Trump is not so much a man who would be king, but a man who will take and do what he wants until people refuse to let him. He likes to be the center of attention and he considers being in charge the authority to give orders not to lead a team dedicated to fulfilling his vision. The effort and time needed to be a true dictator is not something with which he wants to be devoted. He plays games, to see what kinds of things people will allow him to do. If the let him he is pleased. If they don't he will not be, but he's not going to stage a coup to seize power -- too much effort and risk.
The Republican Party can make Trump a more traditional Republican if they are firm with him.
3
The country is not "deeply polarized." There is a minority of say 20% of the voting-age population who have seized power. This is not polarized: there is only a small rump in control of the entire country - a situation not unlike that of Iran where a bunch of religious zealots seized the government decades and today maintain control the vast majority who are far more progressive.
Remember, Trump won 47% of the vote but that only 50% voted. Therefore, assuming everyone who loved Trump went out and voted for him (which they did), the maximum precentage of support for him was just over 20%. His support likely has gone down since then.
What has to happen is that the 75% vast majority has to seize power back from the GOP rump. This is not a foregone conclusion. The Iran case shows that unless effective and determined resistance occurs for a lengthy period of time, a stubborn small minority can maintain power indefinitely and also maintain the public illusion of some sort of "polarized" political equivalence between one side and the other.
The mainstream media helps to maintain this illusion by always giving equal attention to the extreme ideas of the GOP as being representative of half the population. They aren't but if people don't vote them out, then they are.
Don't boo, vote!
2
Yes, the establishment GOP is away asleep someplace, and this is indeed becoming the party of Trump.
...and this is despite no shortage of domestic and international faux pas, and other clumsiness over the past year-and-a-half.
We can either lament or dismiss that clumsiness however we choose. The bottom-line is still the same: this is his party. And, his support slowly grows. Almost half the electorate likes what they're hearing, and want to hear more.
...and over time, his administration is going to get more organized...
Trump is the party symbol at the top, and he has surrounded himself with some ideologues who are knocking things around. Many career civil servants have left, and many high-level government positions are still vacant. Soon enough, however, he's going to get the senior positions filled with his supporters, and they will fill the ranks below them.
Then, what makes shocking headlines today, will become routine (and thus, not newsworthy) later...
Will Trump take the blame when the House and Senate go blue? No. But it will be fun to watch.
I used to think the dems should take the House and hold Trump in check. No appointments allowed, no movement of any kind.
But now I think the Donald would look good in stripes (not bankers pinstripes). Anyone who claims that they can pardon themselves deserves jail time. Five years should do it.
1
Trump has unveiled the true face of the GOP - a huge swath of America made up of bigots, racists, and ignoramuses. It is an utterly repugnant face, but is the true face of this country, and there is nothing that will change this fact anytime soon. The civilizing immigration from Europe stopped long ago and America's ugliness can now unfold in all its repugnant glory.
3
Trump basically has done what the GOP previously refrained from doing...REALLY showing their true colors. They just played along and pretended to care about their constituents, and threw them a racist, anti-science, homophobic and anti-liberal elite bone every so often. They just needed a demagogue to break out and do the talking for them. I no longer recognize the country I live in. I actually walk around with a pit in my stomach on a daily basis. Besides voting (which, come on, can our vote really be safe?) what the hell can we do before it’s too late?
2
Don't get too carried away by this election.
Voter turnout was low.
With luck, these kinds of candidates will draw more of us to the polls in the fall.
What we don't need are more "moderate" Repubicans....
4
A party that would accept a man such as Donald Trump as a leader, seek his approval, and emulate his behavior to win elections and/or enact policies is a party that cannot ever be trusted to stand for anything but the desire for raw power. Trump is the antithesis of most American values. Acceptance, tolerance, and subservience to such a person shows a profound lack of character and a cynical view of what it means to serve the people as an elected representative.
8
As a Republican acquaintance of mine said, "if Trump wins the [2016] election, the Republican Party will no longer be the party of fiscal conservatism. It will be the party of white nationalism." He was right. Trump won. Other Republican politicians saw how Trump won, and adjusted their ideology accordingly.
7
This is the logical end of a sordid road that begins with Nixon's southern strategy. That was 50 years ago. It could easily take that long to recover. The near term imperative is to not vote for any Republicans for any office. Then, Americans must work through our fears and honestly confront the sins of our past so they don't continue to drag down our present and our future.
4
The alleged exchange between Nixon and Chou En Lai about Chou's opinion of the French Revolution and his delicious but maybe misquoted reply, "It's too early say," reminds me of the state of affairs of today's American democracy. Given the "lowlights" practiced by both parties, but especially the Trump party, we may be seeing the slow, but steady erosion of our storied democracy. Maybe the evidence is staring us in the face and it's no longer to early to say.
3
EMT. For the last 40+ years, the Republicans have had one, and only one, platform. The EMT platform. Everything they do or propose is in service of the EMT platform; that is, the "Eliminate My Taxes" platform.
4
Leaving Trump out of the equation (of possible), isn't this really what happens in MOST primaries?
A relatively small number of people at the fringes of a party (either Repub or Dem) and/or zealots turn out in disproportionate numbers (while moderates stay home) and vote for candidates at the far edge of their party's spectrum? In this case far-right and pro-Trump types.
Yet these far-from-the-mainstream candidates often lose big-time in a general election, when more moderate voters vote and more is at stake (an actual seat in Congress on statewide office).
This has happened many times before and seem likely (I hope!) to happen big-time in 2018.
An overwhelming majority of voters in the USA (including many Republicans) DISLIKE Trump and are appalled by his corruption, extreme policies, crude persona, and assault on democracy.
This majority will decide the election! (Unless Putin and his gang subvert the elections again, of course...)
2
At this juncture, I'd say Trump has successfully (if not inadvertently) tapped into a "belief system" for millions of people.
...and I've learned many years ago that trying to convince someone out of their belief system is a lost cause...
The Times can write one expose after another, craft the most thoughtful and balanced "News Analysis" in its pages, fill the opinion section with every eloquent viewpoint for reasoned debate and discussion, win multiple Pulitzer prizes, etc., etc., and for nearly half the electorate (and growing) it won't matter.
Questioning a belief system, regardless of starting vantage point, is a personal decision that is fought from within each person's mind.
If the Times can lift the scales from enough peoples' eyes, then more power to them...
...because history textbooks are written by the winning side; and what's written and taught from there is the foundation for future belief systems...
Sure, the losing side gets its history books too, but unfortunately those don't always make it into the classroom.
1
Many believed, before the election, that Trump was going to divide, perhaps destroy, the GOP. With the complicity of the GOP "leadership" and more than a few quislings, he's managed to do exactly that. The question now is, how much of that infection is spreading to the rest of the electorate?
1
It certainly seems like they could box themselves into a corner, sort of like "tea party" party or "party of steve bannon" party. They would be candidates with a committed base but not necessarily wide electoral mandates around the US.
1
Re: " 'If you criticize him, you’re siding with the media that hates him and you’re undermining what he’s trying to accomplish,' said former Senator Rick Santorum, explaining why Mr. Trump has consolidated support. 'Trump has done a good job in being a conservative president and as much as Democrats looked past what Bill Clinton said and did, Republicans are looking past what this president says and does.' ” Oh, Rick Santorum said that, did he? Why are we quoting Rick Santorum, someone with not a shred of credibility or the slightest interest in honesty. Democrats tended to "look past" Clinton's marital infidelity ONLY, and only for the very sound reason that it was nobody's business but Bill Clinton's his immediate family's. Clinton's stewardship as president was something to be proud of. Republicans, on the other hand, are looking past the obvious fact that Donald Trump is destroying our country and endangering the entire world. These are in no way equivalent.
3
Someday the GOP will be only ashes and faint memory of their decades long descent into Trumpism. It was inevitable that the policies they chose unwittingly for their undoing will thus undo them.
There is a younger generation of voters coming up who look in horror at their embrace of Trump and what he stands for. They can look at the congressional leadership and their complicity. They can see the embrace of dictators and the humiliation of allies.
They can see the optics of what ICE is doing.
They know this is not the kind of country they want to live in.
The GOP is going to implode. A new party will someday take its place. Maybe the real conservatives will re-build it and in the dustbin of history will lie the remnants of the lemmings who went off the cliff.
3
If the all the discourses that took place at Republican rallies could be added to what occurs at Trump's rallies and what passed at the Republican National Convention, add to those the immoral and inhumane actions of ICE agents, you have a case of mass psychosis with ominous undertones of violence. The United States of America has innocent children in mass detention centers. If outrage does not grow over this, it is evidence that the rest of us have become numb to what these people are doing to this country.
1
If the truths articulated in this article don't send Democrats flocking to the polls in November, what will? Need we get even closer to authoritarianism than we already are? We are a hare's breath away from total dictatorship, with a majority party that's too intimidated to stop it from happening.
3
The sad truth is that the Republicans will ultimately succeed in destroying the great American democracy. America will have to hit bottom before it wakes up. Even then, racism thrives in America like no other place ever. It defines everything and informs all our political will. We can try to hide from it, try to understand it, try to fix it, but it is always there and the Republicans will exploit it until there is nothing left of the democracy that almost was.
Trump didn't transform the Republican Party. He just took off the mask so we can all see what it really is, and it isn't pretty.
3
Power corrupts and great power corrupts greatly.
Once upon a time Republicans were elitists and skeptical about the goodness in people. They were authoritarian in the sense of wanting law and order before liberty and justice to avoid disorder and enabling bad behaviors. But today they crave power to have control so that their interests are served and everyone else be compelled to live as they determine. They have become authoritarians in the sense of vesting their trust in an absolute ruler who must be obeyed and whose every assertion accepted unconditionally. Any dissent has become betrayal.
2
Why the feigned surprise? Who did you expect would crawl out from beneath their rocks? Scholars? Statesmen? Objective leaders? The worst of us, having recognized their having become empowered, are running a major political party. What to do? Turn it into a minor political party.
3
The story of momentum is ongoing until it is no more.
This was once the Party of Abraham Lincoln now devolved into the Party of Donald Trump. If it weren't for the obscenity of it, such irony would be downright hilarious.
4
The oligarchs have financed a 60 year campaign to control 90% of the wealth and push virtually the entire tax burden onto the other ninety nine plus percent of the population. They did this by buying the GOP and appealing to people who think in slogans and can't tolerate change. In the process the Grand Old Party has been reduced to a cult of wannabes and rubes beholden to a flakey and totally venal con man. Sad.
4
This just shows that Republicans have never really been about policies or ideology; at least nothing that they're willing to stand by. Their only guiding principle is blind loyalty to a cretinous authoritarian who promises to hurt the Americans whom they perceive as their enemies.
2
The loyal opposition, as the GOP used to be to the Democratic Party, is no more, and hasn’t been for a long while. It’s been taken over by fringe elements; the religious right, the Tea party fanatics, among others. But with Trump, who’s neither a Republican nor a conservative, but an authoritarian who’s envious of, and who cozies up to all sorts of dictatorial thugs (he’d love to have their power/authority as president) and who berates and belittles democratically elected leaders, the Republican Party has taken an even more severe shift towards worshipping the cult of personality. Trump ran as a Republican because there was no fascist party and the Republican party caved in and has continued to do so. Shameful.
2
This piece is more evidence that the media (mainstream or otherwise) is aiding and abetting in the President's attempt to destroy the country. Less the two years after CNN and other TV news outlets nominated him (by showing unedited footage of his campaign rallies) and the New York Times elected him (by reporting on Comey's October letter as if it was a scandal). They didn't understand how to read polls in 2016, so they reported that Hillary Clinton was a strong favourite when the polls never said that. Now, they are showing that they lack basic knowledge of identification, another area of statistics. Basically, they are alleging that ONE TWEET IN THE MIDDLE OF ELECTION DAY made the difference between victory and defeat for Sanford. Huh? Were his Arrington's campaigns equally strong? Was he always popular in his district, especially during this election cycle? Has Arrington run only as a Trumpista or does she have well-developed platform (hint: visit her campaign site)? Did primary voters change their minds only at the last minute? NONE of these questions have been answered satisfactorily by the Times! Fivethirtyeight has already demonstrated that most Trump voters don't read his tweets, so it's unlikely to have a decisive effect on the outcome. The notion that being Trumpian is the only way for GOPers to survive primaries is not borne out by the evidence but sloppy journalism will make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
1
This high horse my liberal friends and colleagues are taking is a defense mechanism for the cognitive dissonance from realizing that America’s so called experts always protected the corrupt, waged global war and ignored the ‘American citizen’.
Obama killed an American citizen without due process.....this is obama. A constitutional professor and a progressive liberal. What did the 16 y.o. son of alwaki do that he was targeted for death. Why did a liberal president have a kill list?
It was then I realized everyone one but Trump is all talk. The needle is moving. Things are changing. It seems like tds is rough for those consumed by it. Take a break. Stop checking the news. Read some American historical fiction. Go see a classic movie. You have forgotten what ‘the American’ actually is.
It was better in the days of John Birch Society? J.Edgar Hoover? Nixon and the Christmas Bombings? Kissinger? Ford White House with Cheney and Rumsfeld's teeth firmly placed in the neck of the Oval Office?
Ronald Reagan called out "if it takes a bloodbath, lets get on with it" after students rioted in Berkeley then Kent State. Reagan's soon to be V.P. Bush Sr. declaring trickle down as "voo-doo". Reagan's adviser T.K.Jones announcing nuclear war and fallout will be easy if "there are enough shovels and doors to go around". Reagan's Star War Initiatives of pure Rumsfeldian known unknown knowns against Soviets who didn't care about America or Reagan until Yeltsin was installed, then they cared a lot.
We are still reeling from the goofballs turned bloody murderers who got us into Iraq, Bush's Persian Gulf War and still want more, Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, Cotton, the whole bunch.
It has never been grand. Not even close. Trump's brand is just another chapter in Reagan's bloodbath.
But how many Cult 45 candidates will win in November? Hopefully none.
This president growing his base is like people having the ability to grow an extra finger. The gutless and complicit Republican Party should by rights get clobbered in November based on this “administrations” performance to date. Democrats should open a door for the few rational republicans that are out there.
Maybe it's a good thing that the psychos are coming out of the wood work, flagging themselves for future reference. The radical right may target politicians with guns and lies, but civilized society targets politicians with better candidates.
5
Nope. Its called RED WAVE.
Why don't some of the so-called moderate Republicans grow a spine and do the right thing for their country by becoming Independents as did Gentleman Jim Jeffords who left his party in 2001 with the simple explanation: "Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party."
Some Republicans now characterize their own party as a cult. How can these people who are privately repulsed by the head of their Party look at themselves in the mirror every morning and think that their American flag lapel button reveals them to be patriots. At last, Congressmen/women, have you no shame?
5
The party is Trump and Trump is the party. Wow, history sure is repeating itself.
3
Sanford was deep in a scandal. Attributing his lost to Trump is bad analysis, and failing to describe the scandal here is bad journalism.
1
Real republicans need to just give it up and join the Democrats. Once they are down to their hardcore base it will be so small they will ahve no influence outside of racist areas.
4
The toadying Santorum says "Republicans are looking past what this president says and does.” That includes this president betraying the United States of America to serve the every whim of a Russian dictator. Now that the GOP is the party of Trump, it is also the party of Putin. I understand that Santorum's ilk are willing to sell out every American principle in their greed for power and wealth, but do the rank and file GOP even realize that they are aiding and abetting a traitor?
3
Donald Trump is FOX News incarnate.
2
Lyin' Donald and ignorant, foolish and/or downright cowardly GOP'ers and their supporters are the greatest threats to America. The only way to Make America Great Again [as it was before these folks came along] is to drain the swamp of all of those in Congress who support President Potty Mouth and to return to tests for voters to be sure they understand what it means to be an American.
6
Trump candidates are able to win primaries, but, when going head to head with Dems, they lose. Already, 44 previous Republican districts have flipped from Red to Blue - the latest in Door County, WI, which strongly went for Trump in 2016. These candidates look ecstatic after winning their primaries, but they are oblivious to the fact that they are more than likely to get their rear-ends handed to them by a Democrat - any Democrat - in the general election.
2
Hillary lost the electoral college because her plan to win the presidency failed. She knew the electoral college game. The USA is a republic which is not ruled by the majority.
President Trump and people who voted for him are in favor of legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants like MS-13 do not help our country.
President Trump and people who voted for him want trade that is just for Americans.
The blacks that choose to dishonor our flag are choosing a losing way to make their points. Less people are watching the football games when they disrespect our flag.
The authors of this article do not agree with President Trumps policies. The authors do not understand why anyone voted for President Trump. These authors are not experts
"President Trump and people who voted for him are in favor of legal immigrants."
I'm sorry, but this simply isn't true.
Yes they are experts.
That one of this country’s two major political parties, and a significant percentage of the American public, subscribes and bows to Trump is absolutely nauseating. It confirms my worst cynicism about the country’s educational and cultural standards. It challenges my assumption that I’ll spend the rest of my life in my home country. If this mindless populism continues here I most certainly will spend my last days elsewhere.
9
Why did you think Republicans were working so hard for decades to destroy the education system in this country?
As I recall Rick Santorum, he was an ethically challenged member of the Republican party that enabled Bush's worst decisions and undermined Clinton's policies whenever possible, including holding up judicial appointments for years!
Thus paving the way for McCONnell's Con-- stealing Merrick Garland's SCOTUS seat. Bottom line, Rick Santorum is another republican HYPOCRITE.
After Office these guys keep their campaign funds, enjoy 24k healthcare at tax payer expense and go work for big bucks as lobbyists or at conservative "think" tanks or PACs.
Our system is broken. weakened by Citizens United, PACs like Koch Bros, Rove, Mercer, et al. Republican gerrymandering and voter restrictions etc.
The only way to correct this is WITH overwhelming Democrat VOTER TURNOUT. That can (I hope) overcome Republican lies and scams "voter fraud" claims and social media meddling not to mention financial advantages.
8
If you're not over the moon over Trump you're clearly going nowhere in the Republican Party. His popularity is just as clearly based not on rational thought but on grievance, hate and resentment. The Republicans will never vote to impeach him and the base will simply deny the facts. The only way to rid ourselves of this pestilence is to stop wasting time attempting to covert them and go to the polls and outvote them. The votes are there and if we are too lazy or indifferent to exercise that vote then we deserve what we get.
6
Passionate stupidity is a necessary ingredient for fascism to take hold. We already have passionate stupidity in spades.
8
the end of the GOP as we know it
2
The Republican Party has created a monster, Donald Trump, that will either destroy them or the United States as a credible power. We must work to support all who oppose Trump to make sure it is the GOP that pays the price for their hypocrisy and not the American people.
5
I have been calling the GOP the CULT OF TRUMP since July 21, 2016, when they nominated him.
Now they are flat out admitting that is what the GOP is. Not a single independent thought in any of their heads, just fealty to Emperor Donald the First. Step out of line, and you get pitched overboard, right Mark Sanford?
We know that Trump is a megalomanic who has a tenuous grip on reality, and a strong preference for reality tv, fake as it is.
This is not going to end well if the CULT OF TRUMP is in control of the 116th Congress begnning in January 2019, based on the election on November 6, 2018.
9
A big mouth spewing forth nonsense leaving in its wake yet more chaos. This is the so-called president of the United States. Once again we are reminded that we have a tragically unprepared and dangerously unprincipled ‘fake’ president who is an unabashed leech and an unrepentant liar.
What a spectacle at just how fast the so-called “successful businessman” in the oval office is proving terribly unfit for the job, and how spineless and feckless a group of cowards McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the GOP are in refusing to come to terms with this reality. It’s a shameful national embarrassment now on full display for all the world to see.
11
I don't believe Trump and his deluded followers have taken over the GOP. Rational and patriotic Americans in the GOP are still there but, like other sensible people, they are waiting for the Trump fiasco to pass. They have good reason to be quiet about our incompetent, petulant and thin-skinned president.
Meanwhile Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders in congress who obviously care more about their party than the country are tolerating Trump as long as they get the things they want, things like more republicans on the supreme court, tax cuts for the rich, killing off the EPA and the CFPB, and rolling back financial regulations of the financial sector. So whether the GOP is Trump's Party or not, the damage is still being done.
5
Pretty soon we will be seeing Congresspeople in airports collecting money to sustain the cult.
As for Santorum, yes, some democrats looked the other way with Clinton, but, alot of it had to do with the way the republicans hounded the man from his first days in office. Maybe if the republicans acted far more adult when Clinton was elected democrats reaction to his affair would have been far different.
Also, two wrongs don't make right.
Because Clinton misbehaved over 20 years ago is no excuse to turn into the Trump cult today.
As a mother and grandmother I cannot help but, ask:
If democrats ate soap, would republicans do so as well??? Is that a reason to do so?
5
They are happy to eat whatever Trump feeds them.
3
1.5 years into the Trump presidency, we the Democrats have to stop accusing him of subverting the party. The GOP has been moving into the far right for decades now. Trump simply was the best person to capitalize on their grievances and their bigoted, anti-working class, anti-progressive policies.
30
What I take from this is that the use of the word "sane" in reference to any GOP candidate has now officially become an oxymoron. You lie down with dogs ...
2
We need data, not narrative and spin.
1) breakdown of the vote (numbers)
2) exit polling
3) mitigating factors:
- voter roll purging
- voter ID cards
- gerrymandering
- electronic voting (hack-able)
- other?
5
It ma be easier for Trumpublicans to win a primary, they have a majority in the Republican party. But, hopefully, they will lose in the general election. Because they are the minority of all voters.
11
Mr. Santorum, please don't equate President Clinton with President Trump. On the policy level, there is absolutely no comparison, and even in making a case for morality, they are not nearly the same circumstances. One was a true leader who was caught in an indiscretion and lied about it, the other a narcissistic tyrant who makes daily transgressions and gets a pass.
2
The weak-kneed GOP is prepared to follow their leader like a bunch of lemmings right off the cliff. They are so protective of their jobs and do not give a thought to what might be good for the country. So afraid "to poke the bear". So afraid to lose their next election. Are they incapable of making a living off the public payroll?
9
The brainwashing power of the liberal dominated press and media has it's limits. They are going berserk and hitting their head against the wall, to no avail.
Bobby Jindal was right, the Republican Party is the "Party of Stupid" now.
9
The pathological state of our country is alarming with the complicit Republicans and willfully ignorant voters owning the destruction of our country that -- in the past -- represented an ideal. This "cult" of criminality and ignorance will end the American ideal. It's already happening, and we will pay the price for this arrogance, cruelty and stupidity.
7
Corey Stewart has not "made his name condemning illegal immigrants." He has made his name supporting white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
15
Trump was underestimated by the press and the voting public.
Is it possible that maybe the press is overestimating Trump's final say in the November elections?
I think most voters, no matter what the State, have grown frustrated enough to want a sensible, common sense approach to what is most troubling since Trump has been in office and the Republican led Congress has stopped doing their job.
I think most companies are extremely upset about the tariffs being imposed by Trump.
I believe that Republicans, Democrats and Independent voters are concerned about having pre-condition Health care problems that are being threatened to be eliminated, about discriminatory Voter ID laws, the price of gasoline, food and utilities skyrocketing and the quality of our water and air being used as a bat to swat us with.
All of these issues affect us now and will be worse in the future for our children and grandchildren.
I think the polls and pundits should be ignored at this point.
They got it all wrong in 2016. And I think they are wrong now.
A few primaries do not a General Election make.
2
Hope you are right.
The ONLY real solution is for a MASSIVE and overwhelming Democratic VOTER Turnout.
Hopefully THAT can overcome Republican gerrymandering, voter restrictions, and all manner of other cheating and manipulation. And let's not forget Vlad the Meddler...
Rockin robin "tweet tweet" LIE LIE. Well Over 3,000 told.
1
Boston suburbs is out of date. I voted for Arrington over Sanford because I wanted Sanford gone, not because he yells at Trump, but because he's an incumbent who needs to leave. I will vote for Arrington's Democratic opponent because we need to turn SC Blue, again. #turnmyredstateblue.
4
So the GOP has become a cult of personality worshipping the Dear Leader. It will be up to us voters to convince him and his cowardly Republican toadies that he is not so dear after all and will soon be consigned to the trash heap of history, along with all the traitors and corrupt grifters in his administration.
27
No one can deny that the Democratic Party didn't accord Barack Obama the SAME cult-deity status when he was giving away so much money in 2009-12.
Oddly, Trump's ratings are HIGHER than Obama's at the same point in their terms of office.
Funny, did you feel the same about the Democratic Party during the Obama years?
We had no reason to.
1
"Elections Cement Trump’s Takeover of Republican Party"
Let's hope that the future of "Trump cement" will come in the form of shoes for the entire Republican Party.
6
I have long been concerned about unchecked immigration, when people who have no interest or education in civic duty, no concern for the environment, and no interest in family planning come to the USA without any educational period of transition, and create more burden on the welfare system, the environment, and isolate in cloistered communities that exacerbate the sense of division in our country. Those who come from countries in which corruption is endemic and expected, rule of law is scoffed at, tyrants and demagogues are worshipped, and tribalism and blind obedience are a basic indoctrination, are certainly a danger to democracy. I find it ironic that the republican party is the fountainhead of these selfsame dangers to our country. This article is a fine case in point.
3
Given the racist platform of the Trump republican party and war against immigration , not to mention the press and the DOJ and Islam, are we seeing the rebirth of Fascism or worse, Nazism ?
6
Republicans have gotten in bed with some strange fellows over the past 30 years: Bigots, racists, homophobes, evangelicals, nationalists, gun nuts and Propaganda 101 victims who have fallen prey to the right's shoot-the-messenger (Fake news!) campaign.
Each of these factions alone can never be a threat to the decency and dignity of our our democratic republic. Indeed, Dems have historically accepted strange bedfellows as well. But Trump has managed to get them all together in one disgusting bed. (This might make for an interesting editorial cartoon,)
Anyway, the solution is simple: Just remember in November to take out a Trumper. Vote against any candidate on the Trump bandwagon. And the way it's looking now, you probably won't waste a vote if you cast it against any white, male, Republican.
4
Too bad the Democrats have largely lost their base. They used to be the 'party of the people'. Remember when?
They are finally out on the open. They have always been here, mostly in the closets, like your drunk uncle Harry. The family black sheep. You kept him in booze and sheltered away, never daring to let him anywhere near anything he could break, never put him in a position where he could harm others. For he surely would break things, and harm people, if you gave him the chance. It was his nature.
All that changed starting with Nixon, then it accelerated with Fox News and Limbaugh, and then Bush and Rove and Cheney. They let the crazies out of the closet - to win elections they knew they couldn't win otherwise. And now, here we are. At the precipice.
We need adults, with courage, morals, and convictions, to push these crazies back into the closet where they belong. Anyone know where we can find some adults in this country anymore?
4
For Sanford to hold office is a travesty. He abandoned his post as Governor to have an affair in Argentina, claiming he was on a camping trip in the Smokies. His right wing views and his staunch supporters in his district seemed to give this massive hypocrite cover. In Virginia it seems the Rs have come up with a sure loser out of the Steve Bannon camp.
1
Glad to see the Republicans honestly embracing their shadow. Jung would be pleased, were he unfortunate enough to still be alive.
3
The seed was planted, nourished, watered, and has finally grown into quite the virulent weed. And now it spreads. American latter day capitalism at its finest.
4
I don’t get it. A Trump endorsement isn’t a sure thing for a candidate (think AL and PA) but crossing him is the kiss of death? How does that work?
2
Trump could not have subjugated the Republican Party without its willing complicity. Conservative politicians at both the federal and state levels, the ones who endorsed Trump and/or who fear the Trump Effect, anyway, have traded their integrity, and their public responsibility, for a member pass to the country club. It is as simple and concrete as that.
2
When a nation forgets its history it is doomed to repeat it. It seems to me I heard this song before it is from an old familiar score.
The life and times of Oliver Cromwell seem familiar to the destruction of what was the USA and the destruction of what were the ideals of America before Ronald Reagan. The return of Arminianism as the state religion seems complete even if most of us have no idea of what Arminianism is .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arminianism
I am a Canadian not a Roundhead, nor a Monarchist nor a neoliberal I believe in Liberal Democracy. Though he made some mistakes I believe Jimmy Carter deserved a second term and Reagan began the destruction of a nation I loved. Trump is proof that the USA no longer exists. The great Nova Scotia statesman, writer and humourist of the early 19th century said it best "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry.
8
'These elections' mark the end of the republican party. Deservedly so. They have morphed into a bunch of scared sheep compromising all their now ancient values (mostly manipulatie to begin with). A cult political movement has a short half life and lasts only until the uninformed supporters get burned. The fake tax reform and trade war of El Trumpo is the beginning of the rude awakening. While it is true trump didn't make this cancerous movement, he slid into the drivers seat being the opportunist and reality show actor he is. But feel-good angry repudiation of quality and competence has no future.
2
They cross Trump at their immediate peril if their top goal in life is reelection. But if they don't cross Trump they will be judged harshly for abandoning the constitution, the republic, ethics, freedom, and conservative values in any sense I can recognize.
1
The NYTimes requests civility. In that spirit I will observe:1. How obvious the paper's editorial board frowns among 'Anything Trump'. 2. How Donald is trumping The Times by winning to the delight of many of us. 3. How glad I am along with a multitude of others that this president is keeping his promises to 'Make America Great Again'.
It's not about Trump ... it never has been ... it about all those we elect to Congress ... and the money they get from their "backers" ...
1
Former Speaker John Boehner was right when he declared, "There is no Republican Party." Anyone with an 'R' by their name who plays ball with Trump is an enabler and a collaborator for this would-be dictator. I have tremendous respect for those REAL Conservatives who have stuck to their "Never Trumper" guns. The GOP has been becoming more radical right-wing since the Tea Party took over in 2010.
8
Trump voters are 'angry' and this protest vote will last in the short term. Eventually, they 'may' figure out they are being used but not before Trump is elected to a second term.
Michael Bloomberg may be the only person that can stop this abomination!
2
A majority of pre-WW2 Germans supported Hitler and his platform of bigotry, blaming minorities for the country's problems and legitimizing the belief of German racial and cultural superiority.
Now remind me, what was the result of Hitler's foreign and domestic policies?
30
What are the differences between how Trump conducts politics and how Germany did in the second half of the 1930's?
"And there's one in the spotlight! He doesn't look right to me! Put him up against the wall!" and his supporters all respond in unison, "Against the wall!". We see it everyday.
If the Democrats can't take control of the House in the mid-terms, it may be time for people-of-conscience to seriously consider leaving the country. And not just them, but anyone who isn't "in-line" with Trump and his agenda for the "purification" of America.
If anyone wondered what is was like to live in Germany from 1933 on, well, you're looking at it. It's so palpable, you can feel it. The meteoric rise of the "cult of personality", and the marginalization of: logic, reason, compassion, morality, empathy, wisdom, and most importantly the truth. - All will be considered heresy, and their practitioners heretics.
Anyone who thinks that Trump isn't well on his way to starting a global war hasn't been paying attention. He has completely alienated and defamed every one of our long term allies. And how do you think Trump is going to react when he finds out that Kim has absolutely no intention of honoring any of the things Trump thought he had "won"? He'll react like he always does. Like a spoiled enfant terrible.
Left unchecked, Trump, like Hitler, will spell the certain destruction of our country for at least half a century. And in the dust of the ruins people will ask, "what happened"?
64
Excellent take on anyone wondering what it was like to live in Germany in the 30's. Wake up America!
2
Many of us in this comment thread are recognizing these same similarities that you point out here. There is no comfort in the fact that many clear-minded, independent-thinking people are making the same observations and coming to the same conclusions. It's chilling. This should be a wake-up call to the rest of America.
Beyond this Place there be Dragons...
3
The plot:
He could start mildly with a trade war on multiple fronts, provoking retaliation of foes and former allies.
Then he could tell his supporters that the inevitable economical decline of the us is the fault of the evil foreigners.
So he can let the trade war escalate into a massive military confrontation to get more people behind him.
The country gets in peril, a state of emergency is proclaimed and the freedom of the press will be abolished. All lawmakers are selected by the president and he inherits his position to his son...
Like the Kim-dynasty does.
It's not unique among Republicans, but their unwillingness to stand up to Trump shows they put their reelection bid way ahead of their country. So much for being patriotic.
4
As usual, the party establishment is the last to process what their party has become. What it has been for a long time, but whose majority, until Trump, wasn't able to install one of their own as leader of the party.
With Trump, that time has come.
And the Republican Party Establishment, all the way back to the 1970's when they allied with the far right, secular and religious, channeled their agenda and embraced their propaganda machine, only have themselves to blame.
They demonized liberalism, sold out conservatism and have now been completely overrun.
So here we are.
5
I love it. Another instance of Trump putting his name on something that someone else built in a branding coup. When it inevitably becomes (morally) bankrupt, he can just cash out and move on.
3
The GOP is no longer the GOP. This is exactly how dictators grab power. The only thing left that separates us from dictatorship is freedom of the press, which is attacked daily.
17
In November, many will learn the peril of supporting him. Generally, the base rules the primaries but you often need far broader support than the base to win the election.
1
"Elections cement trump takeover of republican party." what an outrageous headline to an article in your paper. who are you to print this broad statement? it is no wonder the media has been blamed for the descent of our country to corruption and humiliation. when you take such liberties with reality, you leave yourself vulnerable to educated people to prove what you have written. our president has a brain the size of a gerbil and is no way in creation able to "takeover" a political party. you create this illusion with your reporting, he reads it and then believes it. absolute shame of NYT.
3
Worth sharing:
On June 14th, 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazi's began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
Fast forward to today:
Under President Donald Trump, migrant children are being transported to and held in detention centers in the United States under Trump's zero tolerance policy.
Interviewed, the children say they feel like animals.
If this issue *alone* doesn't unseat Donald Trump and the complicit, silent Republican Party, then we are a rogue nation, a third world banana republic, a cruel dictatorship where the president believes he is king, accountable to no one.
14
I recall clearly Mark Sanford claim the he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail and got lost. Meanwhile he had boarded an international flight and ID'd with his passport, to spend some meaningful time in Argentina with a "babe".
Now there is a judgement call that cost him his marriage and the Governorship of his state. Can you say, "MORON"?
Yet the good people of South Carolina voted to give him a seat in Congress. Can you say, "Pack of Lemmings".
Good riddance to a political grifter and ex-husband.
3
If they loved Sanford they just LOVE Trump who did all Sanford and more, only bigger!
1
Welcome to Nazi-Trump America where immigrant detainee children are forcibly separated from their parents by lies and sequestered in military facilities designed to condition them to a life of incarceration and deprivation.
Meanwhile the Extorter and Criminal in Chief will attempt to maintain his tenuous hold on power by blackmail and bullying his party of lackeys and enablers who allowed him to come to power in the first place by using race baiting and fake internet social networking backed by the Russians, Arabs, and fellow criminal conspirators.
15
The "Grand Old Party" is becoming the American Fascist Party and an existential threat to the country.
12
The liberal tyranny tolerates no opposition. They will label the as some kind of xxxist, demean them, slander them and try to prevent them from speaking and participating in public discourse. The proper term for the current liberal Democrats should be far left, a term they like to tar their oppositions with. Unfortunately the NYT is in bed with them and serving as their propaganda arm.
3
Liberal tyranny? Your paranoia strikes deep. Your country the USA has broadened the splits between its liberals and conservatives. It's politics is the most mean-minded it's been since the Vietnam War. It has all been brought to the fore by Trump's illegitimate election victory - and the ever-growing scandal that has followed it. America is too divided. Some Democrats are too far left. But they are not as far left as today's Republicans are too far right. Trump's devout followers.
18
Liberal "tyranny" is showing a light where those who don't like it live. Liberal "tyranny" is stopping those who would treat others as they will.
2
If you want to know what a real propaganda arm is please take a look at the following from Now This:
https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/fox-news-different-reactions-reg...
2
I've been repeating this often: Every republican is Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is every republican. In today's world there is no such thing as a "good" republican. Even Lindsay Graham is a trump suck-up!
Republicans that speak out against trump aren't really republicans; they are thinking, patriotic Americans and should be welcomed into the Independent fold or even join the Democrat Party.
Supporters of trump are enemies to our Constitution. Vote. Vote. Vote.
5
The press is a full participant in their new branding as the 'enemy camp'. Had they not attempted to slant the coverage from the most negative possible perspective in every case, they would have a firmer leg to stand on. Instead they have reduced themselves to a caricature.
Wow, remember how the press savaged Hillary? Much worse than your boy has gotten.
1
We former Republicans mourn the loss a once great party. What is left is an unAmerican organization that is nothing more than a "cult" around a criminal who gained the white house in what may yet be proven as unlawfully aided by foreign interests. Republicanism now stands for racism, white supremacy, foul language, and "dictatorism" if there is such a word. The rule of law is mocked by this so called party.
16
The GOP is now the POT (Party of Trump)
4
The vast majority of votes had already been cast and counted when Trump tweeted his attack on Mark Sanford 3 hours before the polls closed.
Yet Trump (who was probably informed of exit polls results) was credited with swinging the election against Sanford.
And so now the RNC reaches a new low by issuing an public THREAT to its party members: "Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake."
Did someone say "Cult"?
9
absolutely true. Trump is never in front of any parade, but always claims credit. look at the timing. NYT can do better at investigating.
1
Primary winners of either party usually “pivot” to the center for the general elections. Will Trumpian candidates do so? I doubt it, most of them are cult followers after all. Which means Corey Stewart and the like are going to lose.
3
The best instinct that Trump ever followed was switching parties. The modern GOP base, with it's birth history of the Southern Strategy, has flocked to a candidate like Trump. Trump is the embodiment of their wildest dreams with his unleashed racist rhetoric and patent isolationism. Where are the true conservatives? Do they realize they have sold their very souls for power?
11
Trump makes a pretty good case for the Anti-Christ incarnate.
7
Liberals aren't "winning". Trump has taken over the country, the Senate, House, Judiciary, State and local legislatures,Fox News, Sinclair Group, and the rest of it. NYT sells papers by putting Trump's name and brand in every article. A bra new world.
3
Apparently, the congress people who are for Trump, are willing to sacrifice the constitution for their own jobs. Wow, what a bunch!
6
Sleep with the pig you end up bacon. Fair warning.
9
Other candidates endorsed by Trump lost. So the REAL story is a mixed bag.
3
Mark Stanford went out of his way to criticize Trump? WHy? because he believed the media that everyone dislikes Trump. The media spins and warps the news to fit it hopes. Like this statement in this story “ Sermons about inclusivity have been replaced with demagogic attacks on immigrants and black athletes“ Is it an attack on black athletes or defense of the flag? White athletes kneeled too. Did Trump say that was OK? And did Trump attack immigration? No. He attacked illegal aliens. This is just more media spin.
2
The flag only needs defense from jingoistic rah-rah pseudo-patriots who wrap themselves in it to feel better about their lesser selves.
For the rest of us, the flag needs to stand for something or else becomes a meaningless symbol.
I'm ready to kneel as well, merely as a protest against how Republicans have taken this country into the gutter.
9
"Defense of the flag" is a red herring. Always has been. It is all about control. Its about seeing people perform for you. It is about forcing people to your will.
They are not kneeling for the pledge of allegiance. They knelt during the playing of national anthem.
There is no law requiring one to stand during its playing. And no flag need be present, it is the song that is stood for to honor it. Just as people stand for the Hallelujah Chorus without the need of a king. The tradition of players standing in the NFL goes all the way back to 2009. Outside the NFL the tradition goes back to West Point in 1891 and where people stood and bowed and men uncovered their heads and gained popularity during WWI and baseball.
"Before 2009, teams would generally wait out the national anthem in the locker room. While it is not clear why the change was made, it's noteworthy that the military has a history of paying the NFL for sponsored acts of patriotism, and it's possible this may have had some influence on the perpetuation of the practice." - The Digital Polarization Initiative
7
I'm hoping this is a typo.
"...played a part in Speaker Paul D. Ryan and 39 other House members’ leaving Congress, the most House Republicans not to seek re-election for at least 90 years."
While I worry about what kind of a world we are misshaping for our grandkids, I pray 45 and his ilk won't be around for 90 years.
2
Virginia might want to wake up and see Corey Stewart and Trump as the carpetbaggers that they are.
9
Republican party was destined to have crooks like Trump since long. They destroyed public education to that people do not learn the basics of logic and truth, Promoted religion and racism so that its core vote bank can be mobilized in the name of christian bigotry and white supremacy, appeased corrupt and criminal minded businessmen who have least concern about the country and its people so that the party can get huge election campaign fund. All these practices, that Republican party actively promoted can not help but to strengthen crooks like Trump.
14
So basically the republican party has come to represent all the very worst, most repugnant, despicable "values" that America has repudiated and fought to defeat for the past 200+ years.
Congratulations.
33
The lefties constantly prove they are clueless about the other side. I'm sort of convinced there is a biological/neurological/psychological explanation for the phenomenon of leftie and rightie thinking in humans. This NYT "news story" just proves that the lefties have an incessant need to label everything. On a day when they should be celebrating the World Cup on the front page of their flagship media outlet, the lefties have three headlines diminishing President Trump. Next week, it will back to race and gender. Everything has become Trump and identity rage with them. Meanwhile nothing has changed, except that the era of Obama and HRC is over. So please, continue on labeling lefties.
Right.
The World Cup currently/corruptly now being held in Russia. Something to be embarrassed about being involved with rather than a cause for celebration.
And, sure, a game with grown men kicking a ball is much more important than illegal money-laundering and self-dealing 'charities'.
Glad you've helped to set our priorities straight.
4
No one on the left is trying to deny people equal treatment because of race or gender. Republicans are the ones trying to do that.
5
The sad thing about this article is not that Donald Trump has taken over the Republican Party. It was dreadful before the takeover; starting with Richard Nixon it has become the party of the Confederacy. What is sad and frustrating is that the opposition, people of reason and good will, simply will not get up off their collective behinds and out-vote the Trump cultists. In reality, if we had all voted, we never would have had to endure this administration.
14
I read recently that it's estimated that in California the Republicans make up about 25% of the electorate. Of course it's quite a bit higher in Red and perhaps still in crucial Rust Belt states.
With all this talk of the GOP becoming Trump's party, most of us are hoping the party is shrinking fast, & it may very well may be. Here's hoping the vast majority of curious Trump voters see through the carnival barker cult Trump is cultivating. I guess we'll have to just wait for the midterms before we get some clarity on this.
2
T he press, including the NYT, helped out Trump in the task of taking up the party by giving him the center stage and publishing every single step the man took, however trivial and inconsequential, and amplifying it into a misstep. He has transformed journalism as well. All eyes on him constantly. It is unbearable. Important news elsewhere go unreported--elections in Mexico now, stuff in Europe, let's hope there is some attention to Yemen, but that will be a couple of days before the press allows Trump to become the magnet again. He's playing media with his outrageousness. Leave aside his spectacle and drama. Let's talk about events and social, political and economic analysis and leave the man aside. This is becoming the old-fashioned "great [in this case bad] man" approach to history. Bring in a wider range of analysts with fresh analysis. We are tired of the same voices.
6
There is no Republican party anymore - it is now a brand owned by Trump.
7
Doug Lamborn the rep for the 5th District in Colorado has ads that don't even bother to address one single issue. No healthcare, not one issue of importance to Coloradans.
They point out that his opponents said Donald Trump was unfit and show Doug cozied up to Trump shaking hands.
They say "Donald and Doug".
"I'm a 100% Sycophant" is the message. Hoping it backfires.
4
While most of the blame for the rise of Trump has rightly been placed on the shoulders of Republican voters and party leaders like Ryan and McConnell, I don’t think that we have given enough attention to the cowardice of people like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. When most Republicans decided to turn off their brains and go along with the delusion that the naked emperor was wearing marvelous clothes, these two (and a select few other Republicans) refused to pretend that Trump was anything other than an obviously ignorant and corrupt bully. And then they quit. Their decision to resign and withdraw from the fight for sanity in the GOP sent a very clear signal to everyone – Republican voters, Republican politicians, Fox News – that this was Trump’s party now.
In a way, all of this is quite healthy for American politics. The choice is laid bare: Republican = Trump, Democrat = not Trump. Ideology is entirely irrelevant, at least until this nightmare is over. Our democracy hasn’t faced a clearer test since before the Civil War. Over the next two elections, the American people will make their choice and we will deserve the government we get.
5
Cross Trump at your peril? The results simply don't bare out this reality. You have to look at the numbers but the GOP is split with the advantage breaking slightly in favor of Trump.
In Virginia for example, Stewart didn't even win a majority in his own primary. He only won 44.86% of the vote. Nick Freitas was within 2 percentage points. Minister E.W. Jackson took the remaining twelve percent. Those are hardly encouraging figures for Trump. Maybe Mike Pence can win over the Jackson crowd but Trump is definitely not an established party favorite in Virginia.
You find a similar story in South Carolina. If you take former Democrat and pro-Sanders candidate Dmitri Cherny out of the race, the pro-Trump versus anti-Trump candidates split the vote almost exactly 50-50. Trump has not conolidated his control on the Republican electorate just yet. His "disciples" are winning primaries by very narrow margins. That doesn't bode well for Republicans in the general election.
The problem as I see it is the anti-Trump Republicans are more likely to retire than to voice an objection. Partisan affiliation has overridden principle. If the remaining anti-Trump Republicans would present a unified stand against immorality and incompetence, the scale could just as easily tip they other way. Republicans remain mostly silent though.
The situation is probably good for Democrats. This could spell the end of GOP victories for a very long time.
The Republicans need their own version of Edward R. Murrow to counter the version of Joseph McCarthy that Trump embodies within his party.
2
Jeff Flake already heroically did that on the Senate floor.
Kudos to him.
I'll credit Flake for speaking out against trump. But he's a hollow man, because when it came to voting in congress Flake consistently went along with every ill formed Republican plan, policy and bill. Tax cuts that blow up the deficit. Sure, why not. Wreck healthcare. OK. And so on.
Sadly Flake, Corker, et al do NOT demonstrate the courage of their so called convictions. And McCONnell is a flat out party over country hypocrite and LIAR.
2
The GOP brought this self-destruction entirely on themselves by constantly pandering to right-wing nonsense, starting with Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Now they have a hollowed-out party that will soon collapse into its own rotten core.
Good riddance.
4
I think it absolutely chilling to know that roughly half of the electorate is on-board with Trump. That means they approve of his personality, they approve of his nationalism, they approve of his racism, and they don't think it important for the leader of our country to have the ability to personally express himself. All those Americans think that Twitter is a good way to communicate. They all love Putin and Kim. They don't mind being lied to on a daily basis.
Half of America is lost. I simply don't understand, and I'm worried.
8
The simple fact is Trump has performed a hostile takeover of the republican party. Even if democrats take control of the house or senate in November the republicans in the congress and state houses will be owned and controlled by Trump. Be prepared because the politics and behavior of Trump since his election have only been a prelude to the all out war the will occur after November.
3
As a moderate voter who has registered independent since I was 18 years old, the "long-term political concerns" are correct. I am an independent because I believe both sides have good ideas and bad. At the very least, I wanted to be able to keep the door open for my own internal discussion on matters. Being an independent meant that I was taking the symbolic stand for balance.
Mr. Trump destroyed that notion entirely.
From the moment I read his policy platform during the election, I was dismayed by the lack of substance and presence of vitriol within Mr. Trump's ideology. But, I reasoned, there was quite a bit of vehement push-back against him during the primaries, so the conservative based would temper Mr. Trump's idiosyncrasies.
Throughout this presidency, the actions of conservatives have shown that hope was hugely misplaced. Their silence and support shows one thing only: that Mr. Trump is their man, period.
How can I listen to the side that gives a voice to the autocratic ramblings of a democratically elected president? How can I stand by and watch as that president is not rebuffed for insulting our agencies and our staunchest allies, all while praising our long-time adversaries? How I accept that Republicans no longer care about open trade, but instead want to revert to 1920's style protectionism?
The moderates of this country may have a quieter voice than those on the extremes, but we listen very well. The Republican party has lost my ear entirely.
46
Saying that Trump has transformed the Republican Party is inaccurate and lets Congressional Republicans off the hook for their cowardice and venality. Trump has pointed out some really vile and disgusting directions he wants the party to go — but it’s the Republicans in Congress who have allowed it to happen. They are the ones who have transformed the party.
60
Trump the Bully has everyone where he wants them right now.
Problem is He only does things to benefit Himself. Sure the followers lay down before him now because not much has changed for them except the false promise of 'winning'.
By the time the GOP gets its grubby hands on health care and takes away access and affordability and then takes away Social Security and Medicare to balance the budget, the trickle down increase in people's paychecks will signify nothing.
Here's hoping that GOP policy failures will eventually turn the focus off of the selfish Bully and return a measure of sanity to our fellow citizens. Where the GOP party goes after Trump is their problem to figure out. They have brought the eventual reckoning on themselves and I hope it hurts.
The rest of us have to focus and work hard. And Vote.
13
The GOP is someday going to pay dearly for this unprincipled embrace of the charlatan and con man Trump: to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives.
For Republicans, Trump is going to end up like that tattoo you wish you had never gotten.
42
Thank God the sane people in America haven’t fallen under the spell of Trump. We are still a majority.
9
And what did that get us? He's president. We can’t seem to change that.
2
I hope so.
It's too bad we don't have term limits for congress. That might help a few find their missing spines.
59
The Republican party's shrinking demographic has informed over the last fifty odd years a strategy based in a large part on increasingly hysterical rhetoric exhorting its base to vote. Trump rode that wave into the White House, in the process transforming the party into little more than a foaming at the mouth caricature of itself. It is not clear the party has a path back. It survives for the moment because Democrats have so far been unable to find their back ends with both hands.
5
We owe the wannabe dictator Trump to TV addiction and GOP members of Congress who would sell their own children to be re-elected. I'm just glad that most Americans who fought and died for this country are not here to see what we've done with their sacrifice.
35
Anyone who sought deferrals five separate times to blatantly avoid military service is not qualified to be commander in chief. Trump doesn't know the first thing about military service or sacrifice. The shameful spectacle of his lame attempts at consoling grieving families who have lost loved ones defending the country is a repugnant and sickeningly galling.
1
I would wager that ALL Americans who fought and died for their country are not here to see what you've done.
Trump doesn't have a policy or an ideology, he has a personality.
6
And the GOP is his cult
2
If the Republican brand is to vilify those not like us, to turn our back on proven, trusted allies and then to support ruthless dictators, to ignore profligate misogyny, collusion with the Russians and to support candidates who have been credibly accused pedophiles, then they will not win in the end.
10
Trump has Republican politicians between a rock and hard place. One can only imagine they too are looking at Mueller and the NY District Attorney as their personal "get out of jail" card.
4
Donald John Trump is primarily working for and beholden to his major master election benefactor Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
While Putin sends his foes to hospitals, mental institutions, prisons, urns and coffins, Trump fights by tweets and speeches.
Trump is focused on enhancing his profitable occupation of the White House by whatever he is hiding from the American people in his personal and family income tax returns and business records.
Trump rules by pride and the love of money while being ignorant, immature incompetent inexperienced intemperate and insecure by nature and nurture.
37
Whether you're a Republican or Democrat your allegiance should be to the United States of America, then the people that elected you and lastly to the president.
Putting all your faith into one person has been shown by history to be disastrous.
There are to many historical events to name but right now the GOP almost seem to be doing just like the followers of Jim Jones and drinking the cool-aid and we all know how that turned out.
10
Trump is the school yard bully that no one wants to tangle with, for fear of being his next target—until someone with nothing to lose stands up and punches him in the nose. Flake and Corker could be those guys, but apparently they are still under the thrall of their leader, though I can’t imagine why, since he already trashed them.
Oh—“the House will vote next week on two tougher measures that the White House is helping write to accommodate Mr. Trump.” Whatever happened to separation of powers? Another blatant thumbing of the nose at our constitution, and no one calls them out on it.
28
Trump is such an idiosyncratic opportunist leaving a mess behind him, it is hard to imagine his "charismatic" vision institutionalized though his legacy will be a broken system
3
In the long run, Trumpism will weaken the GOP. The party won't be able to cloak its nastiness with free market or religious bromides anymore. That won't affect the 33% or so who are filled with right-wing bile, but it'll show the rest quite clearly who they are.
4
The 48% of the Republicans who voted for Sandford and the other candidate can leave their November ballot blank or vote Democratic for one election.
The headline for this story is misleading since Republicans have been leaving the party in droves. Indeed, an unprecedented number of Republican congressman are choosing to retire instead of caving into the Trump Syndrome. All that is left is a remnant of the Party that will likely be swept away in the not too distant future. Independents are now the dominant force in politics so Republicans have sealed their fate by driving away almost all but the most extreme elements of their own party. Sanford's primary loss, for example, reflects the fact that reasonable members of his own party have left; leaving mostly Trump robots behind. Oddly enough the closed primary systems so prevalent today may heavily favor Democrats in the general election(s). Regardless, the winds of change are creating some waves.
4
Here's what I'd like to see if the media weren't so darned lazy. I'd like to see how Trump's "high approval ratings" correlate with defections from the Republican Party. I wonder how many old-timey Republican "conservatives" are comfortable and happy with the direction in which their party is going. Is EVERY registered Republican ecstatic over Trump? Somehow I doubt that. I wonder if my neighbor a few doors down will vote for Republicans in November. I wonder if he'll vote at all.
2
The question is has the Republican party changed so quickly, or is this what the party really has been all along with a "politically correct" mask of free trade, family values, and fiscal responsibility been ripped off?
Given how quickly and easily it was done I have to suspect the mask has come off what was always there. There has been talk of a third party but Trump simply took over an existing one leaving the traditional party member out in the cold.
Ironically the party of Trump is proudly the new RINOs, casting off what "Republican" has meant where they cynically have kept the name but none of the previous values of the Republican party. But should they still call themselves Republicans? Aren't they misusing that brand? Maybe the Trumpists? The Dixiecans? The Tories?
4
Yet isn't this the logical endpoint of the process that Reagan started? The Republican party became the party of Corporate Authoritarianism. Everything else is lip service to various loyal interest groups (religious fundmentalists, working class and rural whites). But let's give a nod to people who helped this process along, Newt Gingrich and his scorched Earth politics prominent among them.
4
This bizarre transformation of the GOP may drive rational Republicans with conscience to become independents and caucus with the Democrats (as Senator Jeffords did in 2001).
5
It has been said may times before. The Republicans lost legitimacy when they actually began to use identity politics with a useful mix of subtle racism, evangelicalism and celebration of ignorance as an anti elitist virtue ( think Palin). Trump was the icing on a cake that had already been baked.
This is not the beginning of the end. It looks more like the end of the end.
5
This is the Republican Party. It's the Party created and shaped by a five-decade campaign to discredit journalism, and a focused two-and-a-half decade campaign to nurture their message through a right-wing media bubble. The Trump Party is just the natural, expected evolution of a party driven by white Christian identity politics to serve billionaires. You can't dodge it, Sanford or Flake or Corker; this is the Republican Party you helped usher in.
24
It is time they adopt the courage to brand themselves properly. They are Trumpists. Let's accommodate their new identity and never let them forget it.
5
I have voted for republicans in the past, however, I have never subscribed to party ideology from both parties as I see those ideologies as embracing the ideals and morals of those who author those beliefs which includes the corporate sponsors of the candidates and the parties.
With the toxic hate-spewing we have seen, in particular those who subscribe to the Trump mantra of me first, monied people next, and a willingness to put self over party and country I find I can never vote for a member of Trump’s Old Party unless that person will work for us and not Trump.
This also applies to the Democrats. However, their morals are at times on a higher plain.
In my 70 years I have never seen politics this disastrous.
Nixon would be a step up from this sewer our politics and politicians are now residing in.
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Let's slow your roll there with making the President the big bad boogeyman that has sway over the land - he doesn't.
Sanford was a deeply flawed candidate, and Virginia was a mess for republicans, and in the throws of a backlash over race politics. (ground zero for the country)
Having said that, Democrats are still poised to win in deeply red districts and are frankly irrelevant, if Democrats decide to show up in numbers for coherent candidates.
On to the blue wave !
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FunkyIrishman: also keep in mind that Virginia is an "open" primary; that is, a registered Democrat can receive and vote for a ballot for the Republicans. I'm willing to bet quite a few Dems did that to get Corey Stewart on the ballot, knowing how unpalatable he is to a large number of voters...
If you beat a dog everyday it will cringe and cower. That sounds a lot like our Republican Congress. The losers here are the American citizens . . . even if they don't realize it.
Shame rewritten!
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One question is, what happens to the Republican brand after the president leaves office, after either being voted out in 2020 or being obliged to leave in 2024 per the Constitution? The message to Democrats, Republicans and voters is not to expect any revolt or uprising against the president at all, until he is ousted or is removed, which isn’t going to happen.
Republican hopefuls, while not thrilled with president on a personal level, nonetheless seek a safe haven under his banner so as not to ruffle the feathers of hardliners. The president is like Huey Long, the Louisiana “Kingfish”, a loose cannon and populist who was wildly popular could do no wrong in bayou country. It’s personal charisma, not ideology, that’s important to Republican voters today.
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"after either being voted out in 2020 or being obliged to leave in 2024"
Or 2018.
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Yours is a good point.
How is today's GOP different than the Mob or Louisiana politics back in the day? Trump's lying in the name of Jesus to evangelicals has to be the strangest yet.
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Why do you assume he is leaving office? If you listen to his statements and read his tweets he is very envious of Fascist dictators and despises anyone who is not autocratic. Trump has joked about being a permanent president. Donald jr is gearing up to run in 2024.
Unless the Republicans take hold of reality there will only be a Trump party in Trumpmerica. Republicans have become craven and are failing in line as in any fascist state. RNC chairperson acknowledged yesterday that it is no longer the Republican Party but rather the Trump party.
Where is the public? Where are the Democrats? If there is no enthusiasm by opponents of Trumperica voting in 2018 it is over.
The rebranding of the Republican Party is a sadly curious thing. They no longer care about fiscal responsibility or “conservatism”. Instead it’s become a mutant that’s directionless and angry. A hard-right hodgepodge. The main signifiers now are a racist immigration policy, tax breaks for the donor class and economic protectionism for industries that have done a good job making themselves irrelevant. If you take those three things in total and follow them to their logical conclusion I don’t see how those are winning issues in the long term.
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Winning issues in the long term? Nothing makes sense any more, thanks to Trumpism.
I recall that leading into the 2016 presidential campaign, the "smart money" was that Donald Trump had a slim to zip chance of winning the GOP nomination.
FiveThirdyEight empanelled a trio of political data experts who estimated Trump's chances at the nomination at 2% or less (this was in summer 2015).
Well, he was nominated -- upending everything we think we know about presidential nominations!
Logic has been thrown out the window. The defenestration of common sense is complete.
1
If you take a hard look at the numbers. it is rather difficult to make the case for fiscal responsibility by Republicans since the days of Ronald Reagan. Truthfully, it has been one big sham show finally and fully revealed with the GOP's latest tax package. As to "winning issues in the long term", the results of the mid-terms may have something to say about that.
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well said.
Our nation is split between those who abhor the post WW II moderately liberal agenda (shared by both Democrats and Republicans) that “made America great” including lifting their own incomes and who want to blow up the system in hopes of somehow “making America great again” and, on the other side, those who care for the employed (not so much the unemployed), the employers and stable, trustworthy international friendships.
Can there be a common ground in which those who feel disadvantaged are cared for; the wealthy agree to do with a little less for the common good; and politicians speak simply but comprehensively about issues, their causes and consequences?
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Nope! Never happen...
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What you've observed is the difference between the Baby Boomer generation and the generation that brought them to life. The Greatest Generation that ever lived may not be remembered that way unless their children stop destroying the future of the country for their own short term gains. And no, I really don't see anything significant changing until the younger generations are in power. The Baby Boomer generation will go down as the worst generation in our country's history, that is assuming our country even makes it beyond their rule without going bankrupt. Once generation X or the Millennials are in control then there may be some hope for change, but until then, it'll be status quo.
Why that would be...un-American!
The authors have it wrong; Donald Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot but he—his disruptive, dissonant, destructive personality and policies—certainly are. If one examines his voting bloc, it can clearly be seen that, regardless of location, one town or county or state—all things considered—could be transplanted to another locale and the pro-Trump percentages would not be markedly different from where they originated. What am I saying? The Trump voter isn’t so much a stereotype as much as he/she is a monolith.
Corey Stewart and his nostalgic embrace of Confederate memorabilia find just as much of a deep resonance in, say, Wisconsin, as in Virginia. His extreme views have their adherents in every state.
But the danger of Trump’s ascendancy In American politics is his complete, absolute, and total subjugation of the Republican Party—a every level. His governing philosophy is such that he tells his “base”: “no one’s home so let’s get everything we can before they get back and if we have to destroy the house, let’s do it.” This may seem extreme but consider the complete, almost abject paralysis on Capitol Hill; no legislation is being presented, much less passed. The Democratic opposition, in the minority, is useless, its utility reduced to protest.
When was the last time we heard anything from Mitch McConnell or Paul lame-duck (emphasis on “lame”) Ryan? Politically, they’re eunuchs.
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Hear hear! Well said
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But the minority had rules that they could use to be heard. and to have a voice at a place at the decision making table. That's the way the framers balanced power, to keep one party from doing exactly what the GOP is doing now. The are willing to destroy the fabric, of the country, in some backward plan, that they think will bring them back to the 1950s Jim Crow era policies.
I believe that the GOP will face the same firestorm that the Democrats faced after passage of the ACA. More people in this country are moderate than far right, most rational, reasonable people realize that Trump isn't the face of this county, in the sense that he speaks for the majority. Sure he speaks for the majority of HIS party. But as I said, in politics there is a whipsaw effect, so what seem like an eternity to wait, the midterms, will change the landscape of the GOP, and most certainly the economy. It won't be long before the retaliatory tariffs start to hurt the Trumps base.
They may be uneducated, backward, and not able to think critically, but they will understand policies that Trump and the GOP are putting forward, designed to make america great again, aren't working and they are even worse off than before Trump, but by then, for them it will be too late. They've chosen their side and, cast their lot, they will have to live with the unintended consequences of trade tariffs. and a government that will need their tax dollars, and they will take it from the base.
Trump is not rebranding the GOP. He has merely stripped away the last traces of the ideological facade used to mask the underlying truth … and ugliness. From Reagan forward, the party has been built on the politics of resentment, greed and amassing power at any and all costs. Take away tax cuts and there is nothing left in terms of domestic policies aimed at improving the greater good. Foreign policy driven by jingoism and American arrogance seems to be "all about me, me, me … all the time." The only thing Trump deserves credit for is unmasking the unbelievable hypocrisy that holds this coalition together.
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Great point. It’s also telling that the red states that espouse “bootstrap-ism” and small government self-reliance are the same states that rely the most on Federal tax dollars. I wonder how long it will be before the rubber meets the road on that dichotomy? I’m not holding my breath. It seems like there is a large portion of the electorate that dearly wants to live like 19th century homesteaders, obstinate beyond reason. “Just let me keep my gun and keep anyone that doesn’t look like me far away and I’ll be as happy as a clam.”
2
Spot on, well said.
Tax cuts are not 'for the greater good' but mainly benefit the rich. Trump's cuts for the rich have raised the budget deficit at the cost of the less well off and the poor, including many Trump supporters!
1
A few specific policies have changed, but the party has not. Look at their behavior in response to President Obama: they had already perfected the use of propaganda & hatred to drive politics. They had embraced the idea that the end justifies the means. Supporting a crackpot like Trump is simply another trick to exercise power. It is no different from holding the country's credit hostage to politcal demands, holding fake investigations of political opponents, suppressing votes, or designating Supreme Court seats for their own party. They can, so they do. So they reverse a few policies. DIdn't they reverse themselves on health insurance reform & the individual mandate? On cap & trade? On immigration reform? On climate change? Politics is strictly a weapon for them. The goal is power for themselves and the financial interests that fund them, not government.
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This is the opening act of what is to become of the U.S. It turns out that the values of inclusiveness, diversity, equality, human rights and all other feel good slogans are just for the consumption of the gullible.
The country is deeply polarized with the prospect of reconciliation very remote. The Republican voters will vote for Trump regardless of the demagoguery, authoritarian tendency, isolationism, protectionism, racism, corruption and very ill-informed utterances coming from Trump.
Even if, and this is a big if since the Republican voters will be mobilized and motivated this November to ensure that the Trumps' agendas will not be derailed, the Democrats may be able to take control of either the House or Senate this November, the country will remain bitterly polarized.
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The Resistance speaks boldly of the "Blue Wave" that will come in November. Believe me, I want to surf that wave. However, I was burned by the faulty polling in 2016...not gonna touch that stove again. We have to get registered voters to vote in the mid-terms!
1
And the Republicans will continue to believe that God and not the DOJ or DNC sanctions inclusiveness, diversity, equality
and human rights.
The reshaping of the Republican Party has been going on for decades. This is the culmination of the conservative project - to destroy the New Deal and take back what they feel is rightfully theirs. No one who has listened to what has been propagated on right wing radio in the heartland is surprised. FOX was just a mild version of the hatred and lies that have been fed to many for generations. Propaganda works if it is unopposed. We see the results in our country today. The damage will not be quickly undone. The Resistance is working, but we need to understand it will be the work of a lifetime, at least.
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"The Resistance is working, but we need to understand it will be the work of a lifetime, at least."
I am 84 and for the first time in a long while I have come upon words that are dispiriting to the nth degree. I really had convinced myself that I would live to see a return to a USA like the one I came to in 1956.
We have two parties, but neither has a monopoly on good ideas. For too long, citizens have fallen into tribalism, and lost their independent thought.
Trump saves us from that. He's not really a Republican - he implemented a hostile takeover of their party.
Trump is using the best ideas from both parties.
For example, Trump's views and actions on "fair" trade are basically the same as Sanders', and directly antithetical to decades of Republican "free" trade ideology. Why else did he win all the Rust Belt states, traditional Dem territory, when no other Republican has done that for decades?
As another example, Trump is retaliating against NATO and EU countries for taking advantage of us. This is actually an Obama idea - he called them "free-riders" and instituted what he called a "anti-free rider campaign." We defend them, and they use the hundreds of billions saved to offer free health care and college to their citizens, while we can't even offer proper health care to our vets. But Obama's campaign wasn't sufficient and accomplished nothing. So Trump has simply taken a Dem initiative to the next level so he can get results.
So when the Times writes that Trump has taken over the Republican party - it's right. Trump isn't bound by any ideology. He isn't bought by the banks like establishment Dems (e.g. Hillary) and Republicans are, or by any other industry. Trump has merged the best ideas from the left and the right.
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U.S. banks wouldn't lend Trump money so he turned to an adversary of the U.S.
If you think Trump cares anything about health care, wages etc. for any American citizen I've got a really nice bridge to sell you.
The only thing Trump is doing is making China great. Kiss America goodbye!
Trump has not merged any ideas - Trump is concerned with one thing only - Trump. He seeks constant personal attention and looks for ways to enrich himself and his family, everything else just kind of moves around that. He is amoral and has no sense or interest in helping the average American solve the real problems they face every day. Trump is for Trump.
1
Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million, blue state voters are moving to red states for cheaper housing, the country's demographics are changing by the day. The GOP must have alot of trust in the Electoral College and Gerrymandering to cast their lot in with Trump.
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They have a lot of faith in Neil Gorsuch. He won't let them down.
And don't forget voter suppression. They rely a lot on that in certain states. They can also rely on the ignorance of facts and truth from a lot of his supporters. But more purple will change the dynamics.