true.
On social media, black people promote such hashtags as #blackexcellence #blacksuccess #blackgirlmagic
Plug those hashtags into your browser and and you'll see a plethora of posts about black students applying to and being accepted at all eight Ivies or 120 colleges, receiving $4 million in scholarships, black triplets receiving law degrees, black entrepreneurs, black women becoming neurosurgeons, black students winning science contests, a black student receiving his law degree at one university and his MBA at another--on the same day, black boys graduating from high school at age 11 or graduating from college at age 16, black children helping their peers or their elders, black women running for office, black mothers overcoming odds to acquire a medical degree, etc.
It's rather plain to see why trump and his followers are running scared and so resort to hatred, racism, and bigotry.
6
We saw how John Boner and his party treated President Obama. They are all complicit. The current GOP to quote Jeff Flake, including Jeff Flake are all supine.
8
Good, Charles, but it is part of a bigger issue - identity politics fueled partisanship is about to send the country into a Constitutionals crisis that it may not survive. The fundamental idea of an Executive, a Legislative and a Judicial Branch all strong and jealously protective of their powers and roles has been corrupted by party politics which has spread from Congress to the other branches. The wholesale delegation of legislative power to the other branches has hollowed out the sense of identity that Johnson, O'Neil, and Rayburn had in abundance. Now we have an unholy capture of all three branches of Government writ with a capital G by one party, and they have the delegated power and corrupted institutions to potentially hold onto that power and corrupt elections, a la Turkey, Russia, Poland, Hungary, etc. It has been the work of the last 4 Administrations, but especially Nixon, Bush, Clinton and Obama that has created the opportunity, and it is our misfortune that the parties nominated two individuals, either of which if given this control would have used it for partisan, corrupting advantage.
I keep wondering what's going to happen on November 6, 2018. Can the Democratic party come back in force? Will The GOP strengthen its hold? Could similarly extremist Democrats seize the House? Might Trump seek to co-opt the military to stay in power? Might his sons be his intended heirs? What will this country look like in 1 year? 5 years? I feel we are on the precipice of dramatic change but its shape remains murky
3
This nightmare of a (Trump) Presidency will sooner than later tilt this once great nation into a place that no one could have ever predicted. As Trump always says ... "trust me".
2
Mr. Blow,
I agree with nearly everything you said, and certainly with your substance. I want to add a correction, if I may: Trump has attacked people of color precisely because of their color. The actions of these people had been done before by white people, but by people of color these very same actions are suddenly unpatriotic. The people of Puerto Rico suffer because they are black and brown. The white suburbs of Houston got all the help they needed.
I do not care if Republicans feel Trump is moral or not. They can't see that he is immoral or even amoral; their vision is bad because of Trump and their support of him. The norms we counted on, relied upon, are in grievous danger. Trump corrupts everything he touches, and always has. He is now corrupting the US too, in ways I never thought possible.
6
This is an Opinion that had we hoped Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan might have penned in utter disgust at the road Trump has led us down. Of course, we would not have expected them to write so eloquently or to back up their Opinion with the hard facts that Charles Blow has mustered. But those two Republican leaders, along with Republican Senators and Congressman and the Republican Party apparatchik have remained absolutely silent in the face of every egregious deed, every bald lie and every miserable tweet that has issued from Trump. They have aided and abetted Trump at every turn because the Republican Party has been creating this monster over many, many years. Trump is the absolute embodiment of every sly wink and dog whistle that the Republican Party has given to racists, misogynists, anti-immigrants, homophobes and countless others who are filled with hatred. When Trump finally goes down in flames in a welter of lies and fabrications, the Republican Party must also go down. There is no place in American life for a Party that has shown such disdain for the Rule of Law and the institutions that support our basic rights and freedom itself.
6
The bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia always existed within the Republican party. It was well coded and locked in the basement in the form of racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant voters . The door was only unlocked at election time when they were needed to win republican seats at the local, state and national levels. Otherwise, they remain hidden. No posh fund raisers. Only seen and heard when required. Professional "gatekeepers" at the ready. Now, here comes Trump. Loud and insidious , with a key and a message. Come out in the open. Be proud of who you are. Immorality is okay. Look at what I have said and done. I can be your President !! We are alike and I will never denounce you for your beliefs. The republican party has been overrun by their own ghost. They must now share the entire dwelling with their shame. The masters of the house have been compromised. The power dynamic has shifted. The beer guzzling, confederate flag waving, red-neck now shares the table with the hedge-fund conservative....I am confident the current republican party will implode. However, I am not confident that it will do so before they destroy the nation.
3
It's hard to believe, but Mr. Blow still doesn't seem to understand why Donald Trump was elected.
5
Mr. Blow once again spins President Trump's accomplishments as one huge immorality while ignoring the racism, sexism, misogyny and all other inequities that thrive on his own side of the aisle. Bill Clinton's impeachment was only about sex, right? Forget his misogyny and perjury in the Paula Jones trial! Those repubs are racist - but Dem Senator Robert Byrd of 3-K's fame was the longest serving member of Congress at the time of his passing! President Obama was "post-racial", but seldom passed up an opportunity to condemn white conservstives - and even referred to his own grandmother as "a typical white person". And SO WHAT if he misled the entire nation on his "Affordable Care Act"??!! It's only healthcare!!! I'm just glad that Mr. Blow is our self-appointed moral guardian and guiding light who is so capable of distinguishing right from wrong. Come to think of it, that's how Mrs. Clinton became such a success! Many thanks, Charles!
2
What an interesting quote from the Qunnipiac poll: “Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.” Yes. He treats both women and men with utter and complete scorn. The only person who matters to Trump is Trump.
8
Apparently all relationships with Trump are sadomasochistic.
3
What baffles me is why the Republican Congress and party seem so terrified to call out Trump on his lies, horrible policies and corrupt and unethical behavior? One could wonder what dirt he has on them? Another thing that I don't understand is how Trump supporters seem to be just giddy when at rallies Trump bellows that the Democrats are not like "us". Do Trump supporters really think that Trump is just like them or even cares an iota about them? If they believe that Trump really cares about them, why isn't he and Ivanka moving their factories from China to the US so they can employ American workers? Why is Trump cutting Medicaid and working with Paul Ryan to cut Medicare? Oh, and just how far is that Trump tax cut (for the wealthy) going to help Trump voters buy a place in Trump towers or even spend a couple of nights in a Trump hotel? Has "forgotten America" been able to realize the American dream any better than they did a year or two ago? And how do Trump supporters like paying more for gas than they have for the last three or four years? We never thought that the United States could produce a dictator...that was always the stuff of Hollywood movies. But now....well...it looks like the great democratic experiment is going to fail unless everyone who is appalled by the hijacking of the norms, values, and ideals that our founding fathers believed in, gets out and votes in the mid-terms...and beyond.
6
Trump's policies are great. Why would they call him out? People have more money in their pockets. Unemployment is at a 20 year low, and an all time low for blacks. Business confidence is at an all time high. Blaming Trump for high gas prices shows a lack of basic economic knowledge. Troubles in Venezuela, and a strong economy are what is driving gas prices higher. But thanks to Trump, the US is now the largest producer of oil and gas in the world. Imagine how high gas prices would be if that were not true?
3
Being happy about the increase in fossil fuels isn't exactly a good mindset. You might re-think things a bit once the oceans have risen a bit more, that increasing numbers of drastic weather swings create more tornadoes, hurricanes and other catastrophes. You might, but somehow, given what you wrote, I doubt it. When the Scioto River, winding its way to the Ohio River, comes into your living room, will you still be "MrReasonable"?
More money in their pockets? Explain.
1
I don't think they care. They are willing to sell their morals for a booming economy. They are threatened by a multi cultural society.
And, they are just plain bigoted.
What is frightening is that there are so many Americans that believe Trump and support him.
I guess that is how Aldolph Hitler came to power.
8
This article and the majority of Left objections to President Trump can be summarized as "Trump is mean and I don't like him".
The polls are not significantly different than for other Presidents with respect to their own party.
Q: When did we add "Provide moral leadership to everyone in the country" to the president's job description?
I didn't vote for him to teach Sunday School, I voted for him to help create a favorable jobs environment (done), put the USA first in negotiations with other countries (done, done, and doing), and protect the citizens and legal residents of the USA (in progress).
5
Trump is mean. and I don't like him.
but the reason he should not be President is because he is a selfish, dishonest conman who is out only for himself to the detriment of everyone else.
attention Trump voters: Trump doesn't give a damn about you. he will say what he has to (no matter how contradictory or deceitful) to cheat you out of your vote, he will wallow un your misplaced adulation, but he does not have your best interests at esrt... or even on his radar.
he is dangerous sociopath.
whether I like him or not is very, much beside the point.
5
My God I hope Blow is right. As I voted for Trump because the Boehner-Bush-McCain-Flake GOP is an arm of the Democrat Party. Not buying Charles’ tears over it’s demise.
5
Trump has taught the R party (what they or majority of them believed anyway ) that there is nothing wrong in being racist, demegaugs, women hating, bullying , cheating, lying, denigrating and showed them that they can stay in power by being all of it.
2
I wouldn't call them Republicans. I think a more fitting name is Trumplings similar to Quislings as they have betrayed American values and democracy.
3
Yet another in a long line of columns about what awful people Trump supporters and Republicans are.
As if this will make anything better.
What Mr. Blow and many other people who fashion themselves as liberals do not seem to understand is that their attitudes toward people in rural areas who are conservative, or who are religious, or who are white and traditional are not that different from the same types of ugly attitudes that they attribute to these folks.
Does Mr. Blow or other liberals truly believe that insults are effective ways of changing attitudes? Good luck with that.
In fact, much of the ugliness on both sides is a sad fact of human nature: Both sides are feeling insulted and demeaned by the other side, and so are reacting with anger and with attacks.
I expect liberals to be able to rise above this fray. The most disappointing part of Trump's Presidency, in my opinion, is that I am disillusioned by liberals. They have revealed themselves to be little more than mud-slinging self-righteous zealots themselves.
And they are doing it to themselves. They have given over all of their power to Trump. He controls liberals now, instead of ideas of freedom, compassion, and understanding that I had thought had always defined liberalism.
4
For the past 50 years -- from Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act through Nixon's Southern Strategy, Reagan's welfare queens, Bush Sr.'s Willie Horton ads, and Bush Jr.'s surveillance of American Muslims to the Boehner - McConnell Congress's fellow traveling on birtherism -- the Republican Party has trafficked in crypto-racist signaling. And their policies on reproductive and employment rights have evinced a deep discomfort with equal standing for women.
So let's face it, the Republican Party has opened the door wider and wider, until it was inevitable that a monster would walk right in. That monster is trashing the country and the world right now, but he will not get away with it. The country and the world will have our say, and when Trump goes down, the Republican Party is going with him.
9
My only concern is that irreparable damage might be done, and new precedents might be set. America is going to continue cracking wide open - our societal fabric ripped to shreds.
3
You could substitute "Democrat" in this opinion piece everywhere "Republican" appears without changing Blow's conclusion. Such is the state of American politics today.
2
As the father of Soviet space program, Sergey Korolev, used to say, “We will all disappear without a trace.” Trump too will pass.
2
I believe he will be defeated by voters this november. he will be an unimportant leader for two more years and attending the inaguration of a black or a brown president in 2021. He will leave office and never be missed. Finally, he will make America unite again against Trump.
1
Morals ? Who needs morals ? All that matters is winning and power and money. Isn't this what makes America great again?
2
Trump is leading the nation to ruin if no one stops him. He is worldwide the most dangerous head of state.
5
Trump does treat blacks equally as he does whites, he treats all races poorly and execrebly.
3
It is ironic that we increased the powers of the president in response to the threats posed by totalitarian countries in the nuclear age. Now we have a de facto totalitarian president and no safe way to ditch him before he does us permanent harm.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." GOP RIP.
5
Republicans only have themselves to blame for permitting Trump to be selected as their Presidential candidate. But former House speaker John Boehner nevetheless has the right to be upset over Trump's takeover of the GOP. As Leslie Gore says:
It's his party, he'll cry if he wants to, cry if he wants to
You would cry to if it happened to you.
5
White voters made up 73.3% of the vote in 2016. Racial and ethnic minorities made up 26.7%. Dividing the white vote in half is roughly 36.7% a reasonable estimate of the number of white women, and half of that again, 18.4% is the lowest percentage of the voter turnout that could satisfy, "the majority of white women," as a matter of straight up arithmetic.
Black voters were 11.9% of the vote. If anyone had called that 11.9% of the voting electorate by a single derogatory term, that person would rightfully be called bigoted, and maybe worse. If Charles Blow calls 18.4% of the electorate, all women, "misogynist", which is derogatory, and literally means "woman hating", he's what exactly?
We need far less screaming from the extremes, whether those screaming are on the extremes, or doing it because it's good clickbait. And far less news media innumeracy.
The NYTimes wrongly covered the conflation of the 1500 "missing children" with the family separations at the border as something that went viral on Twitter, when actually it was on chyrons on MSNBC before that happened and therefore was a product of the news media.
The NYTimes juxtaposes the 1800 figure for hurricane Katrina close to the Harvard study figure for Maria. Not as bad as some in the media (and I don't mean twitter, I mean those professionals paid to do news on air and in print), who said that made Maria a more deadly storm than Katrina.
Papers of record should have higher standards than this.
6
Given the Democrat alternative, we’ll take our chances with Trump Charles.
5
That is the problem - Trump appeals to what? Your sense of greed? racism? ignorance?
What positive does Trump bring to the Nation?
8
I think this commenter speaks for many - perhaps a majority - of Trump voters: they would vote for almost anyone, even the devil himself, ragher than for Hillary, who was hated more than Trump was loved.
and yet she won the popular vote.
For those who wonder how Nazi Germany could have happened in the mid twentieth century, just look at the Trump movement. We don't have the Jews; we have Mexicans and African Americans. We have an electorate that is guided by self-centeredness and racism, and leaders who lack the courage to speak out against a bigoted demagogue. If you think what happened in Germany couldn't happen in America in modern times, think again. Sad!
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
10
Actually the racism against the Jews in Nazi Germany was a racism of resentment...ordinary Germans believed that Jews had power over them and were running the country. They thought they were fighting a Jewish supremacy. Kind of like how many on the left today feel about "white supremacy."
I am not old enough to remember a pre-Nixon Republican Party but it seems to me that the party has been moving in this direction my entire adult life. Fox News and other right wing media have interpreted events for their viewership to allow them to be comfortable with actions from their politicians.
Trump didn’t change the party as much as he has moved the line so that Republicans are more free to be open about how they feel. I have felt for a long time that much of the outcry about political correctness on the right is that the don’t want people calling them on their sh*t. They want to be able to live with the values they learned during their formative years than have to adjust as they feel the ground shift beneath them.
The change of the party was less a seismic shift as a gentle nudge.
There are still serious conservatives around - many who are vocally opposed to this administration. With the overwhelming support of the rank and file for trump, it should be becoming clear to them that the party has lost its soul.
3
Charles, I think the Republicans had their uniforms, clean and pressed, and their AR's oiled and loaded, waiting in the closet for a Trump to come along.
The foundation was built by the successful seduction of the segregationist Democratic political machine after Johnson's civil-rights-legislative-revolution. Then Reagan came along with "Morning in America", his I-feel-your-pain wink to whites, South and North. His "Cadillac driving welfare queens" sloganeering was a huge hit. A lot more precise than the earlier, slightly vague, "states rights" messages.
We all like a little amorality in our lives. To feel comfortable with a few beliefs we somewhat doubt, but feel liberating, is common. And here comes Trump opening the floodgates, with his ever expanding list of things we can hate and cause pain without a guilt complex.
If anything presaged Republican support for Trump's value system, it was their overwhelming support for the Birther movement, aka Obama-the foreign born.
1
I don't understand how you write an article citing so many poll numbers in favor of Trump, then conclude in your last sentence that Trump will lead Republicans to ruin. How will he exactly? By losing elections? That remains to be seen, and frankly, which such favorable poll numbers within his own party, Trump and Republicans don't have to do a whole lot to win many elections. And it seems that many election focused polls reflect the same.
2
For those who wonder how Nazi Germany could have happened in the mid twentieth century, just look at the Trump movement. We don't have the Jews; we have Mexicans and African Americans. We have an electorate that is guided by self-centeredness and racism, and leaders who lack the courage to speak out against a bigoted demagogue. If you think what happened in Germany couldn't happen in America in modern times, think again. Sad!
3
It's not my impression that Trump stole the Republican party. Seems to Trump merely validated the thoughts and feelings that Republican voters always experienced. The Republican party of say Ronald Reagan merely failed to respond fully to its voters.
2
He wins elections and the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the majority of state legislatures are all run by Republicans. Until Progressives figure out that ALL elections matter and the whining on social media is not the same as showing up to vote for a less than perfect candidate, nothing will change and we will continue on the path that Mr Blow lays out. Sadly, I have less confidence in the ability of Progressives to show up to vote
2
This article should not be about where Trump succeeded but rather where Democrats, progressives, "liberals" failed.
In the past thirty or forty years in America an entirely new and hardline, dogmatic, set of definitions have arisen as to whether someone is racist, sexist, xenophobic, etc. Liberals in short have defined such entirely on their own terms to point that a hardline nurture over nature view exists, that to be merely skeptical and questioning about differences between races, ethnic groups, the sexes, types of immigrants, cultures etc. constitutes a crime, that if one even so dares question along any line other than nurture being firmly decisive over nature, and/or to dare question progressive thought one must be "one of them", the racist, the vile, the full of hatred, evil right wingers, etc.
All a person has to do is become familiar with the social sciences, the humanities, as explicated in universities today to see that an entirely new language, set of definitions, semantic world, control of conversation, has arisen. This is much of what people loathe as political correctness. And this has driven many people into the right wing, led to confusion between them and truly vile people, true mean spirited and racist, etc. people. And it has not only been probably unnecessary, it's sitting uncomfortably with the advance of the hard sciences of biology, genetics, neuroscience, and even much of the lighter sciences such as political science and economics.
4
LOL. That is sarcasm right?
1
Liberals liberate, which means you don't even know what liberty is.
Less than 60 million people in a nation of 320 million voted for Trump and “most white women” do not fit in this category. I own a small public business in Ohio in an Akron adjoining county and the number of white women that voted for Trump appears to be running 19 against and 2-3 for. When I see “majority” of voters in all these polls I keep saying it was only 1in 20 Americans that voted for Trump. Why do we keep hearing “majority”??
5
Trump has given permission for conservatives to burn down the house and they came with torches!
2
Nihilists flocking to demagogues is a very reliable indicator of crumbling social cohesion. Nihilists are not conservatives. They are reactionaries.
4
"On one way, Donald Trump’s presidency has been a raging success: He stole a political party,"
You have not mentioned at all the other "successes" he has had among his always faith supporters--the Supreme Court appointment and tax reform. The wall to be built in time. N. Korea to be denuclearized in time. The GOP will continue to back him and keep their party in tack in the annals of history with more of their own agenda and more of his so-called accomplishments.
Meanwhile the egomaniacal president will take all credit for all his successes (perceived and outright untrue) and change the meaning of the red hats to MAGA (Made America Greatest Again) in 2020.
Think it's improbable? Not so. Dems, wake up now and find some good candidates to present in the public orbit so we get to know them as compelling people with compelling platforms! Not just for the 2018 midterms but for the 2020 elections as well. Never too early. Trump is at it already--actively courting his donors at fundraisers and touting the greatness of his presidency to his faithful at his rallies reminiscent of the campaign.
Barring the outcomes of the multiple investigations, it is conceivable that will once again circumvent all prosecution as he has done in the past over more than 10 decades.
1
Well, keep in mind what the last president did to assault the dignity of the office. He wore a light colored suit and (gasp) rolled up his sleeves while working in the oval office. Republicans were outraged!
3
Trump is purging the RINOs and establishment from the Party. Precisely what he was elected to do.
3
Yes, the Republican Party is taking a nap -- a "dirt nap." It is dead. And good riddance!
I don't even see how the corpse could be resurrected by anybody with a straight face. It would be like trying to resurrect Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party, "except for the whole genocide thing, you know."
People who want to follow in the footsteps of John McCain, and work for something bigger than themselves (other than Trump's ego, which is enormous but not worth working for), but who do not want to be Democratic, have their work cut out for them. I wish them well. But they should leave the corpse of the GOP strictly alone -- the utter and craven hypocrisy of (almost) everyone in that party, in the face of Trump's attacks on our democracy, demands that anyone with principles starts a new path.
1
McCain was a Keating 5 senator who never saw a war he didn't like.
It's not clear from the data Mr. Blow cites that Trump is leading the Republican Party to political ruin. Morally the Republican Party is dead, but politically they seem very much alive. The real (unanswered) question is how to help Republicans change their views about what is acceptable; how to help them think critically about Trump's leadership. I am not sure that Mr. Blow, or any of us, know how to accomplish that.
2
I suppose the creation of a new political party, although rare, is not unprecedented. The Whig party dissolved leading up to the Civil War and many members folded into the new Republican Party. Thus a new party could emerge now, but calling it the Trump Party may not be best long term since eventually he will have faded from history.
1
The only explanation I can think of for the fact that "an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people." is that he treats everybody pretty badly. 99% of us are losing ground in workplace fairness and pay, environmental protections, health care, open media and internet, economic equality, banking safety, and much, much more.
1
Ted Nugent is right about one thing. We are living in a period of history in which it is starkly obvious that the Civil War never ended.
1
There are no honest Conservtives or Moderate Republicans
Michael Tomasky
the silence with regard to the constant lying, the racism,
and incompetence is deafening.
1
It begins with 'belief'. Trump people are x-stains. Those people have been bred to believe without question. And thus are an easy mark for a fascist. Trump even talks their talk with fake faith. Fascist take over when there is a suspension of skepticism and true-believing americans are deplorable.
2
I've come to the conclusion that if Jesus Christ himself were elected president, a third of us would worship him, a third would crucify him and the rest would be checking their phones and taking selfies while the nails were hammered home.
We're pathetic.
4
Donald Trump grew out of what the GOP has turned into since the Reagan years. He has just added TV and social media fueled populism to the religion of free market neo conservatism.
5
in the spirit of conciliation, herewith a wish for an actual joke for samanatha bee (her career-long desperation, cringe-worthy on sight, might vanish with the proper delivery of a proper joke, see bob hope's oscar riffs) and, for charles blow, vision in both eyes (so sad that he cannot see also the hijack of our shared political identity, the voice of the people's party having been silenced by a self-centered usurper who would have most of us in sorted into baskets, including one that consigns us to the eternal bleakness of "irredeemability")...and, while we're at it, for hi!!ary herself, the grace to rise above her bitterness to a state of , call it elegance, in pursuit of direct effort in behalf at least one of causes she lip-serviced during her quest for the presidency...and for the party's future, a fulfilling retirement for nancy and chuck, perhaps a world tour of "the gin game" a star turn for two actors as characters in their senior years.
One reason Trump is President was the decimation of the Democratic Party by Barak Obama.
When Obama took office the Dems. controlled the House, Senate and executive branch. When he left office the Democrats controlled nothing.
Trump won in large part because he flipped voters in the large industrial states who voted for Obama twice.
A question for Mr. Blow. Were these Trump voters in 2016 racist when they voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012?
2
GOP RIP
or God HELP America.
1
"Trump has defended NAZIs". Everyone knows that's a lie including the person who just wrote it. The left is getting more, not less, hysterical as it approaches yet another fall with massive disappointment (and even more hysterics) lurking just around the corner. They would do well to suspend the name calling for a moment and try to understand why Trump and the Republicans are rising in the polls.
2
Actually it was the neo-mazis that he defended by saying they were decent people as they chanted their anti-semetic blood and soil, the old nazi rallying cry.
2
No one is above the law, (except or one and only Trump). The echo of this Republican chant still is ringing in my ears from the years of blue dress scandal. Now paying off a porn star to deceive the public is not even considered fraudulent.
4
That’s what they said before Hillary lost.
1
These fiscally sensitive Republicans, the ones who fought against executive power over reach, the ones who expressed consternation as to how President Obama was employing executive orders by violating the spirit of the Constitution, these same people now line up and pledge their allegiance to a man who is manifestly an authoritarian, a bigot, a serial liar, and a misogynist. Those who declare themselves as gleeful "Trump Republicans" are crypto-fascist, and any thinking citizen of this country who is not deeply concerned has not been paying attention to Trump's daily machinations and his toady minions who support him
4
Charles- Trump's hard-core base was ruined long before Trump . He is the great enabler.
Deputy Pell's wife:
"Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it... you breathe it. You marry it.
If you're part of the majority of the country that is unhappy, frustrated and disgusted with the current state of affairs.....this is the sad narrative.
4
So many of you still don’t comprehend the churning anger that built up among Republicans during the Obama years.
They HATED Obama and everything Democrats stand for just like you hate Trump.
Their 8 years of exile ended as your smug confidence in a Clinton victory evaporated in half a day.
These emotions of Trump supporters during Obama’s presidency were incomprehensible to you because he was your messiah.
Now we’ve had the white yin trade places with the black yang.
This is what happens in a polarized country flirting with Civil War. No one wants to save the Republic, they just want to see the other tribe burn.
Emotion and anger have replaced common sense. No one has different opinions; they’re just wrong.
This tribalism began with Bush v. Gore and both “sides” are responsible for steering us to the middle of this churning ocean with no safe harbor in sight.
2
Mike Magan, I probably do not agree with you on much, as you seem to lean right, by your comments about "smug confidence in a Clinton victory," and making the false claim that Obama was the democrat's "messiah." Simply not the case or they would have rallied around him in the 2010 midterms instead of deserting him, which led to the failure to maintain the majority. That said,your assertion that the "tribalism began with Bush v Gore," is very interesting. I would like to see a serious left-right discussion of this. We must understand the roots of our current divide before we can (hopefully) fix the fissure.
He did steal the GOP show and he replaced it with the cheap weekly drama of a reality show run by a shallow greedy racist. Tribal TV is all his followers (supporters) get. They love the circus and don't notice the consequences of corruption. The GOP is branded with this shame for generations.
5
They claim to know God, but they deny God by the things that they do. They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified to do anything good.
Titus 1:16
2
I am in the eight percent of republicans who think Trump is doing a poor job.
I think he treats EVERYONE poorly: black, white, brown , male, female. So had I answered that poll, you would consider me a sexist racist.
Wrong.
Why can’t I just realize what an awful person Trump is and how low the republicans have sunk to follow him ?
3
Charles Blow is right on. We have lost our standing in the world. Trump is an embarrassment.
8
Trump is a contemptible human being. And who cares? I am a liberal and I only care for only one thing in a leader: his or her political agenda. Trump’s policies are reckless, in some areas dangerous, and often incoherent. This is the only thing that matters. The Democrats are making the same mistake over and over again by linking political expediency to moral qualifications. What are we, kindergarten kids, that we need our “leader” to be a role model? Trump is a womanizer? Doesn’t matter to me - but defunding Planned Parenthood does. Trump is a racist? I couldn’t care less - except when he clamps down on immigration. Trump is a bankruptcy king - good for him, except when he wants to bankrupt America. If Trump supported the policies that I consider enlightened, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. So stop scolding Republicans for their “immorality”. They are correct in believing that personal morality has nothing to do with political efficiency. Try to show them that Trump’s policies are bad for the country. Some of them, especially fiscal conservatives and globalists, may be open to this argument. But nobody is open to tiresome finger-wagging.
3
Mr. Blow you still don't get it, the real problem is the democratic party itself. When the democratic party decided to take up the causes and standards of the old libertarian party, which was a bunch of left wing, semi-communists, that's when the democratic cut its own throat and gave way to a Donald Trump, because ordinary working people had no where else to turn to. Trump is a whole lot less scary then social engineering democrats who are just positive they know what's good for everybody. The truth is Me. Blow is that I trust Trump a whole lot more then I trust liberal democrats.
2
Another ignorant person on about democrats being communists.
Social engineering is what you call the fight for equality? There shouldn't be a need to fight for people's equality, but the fascists make it necessary.
The founders wanted minorities protected, to be able to have the same full rights as everyone else did. We just continue their work towards their goal of equality.
2
Trumpublican is a perfect word for the former Republican Party.
3
Instead of throwing stones across an icy river, Mr. Blow ought, for once, take a glimpse inward at his own party’s issues. Not a week passes where I don’t read of another big-time Democrat supporter or political official being taken away in handcuffs or resigning in disgrace from multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. As for Dinesh D’Souza’s pardon, there’s little doubt the Obama administration targeted him, Soviet-like, for special prosecution because of his high-profile criticism of President Obama.
2
Two highly and deeply amusing Republican beliefs about Trump: 1. He treats women with the same amount of respect he gives men. 2. he treats people of color with the same amount of respect he gives white people. To put it another way, he treats everyone badly -- except for, you know, awful actors like Putin or Erdogan in international settings, and racists like Arpaio and D'Sousa in the US. THOSE people get his respect and succor.
2
The lack of morality exhibited first by the Tea Party and now by Trump and his sycophants and supporters is what has led to the deterioration of our culture. Manners, compassion, kindness, have all gone missing and been replaced with hubris, dishonesty, narcissism, xenophobia, and hatred for fellow Americans, albeit liberal, black, and brown Americans. Trump has robbed America of its place as a shining beacon in the world and replaced it with that ugly head held high Mussolini pose. If hatred were currency Trump would truly be a billionaire. That Republicans still support him is proof that racism and an I'm not my brother's keeper attitude are the new normal and even though the majority of Americans detest him he was elected, albeit with Russian assistance.
3
Let's see if I understand.
Some 82% of Republicans believe that President Trump treats blacks and whites with equal respect. Mr. Blow identifies with the 18%.
The black unemployment rate is at an historic low under President Trump.
If this is "racism", perhaps it's time to re-think what racism means according to Mr. Blow.
1
No it's time for republicans to view themselves as what they are. The president ran on the most racist platform.
And the economic success for blacks is because of the economic growth that was started with Obama and Trump got lucky that he hasn't derailed it yet. Though he is trying with his tariff wars.
1
sinclair lewis said it best: "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross".
9
"But when I became a man, I put away childish things" Our 'so-called' president has never put away childish behaviors, like pretending to be Superman ('I alone can fix it'), desiring to be bigger, faster, stronger ('My button is bigger than your button'), and telling stories ('The crowd was the largest ever.' 'Everyone will have beautiful insurance'). Those who would say this man shows strong moral leadership, either don't know what morals are or mistake celebrity for leadership. If Trump is what Republicans think of as a strong moral leader then they must think Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin saints. They are so wrong. It was so wrong for him to even be a candidate. It was wrong for the Trump campaign to test rally phrases that elicited the greatest intense response, like 'build the wall' and 'lock her up' and then use them to bully opponents and create more chaos, confusion and divisions across our country. Trump is un-American. He doesn't even like our culture, our laws, or our people. He simply wants more for himself and the presidency has given him a great deal more power, celebrity, and wealth. He has sought to divide and conquer like a wannabee dictator and the Republicans in Congress have allowed it to continue. The day of reckoning is coming for him and those who have allowed this fake president. Justice will be served.
6
And...Democratic failures? What's our agenda? What do we believe in? Being non racial doesn't seem to fit. Jobs? African Americans? Border security? International diplomacy? We better get a crackin!
3
Vote in November folks. Vote. Let's see if this rabid band of minions is truly a reflection of the majority mind in this country, or a minority group of wing-nuts who need to be returned to that representational minority and put away, ignored and forgotten. Vote folks, and let the heavy hang-over of this drunken state commence so that we can get thru it and return to sanity. We've drunk more than our fill from this particular punch-bowl don't you think?
3
By this time, I have become as cynical as H. R. Mencken was when he said, “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” H. L. Mencken 1880-1956
I maintain that America finally has the president it deserves and that Trump will be re-elected in 2020.
3
Your team lost. It will continue to do so. That would be because the democrat party has become anathematic to the Constitution and the morals and norms of the nation.
If what you people are doing is called moral, I want nothing to do with it. There is no morality or decency coming from the right.
And the right doesn't have a clue about the constitution either from the things they espouse which are not constitutional at all.
1
With the propaganda jauggernaut Fox News & their ilk DT is just the latest, ugliest version of right wing paranoia and hatred. As long as the US has many undereducated voters and a sophisticated propaganda machine humming we're in for problems
5
Lowell P. Weicker wrote in the Hartford Courant of a “Sunset of the GOP” in 2016. The gatecrashers such as Ted Cruz, “The Anointed One” have zero legislative accomplishments with which to ring their bell. All hat and no cattle is the term used in Amarillo.
3
Trumpism is simply sadomasochism on steroids. It is a sickness of a dying people.
3
Check out the Presidrntial election stolen in 1876 by the Republicans which gave us 70 years of Jim Crow!
1
Since our government reports that the Russian’s have been up to invading our social-media for years, do you think Russian-trolls could have masked their selves as American-racist people on our social-media bogs since President Obama became president to make America look bad? Possibly leading prejudice groups to wrongly think that more American’s support and empower their type than actually do in modern America? Where the groups then came out in our news and unfortunately, then, spread their own hateful agenda even more? Did Russian-trolls possibly visit the websites of that large protesting marching anti-Jewish chanting group in our news last year, too? That must have been a shock to most of us American’s.
Could the Russians have even acted as fake American’s supporting a few cops accused of racism in our news, leading communication-confusion and even more trouble between our black community and law enforcement?
(I say, tell either, the Russian-racists or American-racists to ‘Russian-prove’ that they are ‘American’, and get them both put in their place on our blogs. I think the National Security Agency, which monitors foreign communications, needs to consider putting out a daily report out on the percentage of Russian’s on our social-media in order for America to sustain and follow our own true American Public Opinion. I think that might take away some of the Russian influence and motive, as well.)
1
Charles indulges in names calling as usual. Since the Dems will always have Bill Clinton, you might not want to bring up womanizing. For a change, why don’t you discuss the left turn of the out of touch Democrats?
1
No, no no! Trump has merely pulled back the mask to show the United States for what it truly is. They got worried through the Obama years. As once was said about Philadelphia, they were afraid that the brothers and sisters were in change. So they elected Trump to make sure that does not happen for real. I love Charles and appreciate that he said he’d lead the resistance and has done just that. But what are we going to DO about it? Beating back Trumpeters at the polls is one thing, but America has to be re-educated and repurposed. How?
3
"And yet, the same April Quinnipiac poll found that an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people."
This may be ironically true; He actually respects no-one but himself, who he holds in the highest regard.
1
As an independent voter I have to say that the Republicans bear most of the responsibility for this Trump presidency. They have behaved like cowards and the moderates in the party remained mostly silent (a big disappointment). However, the Democrats must shoulder some of the blame, too. They nominated a candidate who threw several of Bill Clinton's accusers on the train track as the train screeched their way. She did not "stand up for women" as she claimed in her campaign. BOTH parties need to wake up and wake up fast. God forbid, we have four more years of Trump after these years.
“Do you think Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men?”
To be fair, that’s kind of a trick question.
2
None of this is surprising, but all of it is shocking. The fact that 71% of Republicans thought "ethical standards of the thoroughly unethical Trump administration officials were excellent or good" is astonishing. This shows just how delusional Republicans have become.
3
Trump bringing more than the Republican Party to ruin. He was bringing the US and its alliances and longstanding relationships to ruin as well!
3
Trump is the purified distillation of the Republican Party. If you did not see this coming you were blind. Fox News propaganda has called the shots for nearly two decades. And it is paying off. Only recent examples — Benghazi investigation, birtherism, McConnell stonewalling a Supreme Court Justice nomination, voter suppression. The list could go on. The GOP is a criminal organization - now just not metaphorically, but actually a criminal organization. Trump as the supreme leader of the Republican Party was in a conspiracy with Russia and others foreign powers to subvert the American election. John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, etc were all in on the conspiracy. Their blinding hatred of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton justified working with Russia. Of course they thought Clinton would win and they would damage her so severely she could not govern. Unfortunately trump won and now they own the conspiracy. Donald Trump, Mike Pence, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan.... are all traitors. Why are they fighting back so strongly? Why will they not investigate in the senate or house? The truth! An illegitimate Republican President installed by Russia with the direct help of all GOP leadership. Pretty hard to swallow. Try owning that one in American history. The party that destroyed American democracy - - move over Richard Nixon.
4
Yes the reign of King T has conquered and crippled the Republican Party, and he is leading them to ruin. Would that it were just the Republican Party, and not the rest of us.
King T is leading the nation to ruin, but the results will not be visible to most of us during his relatively brief tenure. The people of Puerto Rico are the canaries in our coal mine. Their plight may well be ours at some point.
The hopeless and the clueless have been hypnotized by the demonic power of this con man's pitch, clinging fervently to his empty promise that they will be the winners while the undeserving masses, i.e. Democrats, poor people and non-whites will be the losers.
2
In other words the "Brown Shirts" are coming. Haven't we seen this movie before? It doesn't end well.
Charles, Charles, CHARLES! When will you and the entirety of media stop blaming Trump and place the blame where it truly belongs: Trump supporters. Republicans were spineless racists before Trump joined their ilk and they will be gutless long after Trumps fades to obscurity. Every word you have written is news of the obvious. It is his gullible supporters who continue to fall for his con- that he truly cares for them- that the press needs to vilify then hopefully help them see the light. Sheeesh!
5
Impeach Trump?
You're going to have to impeach the whole party.
1
I still see it EVERY Day---white people (I’m white) saying the WORST obscenities about immigrants (legal, illegal, on working visas).
I now step in and ask. (Aren’t we supposed to be gracious listening to Trump supporters?)
Did a Mexican take your job? Have immigrants blocked you from getting a doctor’s appointment or been ahead of you in the emergency department?
As soon as the “Well I heard that...”
No! Have YOU ever met a Mexican immigrant? Have you had YOUR job taken by a Mexican? Have you ever seen a Mexican?
The answer is ALWAYS no, no, and no. None in their work places or grocery stores, not in emergency rooms or sitting in their doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room.
OTOH I have worked side by side with illegal immigrants or cared for them in my practice and they are superb human beings. Just trying to keep a roof over their heads as they send money home. On their paychecks FICA takes out money THEY will never see again.
These poorly educated “We LOVE the poorly educated” citizens are flying blind only allowing Trump’s tweets for information.
As I work tirelessly again for Democratic candidates I hear my medical colleagues saying: “I just don’t have time for that stupid politics! Just upsets me.”
Maybe it’s living right now in Atlanta, GA...Scarlett O’Hara’s "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow."
19th century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre said "every nation gets the government it deserves."
3
Maybe HRC got it right after all: "deplorables" indeed. Perhaps the Trumpublicans will soon be excusing their Leader because "he built the Autobahn." Oh wait, his infrastructure program isn't going anywhere--at least as long as Mar-a-Lago is above rising ocean levels.
2
We can just go back to thinking all politicians are self serving con artists like the old days.
1
The same GOP that adopted a divide and conquer strategy to rebrand itself as the white people's party after the Civil Rights Act.
This is the same GOP of Richard Nixon, who extended the Vietnam War for four years, illegally bombed Cambodia, and hired burglars to raid the offices of the Democratic Party at Watergate.
This the Republican Party who worshipped the addle brained film actor Ronald Reagan who released thousands of mentally ill onto the streets who are still here today and called "homeless."
This is Willie Horton Bush's Republican Party that used a black man as the face of what to fear in 1988. This is the Bush who drew a line in the bloody sand of Kuwait to expel Sadaam Hussein, armed the Afghan rebels against the Soviets to create Al Queda and swept us into 30 years of Iraq/Afghanistan.
This is the GOP of "W" Katrina Bush who disastrously and failingly brought us the second gulf war which killed over half a million in Iraq and wounded and killed tens of thousands of American soldiers, before he plunged the economy into the worst depression since the 1930s.
This is now the GOP of Trump, a liar, a crook, a huckster, a con man, an ignoramus of such oversized ego and small mindedness that he attacks our allies and friends, undercuts our nation, colludes with Russia to steal an election, and impedes investigation into his wrongdoing all the while maintaining that he is above the law.
None of it will matter to the American people.
2
If you, as a citizen, only choose access to sources that affirm your leader is a moral man (Fox and Friends, Twitter, et al) then that is what you believe.
1
The GOP set itself up for Donald Trump when it embraced the Tea Party immediately after the inauguration of our first black President. Irresponsible party leadership failed to keep the fringe elements where they belong. The TP self-dissolved when President Obama left office, but the tail is still wagging the dog.
2
Well, going back to basics, one of the major problems the GOP have with applying morality to a Trump, who is amoral, is the fact that they don't understand the definition.
Being moral means knowing the difference of right from wrong, and good from bad as far as dealing with others. Trump and the GOP are only acting upon what is good for them and not for anyone else. If it feels good or increases your personal wealth then do it. They all belong to their own political party, the party of one.
Excellent article, Mr. Blow. One of your best. I liked John Boehner's take on today's GOP as far as letting Trump run wicked and wild, they are 'kind of taking a nap somewhere'.
I think they segued from nap into coma.
1
Mr. Blow, I think you fail to notice the degree to which MOST AMERICANS despise and hate all political parties, and know we've been sold down the river by BOTH PARTIES.
3
The evolution of the Republican party into the Trumpublican party took place at relatively lightning speed when Trump replaced the traditional GOP dog whistle with his anti-immigrant, racist, sexist, xenophobic bull horn. The Trump-induced coma of Republicans in Congress is easily explained by the fact that they will be relying on support from those same voters who find Trump so appealing. After seventeen months of the most corrupt administration and unfit president in our nation's history, it is very disheartening that so many of my fellow Americans enthusiastically support the destruction of traditional norms and our constitutional democracy. A democracy that affords hateful citizens representation in the White House and Congress as well. This is destroying my life long belief that we live in a caring, compassionate and actual Christian nation.
A message to the rest (majority) of us - please vote in November! Apathy is most certainly not an option this year or in 2020.
3
The transformation of the Republican Party into the present shape has been fifty years in the making. Go back to Nixon's "Southern Strategy" as a beginning. Add the moral vacuum he created with Watergate, the indefensible Pardon of Nixon by Ford, which essentially put the President above the law. Reagan didn't want to effectively want to run the government with the Democrats, he called government "the enemy" and gave us the foundation for the horrid income inequality of today manifest by "Voodoo Economics." Newt Gingrich gave us the first major government shutdown. Bush Jr. gave us the current neverending war taking the simple mission to get Osama bin Laden to answer for 9/11 and expanding it needlessly in the illegal Iraq conflagration that gave us ISIS. Now Trump.
The "idealistic" Republican Party you write of, Charles, hasn't really existed for a long time. It's only been the memory that's kept up the illusion. The current form is the real thing it's been for a long time. Stripped of the veneer, the pretense, the lie that it exists to serve anyone other than the wealthy donors who bankroll it. Somewhere Joseph Goebbels must be appreciating the big lie told to the most economically powerful country on Earth. Fifty years of propaganda. And half the Country takes it as "gospel truth."
2
It’s way too late for the GOP to disavow this president. He owns them, lock, stock and barrel. They saw him coming in 2015 and did not find him wanting. The Republicans wanted power. They despised the black president and Hillary Clinton and made a deal with the devil to support the imposter, for the sake of power. They have it now and what have Republicans done for America? Although some Republicans have been sickened by what’s happened to the country and have or announced their retirement from government, the damage has been done.
An opinion writer for this paper went to great pains to mock Barack Obama this weekend. She ignored the former president’s decency, grandness of spirit and love of country and reveled in Obama’s disappointment at how the 2016 election turned out. How can she and the GOP possibly see an improvement in the country since this president was sworn in? It’s that attitude and mindset that have already destroyed the Republican party. They just don't know it yet.
1
Literally no one saw him as electable in the Republican party early in the election cycle. Same amount of people in the party who saw the Mexicans paying for the wall.
Every day I find it harder and harder to identify as an American. I simply don't understand 95% of this country. I am a man who lives in a rational (scientific) world. I value truth, honesty and integrity. I abhor television, commercials and over-hyped Hollywood movies. I am saddened by the lack of literature in our culture - and the lack of intellectual power. I do not share in the greed and avarice which seems to drive my fellow citizens. I do not have a Facebook account. My world has shrunk to the few blocks in Manhattan where I live, work and my child goes to pre-school - and I am sad that it has grown so small. Where has America gone? I am a stranger in my own land. Please, America, vote, and vote with intelligence and humanity, not your hatred, anger and ignorance.
3
Trump is a mediocre, small handed, self-obsessed showman who is too lazy to learn or actually do anything, makes it up as he goes, and plays to all the losers in America who see themselves as victims of anything and everything other than themselves. His sole concerns are feeding his deluded self-image, using the presidency to build up his own depleted coffers with obscene tax breaks and foreign government bribes, and - like the evil stepmother and step sisters in Cinderella and every petty dictator in history - inflicting revenge on anyone who reminds him he is not the smartest or prettiest or who challenges him in any way. Chaos and others’ pain seem to delight him no end.
That his followers and enablers turn a blind eye to his loathsome essence reveals them to be obedient members of the Trump cult more than thinking citizens of a country. It is not hyperbole to recall the many Hitler-worshipping Germans in 1933. I have a message for Trump enthusiasts: it never works out well to believe in such a charlatan, for you and, unfortunately, the rest of us, too.
If you oppose Trump and Trumpism, before you move to Canada or Portugal, please get engaged in grass roots politics and work to vote these clowns and traitors out in 2018 and 2020!
5
" I believe he is leading them (= Republicans) to ruin".
But from out of the ashes the Second Coming:
"And what rough beast, its hour come at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born."
W.B.Yeats, The Second Coming
As Mr. Blow writes, in politics anything can happen
1
Abraham Lincoln is crying someplace in Heaven.
1
Trump's America is like a home with a broken septic tank. All the waste that should flow out as sewage backs up and floods the house. Liars, thieves, fools, racists, traitors, pedophiles and sexual predators - all are welcome now by Trump's GOP. And the ordinary GOP voter refuses to see it, let alone take any responsibility for it. But they are responsible, and I sincerely hope that it results in the destruction of their party. The GOP deserves nothing less.
1
Thank you, Charles Blow. You are a much needed moral compass in our frightening and confusing world.
3
The Regressive Republican party has not actually been co-opted by The Donald. He has appealed to the racists; promised tax relief for the wealthy; promised to roll back the social gains by non-whites; promised to destroy the EPA; promised to keep all non'whites out of "OUR" country; promised to put women back where they belong - in the bedroom.
This has always been the common agenda of the regressive's - The Donald has emboldened them out of their small minded closets.
For good or for bad, we all now know where our regressive "friends" stand.
We can no longer stand by and hear: He is a Republican, but only a fiscal Republican. If The Donald has not forced you out of your Red haze, then you are the problem.
2
“Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.” TRUE! Our liar-in-chief throws everyone under the bus if they don't bow to "HIM".
1
Until these Trump voters and their representatives in Congress show some honor and some loyalty to the Constitution they don't deserve to be seen or heard. When the sweep out comes, all of these less-than-Americans need to be marginalized until they can act like responsible, honorable citizens who live up to our ideals and own up to how their racism and misogyny created the monster we're battling. They've earned a time out in the corner until they change their behavior and hearts. That's how you'd deal with rotten children. Trump followers are worse because they are hateful, pridefully ignorant adults. They need to lose decades of elections. They can sit in the corner with their MAGA hats on and watch us rebuild what they tore down.
1
The question really should be Democrats succeeded. They succeeded in moving Republicans away from a color blind society to a society based on group identities (women vs men, black vs white, etc) where one group is the oppressor and the other group is the victim. In that kind of pathological narrative that ignores people as individuals and reduces them to the their assigned group memberships. Trump exploits the resentment everybody feels when they are reduced to a one-dimensional person (e.g. "black"). No wonder democrats have lost so many elections nationwide. It doesn't seem they would accept my vote even if I wanted to vote for them. I'm actually surprised the democratic party still exists.
1
The GOP is dead and has been for a long time. Unfortunately that fact allows a demagogue like trump to not only have gotten elected but also to be systematically destroying our democracy while the GOP doesn't just remain silent, but defends and excuses his insane machinations. Every, single, day there is more so-called breaking news about trump and his family of criminals and his minions as they go about desecrating the office of the presidency and the rule of law. There is nothing too low or outrageous or racist that they won't do. We can only hope that our country will still be standing when he is out of office.
2
For me the only redeeming thing about Trump's reign is the destruction he is begetting on the Republican party. This little detour in to an alternate reality where it's okay to be openly and disgustingly hateful and racist will be their ultimate demise.
Hopefully November will be the start of telling these cowards who have enabled his reprehensible behavior that their time is up. Thank you Mr. Blow for speaking out!
3
I went to sleep with these charts in my head, so disappointed that Trump's supporters see nothing wrong with his endless infidelities and disrespect of women, inciting and rewarding racist violence and Islamaphobia, giving aid to our enemies, remanding immigrants to their possible deaths, cheating in business deals, enriching himself through the presidency, and nonstop lying. Their moral compass flew out the window the day he walked into the White House.
1
Over the past two centuries political parties have changed identities. The Republican Party of Lincoln ended in the 1940s when it began to intentionally court racists. That progressed with Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. Trump has made it official. The Trumpublican Party is a racist, nativist, misogynist, homophobic party. The Republican elephant is defunct. Trumpublicans have the pig, which so much better represents who they are.
2
It's time for the Republican Party to be swept into the dustbin of history, like one of its predecessors, the aptly named Know Nothing Party.
2
A better branding name is ‘Retrumplican’ it rolls off the tongue with greater ease and it places Trump at its center.
1
This is an American phenomenon, Trump could not cow the Republicans to his will if he wasn’t adored by his followers. And through the completely engineered outrage of phony victimhood in which every other American who loathes Trump are themselves loathsome opressors, these Trumpistas are totally energized to support and vote for the most abhorrent self serving people and policies on health, education, guns, environment, women’s and minority rights, trade, etc. Trump is the arrogant, brash revolting mouthpiece of a large section of the American id. Trump is exposing that hateful greedy existential social psyche to daylight ... and 44% of Americans, instead of being horrified by who they are, are delighting and reveling in being allowed to be openly racist, mysoginist, xenophobic, etc. America, not the Republican party is in grave danger. The good in conservatives is not in a coma, the evil in some Americans is becoming manically aggressive. That’s what must be adressed whenconfronting Trump.
2
Thank you United States of Plunder and War. At least the rest of the world now knows we are at the dawn of the new dark ages!
1
Yup, you're lucky you border us when these wars begin.
>
Nope DJT did NOT steal the GOP.
The majority of the world's people that hygienically label themselves conservatives can now and are allowed to act and carry out their political Anti-Christian, therefore, demonic dreams ("No Devil, no God) without shame, or guilt.
The GOP's id has just been brought out into the open. In Freudian language unrepressed i.e., brought into consciousness, or in Heideggerian jargon into a clearing.
2
Trump has completed the process that the GOP began with its acceptance of the Southern Democrats in the mid 1960s. It's acceptable in polite conservative company to refer to any person who disagrees with the NRA, criticizes the government for cutting social safety net programs, points out that immigration is not all bad, as unpatriotic, an extreme leftist, or as one who should be imprisoned.
We no longer have political conversations or discussions. It's an all out screaming match with the conservatives starting and ending the screaming and refusing to be responsible. To conserve doesn't mean being activist but we've seen plenty of activist conservative judges and lawmakers. It's not liberal to expect our basic rights to be respected. It's not liberal to want children to have a good education. It's not liberal to worry about people going hungry. And it's not liberal to view taxes as part of the deal for having an effective government.
Today's "conservatives" don't seem care that the country they inhabit is in dire need of repairs. It doesn't matter to them if people experience "food insecurity". And if you can't find a job whose fault is that? Never mind that the policies they endorse leave people in or lead people to fall into poverty. It's better that the less valuable members of our society stay or become poor. There's no such thing as being too rich.
2
Chuck, the time of Republicans acting as "Democrats Light" is over. Get used to it.
It is relatively easy to arrive at poll results such as these, when questions are asked as ideas, or ideals, that one can agree to in the abstract. "Does President Trump provide good moral leadership, yes or no?
Perhaps it would be more productive, and more illuminating, to ask questions in more personal terms:
"Would you feel safe leaving your teenage daughter alone with Donald Trump?"
"Do you approve of Donald Trump condoning hatred of, and discrimination against, your best friend who happens to be Jewish?"
"Is Donald Trump correct to allow border agents to hold you in a cell for eight hours without pressing charges, suspicious of you solely because you happen to be carrying a bag of those very dangerous items we call books?"
"Do you believe it is right for your hard earned tax dollars to be used to pay Donald Trump to spend a third of his time as President playing golf and watching television...as an employer yourself, would you ever allow any of your 'other' employees this luxury?"
3
As VICTOR HANSON of the Hoover Institution,a think tank that Alexander Harrison is proud to be associated with as a sometime researcher--see my primary source collection in OAC,--it is 0bama who drove his own party so far to the left it was no longer a home to working class Democrats.0's derogatory remarks about "clingers,"insulting hard working Americans , accusing them of clinging to their guns, bibles and anti immigrant beliefs was not only unfair, in bad taste, but politically unwise. His citing of John BOEHNER is a trifle "loufoque!Can't think of a single piece of legislation Boehner was associated with, and his weakness for the grape and the grain almost surpassed that of late Mendel RIVERS, who had to be thawed out on a weekly basis.But GOP was going downhill as the loyal opposition long before Trump, who administered the "coup de grace!"Author reiterates same litany of charges that all of us know by heart and which, moreover are inaccurate:Trump is an xenephobe, racist(invalid word),misogynist, sexist. Some of my kin do not even know what these words mean, and considering the source,the far Left, could not care less! Trump won the election on his own because he is a master politician. He has "it,"an indefinable gift which enables him to verbalize what millions of us are thinking, and who believe that the citizenry, hard working men and women in this country should come first!
History will show Trump as the best thing to ever happen to the Democratic Party.
JI: What do the Democrats stand for anymore besides the support of issues which only a minority of the country supports, a dwindling minority.
Saying Trump has taken over the GOP - even though CB does say these issues have long existed in the party - gives the GOP a pass for the past 50 years. Trump is in fact the Republican Party's id, as cultivated these past 50-60 years. Patty Reagan is in WaPo today pushing some nonsense about what Trump has done to her beloved father's party and country. That's ludicrous. Trump is her father, only coarser and with worse hair and having misplaced his dog whistle and left with a bullhorn instead.
Trump is the not the problem. American conservatives are the problem.
2
I've been reading analyses by political commentators for the past 2 years of Trump's trade, tariff & foreign policies including withdrawal from various international treaties. Most commentators by far say that the policies will cause chaos among the closest allies (now beginning to see this), dissension & weakening within NATO & the EU, & irreparable damage to the global systems of trade & finance. The Republican Party seems divided in its deepest soul about these policies. Not all of them derive historically from GOP ideology. What's going on?
My thought (forgive the aura of conspiracy but there it is): This is Trump's long-term effort to satisfy V. Putin & degrade US & European political sway. Trump has been forging ahead among the countries now electing right-wing governments with that whiff of fascism about them. If Putin is happy with the results - & why shouldn't he be - what sort of payback is this from Trump to Putin? The start of a bilateral rulership of the world by Vlady & Donny? Unthinkable, yet what explains Trump's blindness to the real dangers he is perpetuating? He's made these noises for the past 30 years or more but not until Putin took power did Trump promote himself strongly as a possible US president. Forget MAGA. That's used to get votes. Try MRSA (R for Rossiya). Trump is promoting & strengthening Putin & Rossiya at the expense of the USA & its alliances, treaties, & the needy at home. Why? All I have are suspicions. A success? Who has the answers?
1
Why shouldn't prosperous Western Europe pay for a higher share of its own defense. These nations, especially very prosperous Germany, have been freeloading for many years.
The Paris climate change agreement was one-sided, to the extreme. China might agree to cut back its carbon footprint by 2030 if it's in the mood to do so by then.
President Trump is suggesting that "the emperor has no clothes; and he is correct.
1
Does anybody realize that Trump and his shameful EPA
director are murdering thousands of people each day by
denying climate change? The fires in the west, the floods
in the east, the floods in France are destroying homes and
taking lives. He has no concern for others. He is a disgrace
to the office. Our only hope is to make the House Democratic
in 2018 and vote this misogynistic animal out of office in 2020.
1
The anti-Trump rhetoric has reached fever pitch. According to his Gotham critics, he is wrong, always, about everything, at all times in his entire life. He is one of the worst degenerates of all time, especially compared to the moral purity of our progressive friends.
Meanwhile, the economy is the best ever for many years. Black and Hispanic unemployment are at all time lows. Business confidence has rebounded from the muddle through Obama era. Regulatory overkill is being reversed. Consumer sentiment steadily improves; more people are optimistic about their future. Wages are increasing at the highest rate in recent years.
Apparently our progressive friends easily dismiss these minor details.
4
This is beyond disheartening. In addition to unleashing the worst behavior in people (cruelty to others, bigotry, misogyny ) now Trump has managed to delude his supporters into thinking this is all perfectly fine, admirable even.
This seems to go beyond "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts " to resonating with them on a gut level and nothing will persuade them otherwise.
2
I hope your last sentence is correct but I doubt it.
Donald Trump is president for two reasons. First the other 16 Republican candidates could not touch him because they were him, and he was them, he was just much better at being them than they were. Second Democrats returned the favor of Trump in spades in presenting a tailor made punching bag who, cognizant of her ample surface area for attack, still placed herself on a throne and put self above party, and who cowered in the face of Donald Trump's daily shower of abuse. Bernie Sanders would be president today and Donald Trump who never wanted or intended to be president would have now faded into oblivion. This is the reality that you Mr. Blow and all those who adulated Clinton while deriding Sanders are left to reckon with, and the damage that has been done and will be done.
It’s the Democratic Party that’s in ruins. Trump just keeps winning!
1
Winning what?
1
Here's an exercise for us liberals. Pick the one Trump policy that makes you the most irate and anxious. Now realize that 70% of Trump voters could care less about that issue, and the other 30% are downright giddy that you're so miserable. Now, use that information for refocus your approach to future elections.
3
We need to retire the Trump is a racist trope.
Yes, his abhorrent ramblings are racist and I don’t for a second minimize the damage he’s doing or the pain he’s inflicting on millions of vulnerable people, including and especially women and minorities. But he’s really not a racist in the sense that his nastiness begins with a binary filter between white people who he thinks are fundamentally OK and non-white people who aren’t. He’s much more a misogynist, though not even that to the degree his track record implies.
Rather, when Trump sizes up people around him it’s really about wealth and power. If you have it, particularly if you were born into it or stole it the way he did, then you register with him as a human being. If you don’t, the only use he has for you is to prop up his ego by joining his gross cult of personality. I don’t think he’d care for a second whether his rallies were packed with black people or white people as long as they they pledged unqualified loyalty and adoration.
Look, I’m just as appalled, embarrassed, angry, offended and scared as anyone and Charles Blow has been a steady and invaluable voice of normalcy over the last two years. But I think the racist tag just isn’t as accurate as the obnoxious idle rich one and it won’t get any traction among the millions who he duped into voting for him. And like it or not, we need those people to change their minds.
2
Trump supporters knew he was a snake when they brought him home, and he shows them daily that it is a snake that they're keeping. But they don't care. They love their snake and deserve what they're going to get; but the rest of us - and our children - do not. Those who share in Trump's sexism, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant hysteria perhaps should receive their just deserts, but those of us who did not vote for DJT and speak out daily against all he embodies should be spared. Just God, where art thou?
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
5
Yes, I was at my fiancée's parent's house just after we announced our intention to get married. I am gay. This was 2014. The family welcomed the marriage. My fiancée's mother, after a few glasses of wine, began to talk about Obama. Knowing her to be a) white, b) rural and c) a biker in d) Southern Oregon, I braced myself. My fiancée looked over at me, knowingly. I campaigned for Obama, worked for reparations at Occupy Wall Street, and was a labor organizer. She then spouted out the N word. When I challenged her, saying that Black people are a part of America and built most of it for free, and could even be related to her, she dug in saying we don't have one drop of that N blood in our family. Disgusted I got up and left. I did not marry that man for many reasons, his mother being one.
5
The Republican party will never recover to what it was, and it will be a long time recovering to viability.
At this moment the party is a dead man walking -- it still holds a majority in the House and Senate, still holds a majority of state offices counted by number (not by citizens).
But this is a fractured body that cannot live as it is.
Fundamentally there are three sub-parties of the GOP: old-school "white shoes" Republicans, Evangelicals, and Trumpismo. These three groups can be roughly identified with the 2016 primary candidates: JEB/Rubio/Kasich, Cruz, and Trump.
What the primary election demonstrated is that the traditional Republicans are only 20% or so of today's GOP voters, and many of these have become never-Trumpers.
The Evangelicals cannot continue the hypocrisy of supporting Trump for very long. Their internal ranks are already fracturing over the obvious: Trump has no relationship to anything Christian at all.
The GOP is a three-way food-fight; if you want to call that Trump's "success" -- so be it.
2
in an era of identity politics, it's impossible to analyze, much less understand, Trump's supporters without once referencing abortion.....that's a pretty big elephant in the room, and Mr. Blow inexplicably ignored it....
1
I agree, 100%!
1
It is appalling to know that 78 percent of Republicans think the Liar in Chief provides strong moral leadership. What are these people thinking (or not). How can people who call themselves Christian believe that someone who lies, cheats, commits adultery etc has any morals at all. I cry for my country and the swamp into which it has sunk with Trump and his blind supporters. Vote the Republicans out in Nov. It is the only thing that will bring change.
4
• And yet, the same April Quinnipiac poll found that an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people.
And they are right. Trump respects NO one and disrespects EVERYone the same.
Three cheers for Equality!!!
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
~ ISAAC ASIMOV
6
At this point, the only viable path to save our sacred institutions from further denigration by Trump is to renounce all Republicans at the polls.
Due to our feckless Congress the choice is now Democracy (Democrat) or Demagoguery (GOP).
2
his few 'achievements' are that he inherited a strongly improving economy, after the worst economic disaster in over 70 years, and that he has managed to institute change in areas that has allowed a once silent minority, to raise its voice up from under the rocks and beneath the murky mire of racism and bigotry to speak loudly for the first time in a few generations. I have no doubt that the cognitive dissonance of many that stand behind him now, is being strained to the point where each subsequent and frequent outrage knocks a few once strident and vocal supporters off of the band wagon.
While I don't profess to be conservative in much other than some areas of economics, and therefore don't have much in common with those on that side of the spectrum, i have no doubt that most are people of good morals and values not too dissimilar to mine and many others on the 'left' and it's just a matter of time until this buffoon occupying the Oval office, wears out his welcome to enough of those good people, so that his base starts to crumble and erode. Perhaps the mirrors in the homes and offices of these 'good' people need a little polishing or maybe they've been taken down completely because I can't see how these people can continue to keep looking themselves in the eyes while this massively disproportionate weight of outrages continues to be ignored due to a unearned and inherited economic environment, which is unevenly shared across the country and across economic classes.
3
The most patriotic thing I can think of doing with the rest of my life is to severe all social and business ties with Trump supporting individuals, businesses and organizations.
At least I’ll feel like I’m still living in a democratic country and not enabling those who are destroying it.
5
Retreating into your bubble is the worst thing you can do!
You can’t pretend that the cancer of Trumpism doesn’t exist!
It will kill you and your democratic institutions.
You must find a way to engage with Trumpism and find the pin with which you can the bubble that the Trumpists are in.
There's no huge mystery here. The republican party merely reflects the beliefs of the people attracted to its subtle - and now not so subtle - racist, homophobic and patriarchal messaging. Namely that "those people" need to 'stay in their place' insofar as where they live and work, and keep their mouths shut insofar as protesting, petitioning and voting for their own equal rights.
Up until the mid-1960s, disenfranchisement and oppression of these fellow Americans of ours used to be promulgated by both political parties. Is it any wonder that Jackie Robinson distrusted northern liberals sincerity on race equality so much that he actually endorsed Nixon in 1960? Democrat Truman may have desegregated the armed forces, But Republican Eisenhower didn't backtrack on it, against what must have been some pressure to do so. Additionally, after Brown v. Board of Ed. he enforced the ruling by calling out the national guard.
But then LBJ exorcised that demon from his own party in the mid-1960s. Ever since then, deep racism and intolerance have had one home in American politics.
2
We'll see what this country has become in November.
4
The Republicans are not ill or crippled - they are advancing their agenda because they are riding his wave. Before him, they were less popular than the Democrats. If they cut him loose, his followers will cut them loose. An appeal to morality has not and will not work - Trump's followers have no morals.
1
And to think that I quit the Republican Party as a successful fundraiser (precinct level) when Ronald Reagan was elected.
Compared to Trump, the “St. Ronnie” designation has a bit of logic.
Worse yet, “the greatest deliberative body in the world” seems to be deliberately self-destructing to a rubber stamp of Trump.
1
Well, Mr. Blow, you may believe that Trump is leading the Republicans to ruin but most GOP-ers are quite happy with the eliminations of the Obama era regulations that were strangling the economy, the tax cuts and the resulting roaring economy. Not only that, but getting out of the damaging Paris agreement and furthering natural gas production, encouraging small businesses instead of having disdain for them as his predecessor did, and showing strength instead of weakness around the world. He has his serious character faults but we all knew that from the beginning. Those faults seem to be the basis for all the hatred on the left...and possibly the obvious successes he is racking up.
1
The future of our Nation that tolerates the slaughter of our children in mass shootings in schools unprotected by laws that restrict gun sales to those competent and responsible to handle them and that also tolerates blatant racism while ignoring mothers, their children and their needs for health care and community safety is not a Nation that I wish to support. We face not just an uncertain future. We face the death of our Nation built on democratic principles for which our sons and daughters fought and died. Wake up America. Our future is imperiled profoundly. Vote knowing that the lives of those you love are at stake. We need real democracy not the divisive race based bigotry that now imperils our democracy.
3
Republicans led by Gingrich, McConnell, Ryan and Boehner created the environment which has delivered Trump to the White House.
2
What a bravura performance by Trump! Pretending to love America...make America great again! NFL players who kneel should be fired! And yet, he never served; he has skirted
numerous laws, supported our adversaries and not paid taxes. His love of America is pure pablum. No man is less deserving of the presidency.
4
Congressmen have shielded and protected him, excused and accepted him.
Unfortunately, examples are too numerous. The half-truths and outright lies Trump and Congress told our country while pushing his tax reform/cut “Christmas Present” are top of mind.
Trump succeeded politically and financially at the cost of our country’s financial and national security.
We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Politicians and their staffers, from both parties, personally liable, responsible and accountable for the lies they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $21T and growing national debt (106% of GDP), and approximately 80T in future, unfunded liabilities jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their party, and special interest donors.
http://www.usdebtforum.com
2
Much as I despise Trump, I believe he is right about two things:
First, the need for strict and comprehensive immigration reform. It is ridiculous that our politicians, both R&D, have allowed 11 million + illegal immigrants to remain in this country, either by overstaying their visas or illegal border crossings. They then have children here who (wrongly in my opinion) become U.S. citizens, making it far more gut wrenching and difficult to deport them. The laws governing "Birthright citizenship" need to be changed.
Second, is the need for NATO nations to pony up their fair share of the costs of maintaining the protective shield that NATO provides them.
Other than these two things, I believe he is a disaster as president------I just hope and pray that the U.S. survives the "reign" of King Trump.
2
Trump's approach to immigration is to stir the racial hatred of his followers. Period. There is nothing right about that whatsoever.
3
Hey Bob,
How did your people get to Montana? Were you always there, an aboriginal. Did your family immigrate from elsewhere, bringing great wealth with them? Or were they, like millions of migrants today, fleeing danger and misery?
What gives you the right to say who belongs?
1
The LAW says who belongs in this country and who doesn't. And our laws say that it is ILLEGAL for immigrants to overstay their VISA or cross the border and stay in this country without permission.
I have no problem whatsoever with LEGAL immigrants who are willing to go through a process to become citizens.
Make no mistake about it. The "moderate" GOP party died with the ascent of Reagan. The difference now is that Trump is a much cruder version of GOP principles. He has discovered that there not a downside to being openly racist, discriminatory, or being a proponent for the self interests of the rich and powerful. Being born poor or non-white is for suckers. If I am to be optimistic, it is the hope that Trump's outrageous behavior and actions will awake Americans to the risk he poses to our democracy, and that the off year elections will put America back on the right track.
2
I don't understand the talking point that blames Trump for attacking black and brown individuals; someone from MoveOn, who used to work for Obama, made the same point on CNN this weekend. While I'm perfectly willing to grant that Trump has been demagogically provocative in his statements about race and immigration, merely criticizing individuals of color should not be presented as proof of racial bias. The implication is that individuals of color are immune from criticism because of their race. This attitude, strengthened by feelings of white guilt, is clearly quite untenable, especially as people of color assume more power and responsibility in American society.
Voters were probably willing to forgive Trump's racial insensitivity precisely because a cynical over-sensitivity was increasingly quashing legitimate criticism by the end of the Obama years, with smears, character assassinations, and even prosecutions of political enemies taking the place of honest, conscientious, good faith argumentation.
1
Trump was the welcomed accelerant to pour on the conservative radio-speak-adhering mob called Tea Party for a moral majority.
Even the recent labor-oriented arrivals to the ranks of Trump's Republicans have been steeped for decades in the vitriol of BLAMING OTHERS for the $21T national debt, for the gangs, for the abortions, for the people who can't speak english, and for women wanting equal pay, and for gay people wanting marriage and family.
Like Trump, THEY COMPLAIN. Like Trump, THEY HAVE EVERY ADVANTAGE. Like Trump, THEY RAGE.
Trump's Republicans only recognize their brand of citizenry, so their party continues its policy of RELEGATING those who don't agree with them - to second class citizenships.
The Grand Old Party is engulfed by privilege and success and yet they render no comfort nor joy. Adherents must climb the tower of hypocrisy (helping Wealthy, helps You), so they can "be above IT".
Some do tire of the fear, the hate, or the just plain confusion that drove them UP that fire escape. STILL Trump pushes their "every button" to lash out -just like him- and to defend him as they would defend themselves.
Republicans cling to what is now Trump's Tower. It's not virtuous; it's self-serving; and it's self-combusting. There's a Blue Wave below.
Today's party is a megalomaniac's fantasy of HIS American empire, just jump.
The GOP has to burn-out all of its deadwood leadership before it can recover.
2
The old school GOP is dead, that much I agree upon, but to cast the Trump Party as immoral is a little bit out there.
Liberals today believe they occupy both the moral and intellectual high ground, and that the power the seek is both absolute and permanent.
Isn't that exactly what stopped the Hilbama machine? Of course it is. The people got fed up being fooled into thinking their morals were wrong as dictated by HRC. Harvey Weinstein?
'16 was choice between moral outrage and dishonest corruption. The later failed.
While I share the writer's view of Donald Trump, I think he has left out another important element of our society that helped elect him: blue-collar Democrats. Maybe not all of them, but a huge number of them; enough to make the difference in tight states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio. Arguably, Archie Bunker turned that election.
There's the crux of it, Mr. Blow. Trump is the bully who knew that hate is the only dependable constant in the lives of losers. He listened to what they hated and made them his own hates.
And here he is, tootling along in his little golf cart leading the gang of people who loathe the things that he loathes.
Letting America Hate Again.
1
To all you Republicans out there that are so enamored with Donald Trump. He could care less about any of you. He cares for no one other than himself. When he is finished using you and robbing you blind, he'll dump you.
2
22% of Republicans believe Trump provides strong, moral leadership?
WT?
1
The GOP has been race baiting since Nixon.
I just read the article Mr. Blow mentioned, about Boehner’s remarks. He said, “[i]f you can peel away the noise and the tweets and all that, which is virtually impossible to do, but if you peel all this away, from a Republican standpoint the things that he’s doing by and large are really good things.” As it happens, today I learned about the phrase “curate’s egg.” It’s an apt metaphor for how Boehner and the Republicans in Congress rationalize this presidency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate%27s_egg
As you say, the Trumpublican party (a term I've been using for a while--glad to see it making the mainstream!) has been heading this way since long before Trump. I hope you're right about it leading them to ruin. Hopefully they don't take the rest of the country along with them.
1
"a common sense of morality, ethics and norms or propriety"
Let's remember, Mr. Blow, that those "norms" led to things like the Iraq War. Both parties went along with that disastrous course of action despite ample evidence it was completely unnecessary.
Trump is a bull in a china shop. A lot of people elected him to break some china.
I had a button on my backpack in the 80s that said “the Moral Majority is Neither”. Here we are in 2018, and only part of that is true. How pathetic and shameful America. I can’t believe I have to coexist with such a large number of racists, bigots and sexists. It literally makes me sick.
5
kglen:: you in fact do not coexist with "so many" racists, bigots and sexists. That phrase does not describe the majority of those who voted for Trump, and the majority of Trump voters, regardless of the self-interested polls quoted by the left, are as repelled by Trump's mannerisms and bungling as you are. But they are also repelled by the corruption and dithering that your tribe tolerated from the other party, and furthermore, every now and then Trump does something that conservatives want, like a rollback of stifling regulations on the economy and at least a conversation about sensible tax reform, even though your party helped prevent the passage of "sensible" tax laws. Many of us were literally sick of eight years of Obama's vision, and your party had the poor judgment to select Hilary as your candidate. Start taking responsibility for your loss, and try something different next time.
Hi there Ladyhawk, I'd just like to say...you know nothing about my "tribe", my party or anything else. This essay is about intolerance in our country right now, and all you need to know about me is that I am intolerant of bigotry, racism and sexism. I 'd like to believe we live in a country where all people are created equal and that we treat each other accordingly. I'd also like to believe that our president would work hard to uphold these standards-- as every single president I have seen in my lifetime has, until now. The current President does not adhere to these standards, and he has followers who cheer him on along these lines. This is a fact. And s far as all your talk about tribes, trump voters, "my loss" and all the rest, you have made some very large assumptions. You have no idea of my thoughts or feelings on these matters. This is a problem. I advise you not to make judgments or attack people unless you know who and what you are talking about. That's part of tolerance.
1
The most disturbing thing about the Trump-publicans is how they so easily fall under the spell of the charlatan. Democracy is always in jeopardy of savior in times of trouble, the one who identifies the enemy, those not worthy, those who expose the fundamental fraudulence of the Fuhrer. Of course, he likes Putin; it’s who he wants to be.
2
We, the People, are being "Led" by a diagnosable Sociopathic Personality Disorder....gloating all the way. We, the People, are living in a Moral Vacuum....as our "President" twitters away any Normalcy. Any Leadership
seems Absent from our Presence. We are told to "Vote"...as this
Pretentious Pretender, bordered N, E, S, W....by HIMSELF...can simply
Gloat.
1
The Republican Party = The Deplorables Party. Simple!
2
In the Thirties one time hero and Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh often talked about the "Jewish Problem" that the Germans had when in reality they had a Nazi problem and the US had a Lindbergh problem. Today while Trump complains about "immigration problems" and the "Washington Swamp" problem, the far greater problem is that our country is being led by a corrupt and ignorant bigot with illusions of grandeur that seems to get worse the longer he serves.
2
Trump is a racist grifter who surrounds himself with people who accept the con. The silence of the GOP signals cowardice (with notable exceptions such as Sen Flake and Sen McCain) and feeds in to Trumps arrogance. This administration is worse than I could have ever imagined. Trump speaks in vague generalities and indulges in pathetic misdirection and exaggerations. If the mid term elections do not flip the House or Senate or both, I fear America is truly doomed.
1
"This is the Trumpublican Party, a party reborn in Trump’s own image, one existing to worship him with blind allegiance and follow him with mindless obeisance."
Charles,
They will never change.
They detested us as much as we loathe them, to a fault.
And Trump will not accept defeat or leave office gracefully.
Trump will start a war on Iran in September to save his skin for the mid-term election. If it didn't work and we win the House/Senate, or both, he will shamelessly call the election rigged and ask his blind white herd to rebel and seize power. Yes, he will burn down the house. I will never put it behind him.
The worst is yet to come.
His cabal of lawyers now openly talking about his absolute power.
He is America.
Long live the Emperor.
2
William Loyd Garrison had uncompromising words about slavery: "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard"!
Trump has ushered a new form of slavery; has shackled reason and decency, chained and soiled the truth with countless lies believed by armies of irrational zealots, debased democracy... He is destroying America, furthermore is a calamity to humankind!
Trump's presidency is a Monstrosity! There is no moderation around this truism. America must awaken and overcome this nightmare!
2
Trump provides the Rs with power. They have got their wishes fulfilled. Big tax cut for the wealthy - check. Deregulation for fat cats - check. Moving Israel's capital to Jerusalem minus negotiations and the continuing oppression of Palestinians - check. Nasty unrestrained comments that titillate his supporters racist misogynist proclivities - check. Right wing reactionary judges supplied by Grassley and McConnell - check. Neo con anti Iranian foreign policy in Syria and the international nuclear deal - check. One could go on but Trump has been the answer to the most reactionary elements in the Republican Party. The KKK, anti tax you name it they're all welcomed in his tent.
3
-- "much of what Trump has surfaced among Republicans has always been there — sexism, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant hysteria [ . . .] Most of these people, in their misogyny and patriarchy (including the majority of white women voters in America who voted for Trump in 2016) . . . "
As a Republican, I request: please keep on repeating this rubbish -- I know for a fact that increasing numbers of Democrats are turned off by this intellectually dishonest drivel and vote Republican as a result (even for this ersatz Republican Party of today).
For one thing, there isn't and there hasn't been anything "anti-immigrant." The problem is that in its unprincipled quest for (eventual) votes, in the future, the Democratic Party has dishonestly conflated (legal) immigrants with illegal aliens. That Mr. Blow chooses to ignore this is noted, but his moral high ground becomes an illusion.
My job in aerospace engineering has not been threatened by lowered wages that result from the wholesale importation of millions of illegals, desperate for low-skill work. However, inner-city African-Americans especially have been adversely impacted by the presence of millions of illegals. Are you sure that the Democrats should whine about the alleged racism of the Republicans while they (the Democrats) are stabbing their alleged constituency in the back?
1
For the umpteenth time: by any definition, Trump supporters are a cult. Stop referring to them as members of a political party; the Republican Party has adopted them and if it does not recognize the difference it will morph into the cult that worships their supreme leader - Donald Trump. Mr. Blow is right - it seems Trump is succeeding in remaking our presidency in the image of the other autocracies around the world. He envies all these despotic rulers. He uses the language of the kings of the eighteenth century: “I hereby demand.....” The former Republican Party will be remembered as the Party that failed to stop the disabling of our democracy - of the country I knew as a child - that was a role model and envied worldwide for its quest to live up to the demands of a univerally recognized higher morality.
2
Republicans are clearly a minority but they now rule the roost. Why, because enough 'good' people don't vote.
2
I guess that Trump got his signals crossed: he's shrunk the Republican party so small, it can be drowned in a bathtub.
So be it.
2
Trump didn't take over the Republican party, he simply exposed it for what it always was. For decades, the Republican party has stood for two things- greed and racism. These two strains either stood alone or sometimes intertwined but they were always there.
The difference being, in previous Republican incarnations there was an attempt to paint a veneer of "respectability" on these repulsive beliefs and only dog whistle them at most. Then came Trump, brash and sadistic as he is, bleating his racism and his greed with a bullhorn. And the GOP base ate it up.
The Republican party can forget its perennial, wistful trotting out of Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln. Donald Trump- and every disgusting, anti-democratic thing he represents- is the Republican party now, and for at least a generation.
1
And let us not forget about the so-called Christians who have chosen Trump the liar over Jesus. They are part of the GOP delusional deception that looks the other way when Trump is lying and doing real harm to real people every blessed day.
2
The GOP has relentlessly pursued racial bias with its Southern Strategy dating back to Richard Nixon. The day President Obama was elected the Republican leadership took a blood oath to block every move that President Obama might make.
Trump is who he is and has always been, a fraudulent, perpetual liar that cares about nothing on this planet but himself and his personal enrichment and glorification. That is proven with every breath he takes and every move he makes. Trump's Republican enablers knew what an amoral, ignorant incompetent person Trump is well before they joined in supporting him in the 2016 election. They have abandoned the American people in their Russian-assisted power grab backed by voters who reveled in Trump's anti-Obama Birtherism lies.
The Republican racist and Evangelical base is not interested in truth or justice. They live in a closed Fox/Breitbart world where hatred is fomented daily. These so-called Republicans have deified Trump such that the Republican leadership will never go against this important source of votes. The GOP leadership may even be treasonous in their obsessive protection of their crime-boss mascot, Donald Trump.
The Republican Party has no shame and they must thrown from office by the majority of citizens who want to restore dignity to the the Oval Office and to the flag that flies over our nation.
1
You may not want to say this but I will say it--the Republican party will go the way of the Whigs and Federalists, and it will be less than two decades. I already believed the GOP will be history before Trump was elected but I thought it would be a gradual process. Now I can imagine Trump accelerating this process.
How can any organization beside the KKK survive this amount of moral and ethical rot and rank ignorance?
When the Grand Old Party is consigned to the history books, I won't be at all sorry. They brought this on themselves.
1
We voted against his opponents. Trump's no saint but his opponents are worse.
1
Are we not sure that Mueller has many smoking guns and that there will be a day when he unloads on Trump and saves our republic?
1
See adjacent article about his highness. Sadly, Congress has also signed on to the royal appellation.
Trump has pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who ordered the systematic racial profiling of Latino communities. As the A.C.L.U. put it: “In traffic stops, workplace raids and neighborhood sweeps, Arpaio ordered deputies to target residents solely based on their ethnicity, often detaining people without reasonable suspicion that they were violating any laws that his office was allowed to enforce.”
___
Arapaio wasn't racial profiling. The ACLU was CORRECT in their assessment of Arapaio's actions. See 'Note' under graph 3
'Note: Black and white categories include Hispanics, who can be of ANY RACE. | Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics'
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/business/economy/jobs-recovery-longer...
I have just read Madeleine Albright’s book on fascism, which describes how last century’s fascist leaders came to power. Her outline of Mussolini’s character traits and political methods could have been a profile of the current president of the United States.
Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” outlines exactly how authoritarian regimes quietly take hold, even in a “democratic” country. The key word here is “quietly”, drip by poisonous drip.
From the outside looking in, it seems like America is well on the way.
1
"he is leading them to ruin." The sooner the better. VOTE.
1
Instead of throwing meat to your true believers, why not do some thinking as to why the Democratic party isn't meeting the needs of the Citizens of the United States?
Do Democrats promise people a better future? One that treats everyone, including whites, well?
1
Trump : whites :: Democrats : Minority
Just different sides of coin.
Increasingly the Democrats will find themselves beholden to minorities and will pander to them just as Trump panders to the rightists.
How could anyone think that Trump has very weak moral leadership? His morals are deplorable, but not weak. How can he send attorneys off to declare him king if has weak moral leadership? How can he lie thousands of times per year a garner nothing but support from his party if his moral leadership is weak? The results of that study are junk.
I think the respondents to the study were comatose.
The GOP are in thrall of the Frankenstein monster their machinations have produced.
"three quarters of Republicans believe that Trump provides strong moral leadership". Have you considered that many Republicans prior to the Trump candidacy now consider themselves Independents? Perhaps that is skewing the data. I hope so.
The Republican Party has become Trump ‘s enabler. It has surrendered totally to his whims and biases. If it is in a coma, as Mr Blew suggests, it is a self - induced coma. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt , Dwight Eisenhower have been replaced by a bigoted grifter .
3
Trump probably does treat men and women equally - depending on economic status and race.
1
In the years to come, people will be laughing at the Republican Party, reminding them what they have unleashed in Trump whenever they try to point out that the Democrats were the racist ones who supported segregation ages ago.
1
There is one way trump could be beaten if Michelle Obama runs for Presidency and at the same note I do not wish that upon her.
This Country is not only for whites, there are blacks, Asians, Latinos who together will make the majority .
They need to wake up and vote Donald J. trump out.
But I am also aware many of them are republicans and delusional under the impressions trump will make them rich.
Then there are many will never vote for a Woman.
But at the end of the day trump will only be a footnote in History.
2
Is Orwell’s nightmare of the future happening now?
The president perches on his throne, taunts us, exacts his revenge, his staff tell us he could get away with murder.
His twitter page is the minister of propaganda. The media dutifully focuses all day on his twitter pronouncements in what amounts to a presidential spectacle of vulgarity and revenge.
A collapse of civics, out of control greed, the media being called enemy of the people. A culture war on many fronts persists. Disrespect and indignity rule the day.
The press dutifully spends every minute feeding into this president's reality show, appearing on television screens.
We consume the lies, deceptions and outrage.
It is Orwell in real time. Now. It has happened.
3
I would agree with this: “Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.”
I.e. none at all.
5
it may be a very good thing for our youth to witness a demagogue as the president. the classroom discussion of facism can now come alive in living color. perhaps Mr. Trump may even share the fate of those similar tyrants who ruled some 80 years ago.
5
who are the two democrats who thought Trump provided strong moral leadership?
2
In the process of protesting there are windows broken and there is looting. trump and his supporters protest and protest and the Republicans are there to do the looting. They are looting our public resources and our public trust. The protests will burn themselves out, hopefully, but the looting will continue until we wrest control of the country from the looters and start boarding up the windows and plan damage repairs for our future.
3
Trump is a temporary inhabitant of the Oval Office. But the impact of his behavior will reverberate for many years after he is gone and his circus leaves town. He has debased, demeaned and degraded the office to such an extent that it will take successive administrations ( Democrat, Republican, or Independent) to repair the damage.
Chevy Chase would make a better president.
6
Trump is just exposing many Republicans for what they are and have been, racists, homophobic NIMBys. The old Republican party may be in ruins but the new one under trump is anything but. We have shown that in fact we are not a nation that welcomes the downtrodden of the world. We are not a nation that believes in equality. We are not a melting pot. We are a nation divided and as such perhaps we should consider dividing the nation. We are really not very different from the tribes in constant conflict in the Middle East. I'd like to live with my tribe, people who believe in equality, equal opportunity, who embrace scientific fact, respect others spiritual beliefs without imposing them on anyone, respect the rule of law and value the communal good over individualism.
5
The true Republican Party died under Richard M Nixon. Since then, it's been nothing but hateful warmongers.
3
Dinesh D'Souza is a racist too? How can that be he's not exactly white.
1
You don't have to be white to be racist.
I notice that Charles M Blow uses a lot of mathematics: percentages and graphs, primarily. To a great many of Trump's party, arithmetic is a communist plot and relying on it brands you a traitor.
3
GOP used dog whistles to talk about race and Trump is an open racist. Turns out GOP voters like the latter a lot. But then again what else would expect from a party filled with Southerners.
The Republican Party is undead: zombies moving en masse to the sounds of our decay.
1
How rich: Dinesh D'Souza making racist and ethnic slurs. Has he even LOOKED in a mirror lately ??? Good thing he was never stopped while driving in Joe Arpaiao's neck of the woods.
The Germans and the world survived Adolf Hitler albeit with severe consequences. We will survive Trump and in the future he will be a very dark chapter in US and world history but Americas foundation is too strong to be destroyed. Like Hitler Trump will destroy himself!
2
While this article is very fair comment, I would submit that the Democratic party is closer to being extinct than is the GOP. The wonderfully pragmatic, moderate, liberal party of FDR/JFK/Clinton is being replaced by far-left progressives who hinge everything on identity politics. Trump may lie a great deal or pretty much all the time, but with Trump the same framework still applies: the objective truth exists-- Trump just choses not to embrace it. With the extreme progressives, Truth is subjective. We've gone from "the truth" to "my truth." This is a much more significant departure from normative behavior than a crass, blowhard telling half-truths. To say that a politician lies is like saying the sun rises in the east. Trump just does it a bit more than other politicians. To claim that the truth varies depending on one's demographic perspective is a complete subversion of traditional Western epistemology, and is a much more dangerous shift in thinking. This sort of manipulation of one of the baseline truth can be found in most totalitarian governments. As a lifelong Democrat, I fear the far Left much more than the far Right.
2
When a reigning power gives licence to vile behaviour, vile behaviour will happen. The only thing that restrains it is the fear of ostracism and the law. It's a simple truth.
We have a political party now that is dedicated vile behaviour as its raison d'être, its brand, and a lot of people are buying it. The wraps are off. We all knew they were there but now they have a champion. We also know where it leads.
The question is: do we have the guts and the organisation to deal with it? There is no reasoning with such people. They are hate-based, grudge-bearing and vengeful. The majority must stand up for human decency, tolerance and respect or these virtues will fade. Then what?
3
Trump, as one person, is less the issue than the 40% of the American population who is reflected back to him in his mirror.
50 years after the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960's fully 40% of the American population vote some degree of white politics from white grievance to out right racism.
But to their credit, they do use the democratic system to vote these principles better and more consistently than Democrats and Independents. They waited through 50 years to Civil Rights progress, flagging as is it was in recent years, to begin their long awaited roll-back.
Another excellent article from Charles. Note that Boehner calls it the Party of Trump...and not republicans. One could just as well call it the party of Deplorables. Those who revel in their racism, sexism, homophobicism, evangelicalism.
The ability of those in the Deplorable party to turn to Faux News to derive support for their beliefs is key. They live in an alternate universe where lies are the official currency. This country will never come together as long as Faux News, talk radio, and various Internet sites spew lies with such impunity. And if you protest about the first amendment, remember, the party of the deplorables cares nothing about the constitution. Once Trump secures power, any news organization that tells the truth will be treated here just like Putin treats them in Russia.
Like it or not, the fairness doctrine applied to all media outlets may be necessary to maintain democracy and the rule of law.
1
That the Congressional Republicans are cynically spineless is a given. This is because their sole function in Congress is to keep their snouts in that trough of money and influence, which will ensure them and their families a secure future with fabulous healthcare and pension benefits for life, that the regular folk could only dream of. Furthermore, they infiltrate their families and cronies into positions of influence, thus perpetuating the cycle.
The Democrats do this too, but they are generally more decent and considerate folk, so they are less inclined by nature to be selfish.
With hindsight Lincoln, Kennedy, (plus Bobby) and Martin Luther King were just too radical about race for some people and we know how that ended. Trump, also is radical, but for all the wrong reasons in my opinion. How will it end?
1
These poll questions present a false dichotomy. Trump treats everyone outside his inner circle with the same disdain or indifference. When it comes to motivation for pardons and personnel changes, there is a lot more to be said for the argument of sticking it to the "enemy" by doing what he can to reverse or erase...the actions of a spoiled 3 yr. old in day care that no one likes. He's doing his very best to break all the toys.
The Republican Party has shown that anything is fine as long as white nationalism pulls them together. I will take Republican voters at their word that they voted for Trump because their culture is under attack.
The attack though is one of a diverse America of equal opportunity. One that believes that the white male christian patriarchy is not a way forward. They love Trump when he says he wants to deport black football players that don’t respect their nationalism. They don’t want women to have control over their own bodies. They don’t believe in law and order that applies to all, just force to keep others in check.
I thought Ms Clinton was wrong to call them deplorable, but this ideology is.
Trumpism didn’t start with Trump nor does it end there. This is today’s Republican Party. It doesn’t need another name.
"“Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.”
This might actually be true. He is respectful to very few. Look at the way he treats Sessions as a punching bag. And so on.
There has always been a portion of the population that does not believe in the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They have their own ideas about human equality. They don't flaunt their ideas but they do vote them.
The Republican Party, being the minority party in this country, uses that portion of the population to stay in power. They cater to that population and use key words or phrases to let them know that they support their anti-American beliefs.
Republicans want to retain political power in order to reward their donors and ensure their own financial future. There is a lot of money out there for people who can help the rich hold onto their wealth.
Adding Trump to the Party only drove it further along a road that it has been traveling on for the past thirty years. He has allowed those people to come out of the shadows and parade their racism, sexism, misogyny, and xenophobia. He has moved them to center stage and they will forever be in his debt.
God help us!!
5
But let's not forget that none of this would be possible if it were not for the right-wing media that spins everything Trump does into some good while it vilifies everything that democrats do. I sure hope that in the end the FOXs of this world will pay a steep price for misinforming and manipulating our electorate.
3
Most Republicans will wake-up the morning after and regret their choice, but deny their guilt.
2
These are the people the majority of Americans are up against; many mean well (a full third of conservative/Republicans in my experience are racist) but a combination of tradition, fear and fake Christianity have led them to completely lose their way.
1
Interesting that Trump is willing to tear migrant families apart at the same time that he is tearing his own family apart.
Do you think that a third party is possible - Hillary Democrats and non-trump Republicans?
1
Trump is the apotheosis of what Republicans latched onto with the Tea Party, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Arpaio, Newt Gingrich, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Jeanine Pirro and Fox and Friends.
Nevertheless, dear reader, not a peep out of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.
2
The Republican Party as we knew it is on life support. Uh, however, Charles, the Democratic party as we knew it has passed away.
It's a different, but stronger, republican party now. One that the democrats will have a very difficult time defeating.
Strong Economy, Job growth, low unemployment,market at all time highs, North Korea peace talks.....etc, etc.....
Why wouldn't you vote republican ?
Have you actually listened to the racist and bigoted things coming out of Trump's mouth?... probably not.
But that's the reason why I wouldn't vote Republican.
As long as the Republicans continue to deny the truth and stand behind an evil man who believes he is above the law, I have no faith that we can recover from this administration with our democracy intact.
1
Emotions have elevated the anti-socialist democrat party above or next to the "asleep at the wheel Republicans". On this I concur with Blow. The obvious partisan issues were not being well handled and so Trump happened. The Democrats would rather believe Hamas than Israel as an example.
I'm pretty sure the Republican identifiers are lying to pollsters when they talk about Trump.
After all, if you've supported Trump in any fashion, you're pretty much okay with lying even at the highest levels, and you think that lying to others is an appropriate means to an end.
Or, they are lying to themselves, because once you've supported Trump in any fashion, you've decided that self delusion is a means to political power and that's all that matters. Just don't admit anything, deny everything, answer ever issue with some salute to the Trump tribe and declare yourself one of the winners, just like the man they support. Sick stuff.
2
Charles Blow is spot on in this piece. Looking at the US from abroad the biggest question I have is this: how can anybody
think Trump is anything but a a despicable human being without a shred of human-ness in him. Americans are supposed to be educated but this article makes them out to be worse than robots. What kind of America do we have here?
2
Many Americans here in the U.S. are asking themselves the very same question.
Trump has simply turned the Republican Party inside out to reveal the dark guts of it for as long as my seventy years. The silence of Republicans is the consent Trump counts on until so-called conservatives are the sitting dead or the silent majority. The pasty lipless triple-chinned Mitch McConnell has been guided by one principle since the election of Obama, arrogant for not learning his dossier, and that was by his own words seeing to it undermining all Barack wanted to achieve, which is to say undermining the will of the majority. Trump trumpets the will of a minority that is monied and racist and violent at the core. Ours is at the moment a bloodless uncivil war in which conservatism is as irrelevant as radical leftism but only because we are victims of media that draws all to a an inconsequential middle. We talk too much and do too little.
1
At first I was shocked to read that 77% of Republicans believe Trump provides strong moral leadership. On second thought, though, I realized that I should not have been surprised. Many intelligent, religious women in my area support Trump and think he is just fine for one reason alone, and that is because of his strong stand against abortion. They look the other way when he lies about his affairs and denigrates women, but his choice of anti-abortion Supreme Court judges and anti-abortion stance mean he is a moral leader in their eyes.
I don't see a big difference between "Trump's" GOP and what we had under the Obama obstruction/tea party version and before that the party of "welfare queens."
As for the poll numbers that showed 2/3 of Republican voters think Trump treats women and men fairly equally, I sort of agree for different reasons. I think he treats both badly. I do think he's a racist and a sexist, but I think what "trumps" those feelings are his need for shameless loyalty. He'll take an Omarosa and Ben Carson over a Jeff Flake any day. He'll take Kelleyanne over John McCain as well.
Trump really isn't that complicated. He's a greedy narcissist and a con man. Look at him through that lens and his actions are predictable and easily understood.
1
Your conclusions are predicated on some notions that are a bit questionable. First of all, Trump disrespects everyone, so although he is a life=long racist and misogynist, he attacks, cheats, and stiffs people of all races and genders. He's worse against brown, black, and female people because he denigrates them specifically as groups, but since he denigrates everyone, the contrast is not that great. Second, you suggest that the Republican party has been changed substantially by Trump's ascendance. It has been changed stylistically, but in terms of substance. this is very much the Republican party as we and you knew it. It is not taking a nap, it is not in a coma, it is not grievously ill. It is wide awake. Trump's ascendance is its ascendance. It never held its professed sense of morality or ethics dear. Republican leaders vilified gays (remember the "gay agenda"?) for as long as they could get away with it; now it's transgenders. They still push trickle-down economics and any other phony "theory" (remember "debasing the dollar"?) that justifies the real objective of enriching the rich. They still cling to myths of voter fraud (remember GWBush firing the AGs who wouldn't go along?) to achieve voter suppression. They still trash the constitution (remember the Senate's responsibility for advice and consent on Supreme Court nominees?) when it proves inconvenient. So no, Trump didn't change this party. He only personified what was already solidly in place.
1
Ironically, Trump's supporters are not wrong when they say he shows women the same respect he shows men. He shows no respect for anyone. If you've seen the nauseating spectacle of his cabinet groveling and fawning over him, you know that he abases anyone who gets near him, because he can.
1
I disagree...the Republican party for decades as been what I would term a soft racists party---covered over by the pro-business/military facade. You cannot look back on Reagan (welfare moms sitting in Cadillacs), Bush I (Willie Horton), Bush II (No Child Left Behind) campaigns and not see the seeds of racism were already planted deep in the Republican garden. Trump merely threw a lot of fertilizer and water on the garden---and we now see the Republican party has been allowed to blossom. The genius of the party was keeping the hard racists in the closet during election campaigns--so they could gather enough independents to win elections. Well, the hard racists are done taking a nap---they finally have a leader who appreciates and honors their racists/nativists beliefs.
2
Congressional Republicans made a pact with the devil when they decided that their only priority was to thwart President Obama.
They said nothing when Trump lied about his birth certificate. They said nothing when Trump, as a candidate, lied about and belittled President Obama on a world stage.
And they say nothing now that Trump is more intent on undoing President Obama's legacy than on creating one of his own.
Trump, McConnell and Co. just cannot the thought of an African- American succeeding in our highest office. They operate from the same fetid basis of prejudice.
Like his business model, Trump let others build it, and he slapped his name on it with gold letters.
3
I am thankful to Trump for showing people's true colors. I no longer have to wonder about people's values and priorities. I use to think/believe that you could separate politics from the person, but not after his election. His supporters relish his vulgar, like it is style. When presented with facts i am told that i am being a pompous know it all. I know know what people think of me and the world around them. The sad truth about people has been revealed, but at least I am not being foolish in believing otherwise.
6
We are at a crossroads. The base of the Trump party has held the rest of the party hostage. The rest of the party is hiding and hoping that they can survive this train wreck of a presidency. Why are they doing this? They are doing this because for years, since Reagan, they have sown the seeds of intolerance, bigotry, and subtle racism and lived to tell another tale. Finally, the chickens have come home to roost and it's ugly, very ugly. The middle of the road Middle of the road Republicans are sitting on the sidelines in cowardice. They are hedging their bets that they can survive this disaster and come out the other side slightly better than disastrous. There is very little good or decent in Trump. The right hopes we will forget about all of this in due time.
Tell us of our very young children. Such young minds as any parent or grandparent knows cannot be reasoned with. Not because they're stupid but rather live by their first and foremost human instinct--emotion. As someone once remarked, "Thank God, children lack the adult power to execute their feelings!" Class clowns were always accepted with humor by school mates for their brashness at another's expense. Everyone grows outside themselves but tragically not within. Its frustrating and painful but adult-children must be continually confronted and at the very least isolated for a short time to take account of their attitude. We the adult public used that technique during The GOP's attempt to destroy the ACA and it worked. GOP members literally refused to appear before their constituents due to the pointed vitriol they would face. Public condemnation must continue and increase because this is the only action such child-like adults can appreciate! Children only feel the present but to reason is to think ahead. One Trump supporter (A Lawyer!) said, "If the President had shot Comey, he couldn't be tried unless he had been impeached first." That's how a child acts, life's a game of winning or feeling self-important. Realize that the biggest rap on GOP majority legislatures throughout the country is that they have the dubious distinction of being the most 'unproductive' meaning they cannot 'think and reasonably' plan public policies. They have to CHEAT to accomplish.
1
When one reads the NYT generally one thinks, ok people will get it, Trump is a moral wreck and surely most of the nation wants him unequivocally out. This Gallup poll is so appalling. It’s not the Republican Party that is taking a nap. It’s the moral compass of the nation that seems to have been lost. The American dream that rewarded individual freedom and initiative has given way to a self destructive every man for himself rampage.
6
I believe Trump's election was a fluke. So many things had to come together for him to be elected. I Don't think majority of Americans share the views of him and his followers. I believe a sizable minority of Americans voted for him because they thought he would “shake” up Washington, but are now turned off by his behavior, but we won’t know for sure until the 2020 Election. If after 4 years of his racist, sexist, lawless, and incompetent rule, people choose to vote for him again, and he is elected, or it doesn’t galvanize those who are hurt by his politics and polices to vote , and turn out is low from African Americans ,Latinx Americans, LGBTQ, Asians Americans, Muslims or anyone with common decency, then we will know for sure that Americans share his philosophy. Or maybe Americans will show that his presidency was just the last gasp of white supremacy in its death throes, and we aspire for better by making him a one term President.
1
I was very much impressed with Mr. Blows article here that he could define all of Trump’s hostile-political-aggressions in 450 words or so and not lose it. Do you think that perhaps his strength in dealing with so much at once comes from the black community’s experience and practice at dealing with so much abuse of authority against our nations values in the past?
2
You can’t “fix” these people or change their point of view. Certainly not with Fox News and other right-wing propanganda flooding the media. All that the rest of us can hope for is that we who abhor Trump’s corrupt, cynical, racist, authoritarian and, yes, Republican administration, outnumber and out vote those who support him in 2018 and beyond.
2
Hooray for our side.
Trump used the media to get to where he is. Now the media is finding it hard to dislodge him. Sad!
Thank you again, Mr Blow. We rely on you! However, we are all focusing on Trump. The real problem is that so many people in this country have fallen into line with one of the biggest cons in history. What do we do about THAT??!
Mr. Blow, Thank you for saying what I have said in this space several times now:
There is no such thing as a good Republican. This is a useful rule of thumb. The odd one that might be hiding somewhere is irrelevant.
1
You know that Grand Old Party. Well guess what, it wasn't so grand and it sure is getting old and the party is as dusty as a country road. After having spent quite a bit of time in Oklahoma and Texas, I came to the conclusion that the Republican Party was stuck in the past faded glory of the good old days where people who were different were seen as intruders. Didn't matter that your roots were older than theirs. Manifest Destiny of the GOP literally meant get out of the way as we take over because it is our right and because we are Christian and because we are white. Warnings were heard that Republicans needed to reach out to different voters. Rather than that, they circled the wagons, closed ranks and chose Trump the least moral, ethical, racist they could find. The mirror image of what they had become. They cannot stop him.....they created him and his followers by using Fox News, evangelical soothsayers, and the Tea Party. When you create your tools....they will eventually control you.
1
No, Donald didnt steal the party. He simply revealed that party’s true nature.
2
It's really unfortunate, regrettable and disheartening to realize the extent to which so many Americans share this President's racist views. The "silent (racist) majority" is silent no more.
1
"I will not say that the pre-Trump Republican Party is dead"...I will. As long as I'm alive there will never be a discussion, debate or argument in which I will not bring up his memory. Want to tell me about fiscal responsibility, moral turpitude, patriotism, trade policies, foreign affairs, espionage, diplomacy, decorum, bipartisanship, cultural and religious divisions, cults of personality, checks and balances, law enforcement, truth, justice and the English language. Trumpty Dumpty pushed them all off the wall and the RNC and it's establishment will never put it back together again. Politicians come and go and politics change for each generation but once you lose your moral authority, as well as your minds, there's no coming back from that. And they gave it up in under two years for a man they knew to be conning their people.
1
I have never been able to understand how something that seems so obvious is so unclear to so many people. Are convictions so negotiable that people simply see what they want to see? Since Trump became president, I have felt that people always need to dissect the reality from the fantasy. Seeing for themselves that their "situation" is not changing the way it was advertised during the campaign. When you buy a heavily advertised product like a car, it takes a while to come to the conclusion the car is, in fact, a lemon and that model is not what you need. So I think the approach toward Trump is wrong here. Instead of asking if Trump is a racist or misogynist or is dividing or uniting, why not ask: IF he were a racist, what kinds of things would he say and what kind of policies would he offer? IF he were a divider, how would you know that? How does a misogynist behave? IF he were unconcerned with the environment, what kinds of examples would make you think that? And, IF he or his cabinet were unethical, what kinds of behaviors would make you come to that conclusion? We don't have to do anymore than help folks come to recognize that the spots on the leopard aren't just dirt easily wiped clean, they define who this cat really is. And then they will recognize it doesn't make for a good house pet.
The Trump era has definitely shown that the moralizing from Republicans was always just an act. Their only purpose is to legislate rewards for the wealthy while impoverishing everyone else. Whether they will crawl back out from under their rocks once Trump is gone is hard to predict. My main takeaway from this period in the US is to realize just how easily led and uninformed many Americans are. They are not the good natured, hard working, intelligent people that I once believed they were, or they would reject Trump's hatred and stupidity in a heartbeat, not embrace it.
1
Yes indeed, "Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men." Very little, in fact. In his world, everybody esle is inferior, regardless of gender, race, or whatever.
1
It's all about winning to Republicans. Morality, greed, deviation, racism, poverty, health are not important. And the hypocrisy is they think they are honorable church going citizens.
1
The President won the election fair and square. He did not "in one way" steal the Republican Party.
and yet the white house, house of reps, senate, most governors and state house are controlled by republicans.. Yea... I think the republicans are doing just fine.. Maybe its no message and no plan and most importantly no results democrats who are in real trouble..
"I believe he is leading them to ruin."
I fear he is leading us all to ruin.
1
Everything about American democracy that has been a beacon to the world for the past 240 years has been turned into an alternative reality by Donald Trump, our 45th president. As former G.O.P. Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said last thursday, "There is no Republican Party. There is a Trump Party." This President -- unfit for office in every way -- has branded the United States of America with his name. He is worshipped as a deity by his loyalists, sychophants and unlettered followers, who are ignorant of all but their "feelings" that Trump is the saviour of our country, Trump's people are dazzled by the ancient bread and circuses dished out by a loud-mouthed demagogue who is bringing us to ruin.
Real facts that contradict an established worldview are anathema to people who are led only by their feelings -- who espouse only hatred, bigotry and glitter. We agree with you, Charles Blow, that Trump has succeeded beyond our wildest nightmares. That this man is bringing America to ruin. We sorely miss one of our greatest presidents, Barack Hussein Obama, who passionately loved America and all her people. Who are our patriots today. now that our beloved country is on the brink of the abyss? Can you please tell us how to bring about the downfall of the man (aka Trump) who is wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross, and whom we were all warned against early last century?
I think the Republicans think they can ride this out. Trump is just being Trump, taking advantage of something that was practically handed to him on a silver platter. He actually thinks he earned the Presidency. People who support him are more fans than constitutants and their clout is overrated. I honestly don't know how this will play out but I hope the people of this United States pay more attention to what's happening.
1
Nice piece, as usual, Charles. For what it's worth I recommend Ken Wilbur's "Trump and a Post-Truth World." It's short, but deep thinking on why liberal thought systems have failed and will continue to fail until we move beyond their traditional underpinnings. Liberals want to include everyone and everything. "Everywhere they tell you you are fully equal and deserve immediate and complete empowerment, yet everywhere are denied the means to achieve it. You suffocate, you suffer, and you get very, very mad." This is what is driving the failure of liberalism. We must redefine the good, the true, and the beautiful and hold it aloft as a beacon. We must adhere to the values we say we stand for, which means we must rise above the traditionalism that has weighed both parties down.
There is nothing new here regarding the substance of the republican party. There is nothing new here regarding their policies and end-goals. The only thing that that has happened with Trump is that a very thin veneer has been ripped off. That veneer of pretending that the republican party really stood for the values of the common people. That falsehood that the republican party was the party of morality. The lie that the republican party cared about our soldiers AFTER they had risked life and limb to protect our business interests abroad.
(I am of course generalizing when I say "republican party", but they do tend to march in lock step, at least over the past 40 years).
Now, in embracing Trump, they have made clear that when push comes to shove, they really do not care about any of those things. That which should have been clear to anybody paying even a little bit of attention, is cast in a bright light: all that really matters to the republican deal-makers, is to represent the selfish interests of the very wealthy. Everybody else is supposed to just play a supporting role for those select individuals/entities in this country. Law and order is good for those in supporting roles, but not for the select few. Individual liberties are great too, again, really just for those at the top. Young men and women losing life an limbs overseas? Just part of the cost of business (but if they do live through the war, they should not expect a well-supported VA to continue caring for them).
1
"I will not say that the pre-Trump Republican Party is dead, because anything can happen in politics"
The Republican party has thrown it's support to a racist authoritarian. That is a political death sentence for those who demand their parties to be pro-democracy and pro-American (all Americans).
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
This country may be too mindless, too partisan, and too racist to carry out that sentence any time soon, but the Republican party is on the wrong side of history and of justice.
Dead party walking.
1
Those poll numbers are truly disturbing , in that they clearly show how delusional Republicans are in regard to Trump's actions and motives, not to mention the end results...the ruination of our nation.
1
All too true. But not mentioned in the piece is the abandonment of "fiscal conservatism". Among the loudest critics of Democratic policies were those Republican Conservatives who railed against the big spending Democrats on "social policies we can't afford".
Now, there is a "tax reform" in place that is so fiscally irresponsible as to be laughable and pathetic. Why is it so popular despite being a 1.5 Trillion Dollar Boondoggle? Personal Greed.
But the "greed is good" mantra didn't start with Trump. It was embraced and sanctified by Mr. Trickle Down Reagan - the other "fake conservative" president. The GOP didn't start to die with Trump, although Donald is essentially pulling the plug.
“To be clear, much of what Trump has surfaced among Republicans has always been there- sexism, racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration hysteria...”
This is very true, but it is the “Citizens United” decision which in order to further their own plutocratic agendas, has enabled the Mercers, the Kochs, the Adelsons, the Singers to promise almost unlimited funding for the (re)election of the most reprehensible set of candidates for high public office this country has ever seen. Super PAC money has given quasi-respectability to “sexism, racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant hysteria” on TV screens, in print, on the Internet and at campaign rallies across this nation and chips away relentlessly at our democracy.
Until we stanch the flow of obscene amounts of money into our electoral process which finance the mass dissemination of lies, fear mongering and hate speech, we can expect more Trumps and his acolytes to be elevated to positions of power, and to answer to no one but their corporate sponsors. Repeal Citizens United!!
1
Trump supporters appear to the masters of cognitive dissonance. I should know...I watched a relative descend into this madness, and I fear she is never coming back.
1
The metamorphosis of the GOP from butterfly to caterpillar began when Regan and then Nixon used racial and tribal strategies to win their presidencies and transform local political races. The cocoon they wove legitimized and brought to the forefront not the best but arguably the worst of American life, years of first slavery, Jim Crow laws, Chinese exclusion and just day to day, generation to generation bigotry (I grew up in the thick of it). I encounter on almost a daily basis seemingly nice, decent people who can't shake their upbringing or newfound hatred of "other."
Trump, reminiscent of McCarthy, Wallace, Huey Long and other populists, honed his skills to those overt and sometimes hidden feelings, coupled with the economic collapse of policies not unlike this administration in the first eight years of this century. A perfect storm to usher in storm troopers, saviors of jobs and the country to a time that mostly exists in fascinated memories but not in reality.
The catchphrases and gospels of the extreme right - family values, morality, activist judges, balanced budgets - have shown themselves to be shallow foxholes to hide the fact that words can sway when issues can't. Trump knows this as well if not better than most.
What they can't hide is that morality, family values, and human decency DO matter. And I have little doubt their policies will lead to economic, environmental and social ills, if not more.
1
No, the Republican Party is not "taking a nap" or in a Trump-induced "coma." They are actively aiding and abetting Donald Trump at every turn from working to demolish Obamacare (and, again "Thank you, John McCain;" you are a "hero"); refusing to be "a check and balance" on executive overreach by not asserting their authority to set or revoke tariffs as required by the Constitution; working to obstruct justice in the Special Counsel investigation by allowing co-conspirators Reps. Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows to have access to classified documents of the ongoing investigation with Speaker Paul Ryan overruling the Justice Department and FBI; and the refusal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass legislation to protect the Special Counsel as even Senate Republicans have requested. If our Constitution fails, it will be at that hands of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan for betraying their oath of office. They are the real "spies" in our midst; our modern day Benedict Arnolds.
2
Having difficulty with how QU or any other pollsters get reliable data. Are they calling people on cellphones? Do they have some sort of online subscription service? Many younger households don't have landlines, and no one answers a phone if they don't know who it is. If the same few (perhaps older) respondents keep giving the same approval of a public figure they only know through a slanted news outfit, why care?
I don't dispute that the toxic orange blob swallowing our democracy is representative of a certain percentage of the electorate, but I just can't allow the statement 2/3 of all women polled, "don't see a problem with the way Trump treats women." Most women I know, of every political stripe with at least a few functional brain cells, is sickened at how DT talks about women, brags about what he's done, and the stupid lies to cover his tracks.
1
At first I wonder what galaxy these "Trumpublicans" live in. How can they think it's moral to yank refugee children away from their parents. How is it moral to accept bribes from foreign governments? But then I remember that these people don't see the world as it is, but rather through the rose-colored lens of the Faux News camera. The power of Rupert Murdoch has never been more evident.
1
The question of morality is a slippery slope for both Republicans and Democrats. The ruling class has dictated the morality they want to ascribe to. Is it okay for a woman to stay with a clearly cheating husband in order to fulfill her political career ? Should a president have sexual relations with an intern ? Should a member of the justice department have a secret meeting with an ex-president about his wife's misuse of classified data ? Let's leave out Anthony Weiner, Elliott Spitzer, and Eric Schniederman are these people bastions of morality ? The true question is Donald Trump less moral than these people ? The answer is probably not. Did we not know he has been married three times ? A NY Playboy with a high profile lifestyle, is no worse than the "elected " officials using their office to get whatever they want.
1
What makes the divorce from reality possible? What has constructed the universe where Trump is a pillar of virtue? In a word - "Fox". And its ilk. The nightmare will continue until that beast is tamed or slain. So it will probably continue for a long time.
2
As someone who spends a lot of time working with survey data, I have to say that “Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men” is a misleading and ambiguous statement. Part of me is tempted to agree with it -- because I don't think he shows much respect for men either (John McCain, Barack Obama, Chuck Todd, James Comey, many dozens and dozens of others). I guess the difference is that he disrespects women *because* they are women, while he disrespects men because it makes him feel better about himself.
2
Agreed, Mr. Blow. Not only has he led them to ruin, he has led them to follow his path to ruin. Not only them has he pied pipered, but all the racists, white supremacists, haters, and DEPLORABLES!! that now think its is alright to hate openly and publicly. America is in a sorry sorry state. We must vote BLUE and get all these crooks out of office and get rid of them. I keep hearing there are more of us then them...let's get out the vote and prove it. I wonder what has happened to the "Woodstock" generation. Didn't we all protest for peace, love, sex and rock n roll? Hmmm, then how did we get here. ?
1
Charles,
Do Democrats want the White House back?
Stop complaining about race relations.
Out here in the real world nobody cares,,we are all the same and color blind.
That's another reason why she lost. People are sick and tired of being unfairly called racist.
I understand your concern though because what would a lot of journalists do if they didn't have race to write about?
2
You were the same exact article every week. Why do you get paid again? All you do, constantly, is list purported offenses that Trump has committed. You give no insight. You just parrot supposed offenses and yell racism. That is not analysis. Maybe explore why white women voted for Trump instead of assuming they are pro-patriarchy? That would actually be an interesting piece.
2
Mr.Blow, sir every think you wrote is correct sir, but right wing white people still with him, this is the scary part, him we can get rid of him but what we are going to do with his followers, and l am sure as you know in Europe lots of countries elections those kind of people are winning and coming to power,this is more dangers than NUCLIAR BOMBS AND MISSILES , anti Muslim, anti Jew, anti Black anti immigrant are winning and that what hapined 1936 and we know the rest, why because this world did not find a answer for race , and the TRUMP and like him thinks if you are white and christian and have a power what it takes than you deserve to live in this world
Bye, bye, Republicans.
Is this America?! I'm just recovering from the weekend freakout of the latest out of Guiliani. That Trump could shoot someone investigating him - Comey - and not be indicted! What happened to the laws of this country? Where are they being upheld by this government? We have a President who can kill anyone he wants or
do any heinous thing and be above the law? What! Who are we? What have we become with this regime - this President who subverts the constitution and seeks out his decadent rallies for support and confirmation. The ragheads of fans with their signs and mean, creepy voices - who labeled Mrs. Clinton a C-, and no one complained . A Republican party? They don't exist anymore.
Whatever happened to decency in this country? Republicans are
creatures of the President - defunct. No excuse for this spineless crew of sycophants.
3
leading us all to ruin
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He has now been posing as our President for 1 year, 134 days, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 57 seconds.
If any of us had a close friend or family member acting the way he has over this period of time, we’d have stopped talking to them a long time ago, advised them to see a doctor, kicked them out of the house or called the cops.
And yet the man hangs in there, seemingly remote and aloof from any deep concern other than Mueller that justice or the regard of the American people for their own self-interest will force him out of office.
I’m coming to think, more and more, that he’s right.
In this America, it’s come to be all about the entertainment.
The man who can keep this country bemused, confused, astonished, angry, perplexed, sick-with-worry, up to its neck in porn stars and always wondering what’s-going-to-happen-next has it way over any any decent, rational and honorable politician you can name.
America craves weird entertainment night and day, and that is what this awful, mentally-confused-man is giving us.
I am afraid there is no longer any way of getting rid of him.
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I felt the same way about Obama, bro. Just keep breathing. You can't hold your breath for 6 more years.
Trump has gathered all the deplorables into one basket and then systematically negated all their excuses. A demented, lying mob boss rules with pure hate, wreaking havoc on the unwritten rules of decent behavior that are the bedrock of society. As with Germany once Hitler got rolling, traditional parties are moot. It is Pro-Trumpfascism or Anti-Trumpfascism. Unbridled, undisguised, racism-as-policy spreads, as children are being torn from their mothers, thousands of Americans die in Puerto Rico without so much as shrug from their "President", and racist crackpots convicted of crimes are set free. The reason there has not been an uprising is that we still assume the mechanisms of democracy will remove such an onvious malignancy. Maybe, maybe not, but if it is not removed, if Congress is too cowardly to act and Mueller gets outflanked by Trump's stooges, our democratic experiment will be over: Fail
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Defend OUR democracy.
November 2018 midterms
GOP/NRA
VOTE THEM OUT
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Trump's demagoguery hijacked a party that was ripe for the taking. There were far too many players in the Republican primaries and it tore the party asunder. Trump, like Hitler did in Weimar Germany, swooped in and capitalized on the anti-Washington sentiment of the people, who bought into his god-like "I alone can fix it" rhetoric.
You know the Democrats have a large group, heading into 2020. Hillary IS running again. Well, we'll get that answer after the mid terms. But, until the buzzard lands...
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Joe, Bernie, Liz, Kamala, one of the Castro boys, Kristin, Corey, Mavericks' owner, Starbucks' owner, $10M USD Steyer guy and 5 to be named later. I'm sure anyone they will run will do well in Alabama and Conner Lamb's district.
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Blue wave, not.
Watching this from Norway, a country with traditional and strong ties to the US, is a bizarre and indeed disappointing experience. Had this been just the new season of "House of Cards", I would have switched to another channel. But it's not, it's reality and it seems our dear friends in the US have taken to political sleepwalking. Hoping nothing bad happens. And the worst thing is that in the long run, the US will lose their position and find all their friends "passing by" and "not dropping in". It's not making the US great again. It's making us all terrified and scared.
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We will not be able to defeat Trumpism by focusing on Trump. He adores attention, and his followers see his horrible traits as a sign that he is willing to “say things as they are”, and that he is a tough change-maker. The don’t see him as an incompetent jerk who makes stupid changes; they see him as the leader of their tribe, and are blind to his awfulness. To defeat Trumpism, we must focus on a few carefully selected issues which independents, Dems, and moderate Republicans can agree on. And we must emphasize these issues until they matter more than anything else. We should avoid issues (for now) where the electorate is conflicted. We still have plenty of possibilities to choose from: stop selling guns to gang members and former criminals, strict rules for donations to candidates to avoid the rich from buying elections, gerrymandering rules, the increased national debt, weakened environmental rules, infrastructure spending, etc.
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Trump is a con-man and a thief, but one of the only things he hasn't stolen is "a political party." Republicans just gave it to him. After Trump's election many argued that Congressional Republicans understood the enormous danger that a President Trump posed to America and the world, would join Democrats, put country first, assert their authority as the first branch of government, and exert Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. Trump's threat to the nation should have meant country would supersede party, but seeing an enormous number of Congressional Republicans fawn over Trump during the election meant it was never going to happen despite a "separation of powers" being paramount to the survival of American democracy. James Madison, in extolling checks and balances, meant precisely this in Federalist 51: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place."
Instead of resisting Trump, Republicans show themselves to be sycophants doing everything to protect him despite his pervasive criminality and daily destruction of the republic. Republicans in Congress made a simple Machiavellian political calculation that since their electoral future is tied to Trump's success they'll protect him instead of America. The only way it ends is if every single Republican loses to a Democrat. It's how we start to reclaim the country and show Republicans that their cynical political calculation failed.
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It's possibly true Mr. Trump treats women with the same respect as men and persons of color as well as whites. It is just an accident his uniform seething disrespect for all who are not Him first shows itself with women and with persons of color.
We know he stiffed his contractors, his investors and his putative students in Trump University. His Trump-branded products were often outsourced--ties to China, glassware to Slovenia, etc.
He is the king in Brooks' History of the World Part I who declares "I love my people", then shouts "Pull!" as one of them flies across the screen as he lifts his shotgun in a cruel skeet contest.
I do not understand why Republicans claim obeisance to Mr. Trump when they are individually and collectively the next feet-of-clay pigeons to be launched into his field of fire.
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So few Americans read past the headlines - even those who strongly oppose Trump. My guess is that most of the people surveyed could not identify even 4 of the these people: Mueller, Rosenstein, Merrick Garland, John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Kellyann Conway, Sarah Sanders, Steve Bannon, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson. They can't admit their own ignorance, so of course they say Trump is a fine moral leader.
And they can tell you who's on Dancing with the Stars - and who the judges are and who won last week.
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This says it so well- right on! The GOP has taken on the trappings of Trump and the worst of our Nation is coming to the fore. A white House that lies, and the president's lawyers lie, and the GOPers do not care. One man himself could not do this by himself-he is aided and abetted by the muck that was called the GOP and its leadership.
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It seems as though President Obama was correct when he said that maybe he came along 20 years too soon. His 8 years in office made a good portion of the country angrier instead of more tolerant. Sad!
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It's not whether Trump will lead the Republican Party to ruin but whether he will lead the nation to ruin.
When 40% of voters believe a pathological liar the future of that country is in serious jeopardy.
The rest of the world is watching in disbelief and devising a future that does not include relying on or trusting the United States, lets get real would you?
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I hope Trump is leading Republicans to ruin. My only fear is he will take the rest of us with them.
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Don't forget the great preliminary work done by Mitch McConnell, Republican (Or Skeletor?) who paved the way for Donald Trump by locking down all congressional progress for six years in the name of making Obama single term president (no matter how many terms it took). He ignored real issues of health and public safety, then blocked consideration of Obama's legitimate choice for a Supereme Court justice.
Like an evil John the Baptist he paved the way for the anti-Christ, and I meant that in a bad way!
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Trump is the Republicans' Frankenstein monster. They made him. In the decades since Saint Ronnie Reagan Republicans have made political hay on fears and prejudice without doing anything ofr substance about them. And why would they? Remove/alleviate prejudice and economic injustice and you can no longer use them for your own political purposes.
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Another week, another hundred outrages. Tops among them the declarations that POTUS is above the law. I don't think they felt Obama was above the law though.
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Trump is simply a mainstream Republican post saint Ronnie without the dog whistle. Those of us that have been paying attention find none of this surprising.
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The Trumpists are also winning on the economic front, they pay no taxes, get subsidies for the rich, and now they are deregulating the banks again. People obviously have severe dementia, forgetting the crash of 2008. But I guess he and his rich friends will profit when they steal everyone's homes and loot our assets, again and again.
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"For instance, Trump has a long history of womanizing. Republicans shrugged. He bragged on tape about assaulting women. Republicans shrugged."
It actually goes a lot farther than this. Louts admire and look-up-to people who are able to get away with lousy behavior of a type they wish was available to them. By following Trump, they come away with the satisfaction of vicariously participating in his outrages.
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Say what you will about the economy or “jobs, jobs, jobs,” any group whose membership is ~77% convinced Donald J. Trump exhibits “very strong” or “somewhat strong” leadership is not to be trusted. There is no telling what their twisted morality might allow if it is broad enough to smile on Trump’s words and deeds. That their much-vaunted “values” have led them to Trump is really all one need know about the GOP. It speaks louder than any platform, speech, campaign slogan, patriotic trope or religious invocation.
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The U.S. is founded on lots of myths. Trump, like all demagogues , understands the nastiness and fear lurking in many people and taps deeply in. If instead of Mueller, the Special Prosecutor were Jesus, Trump's Party (formerly GOP) would be busy denouncing and discrediting him. Expect Trump's Party to stay in power - by hook or by crook (literally) - for the rest of Trump's life and maybe well beyond. About those myths: we got what we finally deserved.
Trump didn’t kill the GOP. It’s own history since the Civil Rights struggled, its Southern Strategy, set it on a path to destruction. Trump and his supporters are simply the carion on this roadkill of history. Ryan and Boehner’s GOP are left looking like deer caught in the headlights, frozen and waiting to be run over by vehicles driven by their own former allies and voters.
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I believe that the only way to turn his base against Trump is to praise him and pretend to support him. Only then will Republicans begin to question his policies and moral leadership. After all, the entire basis of the modern Republican Party is opposition to "libruls" and "the Other." There is no other ideology or set of policies than sticking it to the establishment and making liberals upset - even if that means taking the country down into ruin and supporting a morally (and financially?) bankrupt despot.
Mr. Blow, the GOP will do just fine, all their greed and brainwashing propaganda to control their constituents has gotten them this far.
What will not survive is our nation as a whole which is based upon the United States constitution and bill of rights that was designed and writen to protect this fragile experiment called democracy.
donny was impeachable 5 seconds after he repeated, “I swear to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.”
Only 18 months into this, we are doomed.
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For Democrats and Independents, the bizarre spectacle of a deceitful, power-hungry, money-hungry, racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim, xenophobic and intellectually lazy Donald Trump simply confirms what we all have believed about him and spoke about publicly.
For traditional Republicans, Donald Trump presents a real problem. They tend to be privately disgusted and publicly supportive – without much enthusiasm.
For the new Trumpublicans, as Charles Blow calls them, the pronouncements and actions by President Trump brings joy.
Does this mean that Democrats and Independents should consider traditional Republicans as long-lost friends and should join forces with them to resist Trump?
Nah. Joining forces to stop Donald Trump is all right, but getting chummy with the group which brought us class warfare against the poor, handouts to big corporations and Middle East adventurism under George W. Bush is out of the question.
As usual, Charles blow nails it. As he said, basically, the seeds of the current GOP were always there, but now their racism and misogyny, and general bigotry towards all but wealthy people with white skins, are visible for all the world to see. Yet journalistic enablers continue to lecture the so-called elites on their failure to accept Trumpism as something other than his supporters' deep-seated fear of losing their white privileged status.
If you muse about Trump whose grandfather came from the beautifully located town of Kallstadt, surrounded by vine yards, in Rhenania Palatinate you wonder how this man could turn in such a monster and human disgrace.
And he is being applauded by people who you would normally think take care to prevent dangers from the State. Just unbelievable.
It’s even simpler. There’s right and there’s wrong. Supporting Donald Trump is wrong. And immoral.
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charles,
thank you for the clarity. god help our nation.
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Mr Blow, as usual you succinctly write what I have been thinking and writing to my friends for the past year and half. Placing all that trump has made foul into a short column - clearly for all to see just how awful he and trumpism and the republicans actually are.
One point I will contest though. When you write :
"For conquering and crippling the Republican Party, Trump will be long remembered, but probably not in the way his supporters hope. I believe he is leading them to ruin."
I would instead say - he is leading US ALL to ruin! For the damage the complacent republicans are doing are not , unfortunately only to themselves , but to the entire Nation.
We, America, will never be the same again.
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So as the author extols the virtue of diversity and identity politics he seems to be ignoring the middle of the political spectrum is tired of the game of "which race is more a victim than the other races", tired of watching college campuses turning into toxic environments for students who don't toe the progressive line. Tired of being talked down to, ridiculed and ignored by the "elites" - such as this author.
Ignore those trends at your peril.
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This president doesn't respect any human, really.
He holds them to the same ethical standards that he holds himself.
and those standards are pretty low.
Acquiring publicity and money doesn't really demand a high ethical standard of behavior, beyond staying out of serious legal trouble. And it seems that parading a disregard for other people is seen as a sign of personal strength by some people - a trait of the savvy, confident businessman, the swagger of a kingpin who's fought his way to the top and reigns from a high, protected summit.
I guess this image works for the leaders of smaller, more corrupt countries, and I guess it makes for entertaining t.v.
But it's a shallow, lousy role for the president of this country to play.
Even if the guy's destructive legislative proposals are blocked in the congress and the damage is limited, his example still a repellent display of our oldest human weakness. And too many people are happy to imitate his behavior.
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Let's face it, the leaders of the Republican Party made a willing deal with the Devil. Trump has already given them half of what they have long desired. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy and the large corporations were enacted (with the frosting on the cake being loosened regulations on banks to gamble with your money). If Republicans continue control of Congress following the upcoming elections, undoubtedly they will get the second half of their wish list; massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Of course they got a president who lies, treats women with disrespect, violates the emoluments clause, trashes the environment, is a racist and brought back nepotism, but so what? To date, their response has been a very loud and resounding "Meh."
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Trump won by telling some voters their hateful thoughts were not only valid, but something to be proud of. What a relief for them, and then, cause for celebration when their hateful hero won the election.
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The rabid greed in all forms of the Republican party--especially from the old guard entitled white men--created the golem known as Trump. He is the logical conclusion here. In this gamble with the moral fabric of our country and its people, those monsters will either win (temporarily at everyone else's expense and their own eventually) or a progressive, organized response will win. Racism is not new at all, and it could be that by airing it and keeping it transparent (as painful as it is), it is being dealt with on a much deeper level than ever before. The same with immigration. With misogyny. Strange times here as many of us feel more confirmed than ever about our intersectionality and about the principles of kindness and compassion. Others are digging their heels in with hatred and bigotry in many forms--often in the guise of religious belief. How will this turn out? Can the parallel universes co-exist indefinitely? I think not. That entitled, dangerous side needs to go down. They do not share well with others. Let's keep the kindness flowing while calling truth to the bigots. Let's keep walking with Charles Blow.
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Blow:
"Trump is not a disappointment but a deity."
This is a strong statement that in a logical essay would have proof. The statistics etc. Blow cites have nothing to do with belief in Trump being divine.
This is hyperbole. It would be nice to see a better standard of writing.
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Methinks the 'Trump-induced coma' affects BOTH major political parties and each of them shares responsibility for
its own self-inflicted dilemma. As a result, the magnitude of negative consequences will haunt this nation for generations to come. More's the pity ...
Trump simply gave them the courage to finally admit to themselves who they really are and to be proud of it.
They are not in a "Trump-induced" coma, he's awakened them from a life long one to embrace who they secretly yearned to be.
Trump is the inevitable finishing touch, the final grotesque piece needed to complete the suicide mission that began in 1980, and there will be no turning back.
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Charles, we get it; he’s an awful person. Meanwhile he has gone along with the Republicans’ dream tax cut and Supreme Court pick, and correctly points out how the US has been take advantage of in Trade, and has forced the issue to the fore by imposing tariffs that are as likely to be bargaining chips to be used to gain concessions as they are to cause an economic harm.
His is a complete failure on Healthcare, and will likely preside over a growing number of uninsured as he will over a ballooning deficit.
His sheer incompetence at managing a team and his willing association with marginally ethical people will be exposed by Mueller.
So drop the stormy, steamy stories; no one cares. Focus on the failure to deliver on Healthcare, the deficit and the likely bubble burst to come (giving corps low taxes and reducing regulations makes that very likely), and hopefully this national nightmare will be over in 2020.
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My father was a life long Republican. He was an honorable man who believed in hard work and family values. Would he recognize the Republican party now?
It seems that tax cuts justified allowed Congress to show a blind eye toward Mr. Trump's faults. The evangelical Christians condone his personal transgressions such as porn stars and payoffs.
Alienating our longtime allies in the European Union, Mexico and Canada is seen as putting America first.
Civility and cooperation is gone. Vicious daily tweets are the norm.
The rule of law does not apply to the Executive Branch of government. Trump rules.
I agree that the old GOP is dead.
Weirdly, considering trump, this is a cult of personality. It matters not what he does or says. This is the same sort of hero worship always seen in totalitarian or authoritarian governments. I keep thinking about the era of Joe McCarthy, an angry, paranoid man who demonized anyone whom he felt threatening or different or who didn't think as he did. He destroyed the lives and careers of many good people on false pretense. Finally, he was challenged when he was asked " Have you no decency?" His house of cards collapsed. Well, America, what are you waiting for ?
Wonder how many of these Republican Trump supporters will come to realize that they have been duped when they come to learn that their blue-color jobs aren't coming back, that the Mexican border wall will not be built and paid for by Mexico, that their tax breaks are minor and temporary, and that white Americans will be in the minority in two or three decades?
To paraphrase Lincoln, these are the people that today are being fooled all the time.
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The Republican Party of Ronald Reagan needs to die. This brain dead, sclerotic, hidebound zombie, which has served the American people badly for decades, must at long last be buried. Ideologues like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, the "Tea Party" and the "Freedom Caucus" must be expunged. A new, more pragmatic, relevant and effective Republican Party that meets the current needs of the American people can then be born.
If Mr. Trump can force a major overhaul of the Republican Party, then his presidency will have been worthwhile.
The devolution of the high minded Republican litany into base Trumpolitics is symptomatic of a threatening global phenomenon. Britain produced UKIP, among a plethora of other fringe, race enthralled, parties. France has its appalling nationalists, as does Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the list goes on. Why this is occurring I believe can be attributed to a reaction to wealth and social disparity. Desperate people seek desperate answers. Unscrupulous, structurally violent, opportunists provide them through this repetitive drivel that they promote as in the national interest.
I also believe that the West, as we know it, might implode under its own burden of self imposed inequality and loathing.
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Let us hope you are right, he is leading them to ruin. Let us also be hopeful it happens sooner than later.
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Where hasn't he succeeded, would be more like it.
Which takes us back to ACA. But, in the Warshignton establishments defense, that was back when they still hoped that an all-out smear campaign would rid themselves of such a swamp disinfecting light. As they prefer to operate in darkness; where their ego wars are waged; Asia, Eastern Europe, financial, fiscal, social -- wherein truths are secondary to victories in perception. The cost of avoiding truths for political expediency -- by both Party's, has been costly, and still is mounting.
An irrefutable example of very recent success, lies (pun) not in the 'reporting' of trade talks, but in the mischaracterized dialogue. For positions of counter measure are proof, that such an approach is very viable. For if no country cared whether the US imposed tariffs, that would be troubling. But, the concerns are real; creating or created by an interdependence, upon which the sun could always set. Every 5 years?
Luke 13:6-9
“A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
Mr. Blow, perhaps you noticed in this photo by Tom Brenner the background audience looks slightly subdued. He might well be on his way to be the Grinch who stole the Republican Party. In the meantime, an ornate plaque with his name is to be found at the American Embassy in Jerusalem.
Perhaps some of us do not care anymore if Trump is King. Others in possession of a fine reputation and a family brood might decide to go quiet.
Two years ago on a 'visit' to Latin America via the New York Times, a commentator and I were impressed by an elderly woman who believed she was at home in another country. In passing he ventured to be prepared for America to have a ruler, and to go about one's daily business in conformity with our nature.
You may be the last man standing, before the rest of us join the mournful trumpeting of rhinoceroses. Thank you, sir, for not giving in and surrendering our country without an honorable defeat.
Okay, now please consider writing about the undisputed success Trump has had with his judicial appointments, in concert with the Senate majority. Sure, many Republicans look like hypocrites, but look at the results: they've seen confirmed numerous hard-right federal judges who can keep their seats for life (if they aren't impeached). Please cover this!
I think we Democrats were so enamored with Barack Obama that we chose to ignore the hate that Trump brought boiling to the surface among a certain segment of society. During Obama’s two terms the Trump people were there all along with seething hatred for everything that we Democrats supported. A case in point, before the election, I was standing in a checkout line at a store and the man in front of me was wearing a Trump shirt. We started talking and I asked him why he liked Trump. He then said I must be for "Hillary". I told him that I was voting for Democrats. He then said he might need to kill me once I walked out into the parking lot. I said nothing further to him.
I believe that if I had talked back to him or confronted him he might have harmed in the parking lot. He was not kidding. He was seething and indicated that he would not stand for "Hillary" to win the election.
This man's behavior informs me that Trump's supporters are violent and ready to do harm if they lose the White House.
Watch the Frontline piece on Trump's road to the White House and watch the tapes of him inciting violence against the media at his rallies. He wants them violent and if they lose Trump they are going to be very violent.
Take a look at the crowd gathered behind the President for that photo shoot. There is one black man, two additional possible people of color, perhaps ten women and the rest white men. The handlers don’t even bother fixing the optics for the press anymore, they figure no one cares or even notices. This administration is predicated on the principle of pleasing the President’s base audience, which is white, Christian, straight and not disabled. The Trump family is planning on Democratic disorganization producing another crummy candidate in 2020, at this point I think they’re on target. It’s also possible that the Donald will anoint his daughter Ivanka to run in 2020 due to his age. I am sure he would love for her to be the first female president.
We will continue to be amazed by the brazen defection Trump presents from anything we could call presidential, intelligent, humane. The fact remains- the Dems were/are no longer perceived as "the party of the people". Its a name only thing- e.g. against racism, for the worker, affordable education etc etc- the reality tells a different story- which Trump and Sanders brought to light. People throughout history have voted emotionally, not neccessarily with their best interests at heart. This is a hard lesson but it already has served to invigorate and activate people. Inequality is our problem and until corporations are forced to poney up for the general good, we will continue this downward spiral
Mr. Blow cites polls that ask whether "“Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men" and "Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people."
Asking in this way is likely to produce inaccurate results because some people (like myself) believe that Trump treats all people with the same amount of respect, which amounts to zero. Given the way he turns his staff against each other and fires them at will, I suspect he doesn't treat his inner circle with much respect either.
I would have asked "Do you think Trump treats (women or people of color) with enough respect." Then people like me could honestly say "no."
His interactions with various women have made the headlines because that is a hot topic these days, as it should be. But I believe that when he wants something from a white man, he takes it too. He does not hesitate to rob them of their dignity or their money. If he were homosexual, I'm sure he'd grope the ones who wouldn't hit him back.
I believe that Trump is an equal opportunity dis-respecter.
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The problem for the Republican Party is that they've been lying to themselves (and the rest of us) for decades.
The party of family values, the party of fiscal responsibility, the party that is strong on defense, the party of Law & Order – the enthusiastic embrace of Trump shows that none of that was true. It was all marketing - and they believed it.
Trump has allowed them to "come out of the closet" as it were and be openly what they had been denying all these years. They're just another authoritarian cult looking for a "strong leader" to legitimize their true desires and allow them to go after their 'enemies'. The latest claim that Trump is totally above the law is as clear a statement as anyone should need to understand what it happening.
The only practical difference between them and the Branch Davidians say, or the FLDS is that they've been able to take control of government (with the backing of Big Money) to pursue their agenda while concealing (until now) their true agenda: power, now and forever.
It not only can happen here, it IS happening here.
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I disagree with John Boehner. Mr. Trump actually does represent the values of the Republican Party. He is just more overt about it. For decades the Republican Party, and it elected representatives in Congress, quietly and Mostly behind closed doors, pushed for laws that deprived women of their rights, were misogynist, were anti-immigration, demonized people of color and gays, tried to eviserate environmental laws, denigrated the public education system, pushed for the redistribution of wealth to the top 2%, denied people access to health care. The similarities are endless. Just like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have done for the past ten years, Mr. Trump talks about the value to reach across the aisle and compromise, but then actively torpedo any such compromise. Remember, this is a Republican Party led by a gaggle of racist white men who as the “honorable” Mitch stated, had the primary goal of thwarting any and all of President Obama’s initiatives because they were terrified of the consequences have having an African American president be successful. THAT could have led to a Hispanic or woman to lead the U.S. in the future. The Republican god would never condone such a thing.
80,000 votes and history is changed.
It's hard to fully credit these polls. People seem to assert positions in the confines of their homes and when online, but do they truly believe them? Ireland's recent polling...days before the actual vote... suggested 44-32 (some undecideds) in favor of amending its constitution to permit abortions, but the actual vote was 66% in support, reflecting a 50% polling error within a matter of days.
Thus, my view is that Trump's support is significantly less than it appears in these polls.
But I also do not believe, no matter how bad the situation is with Trump, that the Republican Party will be lead to ruin. After all, they recovered from Nixon. They've succeeded in making Reagan some sort of hero. They're recovered after Bush Jr. and the Middle East. Why? Who knows...but they seem to be able to successfully blame democrats and for their mistakes again and again, and voters have a short memory.
It's the end of their World, as they know it. And I feel fine.
Seriously.
A house built on sand against a raging storm will not stand.
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Trump is capitalizing on the same racist, misogynistic, and homophobic strains in the rotted roots of our country, the ones that stretch back to the "Founding Fathers." Decent and moral leaders and the polis have beaten the strains back, only to see them resurge (looking at you Gingrich, Giuliani). Our best hope for the future of this democracy lies in our young people, who seem to grasp what's at stake as they deftly navigate the internet's playing field.
Trump is not leading the Republican Party to ruin, because it is already in ruins. He and the tea party are now intent on destroying the American Ideal. They are a reincarnation of the vandals, visigoths and vikings that laid waste to the Roman Empire and left Europe in the Dark Ages for a thousand years. By the time this wildfire burns through the federal government the Constitution will be a faint memory. We are leaving a wasteland to our children and grandchildren because we are too busy with social media and reality tv to even see the catastrophe coming.
1
It may actually be true that Trump treats women with as much respect as he does men, and people of color with as much respect as he does white people -- which is none. It seems obvious he respects no one and is happy to "throw under the bus" anyone whose usefulness to him is at an end.
1
A subset of people love power and happily subject themselves to the seemingly powerful. All dictators and tyrants have followings. But, most tyrants end up in the same place since the majority of people prefer freedom and the rule of law. Tick tock...
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Donald Trump beat 16 Republican Party 2016 Presidential primary opponents then defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election to become President of the United States. There was no theft of the Republican Party nor the office.
1
I believe Reality TV has ruined the moral compass of our nation. The voracious viewers treat these participants as heroes even electing one as president. The Jerry Springerization of America. When we think we have reached the bottom we then see us go down even further. Good for ratings.
3
I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. Poll results like those cited by Mr. Blow boggle my mind.
The worst thing is that it seems to be beyond human capabilities to reverse/rehabilitate this huge number of people that we formerly knew as the Republican Party. It seems the worse Trump gets, the firmer they are in their support.
Many of my former friends exhibit behavior and philosophy (if that's what it's called) that I despise. It's becoming more and more difficult to see the "underlying goodness" in people who endorse and support such hideous behavior and actions coming out of their leader. It's becoming apparent that this is in fact their character, their being, their soul.
They are destroying my country and what I always thought was the best part of it. Are they now my enemies?
Perhaps we get through this and become a sane, moral country with positive ideals. In that event, I guess we are supposed to say, "welcome back, brothers and sisters, we forgive you for trying to destroy America."
We know what's smoldering under their skin - It's ugly, hateful and vile.
I'm sure we'll all just forgetaboutit.
2
You are correct in the short term but in the long term the republicans will most likely go back to more traditional candidates and Trump will be relegated to the trash heap of history like all demagogues eventually end up either thru one term or term limits in Trump's case.
Yes, Trump is many of the bad things you say but the lure of the demagogue is strong Mr. Blow. The is what you and Hillary supporters did not see.
A majority of the electoral college did not want an identity obsessed, social engineering, never met a war, trade agreement, Wall Street banker I did not love candidate like Hillary.
The important issues like immigration, endless wars, and most of all blue collar job loss to slave labor countries were the things they were interested in.
You and Hillary view it as a repudiation of everything American and progress and but in reality Trump voters viewed it as not answering the legit issues that concerned them.
Granted Trump demagogued them all the issues but the democrats helped by running Hillary instead of a progressive populist to counter the ego maniac demagogue Trump.
Learn from history or forever be condemned to repeat its worst blunders.
3
I find myself in a place I do not want to be, between a rock and a hard stone so to speak. I am older, and although I am a life-long Democrat, some of my closest friends are Republicans. I care for them a great deal. We don't talk politics because we know we will hurt each other. There are some things we just cannot transcend. The fact is our opposing political beliefs are but a small part of our total beings. What are we to do? But I am repulsed and actually abhor this new Republican Party. In hindsight, however, we should have seen it coming. The nativism, greed, an hypocrisy although insidious were there for years. Trump exemplifies the dark side of this nation. Every evil impulse, every word, every action of his is embraced by those who are of the same ilk...his electorate, his Congress, his Cabinet. His warped and degenerative paradigm tells us daily that it is okay to hate the "other," to harm the living at the expense of an unborn or the NRA, ad infinitum. We can not let this go on, this corruption and erosion of morality and ethics without which we can not endure.
3
the "real republican party"-whatever that means- was being steam rolled by rabid democrats and progressives-the "real republican party"was part of the kleptocratic elite- along with "real democrats"- that see governing america as their own bloated cash cow-i wish tump would stop tweeting and be quiet,as do many of his supporters-but i voted for him in hopes that he would begin to dismantle-or at least challenge- the elites of this country, including writers such as mr. blow- i believe that both parties are dysfunctional and broken--mr. obama was, i hope, the apotheosis of the arrogant insular democratic internationalists- maybe trump will be same with angry republicans-at any rate, i'm grateful that he is giving so many people an acute case of hysteria- that's why i voted for him
As a lifelong Republican moderate, I turned my back on the party under GW Bush.
I realized only recently that I was in fact a national Democrat and only a California Republican, having been able to watch the Burton Machine engage in actions similar to those in Congress. All politics, or at least mine, were local. ish.
I maintained throughout strained relationships with some friends, who abhorred my leanings, that I believed (as I still do) that an entirely Democratic government was unwise..that the beauty of the American system was its balance and the tension between opposing beliefs resulting in compromise.
The loss of the moderates of the Republican party, which I see as having been digested from within like a caterpillar being consumed by a wasp larva which emerges from the empty carcass when it has finished with the grub, is as much a loss to liberals as same conservatives (they actually exist.)
Those engaged in today's levels of "right wing" thuggery will go be remembered in infamy for what they have wrought. I am not above spite and hope, even though they seem to have no concern on that count that it plagues their children and grandchildren down down, since I don't expect to see any accountability for the enablers of the rape of the nation.
2
I agree with Boehner. The Republican Party is missing in action and the Trump party has filled the vacuum. But if the Trump party commands the loyalty of 40 percent of our populace, it is up to the other 60 percent of us to get rid of it ASAP. That means voting in November and continuing to vote against anyone and everyone who threatens our democracy.
3
It would be interesting to get new polling on what percentage of Americans still don't know who our president is. Or which party controls Congress. Or what a major piece of legislation like the tax bill actually says.
I have always been amazed at how many people don't pay attention to what is being done in Washington in their name, and who don't bother to vote. Particularly young people. My 19 year-old college student is active in politics and I have told her that the best thing she can do is to try and expand the number of people on her college campus who vote, particularly in the mid-terms. Then we might get some serious political debate instead of dog-whistle politics all the time.
7
For Republicans to say that Donald Trump treats women with the same respect he treats men and that he respects people of color the same as he does white people is not paying him a compliment. Yes, the degree of respect is equal--which is to say: none. The only people for whom I see him showing respect are foreign dictators. Others are only accorded "respect" until they cross him, criticize him, get in his way, or take the spotlight away from him. Then the degrading, name-calling tweets start and the social networks and media coverage become clogged with the evidence of his utter disrespect for humankind.
6
Or, Mr. Blow... what if many pre-Trump Republicans talked a more polite game but actually were, under the surface, more like Trump than they let on? Perhaps they're less offended and disturbed by his views, policies and bigotries and comportment than you believe. Perhaps you overestimate them.
Here's what Newt Gingrich said of Barack Obama before his 2012 re-election, after first calling him "a false president.":
“You have to wonder what he’s doing. I’m assuming that there’s some rhythm to Barack Obama that the rest of us don’t understand. Whether he needs large amounts of rest, whether he needs to go play basketball for a while or watch ESPN, I mean, I don’t quite know what his rhythm is, but this is a guy that is a brilliant performer as an orator, who may very well get reelected at the present date, and who, frankly, he happens to be a partial, part-time president.”
Gingrich remorselessly described Obama in racist stereotypes so overt (not to mention false, disgusting and ludicrous) that he should have been derided by other leaders in the GOP. But... crickets.
Expect nothing from the pre-Trump Republicans. Those who haven't left politics feel sufficiently at home w/Trump (maybe they even prefer Trumpism to traditional Republicanism... and the remaining few who speak out can't make enough noise to change things.
12
"...what if many pre-Trump Republicans talked a more polite game but actually were, under the surface, more like Trump than they let on?"
.
You have PC to thank for that. It's not hard to learn, if you say something against the norm, you are vilified, so you keep your mouth shut. And that's when racists go undercover. If everyone that wanted to communicate like Samantha Bee and Joy Reid, and did so, we would know who the ne'er do wells are.
Trump is an elected official. This is what people wanted, he didn't take over in a coup. The party should conform to its leader or its officials will be replaced. Again, Trump beat a large number of republican candidates. Say what you want about Trump's morality or racism or sexism or whatever proclivity for offending liberals he posses, he is succeeding in office by a republican standard.
As for Republican morality and why none of them seem to care...Trump has taken hard stances in areas that matter to republicans, and, quite frankly, Democrats need to pick their battles better.
It would be interesting to see how immoral a candidate republicans would support just because he fits their agenda.
1
You think there's a MORE immoral candidate?
Excuse me but...Trump is an elected official, this is true, but he is supposed to be the President to all citizens..not just his base, not just to people loyal to him.....
Say what you will of his racism, sexism,homophobia , nasty petty attacks , etc...that offends liberals...as if it shouldn't offend any decent morally fit person...regardless of their political party....
Pick a better battle? NO, Trump IS the battle, Trump is a disgusting accuse for President , a global embarrassment , a crude rude con artist, and soon to be proven to be a traitor, more than likely.
Does it really matter anymore ? Trump has removed the last vestiges of morality and intellect and has shown america as it really is without the fluff and niceties which now seems so phony . Many people however still believe which has to tell you that they really are not following things or are sick , most likely the latter .
2
I think when we puzzle over these polls and wonder about our neighbors, we forget that "Trump voters" live in a different reality. Try this. Spend a week getting all of your news from Fox. Click on all of the right wing ads that now pop up on your Facebook page. Now how do you feel? What does your "truth" look like now? ( REALLY - try this!) If we can't stop the propaganda and outright lies being fed to a large percent of the country by so called "news" organizations, I fear we are doomed.
6
I wouldn't do that to myself...though, I do switch back and forth between the two different "news realities" just to see the differences...the spin , and it's truly amazing.
It's without a doubt propaganda, yes Fox has created it's own narrative that plays to Trump directly, either by saying certain things or by not saying anything about other stuff....and, sadly for America....it seems to be working just fine, as more and more people believe the lies and distortion of reality.
Rush recommends listening to his show for at least 6 weeks.
My grandfather, who escaped a hanging rope in South Carolina in 1919, found work as a janitor in Boston. He was a registered Republican. In 1952, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was enroute to a crushing win over Adlai Stevenson, he would spend nights by the radio, listening to the news, grudgingly yielding the radio to my twin and me who were far more interested in the Lone Ranger. I was told by family that Republicans "rescued" the country from slavery; the legacy of Lincoln, the 16th president.
That railroad from Lincoln ran out of track in 1964 with Barry Goldwater ("extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.") It's been a long time since black folks in substantial numbers have trusted the Republican Party. Richard Nixon was no black person's friend. He it was, it could be argued, who pried open the manhole cover under which the rumbling filth coursed through the underside of the nation. He enlisted his vice-president, Spiro Agnew, himself to become a felon (yes; he was a crook), to dog-whistle white America over to the Republican Party.
Ronald Reagan opened up his 1980 campaign for president on the graves of three voting rights volunteers. That could hardly have been an accident. From Reagan to H.W. (Lee Atwater) and W., it was just a short hop to Donald Trump.
The 45th president is aided by Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and other assorted hoods and sheets in plain sight on Capitol Hill and the state legislatures.
It's a long way from Lincoln to the hell we have now.
22
The GOP isn't on life support, it has completely flat lined after they nominated him to be there standard bearer. The Party of Trump gave away their spines, sold their souls, and became Trump's loyal handmaidens. They made Faustian deal with the devil himself in Donald Trump. When seizing political power is your only goal then one will sacrifice anything to attain it. Principles, integrity, and ethics only matter when the GOP is out of power. Every republican that is speaking out against Trump now is either left office or is not seeking reelection. Every single one of them endorsed him or remained silent when he ran for office. Trump can be Hitler, the Anti-Christ, and the Grand Wizard of the KKK wrapped in one and they would and had still voted for him. The rank and file to his political base have put their blinders on to his obvious deviancies with this simple mantra: he gave us conservative judges, strong economy, and he looks tough on the world stage. Not realizing all those things are temporary. Finally women voting for Trump is like a rape victim marring her rapist. So if another president comes along democrat or republican and does what Trump did as president. Then I don't want to hear any complaints from the Right, white women, or religious conservatives. For every single one of you were complicit with Trumpism which is code for racism, sexism, and authoritarianism.
13
Not the better angels of our nature, sadly. CB nails or aces it as usual!
1
I cannot abide Trump. Now, thank goodness, liberals are beginning to get their act together. Before now, they were in sad disarray, with a candidate, who called her opponents deplorables, and who said the coal country jobs weren't coming back. They could not have run a worse candidate or a worse campaign. No voter wants to see his or her concerns swept under the rug by a bunch of apparatchiks, and yet these were the very same people who commandeered the Democratic party in 2016. Let's hope they don't repeat this mistake.
1
Congressional Republicans have offered little more than mild rebukes of Trump's irresponsible, inflammatory and authoritarian behavior. They say that they would have chosen different language, or say that a report is concerning, or offer tepid support for a Justice Department under attack, but not the unequivocal condemnation which he merits. The lone voices denouncing Trump, notably Flake and McCain, have no political future (at least not immediately for the former).
With no Republican legislators meaningfully distancing themselves from Trump, the GOP is indistinguishable from an extension of Trump. The most immediate way to put our feet down with Trump is to vote against his partisan enablers in November. The GOP lost many elections last year, including Alabama's Senate seat and Virginia's governorship. We can win again.
We need to give Trump a message which most Republicans in power are too cowardly and partisan to deliver. May we teach them all a lesson.
2
Trump just took the nice guy mask off the republican party. Other than that nothing has changed. Tax cuts for the rich, deficits as far as eye can see, military spending up, cut backs in domestic programs, stop regulating big business, immigration crackdown. The only thing different is trade, we will see if this is all bluster. Bush II put tariffs on steel. Oh, foreign wars, we have that to look forward to.
1
Trump, as a personality, appeals to me not at all. But what is so much worse is willingness to destroy on a global scale our environment, our economic partnerships, our treaties, our sense of a shared humanity. These are nothing less than our global civilization; an understanding that we are better off cultivating win/win relations across the board than we are when we perceive everyone as the "other" and the enemy. In Trump's incoherent
"America First" policy the Republican Party is just one of the casualties. Everyone loses.
I fear that Trump is not leading "them" (his supporters) to ruin but that he is leading "us" (the whole country) to ruin.
That said the emerging nature of the Republican Party long pre-dates Donald Trump. The GOP has been oozing bigotry, fear, loathing and malice for decades.
Remember, right behind Trump in the 2016 primary polls was Ted Cruz. Just ask: would Cruz have been a better president than Trump? Not so much.
Trump didn't hijack the Party. The Party recruited Trump in its own image. Ted Cruz stood ready in the wings.
2
Trusting the exit polls is problematic. That being said if true it says that a majority of whites male and female voted against Obama and for Trump. This scary chronic problem needs to be addressed. I am not sure how. Above all we need a plan to defeat Trump and restore a government as progressive as LBJ let alone Roosevelt. Otherwise the submergence of the U.S. to third world status is inevitable.
There are at least two big reasons that we have President Trump:
The first is that for the first time within memory we had a candidate that was truly different. The two party system had always before given us candidates who had paid their dues and been vetted by the two parties to such an extent that there never has been any real difference between the nominees. Think about this: Would Jeb Bush really have been much different than President Obama or Hillary Clinton??? Voters are sick of this! The only differences between the three that I just mentioned would have been in the dog whistles and code words they passed out. Until 2016 voters never could get anything more than these carefully parsed non-promises that could be ignored after the election. So the politically motivated minority of voters took what they could get and voted while millions stayed home. For them, voting was so much wasted effort.
The second reason is that President Trump was wealthy enough that he didn't have to depend on Republican money with strings attached.
An important part of the asymmetry between the two major political parties (though the GOP are now more of a gang than a party) is the denial of facts. And Trump has raised that practice of denial by several orders of magnitude with his non-stop lying.
Unfortunately the GOP have decided that to better deny facts, they will not let the government gather the facts. As a country we are circling the drain.
1
Charles -love your columns and completely feel your spot on eloquent outrage. Here, however, I think you are making an overall point (the particularly horrid state of the Republican Party) while glossing over an essential truth (the Trump Republican Party is the Republican Party of the last 40 years -- there is no break, only a continuum).
In the post-war era, President Eisenhower was a decent man and President. We had a long way to go on civil and reproductive rights, but progress was palpable. For all his many faults, President Nixon was a competent politician and legislator -- his achievements included the creation of the EPA, the Clean Air and Water Acts, the earned income tax credit, Equal Employment Commission, the Endangered Species Act and OSHA. He opened China. President Ford did not serve long nor did he achieve much- the economic malaise of the Carter years began under his watch -but he was as affable as he was ineffectual.
Enter Ronald Reagan stage left. The "Great Communicator" declared that the problem was ...Government. And there went all the years of post-war bipartisan progress. HIs election was the moment the Republican Party transitioned;it hasn't been the same since. Reagan empowered racist elements- he began his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi; he demonized welfare recipients and ignored AIDs. He busted unions. He set out to destroy the mandate of the EPA. He empowered evangelicals, marrying them to the Party.
The rest,as they say, is history.
6
I am proud to say that I have detested the Republican party and Republicans generally since waking up to politics in the 1950's era of McCarthyism , so for me not much has changed.
As to Trump's supporters delusion of him providing "moral leadership" that's fairly easy to understand. They equate abortion with murder. Trump says he's completely against it and Democrats believe in "choice." It would be interesting to put the question to them, "Excepting the abortion issue..."
Remember "the pledge?" That was back in 2015 when there were more than a dozen GOP candidates for the nomination of who would be the standard bearer the following year. That didn't end up working too well. Then they closed ranks and sold their souls to the devil. Are they too stubborn to change their ways now? Talk about hitching their wagon to a star. The question is do enough of our citizenry realize the long term danger that this guy in the White House is causing?
1
It’s a waste of time telling people their actions hurt others or are abhorrent in some way. This only arouses defense reactions. We must show them instead how their behaviors and actions are hurting them, making our explanations as clear and personal as possible.
2
In this time of (verbal-) upheaval every American should do "his/her/its" duty and register AND VOTE.
Vote your principals, vote your ideas, vote for what you hold dear, VOTE! Let the primaries and the mid-term elections be the time that "Americans stood up for themselves, their rights, their conscience, their country, their system, their Republic, their history and their future!"
2
"To be clear, much of what Trump has surfaced among Republicans has always been there — sexism, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant hysteria — but Trump has elevated it, venerated it, and branded it."
I don't think so. This has been prepared for 20 years now by Fox News and right-wing talk radio hosts who have been saying the exact same things on a daily basis.
What's worse is that what has been part of conservative culture in this country at least since G.B. Bush - systematical lying about the state of the union, and what Democrats do and stand for - is probably even more crucial in explaining how the GOP won so many elections.
If you look at what Republicans think about Obama or "liberals", you cannot but observe that most of it is demonstrably false.
And yet, conservatives continue to imagine that Obama was a totally immoral, corrupt, anti-US president/person, and that Democrats did to Congress what they never even THOUGHT about but that Republicans were already doing under Obama.
Conclusion: Trump didn't build this. He's merely a FN watching reality tv star. All he did - and continues to do - is to watch fake news and then amplify it. He's clearly a better actor than many other GOP politicians, but that's about it. Boehner is merely trying to save his face when he complains that the GOP no longer exist, knowing that HE, and his massive lies, is one of the main Republicans responsible for the demise of the Grand Old Party - and long before Trump entered politics.
1
When Nugent wrote, “I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War," this part, I think, was false: "I'm beginning to wonder if." Nobody should be fooled into buying that the base objectives espoused by him and his exemplar Trump reflect thoughtful consideration or are anything but primal, self-centered and unchanging. I don't think the "Republicans" in this Congress are fooled, in any case, which makes it even more despicable that they willfully look the other way while Trump provides cover for them to carve out deep gains for their benefactors. That big smokescreen has the potential to choke the life right out of this country, and either they are pathologically shortsighted or they really just don't care.
1
The most terrifying thing the Republicans are doing is the effort to disenfranchise voters. The Republican efforts to do so are meeting success.
The sacrifices made by the civil rights heroes was universal suffrage for people of color. Unless progressives vote the Trump minority will continue to flourish.
MLK, and many others, gave their very lives so we could all vote. Lots of people stayed home because they didn't like Hillary's personality (Maureen Dowd's crowd comes to mind). Do they like Trump and the racists he represents more?
I wish Mr. Blow would turn his powerful to saving suffrage because it is dying and no one is paying attention. We are going to need a second civil rights movement to defeat the forces of evil.
1
Trump didn't hijack the Republican Party.
Trump revealed it.
That's why I left. Scales from my eyes.
5
Stone me if you like, but is Trump that far removed from the televangelists such as Falwell, Graham, Hagge, Huckabee and the rest? Once you buy into the lie there's no turning back without self-repudiation. More elegant jets, gold-plated bathrooms, delusional and distanced from earthly reality, send us the money we will send you redemption, no matter what the transgression. TV Show reality from the pulpit to the White House.
1
I agree with everything written here, except the last sentence. Trump is not "leading them (GOP) to ruin," he is leading the country there.
Have a nice day.
The GOP of my/my parents era is dead. I don't think it will be possible to resuscitate it. Through their own doing since the 60s the GOP has laid the groundwork for this "new" base and now they are reaping what they sewed. Sadly, the rest of us are also suffering. I heard Bernie Sanders in an infuriating interview over the weekend still treating Trump voters/loyalists as good, hardworking people (his quote - they shower at the end of the day not at the beginning - as if a person is more hardworking if they are a mechanic and not a school teacher or waitress) and they are just needing a reason to vote for the Democrats - which (by implication) Ms. Clinton didn't provide. It was so outrageously absurd to pretend that the appeal of Trump is economic. Ms. Clinton had a real economic message - that Trump's people happily ignored (per Mr. Blow's article - we can't have a woman president!!!). Working class america has a long and ugly history of racism - just look at union membership, fire and police departments etc - minorities having to sue to get in, become union members, get promoted. I guess I just assumed that those were "old feelings" that died some time ago - it turns out they were just brimming beneath the surface for decades. Unless a Democrat is willing to run on that message of hate and fear - they will not win over the Trump voter. The only solution is turning out more Democrats and Independents in November. And that is no easy task.
1
I honestly wonder when the first Americans will seek refugee status in some country with a working democracy and where respect for each other is valued.
For conquering and crippling the Republican Party, Trump will be long remembered, but probably not in the way his supporters hope. I believe he is leading them to ruin. I say: And more power to him.... Republican becomes passe.
1
GOP will die when Trump is finished as a president one way or the other. But the good thing is that this will pave the road for growth of the independent parties. No longer will it be a political duopoly where the only only realistic winner of an election is one or the other.
Sometimes the dinosaurs have to go extinct in order for the evolution to grow new species.
Perhaps even the democratic party will die, they are a dinosaur too.
2
The Republicans I know do not want to pay taxes, even though they would like good roads and infrastructure. The Republicans I know would find any way they could to fudge on their income to obtain vouchers to put their kids in parochial schools on taxpayer money. The Republicans I know think people who receive “entitlements” are lazy. The Republicans I know claim they support the military, but haven’t sent their kids off to join up.
And the Republicans I know praise their Christianity and religion, but cannot stand the thought of understanding other religions or faiths. Now there’s God working for them, right? Watching the prayer convention Trump was at and all those Christians raising their arms toward Trump as he stumbled through praying made me just not care to really even know any Republicans anymore.
3
The Republicans have always been working a shell game to mask what they are really about. Just as a predator uses camouflage the Republican party has cloaked itself using "higher principals" of character, morals, and patriotism to sugar coat what they have always been about. No longer do they need to hide their objectives for greed and power behind masks of civility, Trump showed them that they didn't have to. They can be free to be who they are. Loyalists. Anti-patriots.
It isn't that Trump stole and turned the Republican party. He showed them that it was OK to be out, to be themselves in public. To take off the veneer of small government and personal responsibility wear animosity. vindictiveness, greed, and hate as badges of honor. He let them be who they are. Relishing in no longer being constrained by civility, or "political correctness as they put it.
Trump has taken over the Republican Party. He has also taken over all the Republicans that I know here in the small town where I live. He has taken over all my Republican "friends" on Facebook and Twitter. In short, I have Republican acquaintances in person and on social media, but I no longer have friends. The changes in these folks are obvious and disturbing. They talk about taking their country and their religion back from non-whites. They still defame the Obamas, Clintons, and Nancy Pelosi every chance that they get. They are so happy that they can freely say "Merry Christmas" again after eight years of Obama oppression. And at last, a First Lady with grace and beauty. They watch Fox and listen to extreme right-wing AM radio as their sole sources of news and facts. And for all these reasons, and many more, I can't socialize with them either in my home, their homes, or in public. This is your great division in America. It will not go away anytime soon. Trump has indeed succeeded in empowering the white American minority and given them immorality at the same time. We won't recover from this any time soon.
5
Donald Trump accurately embodies the inchoate emotions of his voter base. He puts words and causes to feelings they barely knew they had, and that's America's big problem. There is something real under the Trump train wreck. The enlightenment political liberalism upon which America is built has gone seriously astray and failed large segments of our society, black and brown bodied citizens, blue collar families, rural families, agricultural communities, and many more. We ignore these failures at our peril. Yes, Donald Trump is a disaster of a President, and at the same time he is a gift to the country, a wake-up call, a Wizard of Oz look behind the curtain to see the arbitrary hollowness and emptiness of our socio-economic-political policies that shape our lives.
Everyone should be thinking about what happens after Trump? Trump is only the beginning of a fast moving coup of democracy so what is next? The Republicans have found success for their agenda with this deal with the devil so what comes after Trump?
2
Our saving grace is that Trump is incompetent - unable to do as much harm as he might. The really big problem comes if the regressive's manage to elect a competent fascist.
I can't really agree with the point that Donald Trump "stole" the Republican party.
With the racist, white, wealthy and conservative base it carefully nurtured throughout the years, it wasn't much a steal, nor was it even that difficult for Trump to co-opt, and all the Americans who were closely watching him already knew this before the presidential campaign even got started.
What we have now is the result of their folly. Along with a president who doesn't represent ALL Americans and shows no interest in doing so.
Nor does he show any signs of ever wanting to leave the office he now inhabits, regardless of term limits and the Constitution.
I have never been as afraid for the future of this country as I am now.
This isn't 'winning'.
6
Many commenters have placed responsibility on the Republican Party for the disaster that is this presidency. But Republicans in elected office didn’t put Trump in office – nearly half this country’s voters did, the same half that these Republicans need to retain their own seats in Congress. To go against Trump is political suicide for any elected Republican now. The only ones who haven't done so have announced that they will not be running for re-election. They aren’t afraid of Trump. But they’re terrified of his supporters.
Some commenters write that elected Republicans have “hoodwinked” Trump voters, and have led them on. Others express their inability to understand why Trump supporters “vote against their interests.” Both are wrong. Trump supporters have very much acted consistent with their interests. They only have one, really. And that is to keep Trump in power as long as possible. They don’t care how much damage he causes this nation, either domestically or internationally. All they care about is that he tells them that as whites, they are to be favored in this country, that as citizens, they are somehow superior to the rest of us. Trump voters have no other interests. This is all they want. This is all they ever wanted.
So let’s dispense with the trope that Trump supporters have been “misled”. They know exactly what they’re doing, and they love what has happened to this country. And they will ensure that Trump leaves office only at a time of his choosing.
1
In almost all areas, social, economic, political the GOP which was the conservative party, i.e. conserving the present has now become the retro party, AThey are returning to the "fantasy" past, From baking away from better race relations, blaming immigrants, destroying the EPA, favoring largely old white men in govt, fearing or attacking women who dare to be equal to men in rank or money, building walls both physical and economic, seeing the outside world as the enemy, and at the same time giving more power to the monied elite and corporations, they now represent the past. Their failure is that they only see the past rhough rose colored glasses and fail to understand the negatives and dangers of it.
Hopefully the millenials will fight them and bring us back to the future,
Novekber blue wave?
Republicans gave Trump a pass concerning honesty, morality, ethics and basic human decency. It's no wonder that he now also believes he is above the law.
The dark forces that enabled Trump's rise must be repudiated if even the idea of America is to survive. Trump must be emphatically rejected.
2
Trump didn't create the alternate reality that most of his supporters live in; the secular and religious right wing propaganda machine did. Over decades.
Yes, Trump exploited it and embodied it – he has promoted ignorance and bigotry, coughed up insults, traded in conspiracy theories, and is as adept at lies and propaganda as the most seasoned veteran of right wing media. But he is also trapped by it. When he strays just a little, the drivers of the populist movement pull him back into line. Early on in his presidency he burned any bridges to the outside that he might have had, and now it is no coincidence that he gets his daily briefing from Sean Hannity.
If he were to step out of line, the propaganda arm of the right wing movement that co-opted conservatism and the Republican Party would drop him and look elsewhere for the vessel through which they can implement their agenda.
As quickly as Trump has been fashioned into God's gift to far right wing Christianity, he could be portrayed as a tool of the devil. The same is true in the secular sense.
Trump is the shiny object that the press and all too many in the opposition focus on; he is adept at making it all about him. But they do so at the peril of ignoring the drivers of the far right movement that have been working to remake conservative America and the Republican Party into their own image, leaving them free to continue to corrupt American government and politics to their own purposes.
3
The GOP gerrymandered it’s way right into this mess. The Democrats will have to clean It up (yet again).
1
The Republican Party cares about being in power more than anything else. No value or principle is more sacred to them than power. They have shown this over and over with Trump. They push back feebly on certain things--like his Smoot Hawley-reincarnate trade policies--but generally go along in the end. The rare Republican who does push back, like Bob Corker, Jeff Flake or, more recently, Trey Gowdy, is immediately set upon by the Trump attack dogs from the administration, Fox News and the Freedom Caucus.
I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the past, depending on whom I truly believed was the best candidate based on various factors. I have decided I will never vote Republican again; if I don't like the Democratic candidate, I will either vote third party or sit it out. The Republican party has become a empty vessel of power-hungry lackeys, devoid of ethics or ideas. The party has sold its soul, and it appears many of its members think it was worth the price. Count me out.
11
The recovery process from the infection in todays cultural/political environment has a slight chance in the upcoming Nov. election. Anything short of a complete defeat at the polls of those in Congress, who either gave support to this demagogue in the WH or WORSE yet, defeating those who tarried along, cowardly fearing his attack that could threaten them, forgoing their pledge to uphold the Constitution and the national welfare.
As you mention Mr. Blow, donald elevated and venerated sexism, racism and xenophobia, but members in this Congress had a definite hand in promoting this evilness. donald's premature removal form office, if that occurred, would not cure this infection. That falls to the voters to take scalpel in hand and vote the cowardly members out of office.
3
Mr.Blow, you say that Mr.Trump has crippled the Republican Party.What he has done is demonstrate the "elasticity" of the party.This is a party that is quick to criticize and pontificate but is unable to admit any faults and duplicity.When the Democrats spend any money they weep about deficit spending but they gleefully pass a one trillion tax cut benefiting mainly corporations and the rich.A very few Republicans have seen fit to criticize their party-the vast majority go along and demonstrate they have no core beliefs.
2
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to disagree. In fact, there are a plethora of data which suggest the Republican Party is on solid ground.
- The Senate. Yes, the body of government where citizens from Montana and North Dakota have the same number of representatives as California and New York.
- The House, which has been gerrymandered so grievously that you would think that middle of the road views, which predominate the citizenry, are non existent. ( feel free to look at Alabama, where a state that just elected a Democratic Senator but is overwhelmingly represented by Republicans in the House due to gerrymandering)
- Majority of state legislatures. Not even close.
- Majority of Governorships. Not even close
- An electorate so loyal it will vote against self interest on tax cuts for the rich and Medicaid.
- An electoral college which favors Republicans, for now. ( see 2000 and 2016).
- Aging populace. The older the more conservative, generally.
- A Supreme Court where the most conservative jurists ( Alito, Gorsuch) are decades from retirement and the most liberal are on their way out.
Sorry Mr. Blow. I don’t like Trump, in fact I dislike him strongly, but your conclusions ignore the facts.
6
The Republican Party's ethical dilemma began with Nixon and has deteriorated ever since. The Donald is merely the logical result of a 50-year long process. Everything Mr. Blow has written is true, he just doesn't go back far enough.
The US was once comfortable with maintaining dual standards in society. We were the arsenal of democracy which tolerated segregation. We believed in the sanctity of marriage, but were quick to overlook serious domestic violence as personal matters not of public concern. We've worked hard at leveling some of the more obvious playing fields. Yet, in the minds of many we have "stuck our noses where they don't belong" and these are the ardent supporters of Trump, In their minds nothing was better than those good old days when "you could do what you want." If you discount the sociopathic-elitist voters, those who will support anyone they perceive as good for business, this group that wants to go back to the "halcyon" pre-Obama days is a lot louder than it is large. And it is very quick to sabotage those reasonable Republicans like John Kasich, whose Facebook page is bombarded on a daily basis with insults from Trump supporters. I don't know if the Republicans can reorganize and help rid the country of this infestation of the intolerant; the current crop seems spineless in resisting Trump's base. But the battle won't end with the Democrat's gaining control of Congress. Concepts like civility and decency and fairness will still be at risk.
1
Considering Republicans dominate in not only federal but state and local politics, it might be too early to dismiss them entirely. But this whole debacle has showed us just how morally bankrupt our Republicans are, and how we have to utterly revisit our education system to teach critical thinking and logic at an early age.
2
Pre-Trump Republicans had built up a system of institutions & tactics--media, think tanks, publicists, experts in character assassination--to coordinate the talking points, the rationalizations & conspiracy theories, to stir up their useful hatreds. The only difference with Trump is that he makes things up as he goes along to flatter his own ego, and the Republicans and their institutions follow. It's not such a big change. They were in it to accumulate money & power for the donor class, and Trump is in it to accumulate money & power for himself, but the tactics are not really different.
Today, any Republican is a Trump Republican. Those who protest there is still a Republican Party distinct from the party of Trump are indulging in wishful thinking. The entire Republican Congress has caved and even outside Congress, the best Republicans can offer by way of protest is a random whimper, and that seldom. His next move will be to do away with law altogether, at least as it applies to him and his cronies. He will have plenty of help.
1
When trump was inaugurated I was somewhat comforted by the illusion that the Congress would check and balance. That turned out to be an (wait for it) illusion.
So I wait for our GOP Congress men and women to explain why trump should be king.
I'm done waiting for spines to develop on invertebrates. The GOP needs to crawl into the grave it dug for itself. I won't shed a tear.
1
'An April Quinnipiac University poll found that two-thirds of Republicans believe that “Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.”' - For me that would be almost a loaded question. I think he treats everybody with hatred and disrespect. It just shows faster with women and minorities. Whatever will hurt the worst and damage the most is what he chooses to do.
i may not agree with the NYT at all times but i do have the ability to know the NYT speaks the truth. i do not believe the board of directors is a happy liberal progressive group. i do believe each member is proud of the legacy of the organization they work for and without reservation strive to tell the truth at all times.
i do not think nor believe any actions regarding this current group of workers. they are showing themselves to be rather incompetent with regards to any future. but they are pushing the most nefarious and seditious acts to garner the spark of violent protest. oh yes they would just love it. they had better not hope they achieve their goals.
thank you for an excellent column once again.
This aberrant morality of this aberrant version of the Republican Party is a reflection of an aberrant Christianity whose sole focus is on an aberrant salvation that is completely self-centered: nothing matters but one's own escape from eternal damnation. Given this orientation, virtually anything can be excused or overlooked.
The Democratic focus on a common good is quickly and conveniently portrayed as a systematic reallocation of resources to the undeserving.
There is no physical universe where this might be a fair contest - it's basically a spiritual King Kong vs. Godzilla, and mere mortals are at risk of being crushed underfoot...as are cherished principles and ideals long held by most of us and most of our forebears.
The most baffling thing of all is that the biggest enemy of Trump's base is none other than Trump himself!
Trump promised to "take on" Wall Street and then went and hired more people from Goldman Sachs than any other president combined.
He promised to crack down on high prices for prescription medicine yet caved in to the "Big Pharma".
He promised to label China a currency manipulator on the first day of his presidency and we're still waiting .
He promised to stop the Chinese from taking American jobs and yet did everything he could to save ZTE, which isn't an American company, last time I checked.
And the biggest one of all: the so-called "Middle Class Tax Cut", you know, the one he celebrated by going to Mar-a-Lago and bragging to his guests, the ones who pay $200,000 a year just to go there: "I just made you all much more richer with this tax cut".
But then again, these same Trump supporters keep voting for the GOP and now Trump the last 40 years even though they GOP does everything it can to take away money from them.
1
"An April Quinnipiac University poll found that two-thirds of Republicans believe that “Trump treats women with the same amount of respect as he treats men.”"
What kind of a poll question is that? Ambiguous, meaningless, or somebody's idea of a joke, something slipped in be an intern at the polling company maybe?
The questions I'm left with are, who are these third of Republicans who think Trump treats men better or worse than he treats women? On how do they divide on better or worse?
Just read Jon Meacham's introduction to his new book, "The Soul of America - the Battle for Our Better Angels", and he writes:
"I am writing now not because past American president's have always risen to the occasion but because the incumbent American president so rarely does."
When an American author such as Meacham is compelled to write a book to encourage America in this specific time under the current leadership, you know America is facing a crisis.
I am discouraged, mortified, and very angry and I will VOTE!
1
The Republican Party is still the party of, by and for the rich, which is why party loyalists won't wag a finger at the corrupt and immoral billionaire in the Oval Office. To criticize or oppose Trump would belie their whole philosophy of government, which is not democratic or egalitarian but oligarchic and corporatist. The wealthy are smarter and always know and do what's best for the rest of us. The purpose of life is to get rich and the purpose of government is to protect the rich and enable them to get richer. Assuming Donald Trump is smart, he showcased and bragged about his wealth from Day One in order to keep Republicans in Congress quiet if he should do something they didn't like. Seems to be working.
Yes, Trump is a mess; yes, he's taken over the GOP and America, and yes, we seem to be powerless against him. Our democracy is biased against the coastal states and their large cities. Half of us live in nine states, the other half live in 41 states. Thus half of us, like us New Yorkers, are represented by 18 senators, while the other half, like those who elect McConnell, are represented by 82 senators. Democrats and Liberals always have a higher hill to climb in elections--a simple fact ignored by many vociferous radicals in 2016. To climb this hill successfully, we need to work together, to push and pull each other to the summit. Otherwise, Vlad Putin and Charles Koch will continue to call the shots.
"Have you left no sense of decency?" Joseph Welch in response to Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Still applies. What is decency? Why do Trump and his Tea Party supporters lack it? We as a nation and society need to promote this "sense of decency and elect leaders at all levels who have it.
1
The Republican party used to be a vibrant collection of conservatives that included pro-business fiscal conservatives, but socially liberals, Evangelicals, populists and intellectuals. By turning their back on their rich history and becoming a cult of personality for one person, Trump, they will find they are an empty husk when Trump is gone. They no longer have a coherent governing philosophy. The challenges they face are every bit as existential as those of the Whigs in then 1840s and 1850s.
1
Charles, we have not yet reached the 2 year mark, in an 8 year presidency. Before we call the game, let everyone have a turn at bat. Obama got 8 years. His final score was, Democrats -1100, Republicans +1100.
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The Warriors look to win the NBA Championship. If that's the case, would it be wise to shut it down, to prevent even more humiliation to Lebron James? What if Steph Curry wants to set another record?
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It's just not good form to quit, say won and walk away. DJT is not quitting and we're not tired of winning.
As an independent, my focus is on issues with long-term significance. In 20 years, will people care about Stormy Daniels? How about a de-nuclearized North Korea, fair trade with China, peace between Israel and its neighbors, de-fanging Iran, standing tall against the hypocricy at the UN, repatriating $2 trillion of oversees capital, making US corporations more competitive, etc.
If successful, these are much bigger than Trump or any individual. That’s what I care about.
1
Let's see if any of these pipe dreams become reality. Given the ineptitude and hubris of the current administration, I doubt it. When the Fox News propaganda bubble is finally burst, remember what you claim to care about. Hopefully it is country before monarchy and Trump.
The Trump-haters are rooting against these things to happen for fear of giving any credit to the man they detest.
I find it interesting that the same people who 4 months ago were screaming that Trump was leading us into war with N. Korea (i.e., "Rocket Man"), are the same today who won't acknowledge the potential for a major peace breakthrough.
"...the ethical standards of administration officials were excellent or good (71 percent) as opposed to not good or poor (27 percent)." That just blows my mind! I sincerely thought that many people who supported Trump would quickly realize the sad truth about this man and would quickly withdraw their support. After all, his history with women, his constant lying, his authoritarian behavior, his tax cuts which overwhelmingly favor the wealthy, his war against the media and on and on. All these are in plain sight for all to see. Neither Donald Trump nor most in his administration have shown any ethical standards. In the face of all of this, his support has remained strong. To my mind, this is one of the great mysteries of all time.
Mr. Trump has succeeded in filling the archetype once held by Mr. Nixon.
All decent people agree that he is the Source of All Evil in the Universe.
Have faith, O Liberals! Someday President Trump will be no longer President. On that day, the sun will shine, the birds will sing and All Will Be Well Again!
Sure. Just like when we got rid of President Nixon, right? Please . . .
This is why I am a Marxist and not a liberal. It is not a question of getting rid of one bad man or electing one good one. President Obama seemed a good man personally. Yet how many thousands of immigrants were deported on his watch or, with nine countries bombed, how many innocents killed?
It is not a question of replacing individual leaders but rather an evil economic system which depends on extreme militarism and the super exploitation of workers to survive. Until Americans understand this, there can be no real change in our society. "It's not personal, just business"
“...Gallup could report poll results last week that found that three-quarters of Republicans believe that Trump provides strong moral leadership as president.”
This seems horrifying until you remember that “moral” for Trump’s base means “end all access to abortion”. Also, something about protecting guns. Trump can be corrupt and obscene and vile but “he is a good Christian, he is forgiven” as several Trump supporters have told me.
Meanwhile, the hierarchical Republicans are lining up to vote as a unit on any legislation, no matter how destructive to our republic and our citizenry. None will take any sort of truly moral stance, out of fear of Trump’s base-and fear of their loosing their place at the public trough. But because of their unity, and a lack of an organized opposition, they will be re-elected and this disaster will continue.
We can lament the Trump World, or do something about it. The weakness of Democratic legislation is a large part of the problem. Dems need to show the public what leadership is. Places like California and New York should pass legislation, but fail over and over again. It is disheartening. It opens the door for people like Trump and foreign actors on the internet. The "winner take all" primary in California should be an easy wrap up for Dems. Is it? Ditto for New York and the never ending drama of congestion pricing and dangerous roads. Dems must have something to show the public. Accomplishments must be so obvious that even propaganda outlets like Fox cannot spin the story. Middle class Republicans have gotten too little for so long from local Democrats that it is no wonder they buy the Kool Aide from hucksters and propaganda news!
Perhaps the long long term effect of 45 (I can no longer bear to even write his name) will be that we’ll have a three party system, which would benefit all as the two parties we have at the moment are ineffective (Dems in particular) and criminally negligent and/or insane (Reps).
Conservative Reps would break off, leaving the staunch-45’s to wallow in their misery. It would be the GOP without the crazy (mostly). At least then there would be some choice for the vast number of middle-of-the-roader’s dissatisfied with the extremists who have taken hold of their parties.
2
Sadly, I think Trump treats women with "the same level of respect" as men. That is, none at all.
In the up and down evolution of this still comparatively young nation, let's face the fact that a Trump was inevitable at some point. He was vividly presaged by the 2010 mid-term tea party movement during which house recess town halls became raucous tirades against purported socialist and RINO reps alike. That led to the debacle of a wave election of incompetent outsiders of every stripe vowing to turn congress upside down - which their Freedom Caucus and its many undeclared but obvious followers have done.
With such vulnerable ground thus exposed for imminent cave in, we can only be thankful that the current political sinkhole opened at a time of relative stability with eight years of the Obama administration to shore up much (we dearly hope) of what surrounds it. Had it occurred during another economic melt-down or 9/11, God help us.
I suggest we should be thankful that the debacle of an inevitable Trumpism has occurred now at this highest level to serve for many generations as an example of the the kind of destructive chaos which giving in to our still immature nation's adolescent impulse to "knock it all down and see what happens" can lead to.
3
Jerry Farnsworth: Excellent comment. Yes, we need to remind ourselves that we are still a relatively young country and one both blessed and cursed by our sense of our "exceptionalism." And that for all the claims that the last century was the "American century," we are still naive about many countries outside our borders and, indeed, about the makeup of our own country. And that all democracies are difficult, ongoing experiments in . . . democracy.
2
The media/tweet absorbed American populace has, much of it , been deceived on an emotional and logical sense as to what reality is and what they ethically believe in. This has always been a potential with electronic media. going back as far as radio. In my lifetime, the Reagan years were sort of the beginning of a wholesale smoke and mirrors production across the board, not just on economics, but everything possible.
The GOP starting with Reagan has been staunchly anti-intellectual and totally media-centric. FAR more than the Democrats.
Trump is sort of the logical conclusion of all of this.
And Americans, all 30% or whatever it is who still or did support Trump will not deep down ever have this massaged away by attending to the charlatans at Fox News or Bretibart, both soulless, nebulous wastelands. No, people will likely deceive themselves to survive. But the rubble in their own souls will never go away. It's tragic, but similar has happened in the United States before. We are anything but a "chosen nation."
The Republican Party is no different now than it was two year ago. Except that now it is proudly shouting its true identity.
14
Trump is the perfect foil. He diverts attention from the real issues while the destructive Republican agenda is enacted, with the help of Democrats, I might add.
Criticizing Trump for his obvious indiscretions is fine, but you hear very little criticism of how he handles the real issues - war and empire with its huge costs, income disparity, poverty, expensive and inaccessible health care, and the general decline of America into a third world country. All things that Trump and the Republican enablers are exacerbating.
What happens when you gerrymander, repress the vote, and allow the very wealthy to fund candidates willing to the bidding of the wealthy? You get Donald Trump, the people in his cabinet (most of whom are very wealthy and prosper from the policies they're in charge of), and a congressional majority that defends the Trump regime. This is all very banana republic-like.
But is this the real America? I'd like to think it isn't. But I'm not sure. I don't know if the Supreme Court will actually see the wisdom of getting rid of gerrymandering. I don't know if there will be a reversal of the money is speech ruling. I don't know if the courts and legislators are going to make it more or less difficult to register and vote. If these officials decide to do what's just and moral on these issues, I think you will see what I hope is the real America again. If not, we will continue down this path of a deeply divided nation mired in mediocrity, shame, corruption, and disgrace that is the essence of Donald Trump and his supporters.
1
And let’s not forget all those amiable Republican pieties about how the US is a Republic, not an unbridled democracy. We will never, the Federalists used to bray, be ruled by mobs whose passions had been roused by demagogues. But that particular GOP admonition emerged during the 20th century, when the GOP’s favorite examples of mob rule, the ones that actually had led to gulags, were a useful talking point. Well, *that* is so yesterday. How the sober beards of the Republican Party hated the braying mob then. How they love it now.
1
When good men do nothing terrible behavior is not far behind and it's going to get worse. I'm saddened to see friends, good friends trying to justify Trump's policy's and his vile divisive speech.
This is not my America and I have fewer friends, I find this all hard to believe.
The same thing happened to Democrats, whose party was stolen by the ultra left. Dems had stood for working, blue collar people. No more. Now every fringe group gets priority, especially on cultural issues, ahead of what used to be the base. Try galvanizing that disparate group of voters. Never happen.
1
Mattbk:
I don't really agree with you, though the phenomenon you're describing is real. The Democrats switched from an economic framing of issues to an identity politics framing. But I would call this a move to the Right, not to the Left. The Dems have mostly surrendered to the same economic interests who control the Republicans. Those interests don't really care about the race or gender of the people they're ripping off, it's all money.
I'm one of the people whose life has become a lot more perilous as a result of this presidency (disabled, dependent on "welfare" programs like Section 8 and food stamps, raised Muslim with a name that proves it). And I honestly don't understand the point in op-eds like this.
Of course racism and hypocrisy run rampant on the political right. But what good is supposed to come from using polling data to insist that roughly 50% of our fellow Americans have it out for the rest of us? Does it feel good to some of you to think like that? Do these selective statistics fluff up a sense of anger that fuels actual political engagement, like volunteering for midterm campaigns? Because to me it just seems exhausting and counterproductive.
A lot of people who voted for Trump do not identify as Republicans. A lot of former Republicans no longer identify as such because of Trump. It's ridiculous that it needs to be pointed out, but that "majority of white women" statistic doesn't mean what it's generally taken to mean - to cite just one reason, many white women explicitly did not want to vote for Clinton, and threw away a vote that would have likely gone to a less controversial Democrat candidate.
1
The demise of the GOP began long before Trump, who is merely the culmination of a 40 or so year trajectory that began with Roger Ailes' ambitions to be the power behind Republican party and led by FOX News (aided and abetted by talk radio).
Most voters do not closely follow the details of Washington politics. But they do watch the news - regularly. By exploiting emotional fears over economic, social and cultural changes, FOX drew in a sympathetic audience looking for blame and then insidiously "brainwashed" them with a steady, daily diet of venom-laced propaganda. The result is an extremist corruption of a once noble and responsible party (even if one did not agree with its positions).
I watched this transpire in my own family, turning members into political creatures unrecognizable from my earlier days, who now believe the most outrageous absurdities (for example, there is conspiracy against white men in this country!). Jen Senko saw it, too. Her father's dramatic change led her to research what was occurring at home and across the country, which she then documented in a film, The Brainwashing of My Dad. Using scientific research from psychology, social science and neuroscience, FOX, et al seduced millions, changed their views and took them to the dark side -- without their awareness. Fed from the same well, the blind faith of djt supporters is not only unsurprising, but even predictable.
1
Trump's biggest success is announcing to the whole entire world what a bunch of cartoons we Americans truly are. We are soon going to be traveling abroad to Europe and Asia and are currently bracing ourselves for the usual "What were you Americans thinking when you elected Trump?" which always puts us into defensive mode, hey I Did Not Vote for Trump.
1
Percentages can easily mislead if the size of the sample from which the percentages are derived is unknown. You report, via Gallup, that three quarters of Republicans believe trump exemplifies high moral standards. That anyone believes that is horrifying, but how many people does that percentage represent?
When I read a report like that, I try to comfort myself with the thought that there must be many more Democrats and Independents than there are Republicans. Maybe, if we are lucky, their absolute numbers far outweigh the absolute number of confessed, misguided Republicans! If not, our country is truly lost.
1
Trump has succeeded--in bringing out of the woodwork the dark underbelly of the Republican party and elevating that as the norm. None of the six white women in my family, nor many of my friends voted for Trump. Remember, Hillary won the majority vote! So we can bemoan the direction our country is headed over and over again or take action. I am committed to change. That is why I am actively volunteering for a Democrat who is running for Congress in my mainly Republican district. All of us who oppose Trump and his ilk need to be actively working to affect positive change at the mid-term election.
1
Trump doesn't treat anybody with respect. He has none for anyone except himself. Malignant narcissism gone rogue now that he sees himself as king, oligarch or dictator.
Trump is just one man albeit the POTUS and he will be gone in 2 or 6 years. What troubles is that those who worship him, yes it is a cult, are our fellow citizens. And they aren't going anywhere.
America's "Heartland" now has more White Nationalists running for office than ever before. How many Roy Moore type candidates will there be? Depending upon the decency of my fellow citizens to self-correct and find their moral compass is not something I would bet on anymore.
Is it really a matter of getting out the vote of those who sat out 2016? I wish it were that simple. Will a strong economic message from the Democrats over ride the cultural issues and bring the blue wave?
The Trump chaos which has beset our nation makes predictions worthless in my opinion. The Up is Down combined with GOP control and voter suppression put us in perilous times. Our privilege and right to vote is now The most important duty of Americans who cling to the ideals of our country.
Blow's description of Trump voters is a clear example of the bubble New Yorkers share in which everyone outside the bubble can be uniformly characterized with the worst epithets he can imagine (racist/sexist/homophobic.xenophobic) and therefore entirely rejected as unfit for woke company. No thoughtful analysis is needed anymore, no use for open-minded consideration of the quandaries of people who live very different lives than New Yorkers.
There were many many reasons not to vote for the Democratic candidate - about 63 million reasons - and among them were many folks who saw that in 2016 there were simply no good choices. You weigh all the factors that are relevant to choosing a President - including the vision of Hillary Clinton as commander in chief - and you go with your best analysis, knowing that there will be disastrous policies under either candidate, and you hope for the best.
The comments in this section are also proof that the coastal elite will never understand middle America and do not wish to.
1
I'm not going to defend Trump's excesses - though I do think he says and does things sometimes to get a rise out of people. He's taken to heart the expression from PT Barnum that "There's no such thing as bad publicity."
But let's say I'm wrong and that Trump really is as vile and bigoted as liberals describe him. Even if that's the case, I don't care.
Let me explain. I'm also a NY Giants fan. For those who don't follow the team, they've had a losing season for 4 of the last 5 years. But for a long time, the losing seemed less important to the team than making sure that the players held themselves to the highest moral standards. And sure, if I knew them personally, I would value this. But I don't. They are football players. I don't expect them to be ethical superstars as much as I expect them to play the game well.
It's the same with Trump. Regardless of who is in the White House, I don't see them as ethical examples for my children. Remember they are politicians ! Far more important to me is the direction that the President is taking the country. To continue the football analogy, while Trump may certainly fumble the ball, at least he's trying to go in the right direction. By contrast, Hillary would have been very effective in continuing Obama's move toward European socialism. A lot of people don't want that. And that political direction will be far more lasting than any of Trump's nonsense.
Mr Blow,
I share your anger and sentiment over Trump but this is what happens when Russians/Putin meddle in our elections. By my count, Clinton won the Presidency and Trump stole it with Putin's help. Putin probably stole the Republican primary for Trump as well (Rubio comes to mind).
And yet, the "Republican" party does NOTHING to help protect our future elections. I can understand why Rohrabacher and possibly Nunes have no interest in free and fair elections, since they are problem in Putin's pocket$. But all other Republicans? How DEEP are the Republicans with Putin? Amazing. This is no longer America; we have been annexed by Russia and Republicans are to blame. Republicans are Putin's active measures.
God help us in the midterms and in all future elections. I wouldn't trust any Republican in any state elections either, especially if they oversee the elections process.
9
The election of Donald J. Trump has finally and fully exposed the separation of ethics, morality and common decency from politics. Not that the situation was well-hidden in the past. Even millions of self-proclaimed Christians have been eager to stand by their man in a hypocritical separation of state from religion.
A mild antidote might be utilized by our comedians and commentators who have succumbed, as have Samantha Bee and others, to cruel and vulgar language best left to Mr. President Trump, Alex Jones and the rest of Trump's dissonant bandwagon. (But if feels so good!)
However, there may no longer be a "High Road" where political wrangling is concerned. Still, if Hope is a thing with feathers, those who care about civility and compassion can surely find ways to skewer Trumpism with humor, irony, fact and truth.
There are other ways of standing up to bullies without resorting to their abusive viciousness.
Maybe, to borrow from Mehitabel, there's life in the old girl yet. "toujours gai"
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana one more time.
It is the Democratic Party that has enabled the rise of Trump. The Democratic Party has abandoned the American middle class and its values. It has, by its own actions, become the party of the extreme Left, progressive beyond progressive, pandering to minorities and in fact offending them, allowing itself to be branded as Leftist and neo-socialist. Ask anyone who has heard the name Bernie Sanders and they will report him as a socialist with communistic tendencies. He did that, not the Republicans. The Republican Party has, with the complicity of Democratic leadership, branded the Democrats as cranks, complainers, leftists and quais-communists. Until Pelosi/Schumer leave and moderates and middle of the spectrum Democrats emerge and change the policies and minority-group panderings of the Democratic "elite" we can only look forward to another Republican win next November and the continued distain and contempt voters have for all Democratic candidates.
I hope Mr Blow’s prediction at the end of his column that Trump is leading the Republican Party to ruin proves to be correct and the voters repudiate the pary’s Policies. However, after reading Arthur Limon’s piece this morning on the Trump monarchy, I’m not so sure this will happen in near future. Trump’s Republican courtiers will do everything necessary to maintain their hold on power including ignoring the rule of law to keep a corrupt King and his equally corrupt ministers on the throne.
I have attempted to make an unscientific study of Republican voters based on personal experience since Trump's election, as well as Republican voters in general since I cast my first vote as a Democrat. (I am in my 70's.)
I have almost without exception found fear and a certain stinginess of spirit, coupled with a tendency to be perpetually aggrieved, as the common threads running through these voters' makeup.
If it were lack of education or despair over the economy alone, how can we account for lawyers, doctors and solidly middle class people casting their votes again and again for these scoundrels? I have known many who do.
I also find from personal experience that the hardcore cannot be reached by reason or appeals to the heart. The free-floating anger and underlying fear cannot be allayed. It seems a permanent part of their character.
Having been born and raised in NYC, I often wondered during the late 70's when NYC was genuinely dangerous and everyone I knew was being mugged, why we didn't resort to demands for guns for protection. That level of fear was really not engrained in our nature, although a real threat existed.
I know I am painting with a broad brush here. It's difficult to make a point without doing so, and I do appreciate that people are complex. I do not want to be a voice of demonization.
But I really believe such voters are in the minority, and we must move ahead with our humane agenda without them.
I also firmly believe that we will prevail.
2
''It is only in that alternate reality, in that other world, that Gallup could report poll results last week that found that three-quarters of Republicans believe that Trump provides strong moral leadership as president.''
The sort of strong moral leadership you get from a man who leads a lynch mob to hang children he knows aren't guilty, but boy, will that fire up the base. The Central Park five.
This column is essentially about the one thing for which I am sincerely grateful to Donald Trump. I can hardly imagine anyone more convincingly showing up many Americans' willingness to abandon principle when it's convenient: when they think there's something in it for them, or some harm in it for those they don't like. Anyone wanting to bring about any sort of change has to reckon with this. There's that old saw about the difficulty of explaining rainbows to earthworms. It's equally hard to show one to someone with their head in the sand.