Talk about making a deal with the devil.
46
Ross –
Hoist in your own murderous petard. Please tell us again how you were just an innocent bystander while all of this happened.
Hoist in your own murderous petard. Please tell us again how you were just an innocent bystander while all of this happened.
46
"Ross Douthat
Politics, religion, moral values and higher education."
Give me a break!
Politics, religion, moral values and higher education."
Give me a break!
4
The sources of Trump's rise are complex and should not be laid on the GOP. We may have to acknowledge the evolution of what is now passing as TV journalism and its entertainment character. We may have to go back to the changes that took place when journalists like Walter Cronkite were compromised and weakened by competitive notions of what sells and what grabs attention. With that, the distinction between information and opinion, objective reporting and limited focus on serious topics became blurred. The glorification of knowing nothing by the GOP added to that development. Going back to the early months before the primaries, the media - TV, radio, and print - was attracted to Trump because he was sure to bring viewers and listeners, never mind that covering his undemocratic rhetoric without critical analysis was harmful to the society at large. We are now faced with disinformation campaigns waged by Putin and (unwitting?) surrogates like Trump, who have taken advantage by stirring up the dissatisfaction of a segment of the population who have been manipulated to vote against their interests, not a new phenomenon.
19
It appears to be a forgone conclusion that Hillary will win the Presidency but the aspirations for local appointments are where democrats have trouble. One reason for it is how businesses and republican governors have been playing communities against each other for tax breaks with the result being cities and counties having to float levies to support emptying treasuries. You're probably experiencing one now. Republicans have no problem with under funding services and schools; they've always been hostile to them and have always supported privatization of those services. They hold privatization to be in keeping with Freedom in general and how to make taxes go away. Where the benefits land are in the laps of businesses and their highest paid administrators ; the bonuses are where under funded government services are transferred to their resting place. Its a festering internal wound that is completely misunderstood due to all the emotion dime store media feeders have built up. It works in part because malcontents hate their jobs and they hate their jobs because they're underpaid and undertrained. Nothing is going to trickle down because Trump gives tax breaks to businesses if the owners of the businesses don't decide to have it trickle down. Its an perspective republicans can't have because supply side is all they have. Funny, because Demand side is the only economic policy that makes any sense.
22
My question is, assuming HRC wins, where is all the anger of the Trump voters going to go? Will it dissipate or will Trump stir it up with some new even more unhinged than Fox news network. And what will that mean for the future of our country? That open letter from the metro editor about being yelled at to "go back to China" has really stayed with me. Maybe it has nothing to do with the Trump phenomenon but it sure doesn't feel like that. That constant demonizing of the non-white other is just crazy politics -- Asian Americans should absolutely be in play for the GOP but not when it's clear that the nominee and the core base doesn't even think they are American. What will emerge? Will the non-Trump GOP cast off these angry voters and try and launch a more positive vision or will we divide up our parties on educational lines? Smug elites can be really off putting, but I will side with the college educated who know that America is still great and a work in progress over the angry reactionaries who think we can go backwards to some mythical golden age.
54
I always read your columns. But just remember, Trump is simply the tip of a much larger problem. We elect people that shortly after do not represent us anymore. The country is sick, very sick, and if those elected to Congress and Senate do not do anything, we put our hopes in a person like Trump. Of all of the negative things you can say about him, Hillary and her cohort are WAY WORSE for our country. If she wins by some fraudulent way (she never filled a venue and Bernie's voters will not vote for her) the country will see in my opinion very dark days. Douhat, please change your mind.
6
Funny how this sounds a bit like something out of Tacitus: a toxic political system in free-fall somehow lends itself to eloquent denunciation and careful analysis. This spectacle is oddly compelling and horrifying as chaos, hysteria, and fear metastasize across the body politic.
44
As of Monday morning, I made a list of what I believe are the Congress members who are still supporting Trump. Due to the allowed limits for the NYT, I can only send the Senate portion. It's alphabetical, so if you find your representative, email him and ask the question... "Are you going to vote for Trump?" I did this with my GA guys, Hice, Perdue and Isakson; All three responded and none said "No". Instead I was told how catastrophic a Hillary Clinton administration would be for our country.
Senators for Trump
Roy Blunt, MO
John Boozman, AR
Richard Burr, NC
Bill Cassidy, LA
Dan Coats, IN
Thad Cochran, MS
Bob Corker, TN
John Cornyn, Maj. Whip, TX
Tom Cotton, AR
Ted Cruz, TX
Mike Enzi, WY
Joni Ernst, IA
Chuck Grassley, IA
Orrin Hatch, Pres. pro tempore, UT
Jim Inhofe, OK
Johnny Isakson, GA
Ron Johnson, WI
Mitch McConnell, Maj. Leader, KY
Jerry Moran, KS
Rand Paul, KY
David Perdue, GA
Pat Roberts, KS
Marco Rubio, FL
Jeff Sessions, AL
Tim Scott, SC
Thom Tillis, NC
David Vitter, LA
Roger Wicker, MS
Senators for Trump
Roy Blunt, MO
John Boozman, AR
Richard Burr, NC
Bill Cassidy, LA
Dan Coats, IN
Thad Cochran, MS
Bob Corker, TN
John Cornyn, Maj. Whip, TX
Tom Cotton, AR
Ted Cruz, TX
Mike Enzi, WY
Joni Ernst, IA
Chuck Grassley, IA
Orrin Hatch, Pres. pro tempore, UT
Jim Inhofe, OK
Johnny Isakson, GA
Ron Johnson, WI
Mitch McConnell, Maj. Leader, KY
Jerry Moran, KS
Rand Paul, KY
David Perdue, GA
Pat Roberts, KS
Marco Rubio, FL
Jeff Sessions, AL
Tim Scott, SC
Thom Tillis, NC
David Vitter, LA
Roger Wicker, MS
13
This approach required prominent Republicans to present the country with a presidential nominee whom they themselves considered unfit for the office. It required them to spend the general election campaigning for a man whose potential victory many of them regarded with all-too-reasonable dread.
Ross
Where I come from this called spineless cowardice
Ross
Where I come from this called spineless cowardice
25
One of the ironies of Donald Tump is that he is having a clarifying affect on national politics. He has laid bare the divisions, hypocrisy, and in some cases the outright ugliness of the Republican party. He is forcing the conservative electorate to choose. Those who have been in the middle are paying or will pay a price for not choosing.
He has also exposed the American political system for what it is: Corporate Politics. This "Inferno" will eventually extend to the Democratic party. Hillary is not the great uniter. She is a much better candidate and choice than Donald Trump. At some point, the liberal version of Trump will surface and begin tearing down the current liberal political structure as well.
He has also exposed the American political system for what it is: Corporate Politics. This "Inferno" will eventually extend to the Democratic party. Hillary is not the great uniter. She is a much better candidate and choice than Donald Trump. At some point, the liberal version of Trump will surface and begin tearing down the current liberal political structure as well.
13
The chickens have merely come home to roost. The Republican party is reaping what it has long sown. The party has given succor and safe haven to a host of xenophobes, racists, mysoginist, birthers, gun-fetishist, evengelical extremists, homophobes, climate change deniers and anti-intellectual right wingers.
They now find that they can no longer control these groups that they once played like a fiddle, by courting and exploiting their biases and insecurities. I am not surprised that they now find it difficult to control the forces they once used to ensure their grip on power.
They now find that they can no longer control these groups that they once played like a fiddle, by courting and exploiting their biases and insecurities. I am not surprised that they now find it difficult to control the forces they once used to ensure their grip on power.
66
"...the alternative scenarios really were quite ugly..."
Well, there was the alternative scenario of sane leaders rising to the dire occasion and doing a massive reset on the Republican Party. But that would require confessing to great stupidity and dysfunction.
Since that didn't happen -- bring on the ugliness of a Republican crash and burn election.
Well, there was the alternative scenario of sane leaders rising to the dire occasion and doing a massive reset on the Republican Party. But that would require confessing to great stupidity and dysfunction.
Since that didn't happen -- bring on the ugliness of a Republican crash and burn election.
33
Great article for making me think about the relationship between legitimate conservative ideology that has had and should have a seat at the table of democracy, and the effects those ideas have had over time resulting in the renting chaos of the political party that promotes them. However, this collapse of the GOP is a result of mishandling those legitimate conservative ideas, and is not just the normal progression they would have over time as the are applied and pressed into action. While I am a progressive liberal, I respect the rights of others to hold and seek to enact conservative ideas, and what I see is a nasty mix of gross negligence and incompetence in trying to work with them by the Republican Party leadership: hence Trump.
19
I love the reference to dolchstoss, but perhaps the other required German reference would be to Appeasement?
7
If the party had had any good alternative to Trump in Cruz, then it could possibly have averted this massive faultline, which has finally been exposed. But by enabling "conservatives" like Cruz and their disruptive ilk over the last eight years, their options were extremely limited. Traditional Republicans like Kasich were sidelined, along with good sense and intelligent choices.
Trump fulfills the findings of my scholarly work (radical right wing religious movements) in its trajectory: nativism (anti-immigrant proceeds to pro-white dominance), then to populism (mob sentimentality; anti-intellectualism), and ultimately, if unchecked, to fascism (hyper-nationalism; appeal to violence; authoritarianism). The road to the f-bomb word runs through a series of steps: a liberal government that governs weakly is attacked by a rising movement that subverts traditional institutions, takes them over, executes a putsch via the weak response of the conservative party, and replaces all establishments with its own "third way" believers.
Fascism is always the potential evil lurking in a republic, and when the "leader" arises, a weak and divided or paralyzed democratic government can fall to its political aggression.
The antidote is voting in a resilient president and a congress willing to unite in governing the nation in an increasingly challenging world. Clinton is a centrist who can work with a moderate congress.
Trump fulfills the findings of my scholarly work (radical right wing religious movements) in its trajectory: nativism (anti-immigrant proceeds to pro-white dominance), then to populism (mob sentimentality; anti-intellectualism), and ultimately, if unchecked, to fascism (hyper-nationalism; appeal to violence; authoritarianism). The road to the f-bomb word runs through a series of steps: a liberal government that governs weakly is attacked by a rising movement that subverts traditional institutions, takes them over, executes a putsch via the weak response of the conservative party, and replaces all establishments with its own "third way" believers.
Fascism is always the potential evil lurking in a republic, and when the "leader" arises, a weak and divided or paralyzed democratic government can fall to its political aggression.
The antidote is voting in a resilient president and a congress willing to unite in governing the nation in an increasingly challenging world. Clinton is a centrist who can work with a moderate congress.
20
Just as some Southern Democrats had a lot of explaining to do about their former KKK affiliation, today's Republicans will have to justify their support for Trump.
That bus ride was a workplace, carrying Trump and Billy Bush between job sites. As a result, employment law applies, including Title VII which prohibits discrimination, intimidation and creating or permitting a hostile work environment.
Most places would have terminated any employee caught using that language given all the evidence prior violation. Instead, the Republican Party is still promoting the guy to the Oval Office.
All Republicans will have to explain how they could support a sexist, racist, xenophobic tax dodger. That will take some time to live down.
That bus ride was a workplace, carrying Trump and Billy Bush between job sites. As a result, employment law applies, including Title VII which prohibits discrimination, intimidation and creating or permitting a hostile work environment.
Most places would have terminated any employee caught using that language given all the evidence prior violation. Instead, the Republican Party is still promoting the guy to the Oval Office.
All Republicans will have to explain how they could support a sexist, racist, xenophobic tax dodger. That will take some time to live down.
16
The GOP elite who manage the party message and agenda have out-smarted themselves. They assembled the new GOP base by using lies and distortions to appeal to ignorance and bigotry and to dupe gullible people into voting against their own interests. Now Trump, the personification of ignorance and bigotry, has come along and beaten them at their own game. The elite have an unmanageable core base and an equally unmanageable nominee. There is no escape without destroying the phony and illogical alliances that are the GOP. The GOP richly deserves to crash and burn. The country deserves better.
22
Mr. Douthat has pointed out some very good things that came of the primary results: first, that Trump knocked out Rubio early on (it's arguable that Gov. Christie knocked Rubio out when he said "There it is!" referring to Rubio's robotic recitations). Second, Trump established that the GOP cannot stand Ted Cruz so no further worries on that point. And third, by clearing away the "traditional" Republicans like Kasich and Bush, he's paved the way for the 2020 nominee, and a formidable choice at that: Liz Cheney.
Say what you will about Mr. Douthat (I certainly have), but his column is almost always good for a new vocabulary word or two. "Dolchstoss"- from German, literally "dagger-stab".
15
Republican politicians' problem is not with Donald Trump. It's with the tens of millions of foaming-at-the-mouth, gun-toting, immigrant-bashing, "establishment"-hating white voters who rightly saw him as their only true champion in this election. They nominally "belong" to a party whose leaders have no interest in addressing their real needs but can't win elections without their votes. Until now they've kept them on board with opposition to gay marriage, abortion, and affirmative action, but in the wake of the Great Recession that stuff won't cut it anymore. To survive the party will have to embrace not just a tax-evading, misogynistic lout like Donald Trump but the millions of Americans who made his candidacy possible.
26
Trump is gearing up to begin an ultra-conservative news network. His rants are intended to keep him topical through the election. No-one should believe he doesn't already understand he's lost.
20
Truly, in a way it is all for the best. Hillary being such a weak candidate, I was really afraid of Cruz or Rubio. Let Trump flame out as the last of the The Great White Hopes and take all his deplorables with him, saving us from the the ghastly spectres of the alternatives they were putting forward.
4
Fear of the extreme right has led the Republican center to where they are now. This is just the (hopefully) final act of what started with the embrace of the moral majority in the 80's.
The racist, "those people" element came with the tea party when Obama was elected. Trump understood what that meant and used birtherism to get noticed.
If he had come down the escalator in Trump tower and talked about small government and fiscal responsibility nobody would have cared.
The racist, "those people" element came with the tea party when Obama was elected. Trump understood what that meant and used birtherism to get noticed.
If he had come down the escalator in Trump tower and talked about small government and fiscal responsibility nobody would have cared.
9
Well written article. Perhaps, we have witnessed the post-modern death of a political party: a first in our era. This slow leak began in 1964, as the alt-right began to creep into the Republican ranks. The Republican party of old is dead, and in it's place we have fascist nationalism under the guise of, "negating political correctness." Oh, America.
6
I'm 68 y/o, so I remember well when primaries became the nearly universal means by which the major parties selected their nominees. For the most part, I think our country was better off with candidates selected in "smoke filled rooms by professional party leaders." The old system in modern times gave us FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK and LBJ.
8
There was another path available for the power grubbing craven people like Paul Ryan.
They could have gathered the best of their numbers together and given Trump an ultimatum after the national convention. They could have told him that this was historically a year when Republicans should more or less automatically win the White House, a year when, as another person put it, a generic Republican candidate would appear to be the change candidate compared to Hillary. They could have told Trump this: either your straighten up and run a normal campaign, or all of us are going to withdraw our support for you and, perhaps, work actively against your election.
This test would have been useful because it would have served to reveal whether he was actually interested in the presidency and governing. Is he just what he appears, a bloated, self promoting pop-off artist ("You'd be in jail!")? Or, does he actually want to be president and accept the difficulties and compromises that implies?
The Republican "leaders" would have faced one of two outcomes: if he refused, they could dump him then, save what was left of their honor and face their constituents directly and honestly, accepting the risks. Or, they could have reined in Trump and potentially won the presidency, also saving most of their seats in Congress.
They chose cowardice over leadership, slippery half endorsements over forthright decision making. They and their party deserve everything bad that will come their way.
They could have gathered the best of their numbers together and given Trump an ultimatum after the national convention. They could have told him that this was historically a year when Republicans should more or less automatically win the White House, a year when, as another person put it, a generic Republican candidate would appear to be the change candidate compared to Hillary. They could have told Trump this: either your straighten up and run a normal campaign, or all of us are going to withdraw our support for you and, perhaps, work actively against your election.
This test would have been useful because it would have served to reveal whether he was actually interested in the presidency and governing. Is he just what he appears, a bloated, self promoting pop-off artist ("You'd be in jail!")? Or, does he actually want to be president and accept the difficulties and compromises that implies?
The Republican "leaders" would have faced one of two outcomes: if he refused, they could dump him then, save what was left of their honor and face their constituents directly and honestly, accepting the risks. Or, they could have reined in Trump and potentially won the presidency, also saving most of their seats in Congress.
They chose cowardice over leadership, slippery half endorsements over forthright decision making. They and their party deserve everything bad that will come their way.
11
The owners and operators of the Republican Party obviously did not consider the possibility that the fringe groups they invited into the big tent as well as the working class voters they nursed on resentment for years would turn on them. Their only concern was to win, win again and again and keep the good times rolling. Their inferno is well deserved.
13
Douthat talks about Republican leaders making calculations about how and whether to support Trump that are based on the goal doing the least damage to the party. Problem is, this analysis ignores the real reason the Republican house is falling down: It's fundamental message no longer resonates with a majority of Americans. If it ever did. That's the problem and it won't be fixed by the political calculations of people like Paul Ryan. (whom I would argue is more despicable than Trump himself. Trump is like spoiled meat. It can't help itself. Ryan, on the other hand, is the person who is willing to serve spoiled meat to millions of people, even though he knows exactly what it is.
12
"Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps." Perhaps? I would suggest almost certainly a compromise, given what was known at the time about Mr. Trump. At the very minimum, recognized by people without a financial stake in the election of a Republican president, regardless of who that president might have been.
The GOP has met the enemy, and he is them.
16
Today all that remains of the Republican party supporting Trump is a lynch mob.
9
Churchill, when faced with Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler, said, "'You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.' To update this remark for McConnell and Ryan, you were given the choice between destroying the Republican Party or dishonor. You chose dishonor and the Republican Party will be destroyed.
36
It struck me how many times in this article Mr. Douthat uses the word fear or spoke of fears. Fear is a tactic of all bullies and dictators. People cowering to fear enable them. This is how the historic monsters are made. The courageous feel their fear and do the right thing anyway. All you have to do is read a little history.
50
GOP ~ 2015 - Spring 2016 "Look at the wonderful GOP lineup and all of the diverse choices we have...16 candidates! And all of them are better than Hillary."
Ross 10/12/16 "We really didn't have a real choices...just Trump."
Hah!
Ross 10/12/16 "We really didn't have a real choices...just Trump."
Hah!
3
Just as Trump is now being haunted by video and audio from his past, it is easy to read through your columns of the past 7 years to show that this didn't start with Donald Trump, Ross.
You and your fellow travelers have spent the last 8 years spewing out your poison, catering to people who have lapped it up as the answer to all the reasons they were down and out, even though it was your party happy to keep them down and out and ignorant.
When your party mocked our President for the line about "Clinging to guns and religion?" Well, I think we've seen how true that was at those Trump rallies, haven't we?
Donald Trump is but the finished product of your work, Mr Douthat.
And to quote the book you and your friends like to interpret to fit your own personal beliefs, here's an important line:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Enjoy your harvest, Ross.
You and your fellow travelers have spent the last 8 years spewing out your poison, catering to people who have lapped it up as the answer to all the reasons they were down and out, even though it was your party happy to keep them down and out and ignorant.
When your party mocked our President for the line about "Clinging to guns and religion?" Well, I think we've seen how true that was at those Trump rallies, haven't we?
Donald Trump is but the finished product of your work, Mr Douthat.
And to quote the book you and your friends like to interpret to fit your own personal beliefs, here's an important line:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Enjoy your harvest, Ross.
19
Why can so few Republicans accept and acknowledge that Trump is the inevitable result of a conscious strategy chosen decades ago? That strategy involves consistent castigation of Democrats as traitors and worse, elevation of evangelical Christianity to a superior place in all political and social discussions despite the reality of a secular nation, use of race to divide and scare people, anti-woman policies that really just amplify fundamentalist Christian views about the female role in society, commitment to use of the government as a tool to enrich the rich, and a belligerent willingness to use military power as a first resort in international affairs.
13
Republicans would’ve faced a difficult electoral map regardless of the candidate, and whoever that candidate was would’ve faced a similar, somewhat lower-level battering of the same kind from Clinton and associates. Republicans did not want a conventional Republican for President. The chance at political and economic reform this year came in the form of Trump.
I've said it before, and will repeat. The Republican Party renounced its claim to citizenship, to the position of loyal opposition. McConnell's failed goal to restrict Obama to one term made the renunciation explicit. His immediate stance to refuse to consider Obama's recent nominee to the Supreme Court was consistent with that renunciation.
If the Mitt Romney who was the governor of Massachusetts, rather than the Mitt Romney crippled by the 2012 Republican primary process, were to be the candidate today I believe he would easily defeat Hillary Clinton.
As it is, the Republicans' abdication of citizenship will lead to a second Clinton presidency, which I anticipate with dread.
If the Mitt Romney who was the governor of Massachusetts, rather than the Mitt Romney crippled by the 2012 Republican primary process, were to be the candidate today I believe he would easily defeat Hillary Clinton.
As it is, the Republicans' abdication of citizenship will lead to a second Clinton presidency, which I anticipate with dread.
5
New math:
Rodrigo Duterte + Silvio Berlusconi = Donald Trump.
Last one out the door please turn out the lights.
Rodrigo Duterte + Silvio Berlusconi = Donald Trump.
Last one out the door please turn out the lights.
6
A major underlying problem that gets us to this abhorrent dilemma of chosing the least of two egregious evils is the archaic, money-driven electoral process and the electoral college. A total, ground-level revamp is needed, but there is no one with the vision and determination and plain guts to get it going. I would even go as far as publicly funding all elections. Yes, it would cost billions and there would be abuses, but that's chump change compared to the trillions squandered by lobbyist-beholden political hacks. It would also encourage more talented, patriotic candidates to compete for office. Today, Congress is a genuine enemy of the American people, and our politicians have not a trace element of honor, selflessness or patriotism. I wonder if the young Marines who died on Pacific atolls in WWII would consider their sacrifice worthwhile if they could have looked into the future.
3
Once you go birther it's hard to come back isn't it?
10
For years the Republican Party has had a fairly stable, if not friction free, skeletal structure composed mostly of establishment business types--Wall Street corporate globalists, Koch-brothers-style Libertarians, Main Street merchants, members of the military industrial complex, et al.
But in order to remain mobile and in power, the GOP has required a number of organic implants: former Dixiecrats, hoards of fundamentalist Evangelicals, Reagan Democrats, white supremacists, Tea-Party radicals, Trump "populists", the tired, the poor, the disgruntled.
Like so many others subjected to numerous implants, the GOP is now experiencing severe autoimmune disorders, and the threatened rejection of tissues, organs and members.
The dissolution of this once fairly integral political organism will wreak havoc upon our long established two-party system.
Will this phoenix arise eerily in the wake of its own dissolution, or will it merely collapse into a heap of decaying organic detritus?
But in order to remain mobile and in power, the GOP has required a number of organic implants: former Dixiecrats, hoards of fundamentalist Evangelicals, Reagan Democrats, white supremacists, Tea-Party radicals, Trump "populists", the tired, the poor, the disgruntled.
Like so many others subjected to numerous implants, the GOP is now experiencing severe autoimmune disorders, and the threatened rejection of tissues, organs and members.
The dissolution of this once fairly integral political organism will wreak havoc upon our long established two-party system.
Will this phoenix arise eerily in the wake of its own dissolution, or will it merely collapse into a heap of decaying organic detritus?
5
I'm sophisticated enough, as a journalist, to understand that columnists must make -- or try to make -- rational observations and historical digressions in order to "explain" what is happening politically.
But Mr. Douthat, like Mr. Brooks, always bring erudition to the task -- to the detriment of their task to make sense of things.
As the readers' comments make much more clear, the GOP created this monster and now it's roaming the countryside.
The only outcome is for the populace to track it down and kill it off, so they can at least sleep in peace.
When we awake, we will tackle afresh the country's challenges, and they are many. If the so-called Republicans are to rebuild any respect and credibility at all after embracing then running from DT, they must work with Democrats to make the country work.
It's really that simple.
But Mr. Douthat, like Mr. Brooks, always bring erudition to the task -- to the detriment of their task to make sense of things.
As the readers' comments make much more clear, the GOP created this monster and now it's roaming the countryside.
The only outcome is for the populace to track it down and kill it off, so they can at least sleep in peace.
When we awake, we will tackle afresh the country's challenges, and they are many. If the so-called Republicans are to rebuild any respect and credibility at all after embracing then running from DT, they must work with Democrats to make the country work.
It's really that simple.
11
There is a big bunch of hateful, racist, will-fully ignorant people in this nation. They are the descendants of the confederacy. And they still have an axe to grind. They used to be Democrats, but when FDR and Eleanore chose to help all poor people including blacks and Hispanics, these people became angry and disillusioned. Nixon saw an opportunity to court their vote. Reagan followed through. Now the GOP owns this big stinking basket of deplorables, and along with them, they own Trump.
18
The picture speaks thousands of words.....
Freedom, the rally cry of the Alt-Right, does not apply if you disagree with them.
Because IF you disagree, you loose your Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Protest, or Freedom to Exist, if you believe the vile hatred that spews from the mouths of Trump Supporters.
Freedom, the rally cry of the Alt-Right, does not apply if you disagree with them.
Because IF you disagree, you loose your Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Protest, or Freedom to Exist, if you believe the vile hatred that spews from the mouths of Trump Supporters.
4
For years the Republican Party has had a fairly stable, if not friction free, skeletal structure composed mostly of establishment business types--Wall Street corporate globalists, Koch-brother-style Libertarians, Main Street merchants, members of the military industrial complex, et al.
But in order to remain mobile and in power, the GOP has required a number of organic implants: former Dixiecrats, hoards of fundamentalist Evangelicals, Reagan Democrats, white supremacists, Tea-Party radicals, Trump "populists", the tired, the poor, the disgruntled.
Like so many others subjected to numerous implants, the GOP is now experiencing severe autoimmune disorders, and the threatened rejection of numerous organs and members.
The dissolution of this once fairly integral political organism will wreak havoc upon our long established two-party system.
Will this phoenix arise from its own dissolution, or will it merely collapse into a heap of decaying organic detritus?
But in order to remain mobile and in power, the GOP has required a number of organic implants: former Dixiecrats, hoards of fundamentalist Evangelicals, Reagan Democrats, white supremacists, Tea-Party radicals, Trump "populists", the tired, the poor, the disgruntled.
Like so many others subjected to numerous implants, the GOP is now experiencing severe autoimmune disorders, and the threatened rejection of numerous organs and members.
The dissolution of this once fairly integral political organism will wreak havoc upon our long established two-party system.
Will this phoenix arise from its own dissolution, or will it merely collapse into a heap of decaying organic detritus?
1
The two Partys need the votes of the many for programs that benefit the few. Traditionally, their approach was to make the Presidency an exalted, dignified, and glorified personification of the Nation. This to override the tensions created by the "many-few " quandary. Trump adhering to the main Party function, but disregarding tradition, has decided the "exalted, dignified and glorified" is excess baggage and can be dispensed with, along with the tenets of human decency.
There's historical precedence for Trump's way, but usually with very sad consequences for the many and some discomfort for the few.
There's historical precedence for Trump's way, but usually with very sad consequences for the many and some discomfort for the few.
1
If you talk to those who will not vote for Trump, the reasons are almost universally based on his political incorrectness, rather than his actual policy principles. One has to assume that many of these voters like his policy principals. Add those to the roughly 40% of the electorate who will be voting for Trump in spite of his political incorrectness, and you probably have a majority in favor of his policy stances, or "problem statements." What are these?
1. We do have a radical Muslim terrorist problem in the US.
2. We have an immigration problem (security and financial) that cannot be solved by amnesty
3. We are the world's police force.
4. Most of the free world is not paying their fair share of defense expenses, especially NATO members
5. NAFTA and TPP are bad for US workers
6. China manipulates currency, abuses its people, does not respect intellectual property, does nothing to stop North Korea, and goes unpunished.
7. Taxes on corporations are too high, but offshore loopholes exist. Taxes on the top 1% are too low.
8. The second amendment needs to be protected.
9. Welfare and affirmative action are not working.
1. We do have a radical Muslim terrorist problem in the US.
2. We have an immigration problem (security and financial) that cannot be solved by amnesty
3. We are the world's police force.
4. Most of the free world is not paying their fair share of defense expenses, especially NATO members
5. NAFTA and TPP are bad for US workers
6. China manipulates currency, abuses its people, does not respect intellectual property, does nothing to stop North Korea, and goes unpunished.
7. Taxes on corporations are too high, but offshore loopholes exist. Taxes on the top 1% are too low.
8. The second amendment needs to be protected.
9. Welfare and affirmative action are not working.
2
Douthat
mentions twice the possibility of Trump running in 2020 as if that's a credible possibility. What are you thinking of? First he will be 74. Second the RNC would never let that happen. The minute Hillary wins they will be forging a new path. Third, even this ego-maniac would never go through this again.
mentions twice the possibility of Trump running in 2020 as if that's a credible possibility. What are you thinking of? First he will be 74. Second the RNC would never let that happen. The minute Hillary wins they will be forging a new path. Third, even this ego-maniac would never go through this again.
3
Not to throw out a Hitler reference but this the same compromise to their convictions the German parliament made, assuming they could control Hitler.
8
Brilliant writing Ross Douthat. Thank you.
However, you are young, and near sighted. I recommend you study the comments here to your piece. They are often excellent, and pay special attention to John McBride, who gives you and us a refresher on American history and the Republican party, starting in the late 1940's when the GOP, (and most of the Democrats) stayed mute about the fascist demagoguery of Joe McCarthy. I would like you, as an exercise, to write about these comments and their essential validity, with the focus being on the evil choices of the GOP outlined by John McBride.
However, you are young, and near sighted. I recommend you study the comments here to your piece. They are often excellent, and pay special attention to John McBride, who gives you and us a refresher on American history and the Republican party, starting in the late 1940's when the GOP, (and most of the Democrats) stayed mute about the fascist demagoguery of Joe McCarthy. I would like you, as an exercise, to write about these comments and their essential validity, with the focus being on the evil choices of the GOP outlined by John McBride.
9
Douthat is right here, although he ignores the fact that this reckoning has been coming for years, as reasonable Republicans reaped the benefits of the mad anger stoked by people like Rush Limbaugh and the denizens of Fox news.
78
Ross, it's too late. You needed to second guess your party years ago, when it was starting down the slippery slope of scorched earth and tea partypolitics that made Trump's rise possible.,
26
R
2
The Republican Leadership failure really goes back to the moment he began his ugly campaign, long before the primaries started. The Republican Party should have excommunicated him then, denying him the support, the rallies, and the endless media attention. If, as you say, it is unlikely that he'd have gone the route of the 3rd Party Candidate, one can only wonder then if he hadn't stolen the show from the Republican Party after the primaries and the endless Republican debates began, maybe he'd only be hawking his ties now instead of hawking the human piece of garbage that he is.
6
Another part of the story not addressed here is that Paul Ryan and many other Republican leaders own Trump. Recall that Ryan and others met in a bar during Obama’s inauguration celebration to plot against the new President. And after nearly 8 years of stonewalling on policy (“no matter what...we’re just saying no,”), including early suggested tax breaks by Obama, it resulted in stalemate frustrating and at times harming all, especially the middle class. Malaise lead in part to angry voter rebellion which Trump championed. In part Rep leadership and ESPECIALLY PAUL RYAN owns the Trump debacle. 5:15: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/inside-obamas-presidency/
37
What's so sad is that Trump's base of working class white males have little to look forward to with Trump. So far he's offered them a tax plan that will further promote financial inequality, with them at the bottom and himself at the top (paying $0 in federal tax being praiseworthy is just an example), and a lot of unworkable, undeliverable economics such as punitive tariffs and trade isolation, which is guaranteed to drive up their cost of living and increase unemployment. That base is frankly supporting the wrong party, but became Republican to reap the rewards of the Southern strategy, which demographics is defeating.
The bargain for the leadership wasn't so bad. Trump would keep that base in the party and continue giving them the nothing that the GOP had been delivering for decades. Trump embarrassed the leadership, but really kept intact the GOP's objectives relative to his base. The leadership mistake was panicking and breaking the deal out of fear of losing the House and Senate.
In sacrificing Trump, the leadership has also betrayed the evangelicals who wanted another Scalia and were willing to be hypocrites if that's what it takes.
Yes, the leadership made the bad deal you identified. But betraying Trump (who would have gone down even without the knife in his back) has only made it worse, as you have also identified. He'll be around for as long as it take him to drown in the rising demographic tide.
The bargain for the leadership wasn't so bad. Trump would keep that base in the party and continue giving them the nothing that the GOP had been delivering for decades. Trump embarrassed the leadership, but really kept intact the GOP's objectives relative to his base. The leadership mistake was panicking and breaking the deal out of fear of losing the House and Senate.
In sacrificing Trump, the leadership has also betrayed the evangelicals who wanted another Scalia and were willing to be hypocrites if that's what it takes.
Yes, the leadership made the bad deal you identified. But betraying Trump (who would have gone down even without the knife in his back) has only made it worse, as you have also identified. He'll be around for as long as it take him to drown in the rising demographic tide.
16
Well said!
The GOP has been cultivating this base, which is now out of control, for many years. I do not consider the GOP party to be fit to govern at this point and the congressional record since 2010 seems to support my belief. 100% obstruction is not a valid position..
41
It wasn't the Republican Party chiefs that "allowed" Trump's rise: they fought it. Finally, they had to bow to the obvious: this creature was the only one that resonated with their increasingly fanatical, mob-like base.
It is that base that deserves mention and analysis: is the media too cowardly to discuss that? An overwhelming number of registered Republicans support Donald Trump, even now.
That is the story.
The role of Rupert Murdoch in enabling this lunacy is another, perhaps even more critical one.
It is that base that deserves mention and analysis: is the media too cowardly to discuss that? An overwhelming number of registered Republicans support Donald Trump, even now.
That is the story.
The role of Rupert Murdoch in enabling this lunacy is another, perhaps even more critical one.
33
Fanatical, mob-like base! You liberals are hilarious. Keep the slurs and demonizations flowing. It makes for lively reading!
1
We may simply be in a place where owning 90% of all the news reporters and editors is enough. If they can push the most corrupt woman in American political history into the White House, conservatism may just have to sit and wait out the economic disaster that these followers of Saul Alinsky are determined to bring about.
The real losers will be the millions of gov't dependents who will be left absolutely alone as the dollar collapses. You needed to walk a lot more anyway.
The real losers will be the millions of gov't dependents who will be left absolutely alone as the dollar collapses. You needed to walk a lot more anyway.
2
You live in a demented alternative fantasy world.
7
The most corrupt woman in politics is on par with every other male politician, so what?
1
The Republican Party as we know it is dead! Republicans entered into their faustian bargain the moment they all signed on to the "Just Say No to Everything" deal against President Obama's presidency. And, so doing, refused to pass legislation that would have helped alleviate poverty and unemployment amongst their supporters. Republicans failed to destroy two-term Obama as they had hoped to do and are being cast aside as incompetents and charlatans by many of their supporters who have now turned to Alt-Right Trump as a last resort.
24
"The Republican Party as we know it is dead!".....No it died why it relinquished its principles and embraced the disaffected southern democrats, xenophobes and bigots.
8
"The Party Leaders were afraid Trump would.... They were afraid of ... They feared...Above all they feared..." THAT is the problem. Every decision was not based on the good of the nation, the conservative principles, or even the health of the GOP, they were based on the same factors that have made Trump's associates into financial "losers" for decades while he lives in gilded mansions, and made every primary debate contestant bow down after humiliation. Everyone is afraid of the big bully. Now the Party can be Trump's BIGGEST Loser, that is if it isn't the nation entirely which makes every American and both parties the losers.
Can democracy survive when the party itself will not vet the candidate? has no criteria? When Reins Priebus not only fails to repudiate the bullying but joins in by threatening Republicans who don't fall in line this horror of a candidate? Cruz, who unfortunately also sniveled-out, gave the only guidance possibly worth listening to in this election--"vote your conscience". Unfortunately, Republicans made even that most valued behavior a fault.
Can democracy survive when the party itself will not vet the candidate? has no criteria? When Reins Priebus not only fails to repudiate the bullying but joins in by threatening Republicans who don't fall in line this horror of a candidate? Cruz, who unfortunately also sniveled-out, gave the only guidance possibly worth listening to in this election--"vote your conscience". Unfortunately, Republicans made even that most valued behavior a fault.
7
Had the GOP stood up to Trump only the GOP would have had to deal with his wrath. Now we all have to deal with the wrath of Trump and his supporters.
9
Wow. Blistering assessment. But all too true.
8
What is happening in this election is not just about the Republican Party. The GOP has for a very long time been the face of the super wealthy individuals who are the hold overs from the Royal classes of yesteryear. This election is about evolution, about the expansion of consciousness through huge numbers of the humanity that enables them, us, to see and to understand that each of us is a good as anyone of us, and that it is just insane for a few thousands to live in unimaginable luxury while billions suffer and die. We reject that vision as an insanity that breeds war pestilence and deep suffering for the Planet.
The immanent disappearance of the GOP is just the first stone of an avalanche falling from the ignorant, ancient, and rotten structure of a society based on exclusivity, superiority massed wealth, private and exclusive ownership of the Planet's resources, and the divine rights of a select few.
Liberty Freedom and Justice for All is being born. The GOP is standing on a cliff in the darkness trying to stop the sun from rising. Good luck with that, and Good by.
The immanent disappearance of the GOP is just the first stone of an avalanche falling from the ignorant, ancient, and rotten structure of a society based on exclusivity, superiority massed wealth, private and exclusive ownership of the Planet's resources, and the divine rights of a select few.
Liberty Freedom and Justice for All is being born. The GOP is standing on a cliff in the darkness trying to stop the sun from rising. Good luck with that, and Good by.
8
I'm pulling out my DVD set of "I, Claudius" tonight. How similar to the internal collapse of Rome and the ascendancy of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. I'm almost on tenterhooks waiting for one or both of Trump's daughters to admit that he molested them as children, like Caligula and his sister. And certainly the rabble-rousing fascist cries to lock up his opponent, hang her, put her in front of a firing squad, resemble nothing so much as Tiberius's and Caligula's purges -- murders -- of their opponents.
I'll bury myself in 1st-century history rather than listen to the appalling news about the 21st.
I'll bury myself in 1st-century history rather than listen to the appalling news about the 21st.
15
Merriam-Webster reminds: "Definition of TRUMPERY: worthless nonsense; trivial or useless...; (archaic) tawdry finery
10
KNOW YE ONE; KNOW YE ALL, Repubs: Right results can never come out of wrong actions. Truth has to triumph in every situation, even if at times it takes an annoyingly long. That is the foundational stone of our existence.
6
When all the alternatives are equally bad, as outlined by this column, it's time to re-evaluate the underlying situation.
The GOP needs to fundamentally re-think it's philosophy, beginning with its approach to government and governance, with respect to the Democratic Party, and with respect to the country as a whole.
Republicans need to start working for the common good rather than what they perceive to be their self-interest (which it turns out, in the long run isn't).
The GOP needs to fundamentally re-think it's philosophy, beginning with its approach to government and governance, with respect to the Democratic Party, and with respect to the country as a whole.
Republicans need to start working for the common good rather than what they perceive to be their self-interest (which it turns out, in the long run isn't).
12
Republicans allowed themselves to creep further and further out on an ideological and rhetorical limb; now that limb has broken, and the ground is rushing up to meet them.
Indeed, "The shackles are off". Who can claim surprise that Trump is an ignorant, unqualified boor? Who needed Friday's tape to learn it?(See, for example, Virginia Heffernan at Politico for a detailed rundown of Trump's carny years with Howard Stern).
On top of everything else, the Republicans are a lazy party, one whose candidates apparently cannot carry out effective opposition research, and whose national committee cannot do due diligence regarding vetting of its nominee.
What they can do is relentlessly demonize their Democratic opponents, ad nauseum.
Reap the whirlwind of malice and incompetence, indeed.
Indeed, "The shackles are off". Who can claim surprise that Trump is an ignorant, unqualified boor? Who needed Friday's tape to learn it?(See, for example, Virginia Heffernan at Politico for a detailed rundown of Trump's carny years with Howard Stern).
On top of everything else, the Republicans are a lazy party, one whose candidates apparently cannot carry out effective opposition research, and whose national committee cannot do due diligence regarding vetting of its nominee.
What they can do is relentlessly demonize their Democratic opponents, ad nauseum.
Reap the whirlwind of malice and incompetence, indeed.
23
The longer it took for Republician politicians to denounce Trump, the more morally corrupt they are. History will not look kindly on them.
17
In the movie version of the play "Inherit the Wind", there is a line that Clarence Darrow says to HL Mencken: "You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something." The same can be said about Donald Trump. Who knew that it would be the Republican Party?
8
There is no way of winning when you make a pact with the devil... And I am not saying Trump is the devil, but his misogyny and bigotry is. It took for Trump to threatened the educated female vote to finally receive an uproar from the GOP. Too many passes, now they're paying.
5
The Republican party is going nowhere. Even if Trump losses he will get at least 40 percent of the vote. There is a large part of America that believes in a very different and dangerous reality of the world. They are not all crazy, why is the hate for triangulation Clinton's so great they would in desperation vote for Trump, are things that bad. For many in their mind things are that bad. Thanks Fox news, every hour every day, bad, bad, bad.
7
I fervently hope he draws his dying breath before the 2020 Presidential election. Frankly, the day after this year's election day would suit me fine.
9
The other reckoning should be particularly directed to the senators and representatives who implemented a strategy of delegitimizing President Obama, and have chosen "just say no" to everything as a governing tactic in pursuit of an unachieved election triumph. Mitch McConnell in particular deserves special attention as architect and field general.
Unfortunately, it doesn't just hit Republicans. The entire nation is now hostage to the all-too-logical consequences of this strategy. I hope that in (likely) victory, Hillary makes a sincere effort at reach-across. And this time, that Republicans listen as Americans, not mere partisans.
Unfortunately, it doesn't just hit Republicans. The entire nation is now hostage to the all-too-logical consequences of this strategy. I hope that in (likely) victory, Hillary makes a sincere effort at reach-across. And this time, that Republicans listen as Americans, not mere partisans.
12
Let's look back on the three major choices the Republican party has made since the 1960s:
1) In the 1960s, Rs chose to scoop up the white racist vote and to maintain it with fifty years of dog-whistle politics.
2) In the early 1980s, Rs saw a group of politically-disengaged Evangelicals and deliberately chose to recruit them by promising to fight against social change - first integration, then abortion, feminism, the teaching of evolution, and now gay rights.
3) In the 1990s, R's aligned themselves with conservative talk radio and newborn Fox News to keep their voters in a bubble of misinformation and a state of constant terror and rage. They got tens of millions of people believing that climate change is a liberal hoax and Obama a secret Muslim.
These were smart strategies, from a cynical perspective. Thanks to the way our electoral system skews towards rural areas, Conservatives have dominated politics out of all proportion to their numbers for the last 30+ years.
Every smart move has a downside. You recruited the deplorables and the Christian Taliban, you pandered to them, and you made sure they stayed misinformed and mad. Now right-wing populists control your party and have driven out the moderates and the reasonable policy makers.
You didn't want responsible, informed, modest, or tolerant citizens because you thought they wouldn't fall in line and vote the way you wanted.
Irony ain't in it.
1) In the 1960s, Rs chose to scoop up the white racist vote and to maintain it with fifty years of dog-whistle politics.
2) In the early 1980s, Rs saw a group of politically-disengaged Evangelicals and deliberately chose to recruit them by promising to fight against social change - first integration, then abortion, feminism, the teaching of evolution, and now gay rights.
3) In the 1990s, R's aligned themselves with conservative talk radio and newborn Fox News to keep their voters in a bubble of misinformation and a state of constant terror and rage. They got tens of millions of people believing that climate change is a liberal hoax and Obama a secret Muslim.
These were smart strategies, from a cynical perspective. Thanks to the way our electoral system skews towards rural areas, Conservatives have dominated politics out of all proportion to their numbers for the last 30+ years.
Every smart move has a downside. You recruited the deplorables and the Christian Taliban, you pandered to them, and you made sure they stayed misinformed and mad. Now right-wing populists control your party and have driven out the moderates and the reasonable policy makers.
You didn't want responsible, informed, modest, or tolerant citizens because you thought they wouldn't fall in line and vote the way you wanted.
Irony ain't in it.
34
Excellent summary. 1-2-3.
5
Perhaps the Republican Party ought to be split into several parties !!!
3
Its the GOP base, stupid. They are the ultimate problem. And the calling DJT the spiritual ancestor of Andrew Jackson is an insult to Andrew Jackson. At least the latter was Presidential, regardless of his personal foibles and rampant racism.
4
Truth is, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are just as bad as Donald Trump. That's scary.
9
And Mike Pence
4
Our nominating process is the problem. That's why the Democrats created the superdelegates. Nothing is perfect but letting a small minority be the only ones nominating a candidate is not democratic. The success of both trump and sanders shows where economic policy must go...government stimulus and a revised tax code to be more equitable. Help for those displaced by globalization and technology.
1
I think the Republicans need to re-think how they get things accomplished in government. For about twenty years they've denigrated their opposition, obstructed legislative progress, and basically brought the government to a dead stop because they didn't get their way. That's a short term strategy but not a long one. Governing is about working with those who don't share your philosophy and forging change. The Republicans tactics have created the illusion that government is completely broken. That, in turn, has convinced a sizable element of the population that anyone in government is incompetent, dishonest or in it for their own advancement. And it has given succor to fringe elements who now find meaning in life by virulently opposing others.
The Republicans need to apologize for the destructive atmosphere they have created. They need to prioritize strategies that require working with others. There are forms of government that don't depend on cooperation -- dictatorships for one -- but democracy does. In fact, nothing happens in a democracy unless the opposing parties find a way to work with the opposition. How did the Republicans get so lost? So opposed to communism, to the totalitarian states, yet determined, but resolute in their belief that our nation thrives only if they beat the opposition into total submission. Folks, it don't work that way.
The Republicans need to apologize for the destructive atmosphere they have created. They need to prioritize strategies that require working with others. There are forms of government that don't depend on cooperation -- dictatorships for one -- but democracy does. In fact, nothing happens in a democracy unless the opposing parties find a way to work with the opposition. How did the Republicans get so lost? So opposed to communism, to the totalitarian states, yet determined, but resolute in their belief that our nation thrives only if they beat the opposition into total submission. Folks, it don't work that way.
3
Ross: There's something seriously wrong with the values of people who can compromise their supposed patriotic principles in favor of party, but refuse to even consider compromise with the President or their Democratic peers for the good of the country. They are sell outs and hypocrites, and deserve whatever punishment the voters hand them. The destruction of their party, a la the Whigs, would not be too harsh, given that for decades they have waged economic war on the working and middle class, while enriching themselves and their masters. They say that Karma's a b!t@h, and guess what? She watched the tape of Trump in all his misogynistic glory.
7
There is a terror gripping the nation.....fear of clowns. Menacing, orange-haired sociopaths. Schools have been put in lockdown, and even Ronald MacDonald has been taken off the streets. My guess is that this terror of clowns is a reflection of the national psyche: we all are unconsciously terrified of Donald Trump...the orange-haired clown....and what he could do to destroy this country.
2
Ross, you act as if the Republican party only knew back in the spring that they had a problem (..."in their defense, the alternatives scenarios were quite ugly.."). There IS no defense!! They knew years ago that they needed to expand the tent, and what did they do about that? Doubled down on the Obama hate, and the obstruction. Getting NOTHING done. And you're trying to say now, in their defense they were between a rock & a hard place. I don't think so. They are surely getting what they deserve.
9
I very much agree with Douthat's column this time around, though i'd add two things--the first of which is that the GOP battened and fattened on exactly Trumpy's vicious hatreds, intolerances, ignorances and refusals to compromise rationally long before this clown luched onto the scene.
It's as though he who sows these particular seeds shall inherit the wind, a reference one would have thought Mr. Douthat might have heard from time to time. But then, that'd mean looking at the world differently, and maybe getting off some of the right-wing ideology that he does indeed share with these bad guys.
But there's something else, which Douthat may be hinting at: gutlessness. In the end, Priebus et al would in my view have been better off to dump Trump months ago, do it loudly and clearly, and tell people to vote for Hillary Clinton and a moderate, conservative Republican Congress for the good of the nation.
It could hardly have gone worse for them than it has. And at least they'd look like they stood for something other than winning.
It's as though he who sows these particular seeds shall inherit the wind, a reference one would have thought Mr. Douthat might have heard from time to time. But then, that'd mean looking at the world differently, and maybe getting off some of the right-wing ideology that he does indeed share with these bad guys.
But there's something else, which Douthat may be hinting at: gutlessness. In the end, Priebus et al would in my view have been better off to dump Trump months ago, do it loudly and clearly, and tell people to vote for Hillary Clinton and a moderate, conservative Republican Congress for the good of the nation.
It could hardly have gone worse for them than it has. And at least they'd look like they stood for something other than winning.
1
Well put, Mr. Doubtfire.
But we must ask why the Establishment Republicans found themselves in such a dilemma. I believe the reason is a combination of voter disgust at a deadlocked Congress and Trump's celebrity status as the "outsider who can fix anything."
The first element is all too real. Unfortunately, the second is all too fake.
But we must ask why the Establishment Republicans found themselves in such a dilemma. I believe the reason is a combination of voter disgust at a deadlocked Congress and Trump's celebrity status as the "outsider who can fix anything."
The first element is all too real. Unfortunately, the second is all too fake.
1
Six words the GOP agreed as as the price to risk a pact that it knew would destroy the Republic: Supreme Court, Supreme Court and Supreme Court. Hey, what's a country worth?
www.endthemadnessnow.org
www.endthemadnessnow.org
2
It is time to stop chasing the next shiny object that Trump provides for distraction (pussy bow analysis, Banana Republic threat, Clinton accuser panel, etal) and provide a journalistic analysis of both the candidates' stated positions and the risks and benefits associated with them.
Sometime.Soon.Please.
Sometime.Soon.Please.
6
Trump's candidacy might prove to be cathartic to Republican party when all is said and done. Replacing Trump as nominee would have made things worse, and the Trump base would have a really good reason to dig in for a sustained period of time aligned against the Republican party. Having gotten their way this election cycle, the expected damage to the Republican party in terms of losses in the senate and the house along with the landslide loss in the presidential race might help squelch their anger at the establishment, making them more amenable towards working with the other factions of the Republican party.
1
Win or lose America will be stuck with Trump's tirades and crassness for as long as the media gives him a platform. He'll rail against republicans and Clinton to keep his base fired up but with no outlet or recourse. It will be Birtherism on steroids and an ugly coarsening for years to come. Lord help us all.
8
"Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps. But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse."
Yes, we know that, for Republicans, party comes before principle: the dragging around for years of the Benghazi corpses attests to that.
Yes, we know that, for Republicans, party comes before principle: the dragging around for years of the Benghazi corpses attests to that.
9
The GOP became the party of pander. They pandered to the Tea Party and Evangelicals in their desperation to halt the Democrats. That set up the stonewalling in Congress -- separation of church and state was out the window, crippling our great constitution and our once great system of checks and balances. Add to that a perfect storm of events -- social strides that advanced the rights of ALL Americans, the great recession, Citizen's United and the buying of Congress which led to greater corporate power at the expense of the individual. The intractability of religion -- whether Christianity or Islam -- makes a mess of things. There was no more room for compromise. The religious right did not bend on what they saw as sins. Uneducated white men failed to rise and became bitter about the rising status of gays, black, transgender people, non-white Americans and longed for the "good old days" where they were top dog, just because. These are the events that brought down the GOP, that allowed a lineup of weak, far right, unappealing, dangerous candidates, tripping over one another to be more conservative, to evoke the bible more than the rest. Trump seemed reasonable by contrast. Of course, he turned out to be a nut in the extreme. But the seeds for Trump were sown years ago.
5
HRC looks better every day!
6
American Conservatism has always been based on deception, and last 2-3 decades they had to build a complete alternative reality to survive politically.
Now the bubble is being punctured by reality, bad air is being released, and to some watching in dismay, there in nothing of substance left in there.
Now the bubble is being punctured by reality, bad air is being released, and to some watching in dismay, there in nothing of substance left in there.
6
All true. They appeased a man who, not in retrospect, but in reality was and is an mentally unstable, irresponsible, dangerous man. We must learn from this for it is a mistake to think of Trump as an anomaly in dangerous and uncertain times. What this entails goes to the core of a social, economic and political critique that beckons and answer to Why- while facing the cold, hard ugly truth of who we are and what we may continue to become if we continue on a path to self destruction.
2
When there was the Cold War, Republicans and Democrats sometimes found common ground to fight a common enemy. With the collapse of Communism the Republicans, addicted to power acquired by fear mongering, turned, with the same focused confrontational intensity, on Democrats and have been waging a civil war in this country for over twenty years. War breeds hatred and now the disease of hatred is devouring its host.
7
Mr. Douthat:
at long-last:
a thank you for this parable...
unfortunately,
for the republican't party,
it arrives way too late...
you and they properly represent DJT's acolytes who are
absolutely delighted with all of his non-civilized behaviors.
how do you propose to shed them on November 9th?
the republican't party designed, bred, conceived, birthed,
educated and raised this racist bully to the position that he
now occupies.
he is yours - - lock, stock and barrel...
happy hunting in the desolation soon-enough to be upon you.
4
Could 50 years of fear, resentment, greed, mythology and ignorance played a role in this mess, Mr. Douthat?
4
You make it sound as if the GOP had any decency, patriotism or soupcon of honor to forfeit. If Republican lawmakers had exercised some decency and honor by separating themselves from the racists and bigots that crawled out from under their rocks during the 2008 Obama campaign, they wouldn’t be in the pathetic shape they are now.
Showing even a mite of patriotism by actually governing in the past eight years instead of employing the “just say no” strategy might have helped, too, but the party was much more interested in defeating the president (partly—and maybe for the most part—because he is black).
Their lack of integrity has caught up with them and like many decent people, I’m enjoying the schadenfreude that comes from watching these spineless lawmakers go down.
You reap what you sow.
Showing even a mite of patriotism by actually governing in the past eight years instead of employing the “just say no” strategy might have helped, too, but the party was much more interested in defeating the president (partly—and maybe for the most part—because he is black).
Their lack of integrity has caught up with them and like many decent people, I’m enjoying the schadenfreude that comes from watching these spineless lawmakers go down.
You reap what you sow.
8
All the senators and congressman who continue to support Trump against their consciences will have lost the battle as well as the war. They have effectively surrendered the Senate and the House, as well as the White House to the Democrats, not that I'm complaining. The pettiness and greed and small-mindedness of the GOP led to the destruction of civil discourse in American politics. And now its leading to the destruction of their own party. Let these disgraceful, shameful charlatans contemplate their failed legacies.
4
Father Douthat (hat-tip Socrates!), says a lot and lays a lot of blame but refuses to accept his portion of the responsibility.
YOUR party did this to itself AND the to the rest of the country. YOU should look into the mirror at your previous approval and willful ignorance (something you guys are good at, finally!) of what your and your party were doing.
WE are sick of you and your policies of division and fear.
YOU need to go to confession, Father. Like a lot of priests do.
YOUR party did this to itself AND the to the rest of the country. YOU should look into the mirror at your previous approval and willful ignorance (something you guys are good at, finally!) of what your and your party were doing.
WE are sick of you and your policies of division and fear.
YOU need to go to confession, Father. Like a lot of priests do.
5
Or, as Churchill so concisely summarized in 1939 regarding France and Britain; "they had to choose between dishonor and war. They chose dishonor. They shall have war."
5
The Trump supporters are looking more and more like a cult rather than rational voters.
5
Ross might find it a revelation to revise this column, simply changing the third person plural to first; to refer to the opportunistic, cowardly, party-before-country Republicans he describes as "us" and "we" instead of "them" and "they."
Make no mistake, Mr. Douthat — you're among the proud co-owners of this gold-plated, big-league luxury disaster.
Make no mistake, Mr. Douthat — you're among the proud co-owners of this gold-plated, big-league luxury disaster.
8
I enjoyed the allusions to the Samson myth in this column. Indeed, Trump seems like the sort who would have no problem, and indeed might even relish, pulling down the entire GOP into ruin.
But following the Samson myth, if that is in fact the key to this Trump problem, perhaps they should try cutting off his hair? Perhaps then his strength would disappear, and with it, his following?
Hey, it is worth a shot.
But following the Samson myth, if that is in fact the key to this Trump problem, perhaps they should try cutting off his hair? Perhaps then his strength would disappear, and with it, his following?
Hey, it is worth a shot.
3
Interesting Mr. Douthat's use of the word "they," when "we" would be more appropriate.
2
The GOP is not the victim here. I mean, take a little responsibility. They've been running on an outdated platform for decades now, and instead of listening to the majority of Americans on marriage equality, gun legislation, and climate change, they clung to their Bibles and their guns and their mega-wealthy donors. They spread lies and disinformation through Fox, Breitbart, Limbaugh, etc. They gerrymandered and manipulated their way into power, under the self-righteous guise of serving God. Yet, in the process they sacrificed their dignity, principles, and honor (if they had any to begin with).
Years from now, through the separation of time, when we are able to look back at this election clearly and fairly, the history books will talk of how the Republican Party laid the groundwork for a demagogue to almost seize control of the nation, and how they created a monster that would end up destroying them in the end. This will read like a cautionary tale, and I have faith America will eventually get past this so we can finally address the real problems our nation is facing. Nov. 8 can't get here soon enough.
Years from now, through the separation of time, when we are able to look back at this election clearly and fairly, the history books will talk of how the Republican Party laid the groundwork for a demagogue to almost seize control of the nation, and how they created a monster that would end up destroying them in the end. This will read like a cautionary tale, and I have faith America will eventually get past this so we can finally address the real problems our nation is facing. Nov. 8 can't get here soon enough.
4
In the background of the 2016 drama is a party that was unable or unwilling to deliver what it promised to its own voters and to the American people. The GOP couldn't deliver success in its conservative social agenda that it promised its voters in every election. It was also unable to succeed in its hawkish and warlike foreign policy objectives. Most important of all, its trickle-down economic theory turned out to be a ruse to transfer wealth upward. At the end, the same people it deceived to keep its candidates elected, revolted and destroyed the whole thing!
1
When I listen to member of the GOP who are still voting for DT, I rarely hear what I would call "support" for DT, but rather excuses why they tolerate him. Chiefly, as mentioned many times here and elsewhere, they are terrified of what will happen when they loose their conservative Supreme Court.
What baffles me, is that they all seem so completely delusional about how little the court will matter if DT gets into office and aims his blow torch at every other pilar of our country.
Are Roe versus Wade, no background checks when buying a gun, and a hatred for HRC and the DNC the only things that matter to members of the GOP?
What baffles me, is that they all seem so completely delusional about how little the court will matter if DT gets into office and aims his blow torch at every other pilar of our country.
Are Roe versus Wade, no background checks when buying a gun, and a hatred for HRC and the DNC the only things that matter to members of the GOP?
5
"pornographic boasts" reminds me - didn't the Republican Party's platform include, as their number one health concern, pornography? Rich indeed!
3
The GOP is decrepit. Rotting from the inside out, like the "Picture of Dorian Gray." You got what you put into it. Toxic and disingenuous, discriminatory and self-serving, over the course of decades. Why is anyone surprised at its current state? This was earned.
1
Why couldn't the Republicans have refused to certify Trump as a candidate for their party in the primary elections? As far as this election goes, that was their first mistake. But they certainly got what they deserve; you reap what you sow.
I keep hearing about how the Republican Party created the environment that led to Trump, but from an outside perpsective (I'm Canadian, and have been paying as much attention to the political process of the United States, as I have to my own country's political process), it is very obvious that Trump is the creation of a very basic but glaring flaw in your national narrative: you are the best country in the world.
You're not.
Yet, it's this pervasive belief, that shuts you off from actually becoming the country you COULD become, because who, if they think they're the best at everything, ever gets better at anything? And Donald Trump is the personification, and perfect distillation, of this illusion, this lie. He is the embodiment of all the false ego, and bravado, of the way the world views America: obnoxious, self aggrandizing, bullying, greedy, and self righteous.
Donald Trump is wildly popular, because, as America makes no apologies for the way it is, neither does Donald Trump.
Outside your own borders, Donald Trump, and his quest for the presidency, is a colossal running joke. We couldn't believe it when he actually threw his hat in the ring, thinking he'd last about two minutes. Imagine how shocked and amazed we were that there were enough small minded people in the United States to get him to where he is today. It's a true testament to just how far your country has already fallen.
You're not.
Yet, it's this pervasive belief, that shuts you off from actually becoming the country you COULD become, because who, if they think they're the best at everything, ever gets better at anything? And Donald Trump is the personification, and perfect distillation, of this illusion, this lie. He is the embodiment of all the false ego, and bravado, of the way the world views America: obnoxious, self aggrandizing, bullying, greedy, and self righteous.
Donald Trump is wildly popular, because, as America makes no apologies for the way it is, neither does Donald Trump.
Outside your own borders, Donald Trump, and his quest for the presidency, is a colossal running joke. We couldn't believe it when he actually threw his hat in the ring, thinking he'd last about two minutes. Imagine how shocked and amazed we were that there were enough small minded people in the United States to get him to where he is today. It's a true testament to just how far your country has already fallen.
13
The GOP sold their voters on piety and convinced them all how morally superior their white poverty was. Meanwhile the holy leaders they voted in to office became wealthy fat apostles. For a while hate fed the engine though it put no food on the table. It's almost over.
4
Look: just as the public is now finding out about Billy Bush's years of lewd comments, and just as the public found out months ago about Roger Ailes' sexual harassment, it turns out that their colleagues have known about this forever and never took action. I wonder what's gone on in the Times newsroom all these decades, in terms of men's sexual comments? What language they used to refer to women and their sexual desirability? To go all ballistic toward Trump is utter hypocrisy. And like all hypocrisy, the backlash isn't really credible. It would be grand if we could get rid of all lewdness. But to think that people's reactions to Trump means that now all will be well, is ludicrous.
1
Trump is no Republican; he is a New York Democrat! He was a supporter of Clinton during both her Senatorial and Presidential bids. Somewhere along his life journey, he became a Republican by name only. His message is clear and resounds among those disenfranchised Americans lost in the new world order! Albeit his delivery is boorish, angry and ill-tempered, his message is not that provocative: secure borders, legal immigration, fair trade, repatriation of American foreign companies and Nato members pay its fair share for its upkeep! It is the messenger and the way he states it that make his message seem xenophobic and Islamaphobic! He does not have the temperament to be President nor is Hillary deserving of the presidency. This election year perhaps Trump's legacy will read, the man who created a third party; perhaps a modern-day know nothing party. More to the point, if anything is learned this election cycle, Mr. Trump has cast deep lingering doubts, to his supporters, that the system is rigged and that the Washington Republican Party conspired to rig the election against him.
1
As many have said, the Republicans did a great job vilifying Obama and obstructing anything he wanted to do. And with the help of the media which repeats any inane comment that will attract the lowest level of thinking, Republicans were able to promote their agenda to the point where many can no longer support their own product. But they haven't changed.
Some are against Trump because they suspect he is basically a Democrat. And the fact that others can't vote for Hillary (or is it publicly endorse her?) is telling. For in Hillary they have someone who while able to work with progressives is equally if not better able to represent corporate interests! As many suggest, she is kind of a liberal Republican and this means the Republican opposition does not want a liberal Republican. They long for another Trump with softer edges. A more polished Trump.
I hope when Hillary is elected (and I hope she is) the progressive movement can uplift the national discourse as it did during the Democratic primary when conservative and liberal views clashed in a debate that actually educated people. It is our only hope.
Some are against Trump because they suspect he is basically a Democrat. And the fact that others can't vote for Hillary (or is it publicly endorse her?) is telling. For in Hillary they have someone who while able to work with progressives is equally if not better able to represent corporate interests! As many suggest, she is kind of a liberal Republican and this means the Republican opposition does not want a liberal Republican. They long for another Trump with softer edges. A more polished Trump.
I hope when Hillary is elected (and I hope she is) the progressive movement can uplift the national discourse as it did during the Democratic primary when conservative and liberal views clashed in a debate that actually educated people. It is our only hope.
4
wow! Ross nailed this one. Very fine writing.
Ross would have us believe that Republican honchos were carefully assessing their options and evaluating the implications of each course of action. The simple fact of the matter is that no one has been more surprised by Trump's appeal than the Republican hierarchy, which shows how out of touch they are with the Frankenstein monster they've been creating for the last three decades. Democrats, on the other hand, are not the least bit surprised.
3
I have come to the conclusion , after reading this article and many of the comments, that this country would be nearly perfect if we had just one political party, the Democrats, and if everyone would just accept all the social and economic ideas that the liberals embrace. Why can't people come to realize that the Democrats have all the right answers?
1
"Why can't people come to realize that the Democrats have all the right answers?".....Because they are only right part of the time.
I see this whole Republican party Trump fiasco as an example of bad karma. For years, the Republican party has been espousing this holier than thou attitude while turning its back on women, minorities, and the poor. They spoke in code about the rights of the unborn, keeping our borders secure, and protecting freedom of religion and the right to keep and bear arms. Their primaries became mano on mano contests about who could be the most conservative and after the nomination was won, the nominee would tack toward the middle. Trump saw this; realized that he was a better actor than the rest of them; and, used the process to win the nomination. He has had a rather charmed run given all his gaffs, but his crude on the bus statements could not be explained away. To their chagrin, rather than tack to the middle, he has gotten more and more conservative tossing them red meat. This was not in their play book. They understand that a Republican can't win the nomination spouting that conservative FOX news rant, but Frankenstein can't control the monster.. Now they are paying the price.
1
For years I've read along as you have studiously produced reams of polysyllabic prose attempting to put lipstick on a pig.
It neither changed the views of the 'other' side, nor did it impress the pig.
And still you do it here, somewhat excusing the choice to put 'party' ahead of country, so those in power could remain in power, going along doing their best to please their 'base' while ignoring the opinions of the majority. In the House actually allowing a minority to all but control congress by continuing to employ a 'rule' brought to us by a child molester. This process raised to the level of an art form with the election of another relatively moderate Democrat who had the effrontery to be black.
You're a religious guy Ross, you know about both the fate of hypocrites, and the results of sowing the wind.
It neither changed the views of the 'other' side, nor did it impress the pig.
And still you do it here, somewhat excusing the choice to put 'party' ahead of country, so those in power could remain in power, going along doing their best to please their 'base' while ignoring the opinions of the majority. In the House actually allowing a minority to all but control congress by continuing to employ a 'rule' brought to us by a child molester. This process raised to the level of an art form with the election of another relatively moderate Democrat who had the effrontery to be black.
You're a religious guy Ross, you know about both the fate of hypocrites, and the results of sowing the wind.
2
Galatians 6:7 reads, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Most folks know it as "As you sow so shall you reap" or "What goes around comes around."
The republicans planted their hateful seeds a long, long time ago, and now the poisonous partisan plants have grown strong and tall. They have no choice but to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
The republicans planted their hateful seeds a long, long time ago, and now the poisonous partisan plants have grown strong and tall. They have no choice but to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
2
"It required them to compromise both principles and prudence for the sake of party unity, hoping that at some point...the extreme risks a Trump nomination created for the country would be justified by some post-Trump breakthrough for the common good."
I suppose that this analysis is a good as any. And, it reveals a level of ignorance regarding the inner-core of the GOP that is astounding. It can't be just naivete. It smacks of a selfishness and a level of personal greed and interest that simply rendered them blind. But this is what always happens to dictators and would be Masters of a Master Race. They become consumed by their own fear and its constant companion hate.
I suppose that this analysis is a good as any. And, it reveals a level of ignorance regarding the inner-core of the GOP that is astounding. It can't be just naivete. It smacks of a selfishness and a level of personal greed and interest that simply rendered them blind. But this is what always happens to dictators and would be Masters of a Master Race. They become consumed by their own fear and its constant companion hate.
1
Almost all of the commentary seems to imply that 'the chickens have come home to roost', that the GOP did this (Trumpism) to themselves beginning with The Southern Strategy and then catering to the ignoramii with dog whistles and outright flimflam. George Will - a died-in-the-wool Conservative if ever there was one - would beg to differ:
“A demagogue’s success requires a receptive demos, and Trump’s ascendancy reflects progressivism’s success in changing America’s social norms and national character by de-stigmatizing dependency” - George Will, WaPo, 9-28-16
In other words, Donald Trump is a product of the Democrats and the Progressive Movement. The people who brought you the 8-hour day, Social Security, Medicare, et al, also brought you Donald Trump. He's an outgrowth of the New Deal and all the battles since for Human Dignity and fair play. You just need to shelve your disgust and look at things a little differently.
There! Don't you Republicans feel better? George Will says the Monster came out of a Democratic laboratory. The GOP is off the hook. Thank you, George, for explaining this. Ross: Take note.
“A demagogue’s success requires a receptive demos, and Trump’s ascendancy reflects progressivism’s success in changing America’s social norms and national character by de-stigmatizing dependency” - George Will, WaPo, 9-28-16
In other words, Donald Trump is a product of the Democrats and the Progressive Movement. The people who brought you the 8-hour day, Social Security, Medicare, et al, also brought you Donald Trump. He's an outgrowth of the New Deal and all the battles since for Human Dignity and fair play. You just need to shelve your disgust and look at things a little differently.
There! Don't you Republicans feel better? George Will says the Monster came out of a Democratic laboratory. The GOP is off the hook. Thank you, George, for explaining this. Ross: Take note.
4
Question for psychologists: Trump-psychopath or sociopath?
Doesn't really matter. We as a nation are not going down that path Nov 8 anyway.
Doesn't really matter. We as a nation are not going down that path Nov 8 anyway.
1
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the Republican party hitching its yoke to Fox News, hate radio, and a thousand other 'sources' spreading darkness and misinformation across the land. It's a simple case of garbage in, garbage out. The R's knew what they were doing, and now they're reaping the whirlwind.
They put their personal advantage before the interests of the country. They deserve what's happening to them. The biggest problem is that they're dragging us down with them.
They put their personal advantage before the interests of the country. They deserve what's happening to them. The biggest problem is that they're dragging us down with them.
5
I'd love to be a fly on the wall listening to the Republican leaders as they try to figure out a strategy for reuniting the party after the debacle that will overwhelm them on Nov. 8. On the one hand they'll have angry Trump supporters who oppose immigration and trade, and on the other they'll have Neocons and business people who like cheap immigrant labor and the low wages that free trade brings. How will they bridge that schism? Glad it isn't my job.
1
Ross, your Conservative brethren's dog whistles to racists, xenophobes and misogynists broke the Grand Old Party. And now you own it.
2
Ross:
Interesting column but the Devil's Bargain the GOP made with an obviously racist demogauge since his Birther days, was inexcusable, but all too predictable since Nixon's Southern Strategy captured so many ignorant hearts and minds in the rural South.
The Inherit the Wind reference is approps as the axiom that ignorance has profound consequences in the end.
Interesting column but the Devil's Bargain the GOP made with an obviously racist demogauge since his Birther days, was inexcusable, but all too predictable since Nixon's Southern Strategy captured so many ignorant hearts and minds in the rural South.
The Inherit the Wind reference is approps as the axiom that ignorance has profound consequences in the end.
1
If, as expected, Trump loses and if, as expected he then starts a Trump TV network, the problems for the republican party will extend far into the future as he will no doubt blame the party (instead of himself) for the loss and have a platform his followers will flock to. A network along the lines of Breitbart that will encourage hatred of not just Democrats, but of republicans as well. To expand Mr. Douthat's comment: when you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.
3
'Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps."
Are you seriously asking if Republicans compromised their integrity in supporting this nomination? The supposition is ludicrous, and more than appalling. This Republican party talks of family values, fiscal responsibility, and anti big government when it comes to social safety nets for our nations poor and in need. That group should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work hard as they (Republicans) and their parents did. Right? Republicans charlatans, with straight faces mind you, nominate a tabloid reality star; a man with two failed marriages due to his own disrespectful treatment of his spouses and women in general; a businessman who looses close to a billion dollar in one tax year and then takes advantage of an antiquated tax system that allows him to not pay taxes or contribute to the running of our government for years.
This Republican party thought they could have their cake and eat it too. Rather than stand up to the tabloid misogynist bully, they bet that his popularity with their base would not be enough to win him the election, so they won't have him as their nominee, and they'll look good to their fringe tea party base. Didn't quite work out that way did it?
I take exception to is how easily you excuse Republican behavior in allowing Trump to go as far as he has, in the first place. Integrity would have kept him from being nominated in the first place.
Are you seriously asking if Republicans compromised their integrity in supporting this nomination? The supposition is ludicrous, and more than appalling. This Republican party talks of family values, fiscal responsibility, and anti big government when it comes to social safety nets for our nations poor and in need. That group should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work hard as they (Republicans) and their parents did. Right? Republicans charlatans, with straight faces mind you, nominate a tabloid reality star; a man with two failed marriages due to his own disrespectful treatment of his spouses and women in general; a businessman who looses close to a billion dollar in one tax year and then takes advantage of an antiquated tax system that allows him to not pay taxes or contribute to the running of our government for years.
This Republican party thought they could have their cake and eat it too. Rather than stand up to the tabloid misogynist bully, they bet that his popularity with their base would not be enough to win him the election, so they won't have him as their nominee, and they'll look good to their fringe tea party base. Didn't quite work out that way did it?
I take exception to is how easily you excuse Republican behavior in allowing Trump to go as far as he has, in the first place. Integrity would have kept him from being nominated in the first place.
2
You know, Ross, there are some pretty cogent comments here about how the conduct of the Republican Party over the past fifty years inevitably brought Donald Trump to us all. And not incidentally, the role that you and other Republican intellectuals and strategists played along the way. How about you address these comments sometime? A lot of us would love to know what you were thinking then and how you feel about it now. Time for a little soul searching, maybe.
5
I visited the Lincoln memorial this last Labor Day. I am not American so I hope this will excused my tardiness. I was reading the words of the Gettysburg address that are carved on the walls and couldn't help being awed beyond expectations, being moved to tears by what it said. Lincoln - what a giant among men. And now Trump. What happened to the party of Lincoln?
The problem is with the GOP itself. The GOP "intellectuals" have no voting base other than themselves and they have opposed Trump. The GOP political leadership is utterly lacking in courage. Their influence at the grass roots appear to be shaky and suspect. They waffle, they retract and engage in spin. They GOP is doomed if it swims with Trump and they could be losers if they resist. Trying to salvage their posts they scurry around and the party structure is crumbling and slipping away from them. All along they knew Trump was a loser but backed him so that they could pack the Supreme Court. That too is now lost. What is most alarming is that the family research council and other such groups as well as evangelicals and Catholics are not bolting in the face of the disgraceful revelations.
2
"For this is the most cruel rack, To feel in riches what we lack" Goethe "Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight/ And burned is Apollo's laurel bough/ That sometime grew within this learned man./Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,/ Whose fiendful fortune my exhort the wise/ Only to wonder at unlawful things,/ Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits/ To practice more than heavenly power permits. " Christopher Marlowe
1
First, despite the superficial similarity between Trump's and Andrew Jackson's racism, Jackson was a serious public servant. Can't say that about Trump. Second, Trump is the product of the Republican Party and its conservative network, not an aberration. Therefore, I suspect that after the defeat of the Republican Party in November, the party establishment will act like the British Conservative Party since Brexit and will adopt Trump's white nationalist bigotry and cultural resentment because it's their only path to election victory. What else do Republicans have to offer voters beside trickle-down economics?
3
None of the Republican nominees had any real concern for making the country great or serving the people. It was all about serving the rich and cashing in on their political power.
The American people are tired of being ripped off and having their chains jerked with phony promises every time elections come around.
Donald Trump is the devil they don't know and a rejection of the devil who they are all too familiar with.
Desperate people do desperate things.
The American people are tired of being ripped off and having their chains jerked with phony promises every time elections come around.
Donald Trump is the devil they don't know and a rejection of the devil who they are all too familiar with.
Desperate people do desperate things.
2
The GOP is in quite a bind. For years now, primarily since 2001 they've cultivated a loud, rabid, uncivil, fear/paranoia driven, tin foil hat delusional laden bunch that led to the Tea Party, Alt-Right, and ultimately Trump. These folks are out of control, yet the GOP knows they need them for votes. The GOP owns this mess.
Whether Trump wins or losses, either scenario is somewhat concerning.
If Trump wins, clearly he's going to be an erratic dictatorial autocrat and the rabid GOP base are going to demand he "exact revenge" on anyone they disagree with (mostly revenge for the last 8 years), while disregarding and ignoring congress and the courts.
If Trump loses, in the minds of the GOP base, it'll be because the system is rigged, the election was fraudulent, it will be the "last straw" for the establishment, and they will take it as a blank check to disobey, violently if necessary, any law they see fit (i.e. Cliven Bundy style). All of that anger and pent up energy will be thrown at anyone perceived to be "complicit" in getting Hillary elected, i.e. immigrants, minorities, the media, etc. Expect to see antagonism and bullying as a result.
Whether Trump wins or losses, either scenario is somewhat concerning.
If Trump wins, clearly he's going to be an erratic dictatorial autocrat and the rabid GOP base are going to demand he "exact revenge" on anyone they disagree with (mostly revenge for the last 8 years), while disregarding and ignoring congress and the courts.
If Trump loses, in the minds of the GOP base, it'll be because the system is rigged, the election was fraudulent, it will be the "last straw" for the establishment, and they will take it as a blank check to disobey, violently if necessary, any law they see fit (i.e. Cliven Bundy style). All of that anger and pent up energy will be thrown at anyone perceived to be "complicit" in getting Hillary elected, i.e. immigrants, minorities, the media, etc. Expect to see antagonism and bullying as a result.
5
That was an interesting list of excuses how the Republican party engineered itself into its current situation. The list should have started with Ronald Reagan and covered the Republican presidents, senators and congressmen (and their associated positions on issues) over the course of the last 30 years. Bottom line: the Republican party cannot talk its way out of a situation it has earned itself into.
4
"Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom. " Inferno Canto II Dante Alighieri.
Not inappropriate, I trust.
Not inappropriate, I trust.
2
The leaders of the Republican Party are drafting their entry in history. Just how stark the choices are before them could be seen on the stunned face of Mike Pence when a women at yesterday's campaign rally called for rebellion if Trump is not named president. They have some difficult choices to make. They have important choices to make.
The attacks on character rather than policy will continue. The calls to jail their political opponent, calls aired at their convention, will continue. The attacks on any who do not support their nominee will continue. The outrageous claims of hate mongering radio and TV trolls will continue. Some will continue to accept the money being offered to wear vulgar garments and disrupt Democratic rallies. The calls to go to polling places to ensure that only the right folk get to vote will continue and may even be heeded.
A significant page in our nation's history is being written. I hope the leaders of the party to which I belonged for so long but felt compelled to abandon have the courage and love for this country to take the high road and speak out against the anarchy.
The attacks on character rather than policy will continue. The calls to jail their political opponent, calls aired at their convention, will continue. The attacks on any who do not support their nominee will continue. The outrageous claims of hate mongering radio and TV trolls will continue. Some will continue to accept the money being offered to wear vulgar garments and disrupt Democratic rallies. The calls to go to polling places to ensure that only the right folk get to vote will continue and may even be heeded.
A significant page in our nation's history is being written. I hope the leaders of the party to which I belonged for so long but felt compelled to abandon have the courage and love for this country to take the high road and speak out against the anarchy.
5
They ignored and renounced every ounce of decency they may have had as they consummated a "deal with the devil". As many of them are devout Christians, don't they know that when you do that, you always lose?
3
#marawa,
They are NOT Christians.
They mouth the words, bow their heads, but Christ is miles from their hearts. For if he were truly their guide in this world, they would not be treating others as they do.
They are NOT Christians.
They mouth the words, bow their heads, but Christ is miles from their hearts. For if he were truly their guide in this world, they would not be treating others as they do.
4
As I read this column, I kept thinking of Churchill's remark after Chamberlain's decision to concede to the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (and I can't help but think it was in Douthat's mind, too):
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war."
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war."
1
Douthat writes as though Trump's childish irrationality has no precedent. But in fact the very same men he writes of with such prosodic empathy have spent the last 8 years intentionally obstructing any effort toward sound federal governance, and instead have spent billions of taxpayer dollars in repeated, endlessly repeated and utterly ineffective, Quixotic efforts to rescind the ACA and persecute Hillary Clinton.
The GOP gave up on governing a long time ago. Temper tantruming and carnival barking and oh-so-unsubtle dog whistling was their game from the minute Barak Obama took office. They deserve everything Trump hands them.
The GOP gave up on governing a long time ago. Temper tantruming and carnival barking and oh-so-unsubtle dog whistling was their game from the minute Barak Obama took office. They deserve everything Trump hands them.
2
As one of main characters in Cabaret says after the rendition of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" by the Hitler youth at a countryside beer hall, "Do you really think you can control them ?".......Also remember Neville Chamberlain's belief that the Munich Agreement signed by Mr. Hitler in 1938 guaranteed "peace for our time"........only to have Hitler invade Czechoslovakia and Poland.......
The GOP will "inherit its wind," and its coming from a small and low aperture in Donald Trump.
From the beginning Donald Trump has waged a two front war for the purpose of aggrandizing Donald Trump. With no clear political philosophy or convictions, he determined that it would be easier to defeat 17 establishment Republicans than it would be to defeat either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
To date, Trump's war on the GOP has been far more successful than his war on the Democrats.
To date, Trump's war on the GOP has been far more successful than his war on the Democrats.
Powerful - well written column.
For those predicting the demise of the GOP I will remind you that Dems don't vote often enough to make that dream come true. If you want to stop the GOP you need to vote every 2 years, not every 4
1
If Republican senate and congressional candidates are cowed by him now, they'd be even more so after the election should Trump wind up in the White House.
And even if Trump loses, he's not going away. He'll be on crusade with pals Alex Jones and the Breitbart bunch to publicly ruin each and every one of the recalcitrant officials who he'll blame for "stealing" the election from him.
I have to say, the GOP has made their own bed... It's the rest of us that don't deserve him.
And even if Trump loses, he's not going away. He'll be on crusade with pals Alex Jones and the Breitbart bunch to publicly ruin each and every one of the recalcitrant officials who he'll blame for "stealing" the election from him.
I have to say, the GOP has made their own bed... It's the rest of us that don't deserve him.
The weird fact that is emerging from the mounting conflict between Trump and the Republican Party is that Trump is behaving like the fanatical Islamic religious extremists he so heavily criticizes and despises.
Trump believes that the Wahhabism … err voodoo political theology or beliefs … of the Republican Party to which he is now their presidential candidate is anathema and less pure to his brand of Wahhabism … err voodoo political theology or beliefs … and this means war !!!
Trump wants to ensure that his Sharia law … err voodoo economic and political programs … is imposed on America and his conflict with the Republican Party is that their Sharia law … err voodoo economic and political programs … is unacceptable.
Trump does not have a moral compass and the Republican Party lost its moral compass long ago.
But the frightening reality is that the Republican circus does not have a “Plan B.” It never did.
This will just get uglier and uglier. And after the November elections, America will witness the Republican Party implode with fireworks among its leaders and members that will far exceed any July the fourth extravaganza with lots of Sturm und Drang in a fiery mess.
Trump believes that the Wahhabism … err voodoo political theology or beliefs … of the Republican Party to which he is now their presidential candidate is anathema and less pure to his brand of Wahhabism … err voodoo political theology or beliefs … and this means war !!!
Trump wants to ensure that his Sharia law … err voodoo economic and political programs … is imposed on America and his conflict with the Republican Party is that their Sharia law … err voodoo economic and political programs … is unacceptable.
Trump does not have a moral compass and the Republican Party lost its moral compass long ago.
But the frightening reality is that the Republican circus does not have a “Plan B.” It never did.
This will just get uglier and uglier. And after the November elections, America will witness the Republican Party implode with fireworks among its leaders and members that will far exceed any July the fourth extravaganza with lots of Sturm und Drang in a fiery mess.
1
Don't you just wonder whatever became of that good, old-fashioned idea of doing something because it was the right thing to do?
5
I agree with much of your analysis. It points out that the internal split in the Republican party which began with Goldwater, was healed over by Reagan, has now split, likely for good. The right wing media and that 30 percent of the far right that are Tea Party, ultra conservative are likely to form a true third Conservative Tea Party with the remaining old Republican party being significantly reduced in number. Of course, there had been a similar split ideologically in the Democrat party over many decades, back to McGovern, but, for better or worse, Democrat base voters have preferred some of their agenda getting through rather than none and so have joined ranks behind electable candidates at the Presidential level. The moderates of the existing Republican party will either join the Democrat party and make it a broader, more centrist party or they too will not have a candidate that will win at a national level.
The second point is that I disagree that Trump will run for 2020 under any circumstances. Not due to age, but due to the fact that I still believe that he has always had a hidden agenda of building his brand into a commercial broadcasting network and that he and Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon will form the new Trump News Network on November 9th.
The second point is that I disagree that Trump will run for 2020 under any circumstances. Not due to age, but due to the fact that I still believe that he has always had a hidden agenda of building his brand into a commercial broadcasting network and that he and Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon will form the new Trump News Network on November 9th.
1
"It required them to compromise both principles and prudence for the sake of party unity, hoping that at some point — 2020? beyond? — the extreme risks a Trump nomination created for the country would be justified by some post-Trump breakthrough for the common good."
M.Douthat....what common good has the Nation received from the republican party these last several decades? Trickle down wealth creation? Decent jobs at sustainable pay? A bright and shiny infrastructure? National health care? Even for children?
What we have instead gotten from your party: an attack upon our soil that could have and should have been prevented, an invasion of a Nation in response to that attack that had nothing to do with that attack, two unfunded wars, decades worth of unfunded tax cuts for millionaires that turned many of them into billionaires, deregulations that sent the world's economy into tailspin, absolute obstruction of the last two democratically elected Democratic Presidents.
Not a real praiseworthy list of accomplishments, I'd say.
T rump is the only logical conclusion to a half century or lies and slander and racist dog whistles the republican party has fed to a very uneducated and uncurious base of white reactionary voters.
M.Douthat....what common good has the Nation received from the republican party these last several decades? Trickle down wealth creation? Decent jobs at sustainable pay? A bright and shiny infrastructure? National health care? Even for children?
What we have instead gotten from your party: an attack upon our soil that could have and should have been prevented, an invasion of a Nation in response to that attack that had nothing to do with that attack, two unfunded wars, decades worth of unfunded tax cuts for millionaires that turned many of them into billionaires, deregulations that sent the world's economy into tailspin, absolute obstruction of the last two democratically elected Democratic Presidents.
Not a real praiseworthy list of accomplishments, I'd say.
T rump is the only logical conclusion to a half century or lies and slander and racist dog whistles the republican party has fed to a very uneducated and uncurious base of white reactionary voters.
2
The flaw in this article, of course, is that Trump is the logical extension and creation of the modern Republican Party. From Newt Gingrich's decision to win political power by stopping government from functioning, calling his political opponents "traitors," impeaching Bill Clinton over a sex scandal, and building an alliance with Fox News, the Republicans have continually encouraged xenophobic, if not racist, elements, wrapped in a bundle of anti-elitist and anti-government rhetoric, even while they showered the wealthy with tax breaks and regulatory benefits. Trump is just the logical extension of the party that Newt and others have built.
6
I think what you mean is "reap the wind, sow the whirlwind," from the bible. Not "inherit the wind" from the scopes trial movie.
This is not surprising because the anti-immigrant wing of the party controls the primary process. Most mainstream Republicans oppose gay marriage, oppose background checks on guns, and embrace pretty aggressive military action. Trump's views conflict with these three wings of the party. Why is this? Trump is super-anti-immigrant. That has led us -- the citizenry -- to this situation.
1
Too bad, Ross, you don't see that Trump is a culmination of all the Republican Party has been fostering for the past 50 years, except he was explicit wen in the past it's all been camouflaged: it's racism, it's misleading the uneducated into believing in "trickle down," and in disabling government from doing its proper job. And the list goes on and on. Republicans got just what they reaped: TRUMP
7
At no point in this column about republican thinking do I find the words "national interest". That is not surprising. The republican leadership cares only about political power and personal advancement, and not the national interest.
7
How will the Republican Party go on from here seems to the most important problem. Unfortunately what I have seen is not very promising. The conclusions drawn from the 2012 defeat were ignored. Do you think it was an accident that you had Ted Cruz and Donald Trump as your last two men standing in the 2016 primaries? Sorry but the Tea Party, the radical right media industry and the religious fundamentalists who seem to define your party's philosophical base will never provide a candidate that can win a national election. Conservative ideas, important in the ongoing national deliberations over the challenges we face, will be lost in the parade of loathsome magical thinkers you call republican candidates. I certainly will never vote for a candidate because god "uses even harlots to achieve his purposes" as I heard a Republican Party official state on CNN the other day. We face real challenges in the areas of war and peace, the impacts of climate change, changing demographics, changing patterns of global disease and economics to name just a few. We can't solve them on the basis of "I am not a scientist" or a fear of Shariah Law. To be honest I don't see a way forward for the current Republican Party. Perhaps a schism might be the best solution.
3
The reason GOP is here because the day Romney pandered to the racists and asked "No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate" he gave Trump the vindication he was looking for.
If the GOP had unequivocally stated 'people who doubted Obama's citizenship should be disgusted with themselves'. If Mitch McConnell had said " We will work with the President for the greater good", we would not be having this farce right now.
If the GOP had unequivocally stated 'people who doubted Obama's citizenship should be disgusted with themselves'. If Mitch McConnell had said " We will work with the President for the greater good", we would not be having this farce right now.
1
You reap what you sow. The Republican base was the result of careful tending over decades. It became the animating force behind a party that always whispered: “Keep America great by keeping it white”. Those who feel this way have become the angry base and find them further and further distanced from a silk stocking elite. For the GOP, its chickens have come home to roost.
1
I am surprised you left out the evangelicals. How can they still "bend a knee" to an immoral Trump? That pillar of the Republican party will certainly weaken before the election. There must be at least a few evangelicals with morals, right? And the greatest fallout for the Republican brand will not be the collapse of this most steady support, but the hand-wringing over it no having been the first pillar to fall. When Trump went low they were suppose to go high. What will happen when Trump reveals the moral bankruptcy of the moral base of the Republican party? Nuclear fallout!
Go deeper, Ross, into the kinds of obstructionist racist politics that the Republicans have been plying these last eight years against our president to look at the source of this malaise. Yes, the Republicans are reaping what they have sowed for many years.
1
"Honor"and "morality" are oxymorons in the context of "politicians".
"Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas". Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
"Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas". Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
1
Mr. Douthat, you and your fellow Republicans can do your penance by supporting HRC. She may be a flawed candidate, but she is vastly superior to DT. Frankly, she is closer to a moderate Republican than a liberal Democrat and she undoubtedly will be easier to work with than DT and his ilk. Just might get government moving again.
2
Blame the party leaders all you want. But citizenship is what really matters in a so-called "democracy," including the citizenship of citizens who are members of one of the major parties. What kind of "rank and file" would support Trump?: That's the real question.
1
The Republican establishment did the same thing with Trump as other groups have done in the face of megalomanic leaders - they try to appease them, thinking that eventually logic will prevail. But it doesn't. It is amazing to me how people couldn't or didn't want to see the parallels with Hitler and others. For the next two or three election cycles we are going to have a three party system. The Republicans will split based on their economic statuses - the rich and the not so rich. The not-so-rich party will draw strength from working class Democrats, weakening the current Democratic party. All three parties will be of about equal strength, making it difficult if not impossible for a presidential candidate to win enough electoral votes to win an election outright. The House will become the new battleground. The Republican Gerrymandering of 2010 will be for naught.
Republicans fear the base they have created. They waited to pick up Trump's supporters after he dropped out. Instead he won. Polls show Republicans want Trump to stay in. The supporters are vulgar, sexist, racist and talk or revolution. This is the party the Republicans have created.
2
The problem with this analysis is that it sees the issue of being a problem for the Republican Party as identified by its leadership. The fact is that Trump won the republican nomination despite the adamant opposition of its leadership. He won as a populist running against the leadership.
The people who voted for Trump in the primaries and continue to support him are real. They presumably have the same rights, as citizens of this country, to voice their opinions as those who are opposed to Trump. They apparently choose the republican party as the party that most likely would give them their voice. And they are not insubstantial in number as they appear to make up the majority of a major national political party. Sure these people could start a new party and may if the Republican leadership mutes their voice but it makes sense that they first seek to have their voice heard through the established institutions of this nation.
This editorial and similar ones throughout this year is that these people should be denied a voice because the NYT and the so called establishment believe some ideas and policies are beyond the pale. But in a democracy nothing is beyond the pale, all ideas are viable and those ideas that carry the day must be won at the ballot box not by defacto censorship of the opposition.
The people who voted for Trump in the primaries and continue to support him are real. They presumably have the same rights, as citizens of this country, to voice their opinions as those who are opposed to Trump. They apparently choose the republican party as the party that most likely would give them their voice. And they are not insubstantial in number as they appear to make up the majority of a major national political party. Sure these people could start a new party and may if the Republican leadership mutes their voice but it makes sense that they first seek to have their voice heard through the established institutions of this nation.
This editorial and similar ones throughout this year is that these people should be denied a voice because the NYT and the so called establishment believe some ideas and policies are beyond the pale. But in a democracy nothing is beyond the pale, all ideas are viable and those ideas that carry the day must be won at the ballot box not by defacto censorship of the opposition.
Ross Douthat asks if Republican leaders, in deciding to make their peace with Trump, made a "compromise with morality, patriotism and honor?"
Douthat's answer: "Perhaps."
Why the qualified answer, Mr. Douthat? The Republican party has compromised its honor and morality not only this election cycle, but for the past 50 years: Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Bush are all synonymous with bigotry, racial hatred (the Southern Strategy, welfare queens, Willie Horton, etc.) and are champions of a philosophy that puts party in front of country.
Trump is an avowed sexual predator and an egocentric loudmouth, which earn him objections from the Republican leaders. But otherwise he is mainstream bigot, which puts him squarely in the tradition of modern Republicanism.
Douthat's answer: "Perhaps."
Why the qualified answer, Mr. Douthat? The Republican party has compromised its honor and morality not only this election cycle, but for the past 50 years: Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Bush are all synonymous with bigotry, racial hatred (the Southern Strategy, welfare queens, Willie Horton, etc.) and are champions of a philosophy that puts party in front of country.
Trump is an avowed sexual predator and an egocentric loudmouth, which earn him objections from the Republican leaders. But otherwise he is mainstream bigot, which puts him squarely in the tradition of modern Republicanism.
2
Yes I can not wait to see that day. I so hope that all the down ballot members get voted out and can scrurry away back down the hole they came up from. We need an end to the divisiveness that has become of Congress. Get back on track to the business of making government work as it is suppose to representing the people and tear down citizens united which is anything but.
No. You can't say this is a debacle that started seven months ago. This tea has steeped for decades in a party that has been more concerned with power than with country, more concerned with business than people and far more concerned with political litmus tests than ability to form a functioning government. Your party is in flames because you patiently collected the tinder of religion and racism, heaped on a few logs of "business is best", added a little alt right gasoline and when the orange headed match walked into the party you express surprise at the conflagration? My hope is you don't end up burning down the whole nation.
2
I wonder if there is a chance that Trump will suggest not voting to his followers, trial balloon-like. It is now coming down to likely aftermaths and as the democraphic truth that was always obvious comes to roost. Trump's following will split between crushed believers and the inchoate angry as they see the debacle. The political logic would be a stronger Hillary to oppose and GOP "collaboration" with her as the target. I can hear Breitbart whispering into Donald's ear and Billy Bush asking if there is room for him in guerrilla war to come.
"The party’s leaders were afraid Trump would rage against them if they denied him the nomination"
Appeasement worked so well with Hitler another strong man. Sometimes it is better to early on take the punishment and defeat the enemy before he has grown and can do much worst damage.
Appeasement worked so well with Hitler another strong man. Sometimes it is better to early on take the punishment and defeat the enemy before he has grown and can do much worst damage.
1
Dear GOP, this ain't no disco, this ain't no CBGB's. This is Dante, chronicling the horror that happens when a major political party allows a demagogue to become its nominee for the most powerful job in all the world.
How could they? How dare they? How in fact can we trust a party who does not believe in science, who denies climate change, who thinks being concerned about the environment is for wusses, who wants to take away a woman's right to choose illegal, who swears by trickle-down Reagan Voodoo Economics which gives heaps of tax benefits to the uber-rich and alms to the poor.
And then, to top off their nonsense, the GOP, dominated by Tea Party Patriots, has the unmitigated gall to foist a demagogue on US. What is wrong with the GOP? I don't know but they need a swift kick in the be-hind, a good housecleaning and fumigation. They need to purge from their party its crazed constituents, which are a-plenty, who would rather see Armageddon than Hillary as our president. What kind of coo-coo is this? November the 8th, folks. Make your voices heard, please.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
How could they? How dare they? How in fact can we trust a party who does not believe in science, who denies climate change, who thinks being concerned about the environment is for wusses, who wants to take away a woman's right to choose illegal, who swears by trickle-down Reagan Voodoo Economics which gives heaps of tax benefits to the uber-rich and alms to the poor.
And then, to top off their nonsense, the GOP, dominated by Tea Party Patriots, has the unmitigated gall to foist a demagogue on US. What is wrong with the GOP? I don't know but they need a swift kick in the be-hind, a good housecleaning and fumigation. They need to purge from their party its crazed constituents, which are a-plenty, who would rather see Armageddon than Hillary as our president. What kind of coo-coo is this? November the 8th, folks. Make your voices heard, please.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
2
See, the wackos on the right were able to prove Darwin was wrong.
They are exhibit A for the argument that we don't Evolve -- we DEvolve.
They are exhibit A for the argument that we don't Evolve -- we DEvolve.
1
There is possibly one way the Republican Party can reconstruct itself. That would be for its senior leadership to endorse Mrs. Clinton and point out how extremely unqualified Mr. Trump is. They should admit the folly of having tried to block the Obama administration at every turn and pledge to actually work with the new administration. If the party actually put forth sensible ideas it might be able to reconstruct itself and prove to the country that it is actually capable of governing.
2
It's too late for 2016, but perhaps if there was a minimum level of achievement in government/service that was required before a party would accept a person's declaration that he/she was seeking a party's nomination for the presidency there would be a way to stave off a repeat of the current nightmare. You can be sure that other "celebrity candidates" are watching and learning from this campaign.
1
Douthat tells only part of the story.
For decades the Republicans have been the party of the rich, with donors funding candidates who ran on morality issues, such as marriage only between man and woman, and "abortion is murder." This got a significant portion of the poor to go along.
Meanwhile between elections, Republicans and Democrats would collaborate on policies that shaft the poor over time.
Moreover, the elite, both liberal and conservative, have essentially censored the news, preventing discussion of the deeper causes of recent American decline: median incomes have stagnated and dropped since 2000, a trend which might continue into the indefinite future.
The vast majority cling to ideas that worked in the past, but have run their course. One such idea is belief in "growth."
In 1968, Paul Ehrlich published "the Population Bomb," which claimed that population growth would eventually lead to economic decline, including actual starvation when the density became high enough.
Most, both liberals and conservatives, regarded his theory as "crackpot." But outside the US, population growth has caused rampant starvation in India and in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the US, Obamacare is failing partially because population growth (82 million in the period 1980-2010) outstripped production of doctors.
To achieve ZPG, we need an end to illegal immigration and smaller family size.
Bad as he is, Trump is the only candidate pushing for an end to illegal immigration.
For decades the Republicans have been the party of the rich, with donors funding candidates who ran on morality issues, such as marriage only between man and woman, and "abortion is murder." This got a significant portion of the poor to go along.
Meanwhile between elections, Republicans and Democrats would collaborate on policies that shaft the poor over time.
Moreover, the elite, both liberal and conservative, have essentially censored the news, preventing discussion of the deeper causes of recent American decline: median incomes have stagnated and dropped since 2000, a trend which might continue into the indefinite future.
The vast majority cling to ideas that worked in the past, but have run their course. One such idea is belief in "growth."
In 1968, Paul Ehrlich published "the Population Bomb," which claimed that population growth would eventually lead to economic decline, including actual starvation when the density became high enough.
Most, both liberals and conservatives, regarded his theory as "crackpot." But outside the US, population growth has caused rampant starvation in India and in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the US, Obamacare is failing partially because population growth (82 million in the period 1980-2010) outstripped production of doctors.
To achieve ZPG, we need an end to illegal immigration and smaller family size.
Bad as he is, Trump is the only candidate pushing for an end to illegal immigration.
1
I would be curious to read a Ross Douthat column on the antecedents to this Trumpian dystopia. How did the Republican party create the conditions for Trump to flourish and overflow their petri dish? What political calculations, which you explore in this column, were actually made years ago including the regular demonization and delegitimization of President Obama; the calculated exploitation of citizen distress and anger; and the strategic undermining of a functioning collaborative government?
In the meantime, I can't wait for this dispiriting election to be over!
In the meantime, I can't wait for this dispiriting election to be over!
2
Columbus,
slave trade,
Creation of a new nation with legal slavery and very limited voting rights.
removal of native americans
Civil war,
KKK,
reconstruction abandoned,
Jim Crow,
KKK reborn,
lynching allowed,
The ironic fight against Fascist racism,
Dixiecrats,
George Wallace,
Nixon's southern strategy, bringing Dixiecrats into the fold,
Republican party long term acceptance of the southern strategy,
Lee Atwater,
Newt Gingrich,
Sarah Palin,
Donald Trump.
I'm sure I left some things out, but this feels about right to me
slave trade,
Creation of a new nation with legal slavery and very limited voting rights.
removal of native americans
Civil war,
KKK,
reconstruction abandoned,
Jim Crow,
KKK reborn,
lynching allowed,
The ironic fight against Fascist racism,
Dixiecrats,
George Wallace,
Nixon's southern strategy, bringing Dixiecrats into the fold,
Republican party long term acceptance of the southern strategy,
Lee Atwater,
Newt Gingrich,
Sarah Palin,
Donald Trump.
I'm sure I left some things out, but this feels about right to me
3
ok, now lets see another starting w th big bang
Independents can still moderate the overall outcome of this election by withholding their votes for both Presidential candidates and voting for Republican Congress candidates, to offset the certain liberal agenda of Clinton.
1
The reason Trump is the republican candidate is that he won the most votes in the primaries. The predictable result is at our door. Next time, bring back the smoke filled rooms. Republicans don't mind squandering their political might. Soon we will hear republicans saying that it's all the democrats fault because they didn't do enough to save republicans from themselves.
1
As Tweety-bird was wont to say " I tought I taw a puddy" I did, I did." Trump didn't grab for the brass ring, he grabbed for someone else and seems to have gotten it. DER DRUMPF is now your man GOP. Own it. It isn't really surprising. Just wallk around any place in my town and you find a lot of people who are, if not in fact, at least in spirit--Trump supporters. They are dullards, rude, crude, and very distastful. They are selfishness personified. We have painted the USA with a very different brush for too many years--if we are exceptional, it is not in the way the word is commonly used.
A great article. That is exactly the dilemma they faced.
I don't expect much to different in four years. The people and ideas that supported Trump aren't going away anytime soon. If Trump were to lose this year Republicans will continue to believe if they just double down harder on nationalistic fears that finally we will come around once they've pounded their ideas into enough heads. (BTW - I've heard right wing extremists use exactly that mnemonic.)
"Oh lawdy, I got the vapors!"
Too bad we the American People cannot learn form this episode in history. We will be doomed to erect leaders that call for more authoritarianism, less caring.
I would hope to see the death of intolerance, but bad daddies keep it alive by teaching their children poorly. Mommies are complicit, but they aren't the source of intolerance, it is angry and ignorant white men.
Too bad we the American People cannot learn form this episode in history. We will be doomed to erect leaders that call for more authoritarianism, less caring.
I would hope to see the death of intolerance, but bad daddies keep it alive by teaching their children poorly. Mommies are complicit, but they aren't the source of intolerance, it is angry and ignorant white men.
1
This is what happens when the majority moderate middle gets consumed by the agitated fringe, when primary candidates can safely ignore not only the voices and opinions of those from minority parties but the moderates in their own party as well.
It is also what happens when rational, responsible rhetoric used to explain and persuade on party policy is outsourced to bombastic "entertainers" who are far more obedient to ratings than truth.
It is also what happens when politicians put party loyalty before the good of the nation.
Gerrymandering has delivered far-fringe candidates who are afraid to do their jobs of compromising and negotiating, are free to ignore the moderate middle of their constituencies and who hide behind inflammatory lies of the loudmouth conservative echo chamber to justify their behavior.
It is also what happens when rational, responsible rhetoric used to explain and persuade on party policy is outsourced to bombastic "entertainers" who are far more obedient to ratings than truth.
It is also what happens when politicians put party loyalty before the good of the nation.
Gerrymandering has delivered far-fringe candidates who are afraid to do their jobs of compromising and negotiating, are free to ignore the moderate middle of their constituencies and who hide behind inflammatory lies of the loudmouth conservative echo chamber to justify their behavior.
3
"Inherit the wind," I love it. Mr. Douthat has, at times, seemed to understand that Trump is not some weird outside force crashing into the Republican party but rather the logical outcome of all the lies, all the winks & nods at birtherism etc.
So, Mr. Douthat, ready to jump off a rotten, twisted ship?
So, Mr. Douthat, ready to jump off a rotten, twisted ship?
It is difficult to say which is worse, the cowardice of the Republican leadership, or their complete incompetence at everything other than obstruction of social and economic progress.
3
The Republican Party was born in an inferno that led to a Civil War that killed 750,000 Americans in a Civil War in a nation of 30 million including 4 million enslaved Africans.
What is going on now is the socioeconomic political educational reality of Ronald Reagan in the hands, heart and mind of a man without Reagan's acting and political talents or experiences or gift for rhetorical racist misogynist xenophobe white supremacist euphemism.
This is no inferno. This is a tiny lit flickering wet match.
What is going on now is the socioeconomic political educational reality of Ronald Reagan in the hands, heart and mind of a man without Reagan's acting and political talents or experiences or gift for rhetorical racist misogynist xenophobe white supremacist euphemism.
This is no inferno. This is a tiny lit flickering wet match.
1
This election seems to have returned the generation-of-vipers genre, long restricted to older fundamentalist churches, to mainstream popularity.
There is some Karmic retribution when the party that for 8 years has put its own power before the interests of the nation (from fiscal cliffs to voting on a proposed Supreme Court justice), and had 16 would-be presidential nominees mowed down by a demagogue who brought down to the audible level the racist, sexist dogwhistles, now is caught between denouncing the clear incompetence and unsuitability of said demagaogue or seeing said demagogue--as demagogues do--taking their own downticket down with him. I feel for Ross Douthat in this clearly heartfelt piece, but Ross, you have helped for 8 years to sow the wind, so it is YOUR whirlwind as well.
1
A few years ago, the major battle in the Republican Party was defined as neo-cons vs. theo-cons. Now there is a nativist, authoritarian candidate with no clear religious convictions at the top of the ticket whom neither group can respect. I can see Trump becoming a press mogul a la Sivio Berlusconi or the the leader of a far right party - a la Nigel Farrage or Marie Le Pen, but I can't see him remaining in the Republcan party. The neo con establishment abhors him and the Christian conservatives who are supporting him as the least objectionable alternative will drop him for a Pence type in a heartbeat.
Ross' editorial is a very fair and reasonable assessment of the situation that the Republican Party finds itself in.
Something I hadn't thought about, if Trump had been denied the nomination by the GOP:
"Like Andrew Jackson, his spiritual ancestor, Trump would have denounced the 'corrupt bargain' and vowed to fight again in 2020, even as he urged his supporters to stick it to the Cruz-Kasich G.O.P. and stay home."
The prospect of a repeat of the 2016 primary mess in 2020 could very well have contributed to their decision to support Trump.
Something I hadn't thought about, if Trump had been denied the nomination by the GOP:
"Like Andrew Jackson, his spiritual ancestor, Trump would have denounced the 'corrupt bargain' and vowed to fight again in 2020, even as he urged his supporters to stick it to the Cruz-Kasich G.O.P. and stay home."
The prospect of a repeat of the 2016 primary mess in 2020 could very well have contributed to their decision to support Trump.
Trump is merely the embodiment of the lies that have been told to people the GOP have duped for half a century. To convince these people to vote against their own interests they convinced them that war is peace, ignorance is strength, prejudice is wisdom and that above all else that they were the ones being oppressed. Then came hate radio and then the internet, raising the rancor to an ever higher fever pitch, even more hate, even less truth. You now have an enormous group of people raised on sky high rhetoric, propaganda and lies and now they're uncontrollable. Conservative intellectuals moan and wring their hands at the fact that these people cannot be reasoned with even though they fully understand why that is so. They weren't raised on reason or critical thinking, they were taught that such things were a sign of weakness or even subversive. The only thing that might save us is that they're getting older and dying off. In eight years many of them will no longer be with us and hopefully reason and sanity may be restored if not our stature in the world. That may take generations to restore if ever.
1
Why am I hearing "Ain't That a Shame" playing in my head? Must be the irony.
1
Always odd to see a real conservative refer to the "conservative media." Does this mean that serious conservatism is represented by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and Breitbart? If not, what are the "conservative media"?
Dear Ross. You ignore the history and policies of the Republican party to focus on Donald Trump being the cause of their dilemma. So many years of chauvinism, racism, war as well as flawed economic and legislative strategies has created the dysfunctional party that is now called Republican. Donald Trump is merely a catalyst that accelerated the implosion.
1
"...bending the knee...[to buy] party unity..."
Sure sounds like Hindenburg and the Weimar Party ... and that worked out so well.
Sure sounds like Hindenburg and the Weimar Party ... and that worked out so well.
Trump unleashed, running wild and free, orange mane flapping, barking angrily at the wind.
I love it when the writer tells me something up front:
"The chaos that the G.O.P. hoped to contain by surrendering to Trump has engulfed the party anyway."
so I can avoid reading a silly article.
The G.O.P. has been run by the Sons of Anarchy for a very long time. Trump is actually a somewhat uniting force in the party because he actually inspire his supporters more than did any other G.O.P. stalwart.
"The chaos that the G.O.P. hoped to contain by surrendering to Trump has engulfed the party anyway."
so I can avoid reading a silly article.
The G.O.P. has been run by the Sons of Anarchy for a very long time. Trump is actually a somewhat uniting force in the party because he actually inspire his supporters more than did any other G.O.P. stalwart.
1
The Faustian deal the Republicans made with Trump is finally showing its true cost.
So... another example, a la Neville Chamberlain, that appeasement of bullies never works beyond the immediate? You'd think Messrs. Ryan, McConnell, et al would know a little history...
Ross Douthat has opened the most intelligent, objective stream of comments in recent memory, perhaps ever! Illustrating that America is not totally lost to the bigotry, racism & polarization festering since the days of McCarthy . Glimmers of light are peaking thru the darkness. Hope for a new day for ALL is within reach.
2
The thought of Donald Trump having access and authority to launch our nuclear arsenal is frightening. There is no way a man with no filters, no background, and prone to launch our considerable arsenal of nuclear MIRV warheads based on a tweet he hated is now a possibility. Fifty percent of our nuclear warheads are carried on our our Ohio Class nuclear powered SSBNs. The balance of the nuclear missiles are land based in silos. They too are MIRVs which can hit up to 99 different targets. He is unfit to be the POTUS.
Wait, so are you saying people who lack the moral courage to stand up to a person like Donald Trump eventually face his wrath?!?!? Shocking, if only there was some historical precedent that they could have looked to as a guide.
In all seriousness, since you fancy yourself an intellectual and true believer in the founders' intention, maybe you should revisit Federalist No.10.
If you need a refresher, the Founders warn that republics historically fall not from outside forces but from factions within -- those people who put their own special interest ahead of the nation's best interest-- and that citizens should always be on guard against those groups. Your party, by your own logic and the Founder's words, are now a faction trying to preserve their self interest at the expense of the nation and are threat to the republic.
If you truly were a patriot concerned with the Founder's guiding principles, you would be actively working to break up the Republican Party as an institution so that it could do no further damage to our nation.
In all seriousness, since you fancy yourself an intellectual and true believer in the founders' intention, maybe you should revisit Federalist No.10.
If you need a refresher, the Founders warn that republics historically fall not from outside forces but from factions within -- those people who put their own special interest ahead of the nation's best interest-- and that citizens should always be on guard against those groups. Your party, by your own logic and the Founder's words, are now a faction trying to preserve their self interest at the expense of the nation and are threat to the republic.
If you truly were a patriot concerned with the Founder's guiding principles, you would be actively working to break up the Republican Party as an institution so that it could do no further damage to our nation.
Republicans have been playing footsie with exdtreme elements for years.They just never thought anyone would let them out of the bottle. Now they control most of the primary atructure in the party and the republicans have no way of putting them back into the bottle. The Mercer family appointees, Bannon and Bossi, 2 crazies if there ever was, could end up running the party. If Trump loses, will they accept the loss or carry on as though they won? The Mercer's have unleashed some really hateful people on the republicans but also on the rest of us.
You have been a collaborator in making the Republican Party what it is today.
1
Ross, you got it partly right and partly wrong.
Donald Trump's nomination represents the Triumph of the White Trash Nation. A proud lack of education (willful ignorance?) and a total lack of manners used to be the province of the trailer park.
Now it is mainstream.
We have witnessed it coming to dominate what is left of the GOP. Anyone with civility and critical thinking is now dismissed as a RINO, or worse yet, an "elite."
The GOP has cultivated these types of voters for years. Now the White Trash Nation has taken over the party.
Donald Trump's nomination represents the Triumph of the White Trash Nation. A proud lack of education (willful ignorance?) and a total lack of manners used to be the province of the trailer park.
Now it is mainstream.
We have witnessed it coming to dominate what is left of the GOP. Anyone with civility and critical thinking is now dismissed as a RINO, or worse yet, an "elite."
The GOP has cultivated these types of voters for years. Now the White Trash Nation has taken over the party.
2
"It required them to compromise both principles and prudence for the sake of party unity"? No, they didn't compromise their principles. Trump is the EMBODIMENT of the principles the Republican party has embraced ever since Barry Goldwater (anti-civil rights), Richard Nixon (the Southern strategy), and Ronald Reagan (catering to racists and the religious right, anti-"big guvmint").
1
Racists, bigots, sexists, and closed minded people don't change their minds; they just die and more progressive people are born.
We are finally seeing the last great bigoted generation of americans die off and the new generation of millennials assert themselves. Do us all a favour and get out to vote. Together you can put the final nail in the coffin of the GOP.
In 2000 they stole an election. In 2004 they made it hard for minorities to vote in Ohio and rigged that election. All the while they have been gerrymandering the house seats and relying on an undemocratic senate (Wyoming has as many Senators as California).
The game is finally over as these levers can no longer hold the progressive movement at bay. This is the time to put all the redneck federal welfare states, like South Carolina and Alabama in their proper place among the superstitious and ignorant.
We are finally seeing the last great bigoted generation of americans die off and the new generation of millennials assert themselves. Do us all a favour and get out to vote. Together you can put the final nail in the coffin of the GOP.
In 2000 they stole an election. In 2004 they made it hard for minorities to vote in Ohio and rigged that election. All the while they have been gerrymandering the house seats and relying on an undemocratic senate (Wyoming has as many Senators as California).
The game is finally over as these levers can no longer hold the progressive movement at bay. This is the time to put all the redneck federal welfare states, like South Carolina and Alabama in their proper place among the superstitious and ignorant.
1
What was needed from Republican leaders was, not Chamberlain-style appeasement, but a Churchillian vow to "defend our [nation], whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." It's the only way to defeat a fascist.
Let the GOP soak in their years-in-the-making stew.
1
The Republican Party has a mess on its hands, but I wouldn't waste time penning its obituary. They've been an extremely powerful force to reckon with and, in the long run, that's not going to change. Half the people in this country aren't going to float adrift because of one presidential election.
Where our country, and culture, goes will remain a struggle between those who recognize the reality of the world and embrace a future that is already happening and those who dream of a return to a past that never really was as perfect as they believe.
Where our country, and culture, goes will remain a struggle between those who recognize the reality of the world and embrace a future that is already happening and those who dream of a return to a past that never really was as perfect as they believe.
76
Just about every opinion piece in The New York Times these days that comments on the Republican Party suggests that its xenophobia began in the modern era. Anglo-Saxons began emigrating to America during the 17th century, and by the time the Irish began arriving in the 1840s and the Italians in the 1880s, the land our early settlers stole from the Indians was all doled out as land grants. Our farmer forbears then saw these later arrivals as lazy alcoholics and voted Republican because the GOP has been for lower taxes and less government spending for human welfare since the mid-1860s.
2
In 1968, Republicans made an immoral bargain with white segregationists with the goal of creating a Republican coalition that would yield majorities through the end of the 20th century and beyond. That choice made it inevitable that a moment of reckoning would come when these voters would want policies that would reflect their values. That the Republican Party had to fail for the moral health of the country was foreordained by the original sin of welcoming the Dixiecrats into the party after the Democratic Party chose inclusion over exclusion.
The moral failure of the Republican Party is so old that many current leaders can pretend not to see that truth, but the rise of Donald Trump should have been an awakening, and the party establishment should have had the moral fiber to right old wrongs and denounce Trump from the opening of his campaign. Instead, Ross Douthat gives Republicans a partial pass by asking what Republicans leaders could have done with the primary campaign nearly over, but their time to act vigorously had long passed.
The moral failure of the Republican Party is so old that many current leaders can pretend not to see that truth, but the rise of Donald Trump should have been an awakening, and the party establishment should have had the moral fiber to right old wrongs and denounce Trump from the opening of his campaign. Instead, Ross Douthat gives Republicans a partial pass by asking what Republicans leaders could have done with the primary campaign nearly over, but their time to act vigorously had long passed.
8
The fault lies with decades of poor decisions by Republican leaders in an attempt to grow their base and the degradation of our media.
While conservative Republicans were working to bring in the southern vote by race baiting then later the evangelistic vote, referred to as "virgin timber", to bulk up their voting base, Roger Ailes and other Nixon aids were brainstorming and plotting how to get right wing propaganda into the news, circumventing what was then network news agencies that had the highest journalistic and ethical standards. One idea, package a news story, edited on flights to local stations, and sell them to more vulnerable local news stations.
The three legs of the GOP, the southern vote, the evangelicals and conservatives, were established by the time CNN and the 24 hour news cycles was born. In one stroke, network news, essential as it is for democracy but always operating at a loss for the networks, took a back seat to the instant gratification of 24 hour news access and the ratings and money that came pouring in. News took a back seat to entertainment.
Eventually Roger Ailes and his cronies had a platform for unlimited propaganda free of journalistic integrity or ethics. As long as the Fox network entertained their viewers- by enraging them, by pumping them full of false nationalism and by demonizing our government- they not only made news profitable but broke generations of American voters who are now fully brainwashed.
While conservative Republicans were working to bring in the southern vote by race baiting then later the evangelistic vote, referred to as "virgin timber", to bulk up their voting base, Roger Ailes and other Nixon aids were brainstorming and plotting how to get right wing propaganda into the news, circumventing what was then network news agencies that had the highest journalistic and ethical standards. One idea, package a news story, edited on flights to local stations, and sell them to more vulnerable local news stations.
The three legs of the GOP, the southern vote, the evangelicals and conservatives, were established by the time CNN and the 24 hour news cycles was born. In one stroke, network news, essential as it is for democracy but always operating at a loss for the networks, took a back seat to the instant gratification of 24 hour news access and the ratings and money that came pouring in. News took a back seat to entertainment.
Eventually Roger Ailes and his cronies had a platform for unlimited propaganda free of journalistic integrity or ethics. As long as the Fox network entertained their viewers- by enraging them, by pumping them full of false nationalism and by demonizing our government- they not only made news profitable but broke generations of American voters who are now fully brainwashed.
3
Mr. Douthat you need to go back further in time if you want to understand what the Republican leadership should have done to exterminate the bilious overfed rodent that is Trump.
Backin 2014 when he first announced intention for the presidency, calling Mexicans 'rapists and murderers' on national television would have been the time. Republican leadership should have been rightly appalled, as were so many people. They should have kicked him out of the party right then and there for violating the party's ethics. Obviously, this is a party without ethics. They instead tried to make a deal with the Devil and now hellfire rains down on them.
Backin 2014 when he first announced intention for the presidency, calling Mexicans 'rapists and murderers' on national television would have been the time. Republican leadership should have been rightly appalled, as were so many people. They should have kicked him out of the party right then and there for violating the party's ethics. Obviously, this is a party without ethics. They instead tried to make a deal with the Devil and now hellfire rains down on them.
2
Republicans that do not have the slightest ounce of integrity, morality or ethics support Donald Trump. Mike Pence suggests that he is a man with these qualities. If he is, then he should do what a person with those qualities would do and walk away from the Trump ticket. Will he do that?
The Republicans brought this on themselves. For years they have pandered to angry old white men with racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-science rhetoric. The party leaders are trying to understand, with horrifying wonderment, why voters picked a candidate who espouses those view so publicly. It is as if they just saw a unicorn stab someone in the center of Time Square and people are cheering about it.
This collapse has been building for a long time. They did an autopsy after the last election with ways to fix the problems. What did they do? They dug a deeper hole. I feel no pity for the Republicans as this was all a self-inflicted wound. This was the Republican’s to win with Hillary being such a polarizing candidate they should have had a walk in the park. I am no Republican.
This collapse has been building for a long time. They did an autopsy after the last election with ways to fix the problems. What did they do? They dug a deeper hole. I feel no pity for the Republicans as this was all a self-inflicted wound. This was the Republican’s to win with Hillary being such a polarizing candidate they should have had a walk in the park. I am no Republican.
2
And you, Ross? What of your part in this slowly gathering storm?
3
People like you did this, Ross. And people like you should pay the price.
3
Insightful column Mr. Douthat. The Republicans have the base they garnered by years of veiled misogyny, racism, and xenophobia. Trump ripped the veil aside, and the Republicans feigned outrage. To their horror, the base backed the candidate who is their worst nightmare. He is vulgar, crude, uniformed, and totally out of control, without a shred of moral decency. This is the standard bearer of the Republican Party now, and there is no turning back. When you think "Republican" it is Trump's face that comes to mind.
Trump does embody all the Republican Party stands for, and in truth has stood for for many years. Ryan and McConnell have not disavowed their support for him, nor has Reince Priebus. This is now officially the Party of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and vulgarity. The reflection in the mirror must be a difficult one for those who are decent Republicans.
Trump does embody all the Republican Party stands for, and in truth has stood for for many years. Ryan and McConnell have not disavowed their support for him, nor has Reince Priebus. This is now officially the Party of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and vulgarity. The reflection in the mirror must be a difficult one for those who are decent Republicans.
3
No Republican candidate really stood out as a leader we could trust. Donald Trump clambered out of the trash heap.
2
If the responsible adults in the GOP had laughed Trump out of the room the first time he raised this Birther "issue" rather than laying low and cynically hoping to benefit from it, Ross's column might not have been necessary. but exploiting racial resentments has been part of the Republican playbook since at least Richard Nixon.
4
"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
George Washington, September 1796
George Washington, September 1796
2
it was always a given that republicans didn't appease terrorists? what happened??
2
I do not think we are in a hell scenario. I think this might be the "Truman Show"...the movie, not the president. This film is playing out on a global stage. The grey aliens are studying humans by manipulating the election. If you are going to spout a theory like about election manipulation like the Trumpsters...I say go full tinfoil hat.
Other than that we can analyze all we want but we need to distance ourselves from this election cycle. What we see playing out in the media is news. In the next years we will get literature, research and films that may start to make sense of this craziness.
Other than that we can analyze all we want but we need to distance ourselves from this election cycle. What we see playing out in the media is news. In the next years we will get literature, research and films that may start to make sense of this craziness.
I am frankly shocked-------Douthat the ever-religious pundit seems to be blissfully unaware of what happens when one sells his soul to the devil.
3
Small correction, Mr Douhat: BOTH Cruz and Trump are "unfit for the office" of president!
3
This was the election to be won by the Republican Party. So what happened? The answer is simple, the Republican leaders allowed their party to be hijacked by an outsider who had the money and the "brute force" to have a "quo d'Etat. Donald Trump used similar tactics that Mao Zedong used to take over China. Or for that matter, the tactics of the leader of ISIL
No wonder, Donald Trump is already showing signs of a TRUE DICTATOR. So Democrats in particular and Americans in general pay attention what Trump is saying. For he will put in jail all his political opponents. All what Donald Trump needs to say now, is what the barbarian "ATILA" the hung said: "Where my horse stands not even grass grows."
No wonder, Donald Trump is already showing signs of a TRUE DICTATOR. So Democrats in particular and Americans in general pay attention what Trump is saying. For he will put in jail all his political opponents. All what Donald Trump needs to say now, is what the barbarian "ATILA" the hung said: "Where my horse stands not even grass grows."
Trump in 2020? Please don't go there... it's a horrible thought after a traumatic and internationally embarrassing election cycle. The awful thing about Trump is that he has no regard for the good of the Republican party, yet he still is able to get backing from leaders with some street cred such as Giuliani, Christie, Priebus and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. I don't know what these folks are thinking. Worse, though he is clearly concerned solely with #1, 37% of Americans still support him. Truly we can only hope that Republicans get it together in 2020 and manage to nominate a candidate who is a beacon of healthy, conservative values.
Many people have been saying the same thing that Ross Douthat is saying in today's column, and have been doing so since Trump won the nomination. Paul Ryan et al. are now looking at the Republican Party from an ever-increasing distance as it blows up, and hoists them upward and outward, on the a petard of their own making. Or, in a more familiar idiom, they are reaping what they've sown.
2
As abhorrent as Trump's message and behavior has been, what is most worrying to me is the rallying fantasy call to "restore our lost greatness". That's not just a worrying and uneducated mis-reading of history, but joins a dangerous global trend - Brexit, Russia/USSR, the Chinese Dream, ISIS, Erdogan's Turkey all share this theme - and has always required finding "others" to castigate for the loss of greatness.
Assuming Trump's candidacy is thoroughly defeated, leaders in the Republican party need to step forward (which is what leaders are of course supposed to do) and demonstrate that they utterly repudiate his message and restore their embrace of America as a shining and forward-looking light for the rest of the world. The global "back to our glorious past" wave needs to be turned back; I hope that this election is that turning point.
Assuming Trump's candidacy is thoroughly defeated, leaders in the Republican party need to step forward (which is what leaders are of course supposed to do) and demonstrate that they utterly repudiate his message and restore their embrace of America as a shining and forward-looking light for the rest of the world. The global "back to our glorious past" wave needs to be turned back; I hope that this election is that turning point.
2
Mr. Douthat, your "The Republican Inferno" began as early as 2010, when Senator Mitch McConnell proposed that the GOP's top priority would be thwarting President Obama's re-election, instead of serving the people.
6
The internal civil war for the GOP is not Conservative vs. Conservative.
It is Conservative vs. Populist.
Until the GOP Elite (as well as the Democrats) recognize they have to provide opportunities for all, this internecine wars will continue.
It is Conservative vs. Populist.
Until the GOP Elite (as well as the Democrats) recognize they have to provide opportunities for all, this internecine wars will continue.
1
Mr Dothan: Thank you for pointing out that men who abandon their morals for expediency end up with neither, which is a well documented acumen. But you have the courage to call out many of the leaders of the Republican party for their abandonment of ANY claim to patriotism, decency, or bravery. They have acted the coward in the face of adversity and forfeited their right to the respect of decent persons.
I have no other choice other than to change to "unaffiliated. I must confess that I have been a reluctant "Republican" for most of the last decade because I told myself the other side was just as bad. I can no longer hold that lie before my conscious.
I have no other choice other than to change to "unaffiliated. I must confess that I have been a reluctant "Republican" for most of the last decade because I told myself the other side was just as bad. I can no longer hold that lie before my conscious.
1
Actually, the country's better off today because the Republicans chose to stick with Trump. If the party had installed a Cruz-Kasich ticket, the odious Ted Cruz might have won the presidency over the troubled Clinton candidacy. The Supreme Court might soon have been stacked with appointees of the smug, moralistic right wing. At least now we have a chance of bipartisan governance, and the Republicans can exorcise their demons during a well-earned four-year vacation.
1
Republican Party leaders need to put past mistakes aside and look forward to what is best for the country and their party. There need to be three components to their actions now
1) An unequivocal condemnation of Trump's suitability for President and a clear and official retraction of the party's support from its leadership. Any other action can only bring more ridicule to the party.
2) since he cannot be taken off the ballot, but threatens international and national security within the next month (and beyond), it is incumbent on the current president to use his executive powers to immediately investigate all financial and other links between Trump and Russia and release the findings to the public for transparency before elections. Political support from R party for this will help improve their credibility with conservative voters,
3) condemn/contain Trump's inflammatory rhetoric that can cause law and order problems on election day. It already has undermined the perceived integrity and decorum of US elections on the international stage.
All these three actions will be good for country and also good for individual Republican candidates and the party's viability.
1) An unequivocal condemnation of Trump's suitability for President and a clear and official retraction of the party's support from its leadership. Any other action can only bring more ridicule to the party.
2) since he cannot be taken off the ballot, but threatens international and national security within the next month (and beyond), it is incumbent on the current president to use his executive powers to immediately investigate all financial and other links between Trump and Russia and release the findings to the public for transparency before elections. Political support from R party for this will help improve their credibility with conservative voters,
3) condemn/contain Trump's inflammatory rhetoric that can cause law and order problems on election day. It already has undermined the perceived integrity and decorum of US elections on the international stage.
All these three actions will be good for country and also good for individual Republican candidates and the party's viability.
1
To Father Douthat: Physician, heal thyself! You and your ilk created this inferno, and now you're trying to step aside and blame other GOPers. Give me a break!
2
Pretty simple, Ross. Like your party whined against Obama: You built that. Your media outlets were all too happy to give air time to the birther-in-chief. You didn't vet him when he declared. The Bushy video was always out there. Your employer still pretends that the civil suit accusing him of the rape of a 13 year old girl doesn't exist.
Your "normal" candidates were all too happy when he was attacking somebody else. And your redneck base eats up his snake oil. Congrats, Ross. The party that reveres Churchill reacted to Trump like a bunch of appeasers. You get what you deserve.
Your "normal" candidates were all too happy when he was attacking somebody else. And your redneck base eats up his snake oil. Congrats, Ross. The party that reveres Churchill reacted to Trump like a bunch of appeasers. You get what you deserve.
2
Bravo Mr. Douthat. Sometimes the language of high poetry is all that we have to contain the epic tragic farce of the moment, and if this isn't such a moment, I know very little.
It's not hard to feel the pulse of betrayal simmering below the surface of your eloquent and dark denunciation. And you have earned the right to deliver it. You who suffered no small ignominious equivocation of your own honour in doing what you saw as your duty in carrying the water publicly for some of those selfsame quislings you mention.
What is a man's (or woman's) work if it is not to perform their duty using such opportunity as fortune, dedication, and loyalty have earned them. Surely it must add up to something more than a tawdry gold-plated moment and a pile of cash. While I profoundly disagree with the cultural lodestone you have set your compass to, I have long thought that you took some pride and satisfaction in doing serious work for a serious purpose.
Yet you have watched in growing horror as much or all you have tried to build and sworn allegiance to has prostituted itself shamelessly for what turned out to be a bowl of rancid beans. Enjoy your revenge as well as you may, and let's hope in the end we are saved from our fearful, mad folly.
Even so we came far too close. God help us all.
And Mr. Douthat, you have unfinished reckoning of your own that awaits your attention. We, each of us, live inside an edifice of ideas, a word-universe. What's yours looking like these days?
It's not hard to feel the pulse of betrayal simmering below the surface of your eloquent and dark denunciation. And you have earned the right to deliver it. You who suffered no small ignominious equivocation of your own honour in doing what you saw as your duty in carrying the water publicly for some of those selfsame quislings you mention.
What is a man's (or woman's) work if it is not to perform their duty using such opportunity as fortune, dedication, and loyalty have earned them. Surely it must add up to something more than a tawdry gold-plated moment and a pile of cash. While I profoundly disagree with the cultural lodestone you have set your compass to, I have long thought that you took some pride and satisfaction in doing serious work for a serious purpose.
Yet you have watched in growing horror as much or all you have tried to build and sworn allegiance to has prostituted itself shamelessly for what turned out to be a bowl of rancid beans. Enjoy your revenge as well as you may, and let's hope in the end we are saved from our fearful, mad folly.
Even so we came far too close. God help us all.
And Mr. Douthat, you have unfinished reckoning of your own that awaits your attention. We, each of us, live inside an edifice of ideas, a word-universe. What's yours looking like these days?
91
I hope that you can sense me Ross, I am Gloating at the downfall of the GOP. Trump is the chemotherapy needed by the GOP & its basket of deplorables. Not that I support Hillary ,who a majority of voters realize, is untrustworthy and totally owned by the Banksters & AIPAC but he is the worse of the 2 evils. What a choice for the US voter to have to make.
Now that Trump has been caught red-handed reading Russian propaganda (fake Wikileaks email from Sputnik site) to his roaring, adoring crowd, you would think Republican leaders would be even more concerned. Because the Russian propaganda does not involve sex, it is not getting the same wall-to-wall ... but it is a certain predictor of how Trump would manage crowds as president. 'Dangerous' does not begin to describe it.
I like that line: " Like Andrew Jackson, his spiritual ancestor..." Seriously, why do you wish to compare Trump to Andrew Jackson? What is it about current Republican orthodoxy? Must populist, narcissistic demagogues be your role models? I suppose that that Ted Cruz will be the next William Jennings Bryan, giving his Cross of Gold speech. Its ridiculous to think that one of the two major parties is completely unmoored from reality.
1
Sleaze, Lies and Videotape.
1
Larry could have come with actual thought, an idea, maybe even a coherent sentence or two, but the Democrat-managed educational system seems to have done its job in Larry's case. Thank you, handheld devices, and than you Washington, D.C..
Hey Douthat! "Dolchstoss"? Really? Would you please cease with the pseudo-intellectual posturing? If you want to use a German word that tells a story, shy don't you give us some background instead of trying to show everyone how smart you are? We all know you graduated from Harvard and that you're the youngest columnist in the history of the NYT...maybe the world. Hey, the rest of us can read Wikipedia, too, which is where you probably refreshed your memories of that Harvard history lesson on the Weimar Republic. Everyone knows you're the next George Will (minus the good hair). So stop crying in your beer with the rest and dump the historical embellishments.
“But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse.”
The GOP is reaping what it sowed. The moral of the story, when you put party ahead of country, is you lose both.
The GOP is reaping what it sowed. The moral of the story, when you put party ahead of country, is you lose both.
1
The experience of maneuvering a fraud like George W. Bush into office and controlling him from thereon led the Republican witch doctors to believe the same could be done with Trump. The mistake was that while Bush wanted the White House and was willing to be who they wanted him to be to get it, Trump just wants attention, but wants it on his terms and his alone. Now the party will serve as a more than sufficient scapegoat for Trump once he (to his great relief) loses on November 8. The party, on the other hand, is left having to figure out how to put itself back together and start trying to convince a good 40% of it's base that maybe there's more to the world than Fox News would have them believe.
You guy lost. He blew it when he became a coastal fringe ''tree-hugger'' in the words of the people who repeatedly sent him to Congress. The people who lost the 2000 election are your own fetid anti-American, Christianity-hating Democrats.
Can't you rescue the sinking punt by dumping the unmanageable trunk?
What were they thinking when the got a rattlesnake as a pet? that the snake was going to just rattle? or that was going to attack only people they don't like? I am watching and after all the "cooperation" with the President, they are going to get a dose of their own medicine, somebody that is going to do evertyhing so they don't win their next election. Some like to call it karma.
The base of the Republican party consume their own in a predictable cannibalistic ritual. This ritual let to demise of Eric Cantor and John Boehner to name a few. Paul Ryan is on the precipice of being consumed too.
I blame all the Republican elites for the self destruction of their party. They fomented hate and used it for their short term advantage not realizing they were sowing the seeds for their ultimate destruction.
I blame all the Republican elites for the self destruction of their party. They fomented hate and used it for their short term advantage not realizing they were sowing the seeds for their ultimate destruction.
1
Poor Ross - another member of the "Party of Personal Responsibility" who takes not one iota of responsibility for sowing the seeds of this long ago and nurturing it continuously ever since.
You disgust me.
You disgust me.
1
If you want to change society choose a leader worthy of respect.
2
Interesting that I don't see any NYT reporting of the leaked emails from the Dems. Further proof that the NYT is their mouthpiece. Shame on you.
1
The Founders of the Country never imagined the new democracy surviving long with a single-party media unwilling to even REPORT news developments damaging to their elite and candidates.
We are living in a third-world country now.
Salute whatever flag they show you.
We are living in a third-world country now.
Salute whatever flag they show you.
1
The problem wasn't in spring, 2016. It was already too late then. The latest date the problem could have been solved was in summer or fall, 2015. Trump was dismissed by the Republican elite as a clown, not a danger, though the things he was saying were anything but clown-like (at least until the current spate of creepy clowns). From his declaration of candidacy, Trump proved that what we saw from the TV personality was what we'd get from the politician. The RNC + Romney and others should have pressured, even publicly, that supposed "deep bench" (so "deep", it was unable to defeat what they thought was a clown) to shrink down to two or three immediately to deal with the dangerous candidate. They didn't. Then, there's the media covering the campaign. Clowns,, creepy or otherwise, are entertaining (and hence profit-making), so the media treated Mr. Trump like someone we should be watching and listening to, not like, say, Lyndon LaRouche, back in the day, or even Bobby Jindal or Jim Gilmore, whom they were more than willing to consign posthaste to the political dustbin. I happen to agree that's where they belong, but that's not for the media to decide. Why did it take so long for anyone in the media to point out that the "reality show" host was treating the campaign like a reality show? Why did it take so long for anyone to put the names Trump and Hitler together in the same paragraph? For that matter, why did it take 11 years instead of 10 for a 2005 tape to surface?
The Republicans have "bent down on one knee" to more than Trump: they have come to the knee to every decent notion of government from the "Tea Party" on down the lane of perverted lack of government, now raising their gaze only to receive Trump's Tongue down not only their wives' throats, but their own, and swallowed it. Hope they all choke.
The Republican inferno is in fact self-immolation, whether intentional or not. The party and its supporters chose the path that led them to this dark place. There's no one else to blame.
2
Trump is not the devil, an evil being somehow separate from the politics that produced him. Instead, he is the GOP's Dorian Gray portrait -- all the party's greedy, divisive, race-bating politics that have gotten uglier over the years and that the GOP has attempted to hide under a pretty façade of morality, family values, fiscal responsibility, patriotism.
Take a look at your portrait, gentlemen. You might decide to destroy it by dumping Trump, but that won't save you. We know who you really are, and years after Trump is gone, your ugliness will remain visible for all to see.
Take a look at your portrait, gentlemen. You might decide to destroy it by dumping Trump, but that won't save you. We know who you really are, and years after Trump is gone, your ugliness will remain visible for all to see.
1
This "corrupt bargain," was struck long ago. The callous and cynical embrace of the Tea Party into the Republican base was the moment at which the GOP sold its soul...
At the time, with Dick Army cheerleading the embrace, the GOP either had no intention of adopting the TP positions and did so just to get votes but not to represent TP philosophies (cynical) or intended to carry the TP torch and failed miserably -- endless ObamaCare repeal, reshaping the SCOTUS, destroying the Democratic opposition, killing the intentionally limited work-stream of the Congress, etc -- (callous).
So the rise of Trumpism, like National Socialism in its time, is not the cause of the GOP's problems but the symptom of nearly 20 years sucking up to RINO litmus tests, evangelical encroachment on the political sphere, gun-toting political participation and on and on.
Ultimately, the sustained and self-inflicted presence of Trump and his far too large band of disaffected "deplorables," is more pogrom than it is a political campaign. How very "Russian," AND National Socialist of him and of today's Frankenstein (suicidal) GOP.
At the time, with Dick Army cheerleading the embrace, the GOP either had no intention of adopting the TP positions and did so just to get votes but not to represent TP philosophies (cynical) or intended to carry the TP torch and failed miserably -- endless ObamaCare repeal, reshaping the SCOTUS, destroying the Democratic opposition, killing the intentionally limited work-stream of the Congress, etc -- (callous).
So the rise of Trumpism, like National Socialism in its time, is not the cause of the GOP's problems but the symptom of nearly 20 years sucking up to RINO litmus tests, evangelical encroachment on the political sphere, gun-toting political participation and on and on.
Ultimately, the sustained and self-inflicted presence of Trump and his far too large band of disaffected "deplorables," is more pogrom than it is a political campaign. How very "Russian," AND National Socialist of him and of today's Frankenstein (suicidal) GOP.
1
I am smiling, contentedly, inside, at the throes of the GOP in their final collapse. The party bigwigs deserve all the rocks being thrown at them, and the candidates down ballot. Just rewards for the way they mismanaged the Congress simply to stop a black man from achieving even a small sense of victory, and little crumbs of reward. And, "they ain't seen nuthin' yet' - just you wait til Trump spins, crashes and burns. I do not think Trump is one to forgive and forget. We shall see, Igor, what monster has been created..........
1
Republicans still have to answer for September 11, 2001, yet they continue to rant about Benghazi. What are they hiding?
1
You lost me at Andrew Jackson, Ross. A little respect, please.
Arrogance! This is not very much different than how the GOP handled, or didn't handle, the Tea Party Movement. They, again, took the short-view under the delusion that they are so powerful and persuasive that they would be able to "whip Trump into shape". The strategy didn't work with the Tea Party, it hasn't worked with Trump, and it hasn't worked over the past 30 years they have been using it. Short term gains over long term stability should be the true GOP Party platform!
1
The bankrupting of the Republican party was set in motion by Newt Gingrich and his "Contract for America". At its core, the Contract was intended to shove a Barry Goldwater "fiscal conservative" framework down every Republican's throat. Betray the Contract - Gingrich threatened, you will be defeated in your next primary race. He succeeded - I suppose, but not the way it was intended.
At the federal level, independent thinking was "all but rubbed out" and replaced by automaton loyalists those who that were willing to cross boundaries of obstruction to degrees never experienced in the history of our country.
At the federal level, the Republican party has been lost. There are no "leaders" in the ranks. The party has been filled by by autocrats and those shouting shrill rhetoric. The party needs to file a "Chapter 11"
At the federal level, independent thinking was "all but rubbed out" and replaced by automaton loyalists those who that were willing to cross boundaries of obstruction to degrees never experienced in the history of our country.
At the federal level, the Republican party has been lost. There are no "leaders" in the ranks. The party has been filled by by autocrats and those shouting shrill rhetoric. The party needs to file a "Chapter 11"
1
The "day of reckoning" is upon those with no moral center except the power of office. They had to know what was coming when an unknown Tea Party upstart defeated Speaker-in-waiting, Eric Cantor. They had to know when this same group of scorched-earth House Republicans staged a coup that toppled Speaker John Boehner, and brought in the modern "Great Compromiser," Paul Ryan. The sad lesson is: there is no compromise with rigid, ideological anarchists. But, the Republican Party sold its soul long ago when it welcomed the Tea Party fanatics into their ever diminishing fold in order to seize control of Congress. Now the monster they created has turned on them.
Despite his flaws, Andrew Jackson was a much greater man than Donald Trump. We can not compare the two. Even worse, comparing Trump to Jackson is an insult to the seventh president.
I bet you REALLY popped a blood vessel when Hillary turned her explanation for intently lying to voters into how much like Abraham Lincoln she is.
Anyone curious about politics at all is foolish NOT to be checking reporting on Wikileaks on independent/professional news sites.
The NYT all but admits that it will not even touch the hacked email stuff coming out for a month.
Anyone curious about politics at all is foolish NOT to be checking reporting on Wikileaks on independent/professional news sites.
The NYT all but admits that it will not even touch the hacked email stuff coming out for a month.
Cathargo delenda est.
In November, vote against every Republican, for every office, at every level. Be patriotic, save the country.
In November, vote against every Republican, for every office, at every level. Be patriotic, save the country.
Fascism has come to America. Those who embrace it shall face the reckoning.
In 1933 the German aristocracy, business elite, etc decided that the best way to control the chaos that the Nazi party was causing was to elect Adolf Hitler to power because they could manage and control him. We all know how well that worked.
2
Oh, Ross....For you, who seems to see everything through a conservative Roman Catholic lens, to say that "History in its day to day is not a morality play." is a precious plate of irony--or just plain misunderstanding. Of course life/history is a daily morality play; that's the only way it can be. You're moral or not every day (mostly not because, as St. Paul wrote, "...the good I would I cannot...").
So, everyday, you and your conservative friends have been immoral, by supporting Trump, or by supporting one of the other Republican nominees in the race this year--the only difference between them and Trump is that they were able to wrap their box of bile with a little prettier bow.
So, everyday, you and your conservative friends have been immoral, by supporting Trump, or by supporting one of the other Republican nominees in the race this year--the only difference between them and Trump is that they were able to wrap their box of bile with a little prettier bow.
3
Ross, the forces that selected Trump were set loose in the land decades ago, starting perhaps with Nixon's cynical southern strategy, and picking up steam with Reagan, right wing evangelicals in the 80's, and then Rush and hate-filled talk radio all the way to the vile racism, misogyny, nativisim, paranoid conspiracy theories, and liberal bashing you see in today's social media streams. Republicans, when I was growing up in the 60's, were generally more reasonable, but have become the party of crazy and hate. Establishment Republicans should have put a lid on the crazy a long time ago; instead, they allowed it to flourish, opening a Pandora's Box that is now destroying them and threatening to destroy the republic. Where are the intelligent voices of reason and compromise in the party who can help contain the worst impulses of their base?
5
When you consciously adopt the southern strategy, you can't be surprised when a racist element grows in your party.
When you use the boogie man of gay marriage to drive voter turnout, you can't be surprised when a homophobic element grows in your party.
When you use the race and place of birth to de-legitimize the president as a tool of policy and to whip your voters into a frenzy, you can't be surprised when a xenophobic element grows in your party.
When you intentionally muddy scientific consensuses to mislead the public and benefit donors, you can't be surprised when an anti-intellectual/anti-knowledge/anti-truth element grows in your party.
When you stoke fears of the government "taking away your guns", you can't be surprised when an armed-resistance element grows in your party.
And when you then focus your actual policy goals on a tax-cut/pro-business/free-trade agenda year after year after year, you can't be surprised that your voters wake up to the bait-and-switch and nominate a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, delusional megalomaniac with no respect for government or democratic institutions.
This is the tent the Republican establishment intentionally built, and its no surprise that the party's voters eventually nominated a candidate that embodies the agenda the party has been campaigning on for decades.
When you use the boogie man of gay marriage to drive voter turnout, you can't be surprised when a homophobic element grows in your party.
When you use the race and place of birth to de-legitimize the president as a tool of policy and to whip your voters into a frenzy, you can't be surprised when a xenophobic element grows in your party.
When you intentionally muddy scientific consensuses to mislead the public and benefit donors, you can't be surprised when an anti-intellectual/anti-knowledge/anti-truth element grows in your party.
When you stoke fears of the government "taking away your guns", you can't be surprised when an armed-resistance element grows in your party.
And when you then focus your actual policy goals on a tax-cut/pro-business/free-trade agenda year after year after year, you can't be surprised that your voters wake up to the bait-and-switch and nominate a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, delusional megalomaniac with no respect for government or democratic institutions.
This is the tent the Republican establishment intentionally built, and its no surprise that the party's voters eventually nominated a candidate that embodies the agenda the party has been campaigning on for decades.
15
Good examples and summary Wilson. America has a lot of resources at its disposal, still the Republicans focus on fear and demise as major themes to the extent that expectations of negative outcomes increases the likelihood of negative outcomes.
1
Maybe some of the Republicans will learn that naked aggression is not enough to win an election or support a party. If they take the time to analyze themselves after the election, to decide what they stand for and how this will support the American people as a whole , not just the richest segment of the population, they could begin to remake the party into something worth supporting. It would be well worth their time.
Linda Selvia
Linda Selvia
1
"Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump. Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor?"
I had to stop reading after the above paragraph because I could not stop laughing.
I had to stop reading after the above paragraph because I could not stop laughing.
6
Your "Inherit the Wind" analogy is extremely apt. Every day there is a new crisis, with seemingly sane people lurching from one disaster to another. My only point of disagreement: Trump will not be back in 2020. He is no William Jennings Bryan, who also sold out for publicity via the Scopes Trial. Bryan actually cared about people.
2
It is difficult to respond to your column today, Mr. Douthat, with anything more than, "brilliant." And completely unnecessary.
Neville Chamberlain comes to mind.
1
We can only hope that the Republican Party implodes after the election. Donald Trump is the candidate it deserves after years of ideological right-wing demagoguery. The Democratic Party has taken its place. We need a Progressive Party to fill the void on the left.
6
E tu, Ross? And where were you in the lead up to this debacle?
5
Wrong, Ross. Not "caught-on-tape misogyny and pornographic boasts" -- these were boasts about MOLESTATION.
9
These truths described here represent one of the saddest and lowest points in American politics. When you put party before country, the party ends.
8
Why would the Republican Party deny their crowing achievement? Trump is the full-glory of what the party represents: racism, bigotry, misogyny, intolerance, jingoism and rabid nationalism.
Trump is the end result of decades of hard work on the part of Republicans. They should all bask in Trump's moment.
Trump is the end result of decades of hard work on the part of Republicans. They should all bask in Trump's moment.
12
This is the GOP slogan in the Year of Trump:
“These are my principles. If you don't like them, well, I have others.” - Groucho Marx
“These are my principles. If you don't like them, well, I have others.” - Groucho Marx
18
The chickens always come home to roost. Selling your soul is one big, fat chicken.
13
The GOP is proving itself to be the party of every negative stereotype they've been portrayed as being and they're about to make themselves over into something even more repulsive. It's really that simple.
3
You can't support an unsupportable candidate for president of the United States and come out clean. Or with your honor intact. Or your patriotism. Or your principles, if you have any.
To enter politics is to be compromised from your next breath forward. There must be some moral grounding, otherwise it becomes an amoral slug fest, a jittery grubbing for power that obliterates all decency and corrupts the soul. The great trick is to provide a strong measure of public service, as you see it, and survive with the essence of your being healthy, with some fundamental self respect founded on the knowledge that when it really counted, above all else, you made the right choice.
The Republican leaders picked party over nation, supporting a nominee who openly threatens the rule of law, who invites computer hacking by a foreign power, who praises that same power's dictator, who denigrates those born with less physical abilities than himself and whose daily insults, exaggerations, distortions and outright lies are difficult to count. On top of that, at nearly 60 yrs. old., he celebrated being able to grab at women at will, leveraging being a "star" for the opportunities and vulnerabilities it offers.
Why should we believe that craven people who compromised at such a turning point would not eagerly sell out the public behind closed doors when the opportunity presents itself? Why should we believe they stand for anything at all except themselves?
To enter politics is to be compromised from your next breath forward. There must be some moral grounding, otherwise it becomes an amoral slug fest, a jittery grubbing for power that obliterates all decency and corrupts the soul. The great trick is to provide a strong measure of public service, as you see it, and survive with the essence of your being healthy, with some fundamental self respect founded on the knowledge that when it really counted, above all else, you made the right choice.
The Republican leaders picked party over nation, supporting a nominee who openly threatens the rule of law, who invites computer hacking by a foreign power, who praises that same power's dictator, who denigrates those born with less physical abilities than himself and whose daily insults, exaggerations, distortions and outright lies are difficult to count. On top of that, at nearly 60 yrs. old., he celebrated being able to grab at women at will, leveraging being a "star" for the opportunities and vulnerabilities it offers.
Why should we believe that craven people who compromised at such a turning point would not eagerly sell out the public behind closed doors when the opportunity presents itself? Why should we believe they stand for anything at all except themselves?
171
As you allude to with your Proverbs quote, the GOP has "troubled their own house" for a very long time: Anti-science, anti-compromise, anti-Obama in anything and everything, out of pride in party and lust for power.
The tragedy of it is the troubled "house" isn't just the GOP, it's the USA. We will count the cost of this inferno for years to come, as we reap what has been sewn.
The tragedy of it is the troubled "house" isn't just the GOP, it's the USA. We will count the cost of this inferno for years to come, as we reap what has been sewn.
4
Mr. Douthat, for once you've written a serious column; one bereft of the usual snarls against "the left" and "liberals." Perhaps this is because you know, as an, ah, honorable man, that your party's death rattle was born half a century ago and finally found its way down to the Ninth Circle of Dante's Inferno. We progressives and minorities had absolutely nothing to do with it unless it were that we endured the racism, the marginalization, the misogyny, scorn and contempt of your party as it hoarded the national bounty under its banner, cloaked in the false dress of this cavalcade of right-wing hits: "compassionate conservatism;"
"welfare Queens" and "strapping young bucks;"
WMD's;
swift-boating;
Donald Trump and his birtherism;
"one-term president;"
"You lie!;"
Mitch McConnell and Judge Merrick Garland;
the letter of 47 to Iran by the Tea Party caucus;
Bibi's address to a joint session of Congress complaining about our president;
Republicans sought not ti govern but to divide and cared little while their nominee was, so long as he was far ti the right of center.
There's no Virgil to help out the GOP. no Beatrice to show them the way out. They have what they always wanted; they have what they essentially are: chaos.
"welfare Queens" and "strapping young bucks;"
WMD's;
swift-boating;
Donald Trump and his birtherism;
"one-term president;"
"You lie!;"
Mitch McConnell and Judge Merrick Garland;
the letter of 47 to Iran by the Tea Party caucus;
Bibi's address to a joint session of Congress complaining about our president;
Republicans sought not ti govern but to divide and cared little while their nominee was, so long as he was far ti the right of center.
There's no Virgil to help out the GOP. no Beatrice to show them the way out. They have what they always wanted; they have what they essentially are: chaos.
4
We need the 2nd Party. Who will build it, who wii come?
Who let the dogs out, hm?
I seem to remember other bithers among the elephants. And Republicans who yelled "You lie" at the President during the State of the Union speech. And those who touted "death panels" in 2010 midterm elections.
Then the gerrymandering in all red states and the ginning up of the Tea Party together put the ignorant right into enough seats in Congress and statehouses to complete the legislative downfall of not only the moderate right, but thinking conservatives across the board as well.
Reaping the whirlwind indeed.
I seem to remember other bithers among the elephants. And Republicans who yelled "You lie" at the President during the State of the Union speech. And those who touted "death panels" in 2010 midterm elections.
Then the gerrymandering in all red states and the ginning up of the Tea Party together put the ignorant right into enough seats in Congress and statehouses to complete the legislative downfall of not only the moderate right, but thinking conservatives across the board as well.
Reaping the whirlwind indeed.
1
What did you expect when added to everything else, the republican party is run by 40 or so crazies. So much could have done since the election of M. Obama but the 40 or so crazies said NO and everybody else fell in line. Get rid of the 40 or so crazies, if still there after the November 2016 election, and start compromising. As for the Senate, do the same thing with Cruz and his friends.
2
You yourself, Mr. Douthat, along with all the other suddenly offended republicans, richly deserve exactly what is happening to that party - your party - in its current destruction. You and everyone else have let so many outrages just slide by - if not actually trying to rationalize them.
Not just "they," but you yourself are inheriting nothing but the foul wind of the right. Just desserts. Karma. Couldn't have happened to a more despicable bunch!
Not just "they," but you yourself are inheriting nothing but the foul wind of the right. Just desserts. Karma. Couldn't have happened to a more despicable bunch!
3
For over a century the Democratic party tried to reconcile the "states rights" doctrine with the basic tenets of human rights and liberty for all people in our founding documents. Finally, the Democrats concluded that such a reconciliation is not possible.
Then, ironically the party of Lincoln became the party of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond as the GOP became the party of "states rights."
Now the Republicans have found they cannot control the bigotry and racism that they winked at by inviting the States Righters into their party. Trump is the vulgar side of the foolish deal cut by the GOP many decades ago.
Then, ironically the party of Lincoln became the party of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond as the GOP became the party of "states rights."
Now the Republicans have found they cannot control the bigotry and racism that they winked at by inviting the States Righters into their party. Trump is the vulgar side of the foolish deal cut by the GOP many decades ago.
3
Not to worry. Trump's past criminal acts, too numerous to list here, could and should land him in prison, either Club Fed, NY State, or both. While it is unlikely this could happen before election day but, in the unlikely circumstance that he wins the election a conviction most certainly will result in an immediate and prompt impeachment.
It’s really not hard to understand how Trump won the nomination.
As much as Republicans hated Trump, they hated Cruz even more.
As much as Republicans hated Trump, they hated Cruz even more.
3
Trump is a symptom. His ugly constituency is the problem.
7
The RNC is basically letting the Democrats to their dirty laundry.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blunders of miscreants.
3
Arsonist Ross Douthat stares at the fire he helped start and says "What Happened?" Own it, Ross. your hypocrisy is what helped get us here...
5
Is that fair? Douthat is one of the "Reformocons" who have urged the GOP to address the concerns of working class voters, not merely the rich. True, he supported Palin's candidacy when it ought to have been clear to anyone with a brain that she was unfit for office. But at least he has been on the side of change in the GOP since long before it became clear that Trump would win the nomination. I think the worst that can be said of him is that he has been naive enough to think that the GOP would actually adopt some of his ideas when there never was any chance of that happening (and still isn't). If he wants to spend his time shouting down a rain barrel, that's up to him.
1
Trump is reminiscent of the fictional John Foster Kane (Orson Welles) in 'Citizen Kane.' Both rich, ambitious and powerful. And as in the movie, he's "going to need more than one lesson and he's going to get more than one lesson."
2
Appeasement didn't work out with Adolf Hitler either. But even Republicans in positions of leadership within the party apparently are woefully unaware of history and are utterly unable to deal with the reality of unreality television. An unreality that they have only themselves to blame for. And now the angry mob threatens to engulf them for good.
This entire article should be replaced with one sentence: "Hoist with their own petard"
3
Ross, so what you are saying is that the GOP is really just a bunch of self centered cowards. So, who better to represent them than Donald J. Trump? Trump is merely reflecting what the GOP elite has become back to their voters. Trump's whole primary campaign was that the GOP leadership was just a bunch of incompetent, self interested cowards that have been ignoring your concerns and selling you down the road for years just to get your vote. That sounds like a whole lot of truth coming from a man that always lies.
1
The GOP hitched its future to the Birther In Chief. No analysis is needed. This was blatant and predictable moral, intellectual, and political suicide.
The tragedy is that, in the decades it took the GOP to reach this point, they have infected our country with a generation of angry misogynist, racist, conspiracy-gulping secessionists. The GOP now has twin poster-boys: David Duke and Alex Jones.
"Jade Helm" anyone? "Chem Trails"? It wasn't enough to screech "government is the problem", they worked to convince their base that our democratically elected leadership was coming to round them up into "FEMA camps" to "poison" them with flu shots. The majority of Americans are not only deeply offended at this, but appalled at the sheer destructive recklessness of it.
So, yeah, "thanks" GOP.
The tragedy is that, in the decades it took the GOP to reach this point, they have infected our country with a generation of angry misogynist, racist, conspiracy-gulping secessionists. The GOP now has twin poster-boys: David Duke and Alex Jones.
"Jade Helm" anyone? "Chem Trails"? It wasn't enough to screech "government is the problem", they worked to convince their base that our democratically elected leadership was coming to round them up into "FEMA camps" to "poison" them with flu shots. The majority of Americans are not only deeply offended at this, but appalled at the sheer destructive recklessness of it.
So, yeah, "thanks" GOP.
1
When, "Inherit the Wind..." is the proper, prescient conclusion, you know, as a group, that you've got serious problems...
No matter how Republicans try to deny it Trump is the Republican Party. Its base still supports Trump no matter what he does or says. He is their spawn birthed by their refusal to work with President Obama and their efforts to deny the vote to minorities. Republicans have been trying to hold back demographic changes in this country with a tea spoon and have just inspired their bigoted base. So the monster is loose and will destroy their creator first, the masters who have been unable to control their creation.
3
No matter how the election turns out, who is going to respect the Republican Party and believe that it has convictions and the courage of them? Who is to think of Republicans as decent Americans who are not represented by a few evangelical Christians in their disgusting brew of racial and religious bigotry and misogyny? Who is going to accept their hateful religious arguments about the sanctity of human life or the abominations of homosexual love (at least it is love)? The country needs a political enema--it is called an election--to cleanse us of their filth.
1
A month or so ago, the NYT found itself in an ethical quandary on whether to publish Donald Trump's pronouncements "as is" when it was clear that they were either lies or absurd distortions of the truth.
When will the NYT start applying that same ethical standard to Mr Douthat's columns?
When will the NYT start applying that same ethical standard to Mr Douthat's columns?
2
It couldn't happen to a nicer party.
2
So Ross, has it occurred to you to examine why your party has succumbed to this disgrace? How you got here in the first place? Ket me give you some hints: Southern Strategy. Supply Side Laffer Curve Voodoo Economics. Willy Horton. Lee Atwater. Clarence Thomas pubic hairs on Coke cans. Rush Limbaugh. Karl Rove. Sara Palin. Joe the Plumber. Koch Brothers. Citizens United. 47% takers not makers. Check it out. Enough material for your next 100 columns.
1
Ross... I am troubled by your analysis; not one mention of:
-Original Southern Strategy
-Champions of the 1 percent
-Obama obstructionism
-Tea Party
-Sarah Palin
-Voter ID
-Citizens United
-Guns, Guns, Guns
-Feeding fear and hate
-Hate radio
-Support of Birtherism, and Last but not least
- etc.,
FOX NEWS...FOX NEWS...FOX NEWS... (Yes! CNN is Bad, but Fox news has an agenda. It worked).
-Original Southern Strategy
-Champions of the 1 percent
-Obama obstructionism
-Tea Party
-Sarah Palin
-Voter ID
-Citizens United
-Guns, Guns, Guns
-Feeding fear and hate
-Hate radio
-Support of Birtherism, and Last but not least
- etc.,
FOX NEWS...FOX NEWS...FOX NEWS... (Yes! CNN is Bad, but Fox news has an agenda. It worked).
1
Democracy is sometimes messy Mr. Douthat.
At what point is democracy null and void ? is it after you have blown your dog whistle continuously for over 3 decades and then suddenly all the dogs come towards the sound ? Is it when you realize that you don't have enough food for all the dogs there ? Maybe, it is when you try to feed the dogs what you have, and they turn their noses up to it, while looking at you as a delicious pork chop ?
Democracy is a plurality of voters deciding one way for a particular platform, party or candidate. Your voters have decided on the person with the largest and loudest dog whistle.
Next time, perhaps you could try herding cats.
At what point is democracy null and void ? is it after you have blown your dog whistle continuously for over 3 decades and then suddenly all the dogs come towards the sound ? Is it when you realize that you don't have enough food for all the dogs there ? Maybe, it is when you try to feed the dogs what you have, and they turn their noses up to it, while looking at you as a delicious pork chop ?
Democracy is a plurality of voters deciding one way for a particular platform, party or candidate. Your voters have decided on the person with the largest and loudest dog whistle.
Next time, perhaps you could try herding cats.
4
So the Party leaders treated Trump like a normal front-runner,albeit without their hearts really being in it.Despite having done so it now seems very possible that the party pillars will crash down upon their heads anyway.And not entirely by Trump's doing.Speaker Ryan certainly did his part via nearly non existing leadership in confronting Trump's constant outrages,disagreeing most what Trump said,but always adding that he still supported Trump,even now in the wake of the tape.I'm astounded that Ryan and other GOP "leaders " are so shocked with what Trump says on that tape since it's more graphically and crudely than usual full of the contempt for women Trump expresses daily.That on this tape his boasting reveals Trump to be a sex criminal doesn't surprise me at all.
Yesterday Trump's running-mate Mike Pence said we should let Trump be Trump.Well Pence can be assured that the now shackle free Trump is just getting started being his very worst self.And because that I predict that Pence's failure to get off the ticket while he had the chance,instead of making his weak defense of Trump's sex crime tape,by election day Pence will have no political future in which to run for President in 2020.
Yesterday Trump's running-mate Mike Pence said we should let Trump be Trump.Well Pence can be assured that the now shackle free Trump is just getting started being his very worst self.And because that I predict that Pence's failure to get off the ticket while he had the chance,instead of making his weak defense of Trump's sex crime tape,by election day Pence will have no political future in which to run for President in 2020.
Ross Douthat writes, "the Republican Party’s leaders could mobilize fully against [Trump], or treat him like a normal front-runner." Inside this statement lies the core cause of the Republican Inferno: Absence of Normalcy.
The GOP's good ol' boys "couldn't" censure Trump, because, like their candidate, they lack the Ethical Wherewithal and Empathetic Intelligence to understand what NORMAL is; i.e., what NORMAL people realize: that Trump is a dysfunctional character -- a bully and borderline nutcase.
It's no wonder the Republican Party is fractured. It's full of frat boys and playground bullies who never grew up.
The GOP's good ol' boys "couldn't" censure Trump, because, like their candidate, they lack the Ethical Wherewithal and Empathetic Intelligence to understand what NORMAL is; i.e., what NORMAL people realize: that Trump is a dysfunctional character -- a bully and borderline nutcase.
It's no wonder the Republican Party is fractured. It's full of frat boys and playground bullies who never grew up.
3
Those last three paragraphs are among the most beautiful pieces of prose I've ever read. I don't often agree with Mr. Douthat, but what a writer!
1
A Faustian Bargain!
1
There is no difference at all between Donald Trump, the republican leadership, and every day run of the mill voting republicans. Even you, Mr. Douthat, have played your part in the 35 year republican assault on America: the handing over of our congress to the corporate boardrooms and their lobbyists, the defunding of our public education system, attacking national arts programs, and the general bad attitude that the republican party and it's voters have towards an intelligent population. "Keep them stupid and they'll always vote republican" has been the republican party mantra for decades, and you with your writings have more than played your part in this dynamic. Here we are 35 years into this conservative era and Donald Trump is the exclamation point on your movement. To theorize that there is any difference between you, everyday republicans, republican leadership, and Donald Trump is ridiculously laughable.
2
Truly the GOP made a Faustian bargain that will haunt them.
2
If you're going to use religious metaphors, I think "karma" is a far better description than "judgments of providence". The outcome in this case was not a judgment call by a supernatural referee; it was naturally innate in the original actions. It wasn't delivered by an external force, it transpired.
1
Or they could have spoken up for principle when he started his birth certificate nonsense. Simple.
3
finally, a plainly written and sensible essay by ross douthat. how easy the pen flows when you believe what you are writing. his past essays during this presidential season trying to defend the GOPs horrible policy decisions were unreadable due to twists of logic and grandiose metaphors that went nowhere.
kudos to "soupçon of honor". nice writing!
kudos to "soupçon of honor". nice writing!
1
Every pundit seems to think Trump will play Complainer-in-Chief post election. And he will. But I question the extent to which this will affect much of anything, and how long it will last. Be assured, the stab-in-the-back myth will abound and his loyalists will be incensed; but I would hope that the forces that gave rise to Trump can be addressed and that the Party can put him in its rearview mirror. Trump will be furious for a few weeks, grumble for a few months, then go off and do something else with his life. And I think, and so does Sean Wilentz, that Trump has little in common, or to do, with Old Hickory.
"The forces that gave rise to Trump" have been at work for decades, but we must acknowledge that McCain was no Trump, nor Romney. Apart from the elephant in the room, viz. the financial crisis, were those forces, those voices, any less potent four years ago, or eight? Why should we say that Trumpism is NOT a one-off? If it isn't, it's the fault of the conservative media. And I have seen no good ideas re how to break its hold. And Trump is its Damien ("Look at me, Damien! It's all for you!").
About the Republicans -- and this is almost all of them -- who refused to denounce Trump, for whatever reason: This is a disgrace, as I see it. When someone who is this dangerous gets the nomination, Party loyalty and health is second to country. When congresspeople value job security above America, yes, I do find that rather troubling. What has transpired is both ironic and just.
"The forces that gave rise to Trump" have been at work for decades, but we must acknowledge that McCain was no Trump, nor Romney. Apart from the elephant in the room, viz. the financial crisis, were those forces, those voices, any less potent four years ago, or eight? Why should we say that Trumpism is NOT a one-off? If it isn't, it's the fault of the conservative media. And I have seen no good ideas re how to break its hold. And Trump is its Damien ("Look at me, Damien! It's all for you!").
About the Republicans -- and this is almost all of them -- who refused to denounce Trump, for whatever reason: This is a disgrace, as I see it. When someone who is this dangerous gets the nomination, Party loyalty and health is second to country. When congresspeople value job security above America, yes, I do find that rather troubling. What has transpired is both ironic and just.
2
All Trump had to do is say the magic words: tax cuts.
The GOP, as it has since 1980, reacted like Pavlovian dogs.
RD's explanation/justification doesn't wash. The harm done to our country is never in GOP consciousness.
The GOP, as it has since 1980, reacted like Pavlovian dogs.
RD's explanation/justification doesn't wash. The harm done to our country is never in GOP consciousness.
1
The Republican Party's bad choices didn't start in March. They started when Mitch McConnell announced that the aim of the Republicans in Congress was to stop President Obama from winning a second term. They started when they put party above a functioning country. They deserve Trump and they deserve to break up.
(And you better think a little deeper of how much you enabled them in these last eight years.)
(And you better think a little deeper of how much you enabled them in these last eight years.)
1
Yeah, I've been pining for cucumbers, too, but you do it so much better than most. Monkey me this, Scopes, will hell freeze over before we come to recognize climate change?
1
Let us all hope that the only thing the Republican Party gets out of this election is, as Douthat writes, the "wind." And, then, with the Democrats in power the right-wingers of the GOP can wonder what they did to kill off a vibrant two-party system of checks and balances. And maybe they will even discover that obstructionism is not governance and hatred isn't powerful.
2
The proper course would have been for the GOP to never let Trump run on their ticket in the first place (presumably they reserve the right to vet applicants to their primary process?) and tell him that if he wanted to run for President he would have to do it as an Independent candidate.
But the GOP is no stranger to letting extremists become prominent voices in their party (see: Palin, Cruz, Bachman, etc.) and now, hopefully, they are about the finally pay the price for that.
But the GOP is no stranger to letting extremists become prominent voices in their party (see: Palin, Cruz, Bachman, etc.) and now, hopefully, they are about the finally pay the price for that.
1
For whom are you voting, Ross?
The real problem is all the GOP leaders willing support such an odious person.
Preferring to appease such a wack-a-doodle says all we need to know about the GOP's real priorities....themselves, not our country.
Blinded by their own selfish goals, they never seem to learn their lessons from history: appeasing Hitler didn't work out too well, either.
Preferring to appease such a wack-a-doodle says all we need to know about the GOP's real priorities....themselves, not our country.
Blinded by their own selfish goals, they never seem to learn their lessons from history: appeasing Hitler didn't work out too well, either.
1
You've lost me, Ross. (Once again.) What is it exactly you wanted to happen? Are you seriously arguing to bring back "smoke filled rooms" and super delegates, and tell voters who to vote for? Are you so delusional you think the lefty media would have "gone easier" on Ted CRUZ than Trump?
And I am not how you process that Paul Ryan "still supports Trump". Ryan has dropped his support of Trump and won't campaign for him. Short of wearing a Hillary button, that's about as much "dropping his support" as is humanly possible.
We all know you are voting for Hillary. Why not be a man, and come out and say it?
And I am not how you process that Paul Ryan "still supports Trump". Ryan has dropped his support of Trump and won't campaign for him. Short of wearing a Hillary button, that's about as much "dropping his support" as is humanly possible.
We all know you are voting for Hillary. Why not be a man, and come out and say it?
1
Ross, "they"? No, man, you don't get off the hook. You can't pretend that GOP was mostly party of conservative ideas, rather than mostly the party of white identity politics. For several generations GOP was first and foremost the party of white identity politics, with conservatism being dressing on a side. It's just that in the last seven months it turned from being *mostly* the party of white identity politics to being *exclusively* about white identity. You rode the tiger too, not just "they". You've made same moral compromises as "they" did, and you are as much culpable in the destruction of the Republican Party as "they". Maybe you could redeem yourself if you started working on getting GOP in the business of actual governing. But as of now you have no standing in chastising GOP leaders. You're one of them.
1
Ross,
You earned this and deserve all that is coming to you. Republicans have clearly demonstrated over the last 8 years that all they care about is themselves. They have ostensibly blocked Obama from governing at every turn. They only care about being re-elected and are only now shooing Donald away because they no longer believe he is helping them. Shameful. You reap what you sow.
You earned this and deserve all that is coming to you. Republicans have clearly demonstrated over the last 8 years that all they care about is themselves. They have ostensibly blocked Obama from governing at every turn. They only care about being re-elected and are only now shooing Donald away because they no longer believe he is helping them. Shameful. You reap what you sow.
1
I suppose the one good thing to come out of all this... with the trump albatross forever around their necks, this is the end of Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Rudy Giuliani.
4
History has taught us that "appeasing an aggressor just makes him more aggressive."
1
The GOP doomed itself when Senator Mitch McConnell and his co-conspirators announced and then implemented a scorched-earth strategy of do-nothing obstructionism, denying the legitimacy of the election of America's first African-American President even more emphatically and consequentially than Trump and all his birthers. More than any words, it was GOP leadership's scorched-earth obstructionism that legitimated the racism, bigotry and misogyny within the "Tea Party" and of the so-called "alt-right" and brought on Trump and this moment of reckoning.
1
At what point do we recognize the Faustian bargain the Republicans made to feed the anger of a minority of a minority has given birth to a monster who represents an existential threat to the nation? There can be little doubt that the Republican nominee is a dangerously unstable person who has the capacity to bring disaster to the nation. We must recall that Hitler and Mussolini were elected by democracies and then destroyed them. Will we allow that to happen to us?
I would love to see an analysis of the role gerrymandering has played in the rise of Trump types
2
Oh, I get it. We are pretending that Trump beamed down at this point in time, much as Rowan Atkinson appeared at the beginning of Mr. Bean. It just couldn't be his party's zombie ideas of "Government is the problem", tax cuts for the rich, must block grant medicare and medicaid (yeah, block granting is doing a real bang up job with TANF),must drag SSI into the bath tub where Grover Norquist can strangle it, and "you can get medical insurance, except for what you really need it for!". Been reading about inequality and the lasting wreckage of the panic of '08 for years, and wondering if its really true. Guess it is true, and people have finally had enough. Paging GOP reformacons.
3
An interesting if abbreviated piece. Who is this they, their, them , you speak of? Don't you consider Yourself a spokesperson for the Conservative wing of the Republican Party? All those columns you wrote along the way before you semi-woke up to the treat of Trump, need to be included in your condemnation.
How about a column extolling the Republicans who broke with Trump early, like Tom Ridge and Christine Whitman? Not going to happen. They will be viewed suspiciously by party Koolaid-drinkers going forward - even by the ones who later came out against Trump themselves.
In other words, opposing Trump is just a show for many Republicans (and pundits). Slipping on sheep's clothing until the farmer passes.
In other words, opposing Trump is just a show for many Republicans (and pundits). Slipping on sheep's clothing until the farmer passes.
(Sigh) R stands for Repulsive. Also Reactionary, Revolting, Rapacious, and Ridiculous. Now also Rapist! NEVER in my life have I voted a straight ticket. This year I am researching diligently to assure I vote for NO candidate endorsed by the "R" Party. NEVER in my life have I donated so much money to their opposition -not in all my 48 years of being eligible to vote. Disgusted is not an "R" word, but that's what I am with the "R" Party. Looking forward to getting my ballot and exercising my franchise. What a Disaster Trump and the "R" Party have brought to the Nation, this election cycle. Hijacked by a Rake who has unleashed ugly Rancor, bringing evil to our Republic.
Trump will be 74 in 2020. This is his one and only shot. Whether there is anyone who can pick up his pieces remains to be seen. It's not just his policies, but his temperament that has to be duplicated. One thing whoever will have is the idea that Trump (alive or dead by then) is a martyr.
Before the next debate can we demand drug testing of the 2 candidates? There is something going on in these frightening debates that has nothing to do with civilized behavior. What drug is being used?
In the mid-1950s, JFK wrote a book a small book, "Profiles in Courage". It was a compilation of short biographies of Senators who exhibited bravery and integrity at critical times in our nation's history. The senators defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions.
After this election, someone will write a book, "Profiles in Cowardice". It will be HUGE, occupying as much self space as the old paper Encyclopedia Britannica.
After this election, someone will write a book, "Profiles in Cowardice". It will be HUGE, occupying as much self space as the old paper Encyclopedia Britannica.
4
Oh, but we know how the Republicans got into the political cesspool in which they now swim. Decades of hyped-up bigotry and shameless greed have been held aloft as icons of worship.
Now tell us, Mr. Douthat, what is your Republican party going to do differently in future election cycles? Will you still preach the gospel of intolerance? As a Catholic will you advocate the directives of Jesus to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, or is that just so much left-wing socialist decadence?
What conservatives need, Mr. Douthat, is a spiritual revolution, a moral cleansing, a complete realignment of their mean values and greedy objectives so that they are not in direct and demonic opposition to basic decency.
Now tell us, Mr. Douthat, what is your Republican party going to do differently in future election cycles? Will you still preach the gospel of intolerance? As a Catholic will you advocate the directives of Jesus to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, or is that just so much left-wing socialist decadence?
What conservatives need, Mr. Douthat, is a spiritual revolution, a moral cleansing, a complete realignment of their mean values and greedy objectives so that they are not in direct and demonic opposition to basic decency.
7
"An understandable fear of this scenario drove Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump. Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps...."
Not really understandable, ross, and not perhaps. Standing up for what you know to be true, being loyal to your country ahead of your party, putting the national interest ahead of self-interest -- these are the elements of integrity, the requirements of leadership and ostensibly the reasons we vote for the people we vote for. the republicans have disgraced themselves in every way and continue to do so.
Not really understandable, ross, and not perhaps. Standing up for what you know to be true, being loyal to your country ahead of your party, putting the national interest ahead of self-interest -- these are the elements of integrity, the requirements of leadership and ostensibly the reasons we vote for the people we vote for. the republicans have disgraced themselves in every way and continue to do so.
2
Wow. Just wow. Mr. Douthat wrote many paragraphs and not once was the cause of the Republican problems the usual liberal decay. Mr. Douthat, you're slipping.
But yours is the party that shelters the Kenya birthers, the Obama is a secret Muslim touters, the Obama is a socialist-communist-fascist dictator, the 6,000-year-old Earthers, the flat-Earthers, the climate change deniers, the trickle-down economics cheerleaders, the government is the problem folks, the drown it in the bathtub promoters, and we could go on. I loved Steve Schmitt, Republican strategist's phrase, the intellectual rot of the Republican Party.
Look, you've got your Trump. Nobody bailed on Trump because of principle except a couple of Senators and Barbara Bush, until now that is. And now that it's pretty certain that he's gonna lose and, as you say, the pillars are coming down, we can see and hear a whole bunch of gnashing teeth and wailing voices from the same people for whom party came before country, party came before principle, and party came before any commitment to the truth even tied its shoes. And that's because winning is everything, at any cost.
You've asked for it, you've got it. And you're welcome.
But yours is the party that shelters the Kenya birthers, the Obama is a secret Muslim touters, the Obama is a socialist-communist-fascist dictator, the 6,000-year-old Earthers, the flat-Earthers, the climate change deniers, the trickle-down economics cheerleaders, the government is the problem folks, the drown it in the bathtub promoters, and we could go on. I loved Steve Schmitt, Republican strategist's phrase, the intellectual rot of the Republican Party.
Look, you've got your Trump. Nobody bailed on Trump because of principle except a couple of Senators and Barbara Bush, until now that is. And now that it's pretty certain that he's gonna lose and, as you say, the pillars are coming down, we can see and hear a whole bunch of gnashing teeth and wailing voices from the same people for whom party came before country, party came before principle, and party came before any commitment to the truth even tied its shoes. And that's because winning is everything, at any cost.
You've asked for it, you've got it. And you're welcome.
4
The american right has a problem : Their electoral base. We have the same problem in Europe.
As a party leader, you must accept that your base want some policies : No immigration, no more pro-business stuff and more christian stuff. But if you campaign too much on these ideas, you loose. Because the country at large does not want this. And the more you loose, the more your electorate gets extreme. Republicans lost againt Obama two times. They are now facing a candidate who is probably very competent for his job but she is not a good campaigner. Thanks to Trump, she'll win. Next time, the republicans will probably use someone like Ted Cruz as their frontrunner. Evangelist will say "we lost because Trump was no christian". They'll vow to forbid abortion and stuff like that. And they'll probably loose once again even if I beleive Hillary's popularity will not be good at that time.
See in France with François Hollande. He won because a lot of people who would have prefered a center right policy rather than a center left one preferred to vote for him rather than Sarkozy. In fact the choice was between a center left policy and a close to far right policy. People who lost big on this election reacted by going even more on the right. And now people from the left are registering to vote at the right primary in order to bar Sarkozy from being a candidate ! I can bet that after the election, one part of the electorate will be even more mad at the system.
As a party leader, you must accept that your base want some policies : No immigration, no more pro-business stuff and more christian stuff. But if you campaign too much on these ideas, you loose. Because the country at large does not want this. And the more you loose, the more your electorate gets extreme. Republicans lost againt Obama two times. They are now facing a candidate who is probably very competent for his job but she is not a good campaigner. Thanks to Trump, she'll win. Next time, the republicans will probably use someone like Ted Cruz as their frontrunner. Evangelist will say "we lost because Trump was no christian". They'll vow to forbid abortion and stuff like that. And they'll probably loose once again even if I beleive Hillary's popularity will not be good at that time.
See in France with François Hollande. He won because a lot of people who would have prefered a center right policy rather than a center left one preferred to vote for him rather than Sarkozy. In fact the choice was between a center left policy and a close to far right policy. People who lost big on this election reacted by going even more on the right. And now people from the left are registering to vote at the right primary in order to bar Sarkozy from being a candidate ! I can bet that after the election, one part of the electorate will be even more mad at the system.
2
The Republican Party thought Trump was a solution to their problems? These guys are even further divorced from reality than I ever imagined! Then again, these are the people who thought Sarah Palin was a good idea.
5
The GOP spent years creating their Frankenstein party by flinging the doors open to the deplorables and tossing red meat out on the lawn in exchange for their votes. You reap what you sow.
3
Living in Maine, I have watched the death -- or rather suicide -- of the Republican Party up close. Maine is the state that produced Margaret Chase Smith and Olympia Snowe, both Republicans of impeccable values and honor. Sen. Susan Collins is all we have left, balanced on the crazy-far-right by our Republican Governor, Paul LePage, who has gone to great lengths to justify his blatant racism. Our state motto is "Dirigo," Latin for "I Lead." Maybe the rest of the country should stop following our example.
3
The bottom line: The Republican Party deserves to lose governance, democracy and the constitution are making that happen, and Republican stakeholders lack the power to stop it. Isn't democracy wonderful?
5
In all the eleventh hour hand-wringing of what the Republican party has become, getting lost is the conversation of the billionaire donors whose toxic and sociopathic mindset created the poisonous stew of Republican policies and intolerance of working with Democrats that started this mess.
When this freak of an election is over, they will still be there along with Fox "News" looking to stir up and brainwash those that can't think for themselves into some new conspiracy theory. For that matter, it's time to turn the spotlight on other media companies as well. CNN is a joke now with the Trump Bobbleheads spewing their ridiculous banter. This is what is supposed to pass for news now!
Time to turn the attention to those who created and/or propagated the slime for profit and turn on the disinfectant.
When this freak of an election is over, they will still be there along with Fox "News" looking to stir up and brainwash those that can't think for themselves into some new conspiracy theory. For that matter, it's time to turn the spotlight on other media companies as well. CNN is a joke now with the Trump Bobbleheads spewing their ridiculous banter. This is what is supposed to pass for news now!
Time to turn the attention to those who created and/or propagated the slime for profit and turn on the disinfectant.
5
It's the scorpion and the frog. The Repubs knew what he was when they picked him up. No sympathy here.
3
Republican leaders now have a choice ! Give up the South and its social/cultural/religious influences or give up the Party they thought they belonged to.
1
The Republican Dilemma was created with the rise of the Bush Family Political Machine.
GHW Bush has been conniving since the Nixon years to gain unchecked iron-fisted, cynical control of the Presidency.
The Bush Family suffered a setback when Ronald Reagan elbowed HW out of the way 1980-1988.
But HW got to sit next to the Pres and operate his plans clandestinely.
FINALLy, Bush got his clutches on the levers of Presidential Power, immediately plummeting the US into wars of uncertain value to US, Tax Hikes, and Real Estate/Banking disasters.
Then came Bill Clinton, on the surface a disappointment, but in retrospect it seems like Clinton was almost working in concert with the Bush Family....considering all the NAFTA sabotage, unrestricted trade with China, kickbacks, de-regulating banks and wild Wall Street Speculating......
Then came Bush, Jr.....mimicking dear ole dad to a certain point....willing to sell NY Harbour to arabs who had recently funded crimal terror attacks on the WTC, Bank Disasters, undercutting the effectiveness of the worlds best Bankruptcy System, so forth and so on.
Then came Barrack....who promised "change" but promptly set about a continuance of the "Imperial Presidency" so beloved by the Bush Family and even keeping the Bush Family Agenda in effect!!
.....
And now, The Bush Family endorses Hillary Clinton.
Is anybody paying attention???
GARY JOHNSON FOR PRESIDENT.
GHW Bush has been conniving since the Nixon years to gain unchecked iron-fisted, cynical control of the Presidency.
The Bush Family suffered a setback when Ronald Reagan elbowed HW out of the way 1980-1988.
But HW got to sit next to the Pres and operate his plans clandestinely.
FINALLy, Bush got his clutches on the levers of Presidential Power, immediately plummeting the US into wars of uncertain value to US, Tax Hikes, and Real Estate/Banking disasters.
Then came Bill Clinton, on the surface a disappointment, but in retrospect it seems like Clinton was almost working in concert with the Bush Family....considering all the NAFTA sabotage, unrestricted trade with China, kickbacks, de-regulating banks and wild Wall Street Speculating......
Then came Bush, Jr.....mimicking dear ole dad to a certain point....willing to sell NY Harbour to arabs who had recently funded crimal terror attacks on the WTC, Bank Disasters, undercutting the effectiveness of the worlds best Bankruptcy System, so forth and so on.
Then came Barrack....who promised "change" but promptly set about a continuance of the "Imperial Presidency" so beloved by the Bush Family and even keeping the Bush Family Agenda in effect!!
.....
And now, The Bush Family endorses Hillary Clinton.
Is anybody paying attention???
GARY JOHNSON FOR PRESIDENT.
Trump isn't running to win the presidency, he is running to launch his own TV network. Hey Fox News, be careful of what you wish for.
1
Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. When they convened in Cleveland this summer they were more than aware of the psychotic slurs Trump had been spewing from his pie hole. Did they think for the past year Trump was just a joke who would fade away eventually? When Trump began gathering steam this year in the primaries, didn't anyone of them see it coming? They RNC no matter what they tell you did have the power to deny such an obvious unstable know-nothing the nomination of their party. They did not do all they could. They failed US, the American people. If Trump ran as a Dem, which I am, I would be raising Cain and do all I could to deny this man this nomination. That's why have Super Delegates by the way, to prevent such evil as Trump from capturing our party's nomination. They were not set-up to deny Bernie, they were set-up to give a loyal Democrat for decades our vote for president. She was our pick from the get-go and we are so proud that she is our candidate for she is the only one I can imagine taking all the abuse she has from this slime ball Trump. Thank God for Hillary.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
5
I'm not buying it, Ross. That was an interesting article, but there's a whiff there that all of this chaos and misery (with more to come) is all That Man's fault. It all 'started' 18 months ago, bull in a china shop, gosh it will all be fine when he just goes away....
But that's not how it went down, Ross.
The R-Party has been drifting right for 40 years. You followed Saint Ronnie out into the desert, collecting increasingly weird anchorites along the way. The wars of Bush bankrupted this nation, true, but worse, your agenda to deny legal rights to women and to all minorities (women are a majority, Ross) by avowing that it was all somehow godly to do so, constantly pushing religion down this secular nation's throat, has now blown up in your face.
Ross, there is a basket of deplorables, you've known that for a couple of decades, even held an "Autopsy" that named them, and now Trump is kicking that basket.
Every time he kicks it, a few more get bounced out.
Now he's in a rage and plying his big boot with gleeful rage.
They are loosed, no longer safely in the basket. They are out, running around, and shouting their crazy at the top of their lungs. Sure, they hate me, Ross, but they also hate you. Maybe they even hate you more.
Donald Trump was inevitable, a man that would join with the underbelly of this country.
You Republicans thought you could use these crazies, that they could be contained....
...but that's the lesson of history:
Crazies always crawl out of the basket.
But that's not how it went down, Ross.
The R-Party has been drifting right for 40 years. You followed Saint Ronnie out into the desert, collecting increasingly weird anchorites along the way. The wars of Bush bankrupted this nation, true, but worse, your agenda to deny legal rights to women and to all minorities (women are a majority, Ross) by avowing that it was all somehow godly to do so, constantly pushing religion down this secular nation's throat, has now blown up in your face.
Ross, there is a basket of deplorables, you've known that for a couple of decades, even held an "Autopsy" that named them, and now Trump is kicking that basket.
Every time he kicks it, a few more get bounced out.
Now he's in a rage and plying his big boot with gleeful rage.
They are loosed, no longer safely in the basket. They are out, running around, and shouting their crazy at the top of their lungs. Sure, they hate me, Ross, but they also hate you. Maybe they even hate you more.
Donald Trump was inevitable, a man that would join with the underbelly of this country.
You Republicans thought you could use these crazies, that they could be contained....
...but that's the lesson of history:
Crazies always crawl out of the basket.
17
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell think the Republican belongs to them. It belongs to Fox news, Hate Radio and right wing websites that promote an alternative reality of dystopia and fear. It is anchored in racism, homophobia and misogyny. When you have a 90% white party in a country as diverse as the United States that has promoted dog whistles that have become shouts of "Lock her Up!" it is time to start anew.
8
The RNC is a deep, old well of secrets and illegal behavior. The case that never gets mentioned: 2007 Congressional investigation into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Bush administration. Discovered when Congress issued subpoenas for correspondence was the "loss" of as many as 22 MILLION emails, transacted among administration officials on servers privately owned (the RNC server, with the domain gwb43.com; rnchq.org and georgewbush.com were two other nongovernmental sites used for federal employees' communications). All of it comprises potential violations of the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
What's 22 million minus 33,000?
What's 22 million minus 33,000?
11
The path of less resistance is downhill. Eventually you wind up at the bottom of a very deep, dark hole. I suggest you build a ladder and try to climb out. Only this time don't pull the ladder up behind you. Wait until everybody gets out. It's going to take a while.
3
If I were advising the Republicans, I would suggest that they regain control of their party by going back to the smoke-filled room to select their candidate, the one most likely to win, instead of relying on primary elections to do the job. The primary voters are obviously not to be trusted.
53
The Democratic candidate is proof that the primary voter can't be trusted. Nor can the DNC.
If Bernie had Trump's money and brand, the Democratic Party would be crying foul now just like the Republican Establishment.
If Bernie had Trump's money and brand, the Democratic Party would be crying foul now just like the Republican Establishment.
primary voters of both parties, misled by a press and media that to survive chooses to pander rather than inform and educate.
Landrum is correct. Trumpism is demonstrating the lethal flaw in democracy. The U.S. should be on the drift back to the "smoke-filled room." We now know that more democracy in the form of primaries is an effective way to chose a presidential candidate who is unfit to be President. Given the influence of the mass-media circus, the likelihood of more folks who would like to out-Trump Trump, and the Republican penchant for whipping up rabid emotions in their supporters, it is time to start thinking up a way to chose presidential candidates that are actually fit to govern the United States.
2
Trump is a narcissist. One of the psychological mechanisms of narcissists is splitting. Simply put, the narcissist views most things, including people, in absolute, black and white terms. Everything and everyone is either great or horrible. The narcissist influences people to agree or disagree, like or dislike him in equally extreme degrees. It is inevitable that the Republican Party, previously an example of an organization with an almost monolithic, disciplined mission and message, would be split by Trump.
2
I'm curious.
How do the metrics work, exactly, when a solid 50% of your party, maybe more, is composed of Breitbart alt-4th Reich fanboys and fangirls?
How do you go about "fixing" a party with a base like that?
It takes some courage, and unfortunately your party is fresh out of that, which is why you find yourselves in the spot you are in now.
If the GOP had somewhere along the line made an adult decision to not demonize the entire Democratic party, it never would have come to this.
But you just couldn't resist, you had to let these numbskulls out of your dungeon, and now they are eating you alive.
You can't throttle insanity.
How do the metrics work, exactly, when a solid 50% of your party, maybe more, is composed of Breitbart alt-4th Reich fanboys and fangirls?
How do you go about "fixing" a party with a base like that?
It takes some courage, and unfortunately your party is fresh out of that, which is why you find yourselves in the spot you are in now.
If the GOP had somewhere along the line made an adult decision to not demonize the entire Democratic party, it never would have come to this.
But you just couldn't resist, you had to let these numbskulls out of your dungeon, and now they are eating you alive.
You can't throttle insanity.
4
Good question. Good closing comment.
3
If the leaders of the GOP ever had any guts -- and I think they did in the 1950s, when many of them staunchly opposed the USSR without going the McCarthy route -- that day is long past. There have been a few instances of Republican courage in the face of adversity, Bush Sr. comes to mind, but for the most part, today's GOP is pretty much third generation noveau riche, pissing away their inheritance and treating "the help" like dirt.
2
Republican leaders? Limbaugh? Hannity? Which leaders are you talking about?
The GOP abdicated their moral authority to the Fox news, the alt right, and talk radio a long time ago. Mitch and Paul lead NO ONE, especially Mr. Ryan.
They could convened a meeting and chosen one of the 125 "Best field of candidates since Ronald Reagan" (Krauthammer) as their standard bearer and come out in favor of that choice to battle Trump one-on-one. They stood by and did nothing, because they lacked the political power or moral authority to do so.
These same moral cowards refused to do anything more at each one of Trump's disgusting outbursts than to say, "I denounce this action/statement/gesture, but I STILL SUPPORT HIM"
So, this is what the logical outcome of the past near decade of Conservative politics, the culmination of the past quarter century of race based rage in Conservative media.
My Grandma used to say, "You made your bed, now lay in it", but for the Grand Old Party, it might be a coffin, and if it is, it isn't undeserved...
The GOP abdicated their moral authority to the Fox news, the alt right, and talk radio a long time ago. Mitch and Paul lead NO ONE, especially Mr. Ryan.
They could convened a meeting and chosen one of the 125 "Best field of candidates since Ronald Reagan" (Krauthammer) as their standard bearer and come out in favor of that choice to battle Trump one-on-one. They stood by and did nothing, because they lacked the political power or moral authority to do so.
These same moral cowards refused to do anything more at each one of Trump's disgusting outbursts than to say, "I denounce this action/statement/gesture, but I STILL SUPPORT HIM"
So, this is what the logical outcome of the past near decade of Conservative politics, the culmination of the past quarter century of race based rage in Conservative media.
My Grandma used to say, "You made your bed, now lay in it", but for the Grand Old Party, it might be a coffin, and if it is, it isn't undeserved...
2
This is not anymore the Republican party, Ross. It has been reduced to the resentful remnants of the Reagan revolution. It was just a matter of time.
3
The Trump story would make an excellent Greek tragedy.
1
There are a lot of left behinds and neither party is interested in them. Trump read their mood correctly and cynically promised to lift them up. Neither he nor HRC (per her own admission) understands them. One uses them as a ticket to power and the other derides them in her quest for the same power. They are and they gave truly lost.
It is amazing how so many republicans are abandoning the sinking ship they built through years of misogyny, xenophobia and white privilege.
This is your party, Mr. Douthat; one you have coddled and nurtured and promoted in your columns. Donald Trump embodies the worst of your party--and you have no one to blame but yourselves.
This is your party, Mr. Douthat; one you have coddled and nurtured and promoted in your columns. Donald Trump embodies the worst of your party--and you have no one to blame but yourselves.
6
Woah!!! Along of the vein of this piece, Trump just said that Republicans are harder to deal with than Clinton.
In Republican circles there is no worse insult than to compare someone to a Clinton and, even worse, to imply that Clinton comes out ahead! That Trump has just gone "there" is definitive evidence that he's settled on a "kamikaze strategy"[you read that here first]: because he knows he's going to lose and lose big and, like a sore loser that he is, he is determined to take down the Republican party with him!
Pass the popcorn. It's gone be tough to avert the eyes from this impending train wreck.
In Republican circles there is no worse insult than to compare someone to a Clinton and, even worse, to imply that Clinton comes out ahead! That Trump has just gone "there" is definitive evidence that he's settled on a "kamikaze strategy"[you read that here first]: because he knows he's going to lose and lose big and, like a sore loser that he is, he is determined to take down the Republican party with him!
Pass the popcorn. It's gone be tough to avert the eyes from this impending train wreck.
3
Trump is a yoke that fully belongs around the neck of the GOP leadership. They stoked the fears, fueled the anger and hate, and laid the groundwork. They are now reaping the whirlwind they sowed from years of policies going back to McCarthy, Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and finally Gingrich, Delay, Limbaugh, Beck and now Trump. This is a culmination of the racist and nativist policies that looked to appeal to the baser instincts and fears of disaffected lower income less educated Democratic southern whites.
Let them reap what they sow.
Let them reap what they sow.
6
For too many years, there has been no voice of reason within the GOP. Outrageous lies, conspiracy theories, and backwards policies that benefit the rich and those in power were sold and allowed to grow and fester like an unchecked infection.
No one at a leadership level in the GOP, along with the conservative religious community, had a backbone or an ounce of integrity to do the right thing in the face of a growing alternate reality. And now, after years of this rotting atmosphere, could anyone be surprised that it has come to this?
Even now, the few in the GOP base that are waking up to this disaster can't fathom casting a sensible vote for Hillary in the wake of nearly 25 years of lies.
If we get through this thing, this will be another textbook case for the ages of how power and greed can nearly bring a country to its knees. But sadly, no one will learn.
No one at a leadership level in the GOP, along with the conservative religious community, had a backbone or an ounce of integrity to do the right thing in the face of a growing alternate reality. And now, after years of this rotting atmosphere, could anyone be surprised that it has come to this?
Even now, the few in the GOP base that are waking up to this disaster can't fathom casting a sensible vote for Hillary in the wake of nearly 25 years of lies.
If we get through this thing, this will be another textbook case for the ages of how power and greed can nearly bring a country to its knees. But sadly, no one will learn.
4
It was quite a spectacle to watch the GOP primary, in which two debate stages’ candidates talked tough about Putin, Assad, ISIS, and kowtowed to the Donald. It was quite a spectacle to watch the GOP primary, in which two debate stages’ candidates talked about their “convictions” while also pledging to support Trump should he become the nominee, regardless of what a poor fit for office he was. It was quite a spectacle to watch the GOP primary, in which two debate stages’ candidates talked about President Obama as a weak leader, in which their own failed leadership paved the way for Trump to make it this far.
3
Republicans--You throw gas on a fire, and you're bound to get an explosion. Welcome to the "fruits of your labor." 40 years of screwing the American voter up in a mushroom cloud. No category of wretched self-servers deserves it more, you losers.
5
I kept expecting you to exploit the Samson metaphor with shaving Trump's head, smooth as your hand, given that his hair is so iconic.
Can anybody explain to me why about 90% of the commenters responding to this article are pretty clearly men ... John, Richard, Curt?
Oh, there's a Rachel! I'm so excited.
I thought men were supposed to be out doing work, and women were supposed to be the talky ones, sitting at home watching soap operas (i.e. The current election season).
And here's your problem, Mr. Douthat and Mr. Trump. It looks like women will decide this election no matter how much steam you give off.
Oh, there's a Rachel! I'm so excited.
I thought men were supposed to be out doing work, and women were supposed to be the talky ones, sitting at home watching soap operas (i.e. The current election season).
And here's your problem, Mr. Douthat and Mr. Trump. It looks like women will decide this election no matter how much steam you give off.
1
We have finally arrived, as I said we would, at The Emperor Has No Clothes moment. Republicans can either emulate the wise child who said so, or the ignorant others who turned a blind eye. History will judge them either way.
4
None of this is going away until the Republicans reverse the gerrymandering they engineered to give themselves safe districts. This is always going to load the party up with right wing ideologues, and these people are toxic to government and democracy. So, even if the GOP can survive Trump, the cancer will still be in their midst.
5
Great point.
1
Douthat once again ties himself in knots trying to intellectualize the obvious: Republicans have never cared about what's best for this country, or even what's best for their party. What they care about is power, plain and simple. They followed Trump because they thought he may turn out just enough deplorables to win, but they have instead shown the nation that they are the ones who are deplorable.
3
Talk about "doomed to repeat history". Can anyone say "Peace for Our Time" ala Neville Chamberlain. We never learn...
Great DOUTHAT opinion except the summary; "In bending the knee to Trump last spring, they thought that they were buying party unity." Too much credit to the Republicans even as it is correct ... It was FEAR and TIMID follower behavior that is a principle of Republicans that allowed it. This "fall-in-line" thinking that does NOT help produce leaders but instead a few followers pretending to be able to lead except TRUMP called their bluff. And TRUMP is not even a Republican if anyone noticed.
1
Frankly, I think the Republic would be in even greater danger if Ted Cruz were the nominee of a united GOP at this point. The basic problem is the Republican Party itself.
7
“If you dance with the devil, then you haven’t got a clue, for you think you’ll change the devil, but the devil changes you.”
― J.M. Smith, IF YOU DANCE WITH THE DEVIL.....
― J.M. Smith, IF YOU DANCE WITH THE DEVIL.....
4
The time to stop Trump was in 2011 when he went on his birtherism rant. Did you see ONE Republican denounce him then? Of course not, as long as they viewed him as working in their interests they allowed him to thrive. If they showed no decency then, why would anyone expect this party to show any decency when he now actually has voters behind him? You built this, GOP, and many of us are watching with great satisfaction as he burns your house down.
I believe in a strong two party system. But it has been many years since the GOP was a "party" with an actual platform, an interest in governing and a concern about the American people. They will vote against the desires of all Americans, i.e., background checks, for the money added to their coffers. Only a resounding defeat will force them to rebuild as a true party.
I believe in a strong two party system. But it has been many years since the GOP was a "party" with an actual platform, an interest in governing and a concern about the American people. They will vote against the desires of all Americans, i.e., background checks, for the money added to their coffers. Only a resounding defeat will force them to rebuild as a true party.
6
Don't blame Trump. He's just a sick narcissist with a lot of money and a ratings- and circulation-hungry media in thrall. Blame the GOP's creation and sustenance of a bigoted, anti-government, theocratic base electorate beginning with Nixon's "Southern strategy" in 1968. While these benighted dead-enders were putting Republican elites in office the GOP establishment didn't care. Now, when they're trying to put someone who genuinely reflects their concerns in office, the GOP establishment is aghast. Trump is a monster of their own devise.
11
"In bending the knee to Trump last spring, they thought that they were buying party unity and a continued share of power, and paying for it with just a little of their decency, a mite of their patriotism, a soupçon of their honor...They may find out soon enough that all this bargain bought them was an even harsher reckoning, and that all they will inherit is the wind."
The GOP lost their decency long ago when they foisted the myth of trickle-down economics upon the nation...a mite of patriotism? - like refusing to "work with this President" for a common good, in spite of ideological differences?...a soupçon of their honor? - what honor?...for at least eight years the GOP has worked dishonorably, wasting countless hours and tax dollars on witch hunts designed to target personal enemies, instead of finding honorable compromise to solve the nation's economic problems, failing infrastructure, and ailing health care system (to name a very few).
They created Trump, they tilled the soil that grew Trump, they have watered and fed Trump, and now they must live with the Trump they have grown.
The wind is more than they deserve to inherit for failing to put country above party...I for one hope it is a very harsh reckoning indeed.
The GOP lost their decency long ago when they foisted the myth of trickle-down economics upon the nation...a mite of patriotism? - like refusing to "work with this President" for a common good, in spite of ideological differences?...a soupçon of their honor? - what honor?...for at least eight years the GOP has worked dishonorably, wasting countless hours and tax dollars on witch hunts designed to target personal enemies, instead of finding honorable compromise to solve the nation's economic problems, failing infrastructure, and ailing health care system (to name a very few).
They created Trump, they tilled the soil that grew Trump, they have watered and fed Trump, and now they must live with the Trump they have grown.
The wind is more than they deserve to inherit for failing to put country above party...I for one hope it is a very harsh reckoning indeed.
9
Extremely well said.
1
Mr. Douthat: What did you expect after this?
Senator McConnell: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
and
"The president says he’s a Christian. I take him at his word."
Senator McConnell: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
and
"The president says he’s a Christian. I take him at his word."
1
That's what happens when the leaders of a political party value party uber alles! That's what happens when in order to run for a party's nomination you have to pass and pledge to be anti-immigration, essentially anti- women, deny science , global warming and climate change and be loud and proud about your hatred of all things run by the government and especially the Muslim foreign born man of color that inhabits the white house. The leaders of the Republican Party , Fox News and all of the conservative radio and talk show hosts fed the base lies, hatred and vitriol since the Ronald Reagan Presidency. The base believed them and became brainwashed and unable or unwilling to listen to true facts , pay attention to numbers and statistics and instead stoked their poisonous hatred into what we have today. Understand Mr Douthat , much more than the Grand Old Party is at stake here, Trump threatens our democracy and he and his supporters may not accept the results of this election but unlike in the past when the leaders of the party were content abusing, humiliating and denigrating the President , these people are armed and dangerous. You reap what you sow!
Mr. Douhat, there is a saying in Portuguese: a fool prays to God to take him and asks for a ride with the devil on his way to Heaven. It is strictly metaphorical. Except that Republicans, Conservatives and the Christian Right (of which you are proud member) decided to take it literally. Enjoy the ride.
1
Perhaps if the GOP had had the courage to stand up to Trump's birtherism five years ago, they wouldn't be in this mess.
1
[EDITOR: THIS IS A CORRECTED VERSION; THANKS]
These days it seems every column by every columnist has to be parsed for subtextual messages I'm not sure the columnists know they're sending. In the context of your column the following phrase appears to be offered without irony.
"An understandable fear of this scenario drove Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump. Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps. But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse."
"Understandable"? "Perhaps"? "At least"? To restate: trading morality, patriotism and honor to keep the "party's temple" protected was understandable at the time, given the circumstances, though in hindsight it was a mistake. Why a mistake? Because Trump is losing. I.e., compromising on morality, patriotism and honor was a good decision if Trump wins because the party will be happy, but a bad decision if Trump loses. I'm - almost - speechless. This is the kind of reasoning that led us inexorably to Trump. Compromising on all three is NEVER understandable. Not THOSE three. One -- even two -- to save the other(s); painful but perhaps. To help the PARTY? Don't we belong to the party of the United States; the party of the human race? You've defined our disease, knowingly or not. What's your next "understandable" compromise on morality, patriotism and honor -- car bombs?
These days it seems every column by every columnist has to be parsed for subtextual messages I'm not sure the columnists know they're sending. In the context of your column the following phrase appears to be offered without irony.
"An understandable fear of this scenario drove Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump. Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps. But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse."
"Understandable"? "Perhaps"? "At least"? To restate: trading morality, patriotism and honor to keep the "party's temple" protected was understandable at the time, given the circumstances, though in hindsight it was a mistake. Why a mistake? Because Trump is losing. I.e., compromising on morality, patriotism and honor was a good decision if Trump wins because the party will be happy, but a bad decision if Trump loses. I'm - almost - speechless. This is the kind of reasoning that led us inexorably to Trump. Compromising on all three is NEVER understandable. Not THOSE three. One -- even two -- to save the other(s); painful but perhaps. To help the PARTY? Don't we belong to the party of the United States; the party of the human race? You've defined our disease, knowingly or not. What's your next "understandable" compromise on morality, patriotism and honor -- car bombs?
1
The chastisement of providence has nothing to do with the self-destruction of the Republican Party. It's its inconsistency with civilized society that's done it in.
Beautifully reasoned and articulate assessment of the GOP's bargain with their own Frankenstein's monster.
Maybe you've learned something important about bullies and trolls: Ignoring doesn't work, and neither does appeasement.
Every Republican incumbent has voted to turn Medicare into a voucher program and cuts to Social Security benefits.
2
"...until he either wins the 2020 nomination or draws his dying breath."
***********
He will never run again. First, by 2020 he will the bogyman of every right thinking Republican. They will remember what he did to the party, and they will not forgive him, nor should they if the party isn't already splintered beyond repair.
The other choice is up to God.
***********
He will never run again. First, by 2020 he will the bogyman of every right thinking Republican. They will remember what he did to the party, and they will not forgive him, nor should they if the party isn't already splintered beyond repair.
The other choice is up to God.
It seems that the same Party Thinking was there when Cheney/Bush decided to generate the Iraq War. (A massive Sweeney Todd reality play?)
The Republican Party has always felt like a "Ship of Fools" to me.
Can you imagine the Republican uber-howl if the Democrats had a
candidate like Trump running?
The Republican Party has always felt like a "Ship of Fools" to me.
Can you imagine the Republican uber-howl if the Democrats had a
candidate like Trump running?
I seriously doubt Trump will compete for the 2020 nomination. He, abetted by Roger Ailes, will be too busy with a media empire designed to bury Fox News and destroy any semblance of political comity left in this shattered nation.
1
They reap what they sowed. I resent the chaos they have brought to this country through their cynical manipulation of their constituency and their refusal to compromise with the democrats to help move this country forward. They go low, and then even lower, and now we all face the anger and cynicism they help breed.
3
Look upon Russ Douthat, you would-be writers, and learn. Extended metaphors. Balanced, parallel sentences. And if you're shaky on the semicolon, go to paragraph ten; it's a tour de force in this loveliest of punctuation devices.
In their effort to appease the shrill and violent fringes of the GOP, the party leaders have sent middle-of-the-road, reasonable people like me into the arms of Hillary Clinton. But, after 40 years of basing your platform on the idea that government is evil, why would anyone be surprised that people believe it? Ryan, Cruz, Pence, McConnell, et al, you ARE the government you & your media have spent years telling people to detest. And you are shocked that they picked an outsider over you, even though he's deeply and psychologically flawed and has enriched himself off the backs of hard working people?
Your constituents have taken your anti-government speech to heart and are in the process of ridding us all of you. Let's hope they don't bring down the government entirely.
Your constituents have taken your anti-government speech to heart and are in the process of ridding us all of you. Let's hope they don't bring down the government entirely.
3
I disagree on one point: History in its day to day IS a morality play. All of us are part of history and it is incumbent upon us to attempt every moment to walk in integrity toward others. Each of us should always keep our moral standards within sight even if they are not yet quite within reach.
1
It's time to rebuild the Republican Party on a new foundation. After the election, the Republican establishment should rewrite the party rules to ban Republican presidential or Congressional candidates who cater to racism and conspiracy theories. Otherwise there's a good chance that the populist rage Trump is cultivating could drag down American democracy.
4
Trump is the best the GOP has to offer for president? Who can the GOP possibly choose to run in 4 years? I would say Howdie Doody but he would be too good.
2
Every person, especially those who attempt to provide leadership, whatever their beliefs, does NOT compromise on honor, patriotism or morality. To do so, negates that persons right to any leadership role, whether it be a troup of Boy / Girl Scouts or in the Senate / House. The GOP gave away their right to lead years ago, and I can only hope they overwhelmingly lose this election, go into seclusion for a few years and then return as a moderate, center-right party who are willing to act as adults who value our country over their polictical party and their jobs.
These days it seems every column by every columnist has to be parsed for subtextual messages I'm not even sure the columnists know they're sending. "An understandable fear of this scenario drove Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump. In the context of your column the following phrase appears to be offered without irony. Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps. But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse." "Understandable"? "Perhaps"? "At least"? To restate, trading morality, patriotism and honor to keep the "party's temple" protected was understandable, given the circumstances, though in hindsight it was a mistake. Why a mistake? Because Trump is losing. One more time -- Compromising on morality, patriotism and honor was a good decision if Trump wins, because the party will be happy, but a bad decision if Trump loses. Thinking that way has led us directly to Trump by increments. Hint: compromising on those three things is NEVER understandable. Not THOSE things. Give a little on one or even two of them to save the other(s) -- but all three? To help the party? Don't we all belong to the parties of the United States and the human race? Your words define our disease, knowingly or not. What's your next understandable compromise on morality, patriotism and honor -- car bombs?
1
"They may find out soon enough that all this bargain bought them was an even harsher reckoning, and that all they will inherit is the wind." But Ross, you left out the punchline - the same punchline that your moralizing, self-righteous columns never hesitate to deploy. Here I'll help" "Ladies and gentleman, the moral of this story is that one really ought to the right thing, the ethical thing, the honest and moral thing." If Republicans had lived by such simple advice then Donald Trump would never have been able to bully, lie, misrepresent, and con his way to where his is now.
There is too much to loose and too little too win in this election.
One doesn't have to go back very far to determine when the GOP sold out the American people. How about the day of Obama's first inauguration, when senior ranking members gathered to make a pact to deny Obama any victory, no matter that it might benefit the country. We were careening headlong into another depression, but their highest priority was to ensure the president looked bad and was held to one-term.
This is a party who cares nothing for the country, never mind Americans. They care only for power. Don't believe it? Take a look at the "Christian" right still going to the polls for adulterer and thrice-married porno Don.
This is a party who cares nothing for the country, never mind Americans. They care only for power. Don't believe it? Take a look at the "Christian" right still going to the polls for adulterer and thrice-married porno Don.
What I see is the bankruptcy of the overriding Republican virtue of loyalty to team. It might sound good, but what it leads to is the selling out of principles for the singular goal of winning. How many Republican intellectuals actually DON'T believe climate change is real? How many of them really think Hillary Clinton is a murderer and that she should be jailed?
Every piece I read by Douthat before this election cycle was not about principles but rather about positioning. All politicians' words and actions were analyzed not in light of whether they were right or wrong but how they would help or harm the politician's or party politically. For Douthat and other "Republican intellectuals" it really was a game, not life.
Every piece I read by Douthat before this election cycle was not about principles but rather about positioning. All politicians' words and actions were analyzed not in light of whether they were right or wrong but how they would help or harm the politician's or party politically. For Douthat and other "Republican intellectuals" it really was a game, not life.
These days it seems every column by every columnist has to be parsed for subtextual messages I'm not sure the columnists know they're sending. In the context of your column the following phrase appears to be offered without irony. "An understandable fear of this scenario drove Ryan, Priebus and the rest of the party establishment to choose the path of less resistance, of #OkayFineTrump." Was it a compromise with morality, patriotism and honor? Perhaps. But at least it promised to keep the party’s temple from falling in, its pillars from collapse." "Understandable"? "Perhaps"? "At least"? To restate: trading morality, patriotism and honor to keep the "party's temple" protected was understandable, given the circumstances, though in hindsight it was a mistake. Why a mistake? Because Trump is losing. One more time -- compromising on morality, patriotism and honor was a good decision if Trump wins, because the party will be happy, but a bad decision if Trump loses. That sort of Machiavellian reasoning has led us inexorably to Trump by increments. Hint: compromising on those three things is NEVER understandable. Not THOSE things. One or even two of them to save the other(s) -- but all three? To help the party? Don't we all belong to the party of the United States and the party of the human race? Your words define the disease we suffer from, knowingly or not. What's your next understandable compromise on morality, patriotism and honor -- car bombs?
Ross, your commenters have been saying this for many months now. A party puts off a cancer diagnosis like this at its own peril. Seems like the GOP is now on life support with not much of a future in its present form.
Trump is officially the Republican nominee, not Cruz, Kasich or some last-minute 'white knight' - - Freudian slip?
1
You reap what you sow. The Republicans have a bitter harvest.
Sad when events prove the Republican Party cares more about staying in power than doing what's right for America. Sad when its "base" is made up of racist, misogynist, older, white people who care more about hate than love, who care more about fear than hope, who listen more to the liars on the airwaves in Hannity and Limburgh than to the realists who talk about the real American. When Paul Ryan is considered a policy wonk (all his policy is about defunding programs that help the poor and bringing in tax cuts that help the rich), you know your party has a problem. It is a Klown Kar heading for the KKKliff, and it will get there very soon. Then the knives will really come out and the GOP will have some very hard choices.
Ross, you started with "Seven months ago" and later you mentioned "... the old days of smoke-filled rooms..." which are both fine. I would have also included an event somewhere in the middle to link the two. That event was when a respected Republican leader and presidential candidate selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate. That was a big marker for what's been going on in Republican land and it seems to have been missed by their own leaders. They should have been saying, "Whoa, what's happening here?"
1
Yep, sixty years of fear-mongering and race-baiting will do that to a political party.
3
Mr. Douthat fails to mention where he stood in this. He wrote a column in which he said in effect that it was quite permissible for the Republican party to replace Trump even though he had a plurality of votes. Mr. Douthat had skin in this game and he seems to have forgotten that.
It's nice that the GOP's placement of party over country seems set to bite them in the butt but if they hadn't had that position since 1998 or thereabouts the whole party wouldn't be such an obvious risk to the country and world in the first place.
2
How right you are! But perhaps Trump has done us a favor by destroying the Republican party. The Republican party is not a party of social conservatism but a party of the rich pretending to be socially conservative. If you oppose abortion you MUST promote contraception, and you must provide help to mothers. The Republicans have done neither. All talk and no walk.
I still remember the black women at the Democratic convention whose sons had been killed by cops. THEY spoke of God. Which New York liberal talks about God in this way?
If people who really believed in God were in one party, that party would include most Hispanics, most Muslims, many African Americans, and course the white evangelists as well.
But a party which listens ONLY to white evangelists and to money is not going to do very well. The truth is that the Democrats listen to Wall Street as well, and we all know that Hillary speaks to THEM. So where is the Republican advantage?
I myself am not a theist. But I do respect people who are religious. Most religious people are honest and nice and very very few of them commit acts of terrorism. Let them unite and find a better leader than Trump.
The religious in America need a Gandhi. Trump is no Gandhi.
I still remember the black women at the Democratic convention whose sons had been killed by cops. THEY spoke of God. Which New York liberal talks about God in this way?
If people who really believed in God were in one party, that party would include most Hispanics, most Muslims, many African Americans, and course the white evangelists as well.
But a party which listens ONLY to white evangelists and to money is not going to do very well. The truth is that the Democrats listen to Wall Street as well, and we all know that Hillary speaks to THEM. So where is the Republican advantage?
I myself am not a theist. But I do respect people who are religious. Most religious people are honest and nice and very very few of them commit acts of terrorism. Let them unite and find a better leader than Trump.
The religious in America need a Gandhi. Trump is no Gandhi.
2
Karma, thy name is Trump.
4
And then to think that the Conservative Party was established by abolitionists... Shame on you, mister Douthat! You could have known that this would happen, years ago. But maybe you are too young and were too preoccupied with your nasty, conservative dreams to realize what was going on.
1
Trumps rise is proof how ineffective and detached the GOP has become. Ruled by the wealthy, their voting pawns [uneducated Christian whites] finally realized they we're the hired help and not invited guests. Trump really didn't do anything other than stir sentiments that were already there. If it isn't Trump this time- it will be somebody else in 2020. The GOP is effectively over - heaven help us for what comes next.
To borrow a phrase used by 'Bomber Harris' in WW2, the Republican elites have sown the wind, and they shall inherit the whirlwind!
Interesting retrospective. While reading, the word that came to my mind was "appeasement."
It's ironic that after accusing some Democrats' foreign policy in that way, it is the Republican Party that exhibits this principle most clearly.
It's ironic that after accusing some Democrats' foreign policy in that way, it is the Republican Party that exhibits this principle most clearly.
1
Um...Andrew Jackson actually served in the military...which is a far better training ground for the Presidency than business.
3
If the GOP doesn't now have the sense to adopt rules and procedures that allow it to choose the members of its private club -- if it doesn't "vet" would-be candidates in terms of tax returns, platform, etc. -- then it deserves dealing with Trump again in 4 years. But the country doesn't deserve this political malpractice.
3
I can hardly think of anything insightful to add beyond what the 40+ commenters before me have already said.
I do hope that the Republicans have woken up to the reality of the monster they've created in time, before the US experience its own Kistallnacht.
However, if one has read the hate-filled comments and the calls for violence that have been posted by readers on FoxNews dot com over the past 8 years makes me fear that we are perilously close. And the spate of killings of African-Americans by police and "neighborhood watchers" like George Zimmerman only confirms my fears.
Douthat, Brooks, the rest of the Conservative punditry, and Republican Party sat sat in silence as they watched the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Beck, Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News foment hatred. You have allowed Trump to capitalize on this hatred to split your party, our population, and indeed our government. It all sounds chillingly familiar.
Douthat and the entire Republican party are guilty of the complicity of silence.
Let's hope that their awakening is not too late....
I do hope that the Republicans have woken up to the reality of the monster they've created in time, before the US experience its own Kistallnacht.
However, if one has read the hate-filled comments and the calls for violence that have been posted by readers on FoxNews dot com over the past 8 years makes me fear that we are perilously close. And the spate of killings of African-Americans by police and "neighborhood watchers" like George Zimmerman only confirms my fears.
Douthat, Brooks, the rest of the Conservative punditry, and Republican Party sat sat in silence as they watched the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Beck, Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News foment hatred. You have allowed Trump to capitalize on this hatred to split your party, our population, and indeed our government. It all sounds chillingly familiar.
Douthat and the entire Republican party are guilty of the complicity of silence.
Let's hope that their awakening is not too late....
6
"History in its day to day is not a morality play. But sometimes there is a clear chastisement ..." In this case the chastisement is for Republican strategy going back to Nixon's wooing of Southern bigots and continuing through the current Republican Congress's government shut-downs and obstructionism. The Republican party created Trump, and he, like Frankenstein's monster, has turned on it.
The GOP sold their soul, their conscience if they ever had one.
2
The Trump genie having emerged from the opaque bottle, how will the Republicans––the nation––put it back inside and cap it? Is it even possible?
Trump supporters have tasted blood, and will not support a Caspar Milquetoast presidential candidate. They will demand another flamethrower. A Trump II will arise to claim the mantle of successor.
Trump supporters have tasted blood, and will not support a Caspar Milquetoast presidential candidate. They will demand another flamethrower. A Trump II will arise to claim the mantle of successor.
"They may find out soon enough that all this bargain bought them was an even harsher reckoning, and that all they will inherit is the wind." From your lips to God's ear.
The Republicans set fire to their own house and now have to watch it burn. My fervent hope is that Clinton wins big, the Dems take the Senate and she appoints a hard-core liberal to sit on the Supreme Court. After all, the Republicans refused to move on the Garland nomination because they wanted to hear from the voters. Wasn't that nice of them? Well, I hope they reap what they sowed.
The Republicans set fire to their own house and now have to watch it burn. My fervent hope is that Clinton wins big, the Dems take the Senate and she appoints a hard-core liberal to sit on the Supreme Court. After all, the Republicans refused to move on the Garland nomination because they wanted to hear from the voters. Wasn't that nice of them? Well, I hope they reap what they sowed.
1
yes this is a good summary of the last year ...
what about the last 40 years ?
this year does not happen without the shambolic proceeding 40 ...
what about the last 40 years ?
this year does not happen without the shambolic proceeding 40 ...
1
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN Is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Republican struggle to deal with Trump's warped mind is a study in family dynamics where one members if an abusive, dolt, incapable of leading in any rational, positive way. That the GOP has ended up cooking its goose while Donald Ducks into his own special Inferno (specially designed by the Grand Quacker--guess who). For years, the dynamic among GOP members has been to kowtow to extremists and ideologues. More than once, they've announced that they were interested in candidates not for their electability, but for their adherence to an extreme right ideology. The groundwork for the Trump calamity has been years in the making. The GOP has found a presidential candidate who is not only unfit to govern, but is also unfit for the party ideologically. I think it's high time that the GOP be called to account for the con jobs they pulled on the nation with trickle down and gaming the system to exclude the 99% in wealth to give it mostly to the 1%. Never mind the repeated banking bubbles since Ronnie Ray Gun's time with the Savings and Loan bubble, up to 2008 with the Great Recession. Now they're at their end game, which does not end well, with an ever-growing herd of dead GOP elephants in their collective living room. African elephants are not the only species racing toward extinction. The new congress will include more GOP members who believe in comity. Working together!
The GOP has been trying to ride the tiger of white resentment for going on 40 years, and now that the party sits astride a snarling Donald as its standard bearer, Douthat writes that the party's reckoning with the Donald's stripes is somehow new.
The behavior of GOP politicians and pundits like Douthat would make Faust blush.
The behavior of GOP politicians and pundits like Douthat would make Faust blush.
1
All sounds very Wagnerian, right down to the dolchstoss in the back of the Republican party. (Doesn’t everybody know what a dolchstoss is?) I hope this means the fat lady (the GOP) is singing her final swan song. (Trump calls the GOP “Miss Eating Machine.”) Guten abend on this fine götterdämmerung.
America needs a Modern and New GOP. If because of Trump, today's GOP burns right down to the Ground, that would definitely "Make America Great Again".
1
Like all conservative pundits, Mr. Douhat's forgets (again and again) their role in building the travesty of Trump. From the 'Southern Strategy' to today's building the Wall, Republicans have won power by stoking the fears of the voting populace. They prize unity and power more than the health of the country. They talk about freedom, but when you always feel threatened or endangered, how free can you feel? The pundits have stoked that fear and it resulted in Trump.
I sincerely doubt the Republican party will be seriously hurt. Their gerrymandering districts and billionaire backed PACs will keep them in power to try again to enslave us.
I sincerely doubt the Republican party will be seriously hurt. Their gerrymandering districts and billionaire backed PACs will keep them in power to try again to enslave us.
2
What the Republicans need to ask themselves is why do their voters support such a lout? The answer lies within the Republican Party itself.
2
Donald Trump is King Midas with the touch of lead. He has debased this election with his crudeness and lies, tainted the presidential debates so heartily with his obscenities that parents are afraid to let their children listen to them, and fire-bombed the Party of Lincoln so that it is falling to ruin. Everything he connects to becomes soiled, filthy, unclean. And now the final humiliation - Billy Bush is negotiating his retirement from NBC! Oh, the humanity.
I just watched footage of Pence attempting to calm a woman at his rally who was proclaiming that if Trump loses there's going to be a revolution. The dialogue on social media is the same. His supporters are waking up to the likelihood that Trump will lose and they are seriously talking about "taking to the streets". Republicans have duty not to save their seats, they have a duty to save their Country. They must label Trump as an existential threat and urge votes for Ms. Clinton. A Democratic sweep this time around is the only way out of this mess.
1
Oh Ross, rather than inheriting the wind, I think they have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind!!
Peace!
Peace!
Newt Gingrich started it all when he and the "young GOP turks" challenged the party hierarchy in order to become Speaker. Newt instituted a scorched earth policy against the Democrats and GOP apostates. Dick Armey helped create the tea party as his revenge on the GOP. And by the time the GOP figured out that the tea party was a snarling vicious tiger, it was too late. Trump is the logical choice for a dysfunctional political party that has winked at the racists, political sociopths, and the uneducated that found a home in the GOP.
Michael Gerson is right when he stated in a recent column "When you have contempt for politics, you often get a politics worthy of contempt." At best, thr GOP is on life support even if Trump pulls off a miracle and wins the election.
Michael Gerson is right when he stated in a recent column "When you have contempt for politics, you often get a politics worthy of contempt." At best, thr GOP is on life support even if Trump pulls off a miracle and wins the election.
4
Here I stand—evangelical, conservative, Southern, middle class—without a political party.
Frankly Ross, everytime I read you, I am distisfied. No chsnge here. In a,way you still apologize for the republicans atyempt to foist bozo the clown on the nation as president.
Appeasement of deranged persons always leads to disaster. Does anyone in the GOP study history?
The Republican Party has long appealed to voters' fear of others, while the Democratic Party has appealed to voters' fear of having nothing. If this year's presidential election goes the way it now appears to be heading, the Republican party could itself end up having nothing, while the Democrats could end up teaching the others a thing or two about real fear.
“You Were Given The Choice Between War And Dishonor. You Chose Dishonor And You Will Have War.”
-Winston Churchill
It fits the Trumpian predicament that the GOP is in today like a glove.
-Winston Churchill
It fits the Trumpian predicament that the GOP is in today like a glove.
2
Lost in all this noble and logic defying prose is the specter of the "Southern Strategy". If you spend 50 years appealing to bigots and homophobes, if you spend 8 years trying to destroy the nation's first Black president while offering NOTHING in the way of policy or innovation, if you exploit people's fears and resentments rather than offering hope and inclusion THIS is what you get. I REFUSE to allow the more "responsible" GOP leaders walk away from this mess without acknowledging that they were perfectly happy to accept the votes of the racists while they were winning elections--from the fabled "Cadillac Welfare Queens" of Saint Ronnie, to Willie Horton, to Karl Rove's attack on gay marriage, to Sarah Palin's ignorant and hateful scorn of "community organizers". The GOP has disqualified itself from any position at the table of leadership and public service. Good riddance.
1
Trumps ascendency was fully supported by the GOP, McConnell, and Ryan when they chose before the inauguration to obstruct Obamas administration. No one should be surprised. The only question I have now is will these same people work with Clinton or not.
Get the red out...they don't care about it. Vote blue through the whole ticket
Get the red out...they don't care about it. Vote blue through the whole ticket
Ah, but the cost to the men that lead the Republican party was not "a little of their decency, a mite of their patriotism, a soupcon of honor.
The cost was, and is, in direct proportion to the horror they were willing to perpetrate upon this country.
Indeed, the cost was, and is, all of their decency, all of their patriotism, and every shred of their honor.
The cost was, and is, in direct proportion to the horror they were willing to perpetrate upon this country.
Indeed, the cost was, and is, all of their decency, all of their patriotism, and every shred of their honor.
RD ... Did you inadvertently use the racist metaphor "white knight" or did you actually intend to convey that imagery? Either way, it's (borrowing from Hillary) a deplorable term. You should know better and help to root out usage of such stereotype phrases instead of perpetuating them.
Andrew Jackson had his faults but he was intelligent and his populism, at least as far as financing the Nation's growth was concerned, had very positive results.
So instead of one Franz Von Papen, we have dozens. Hope this works out better that it did for Germany in 1933.
1
The Republicans should have brushed up on the motivations and philosophy of the Alt-Right. This 'conservative' movement has always wanted to tear down, disrupt and get rid of the status quo Republicans. Now that Bannon and Breitbart are openly running the Trump train they are scared. The grand old GOP should have seen this coming had they done their homework. They deserve what they are getting. America does not.
And.......after Trump looses, (bigly), the base will begin to wail "we lost because he wasn't a true conservative....."
No, you'll loose because your party is infected with hatred, and willful stupidity.
No, you'll loose because your party is infected with hatred, and willful stupidity.
3
Fooey.
McConnell and Ryan sat out the primaries and kept silent. They looked at Trump's early support and thought, if he could win, what the hey. They counted on allowing him his craved limelight and a rubber-stamp role, while they privatized Social Security, Medicare and the VA, abolished the EPA, defunded Planned Parenthood and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, got Roe v Wade reversed and levelled the rest of Appalachia's mountains.
My hope is that the wall of obstruction they mount against President Clinton will look familiar (and transparent) to voters by her first mid-term elections.
McConnell and Ryan sat out the primaries and kept silent. They looked at Trump's early support and thought, if he could win, what the hey. They counted on allowing him his craved limelight and a rubber-stamp role, while they privatized Social Security, Medicare and the VA, abolished the EPA, defunded Planned Parenthood and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, got Roe v Wade reversed and levelled the rest of Appalachia's mountains.
My hope is that the wall of obstruction they mount against President Clinton will look familiar (and transparent) to voters by her first mid-term elections.
The GOP refuses to bargain with who they thought were the devil. Instead they bargained with a real devil and gave away their soul. Time for a hail Mary!
Where' s your Clinton endorsement? ....still waiting!...........
Ah yes, the good, decent Republicans made a bargain with the devil, at least as Ross tells it. Sorry, but this is dead wrong. The devil is the Republican Party itself. It never surrendered any decency, honor or patriotism, for it had none to give.
1
while you bemoan your beloved republican party, what about the rest of us left with an even more dysfunctional congress? if we thought the house, in particular, was totally gridlocked before, what are we looking at for the next four years at least?
Inviting the tea party into the republican tent in order to win elections has proved to be the ultimate Faustian bargain.
3
It is mind-boggling how such a large group of political leaders would sell their souls to enable such a terrible person to run for President. After all, the Republican Party is a paragon of logic, reason, compassion, high ideals, and sanity. They are men and women of faith, who believe in God and trickle down economics and don't believe in evolution or climate change.
2
One didnt have to be Einstein to see where all of this insanity was going to lead.
Clearly Trump is a very troubled man (and I am being gracious) who doesnt give a rats tail about anyone or anything save himself. It was a recipe for disaster---and the cake that this recipe produced is totally repugnant to any thinking voter.
Clearly Trump is a very troubled man (and I am being gracious) who doesnt give a rats tail about anyone or anything save himself. It was a recipe for disaster---and the cake that this recipe produced is totally repugnant to any thinking voter.
4
The Republican party set itself on this path years ago when its leaders chose obstructionism to throw the country into gridlock for their own political gain.
7
The GOP did not lose " a mite of their patriotism, a soupçon of their honor." as Ross Douthat cynically minimizes. The ethics-free GOP hocked ALL decency, ALL of their patriotism, ALL of their honor as they endangered our nation with a sociopath like Trump.
4
You ask many questions and focus on the GOP's strategic reluctance to disavow Donald Trump.
But there are bigger questions in the atmosphere.
Have you asked yourself why the Republican Party put forward two vile and vicious candidates as its key representatives? (If you wish to question these adjectives, please first check Trump's comments about women in the Billy Bush bus, and Cruz's pandering performance onstage alongside Kevin Swanson, a lunatic pastor who would like to execute all gay men and women in America).
Ask yourself that. Why has the GOP become poisonous?
And then I recommend that you grow terrified for the future of our country, now that your party has awakened so much hatred.
Think: big rocks. Warm day. Rattlesnake nest.
That's your nest.
But there are bigger questions in the atmosphere.
Have you asked yourself why the Republican Party put forward two vile and vicious candidates as its key representatives? (If you wish to question these adjectives, please first check Trump's comments about women in the Billy Bush bus, and Cruz's pandering performance onstage alongside Kevin Swanson, a lunatic pastor who would like to execute all gay men and women in America).
Ask yourself that. Why has the GOP become poisonous?
And then I recommend that you grow terrified for the future of our country, now that your party has awakened so much hatred.
Think: big rocks. Warm day. Rattlesnake nest.
That's your nest.
4
Ross,
As bad as Trump's "misogyny and pornographic boasts" might be, what he really bragged about has another name: sexual assault. Calling it anything else does a disservice to your readers, and makes you complicit in trying to paint this man as slightly less vile than he really is.
As bad as Trump's "misogyny and pornographic boasts" might be, what he really bragged about has another name: sexual assault. Calling it anything else does a disservice to your readers, and makes you complicit in trying to paint this man as slightly less vile than he really is.
4
“... and all they will inherit is the wind.” Much of which will still be coming from
Mister Douthat.
Mister Douthat.
5
Oh, my, such anxiety about your party's candidate, with no mention EVER that you helped foster the angry environment that allowed such a hooligan to lead your presidential ticket. You LOVED Bush-Cheney, as they spent down Bill Clinton's budget surplus on 2 unfunded and unnecessary wars, created high unemployment and a recession. Later, your party leaders, like spoiled brats, shut down our government to the tune of $24 billion! Oh, and you LOVED the racist birthers and the tea party fringe who have now become the party's dominate players. Admit it, Ross, you were high as a kite back then. The world was your oyster!
Truth be told, all the GOP candidates running for president were anti-reproductive choice, pro-tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country and sickeningly obsessed with Secy. Clinton her husband. None of them had programs of hope and substance that would benefit average Americans.
You have only yourself to blame.
Truth be told, all the GOP candidates running for president were anti-reproductive choice, pro-tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country and sickeningly obsessed with Secy. Clinton her husband. None of them had programs of hope and substance that would benefit average Americans.
You have only yourself to blame.
6
While no fan, I think the GOP will survive. They might loose the Senate. But given HRC's age, she might be a one-term president. Which means we are all back to square one in two years. Think of it. The pain of this election will barely have faded when it all starts over again - Cruz, Rubio and whomever the Democrats send forward all clawing at each other again as if the fate of the earth hangs in the balance to justify whatever duplicity and outright lies that they can fabricate. It is all so exhausting...
1
I agree. They should pass a law that forbids campaigning or any kind of election work to begin until 12 months before Election Day. We do not need 2-3-4 years of people campaigning for president every term.
It's not the GOP anymore, everyone should understand that. It's the disenchanted vs the satisfied. And in the satisfied are the 47%, the rich, the liberals, and the folks who are ..well, satisfied with the way things are. The problem coming very soon though is, the disenchanted are going to be increasing, multiplying...and hugely!...and rapidly!..and they are going to be very angry and very frustrated.
2
The problem for Republicans isn't just Mr. Trump. Suppose Trump had decided to step aside back in April or May. Then, the nominee would likely have been Ted Cruz, a.k.a. "Lucifer in the flesh" according to the recently-retired Republican Speaker of the House. The Republicans' problems are systemic, not limited to one individual.
10
That Trump stench will stick to them for a long, long time.
7
A Douthat-Cruz ticket wouldn't be much better.
4
Ross, you are one of the GOP pillars propping up their house of disrepute. Quit trying to pretend you stand outside this flaming wreck.
9
Please. Let's not talk about Trump "winning the 2020 nomination." That's just a horrifying thought right now.
8
Republicans knew that Trump was an awful specimen for a long time; and yet, they thought he could be used as its dumb guy to rattle Obama via "Birtherism", and profit from it. No such thing occurred, and the thought of easy control of an ignorant thug went awry. This hypocrisy, and cowardice, is now haunting the party, and payback is in the offing.
9
The Republican leadership has faced a choice between integrity and the benefits of populist hysteria almost every news cycle for the past 2 decades. They have never done the right thing.
9
Your analysis is fair enough, I suppose, though if it were that on target, why didn't you write this column five months ago? The reason is because you and the rest of the Republican Party have sold your souls to this clown, to this dangerous demagogue and all you have to show for it is to blame the mainstream media, etc. You've fed the creation of this monster on stewed news on FOX, where untruths are traded like baseball cards and paranoid fantasies rule the day. A pox on your house. And that is exactly what you have. Of Biblical proportions. And still you don't see it, even as you use Biblical allusions of pillars falling in on you.
5
As ably stated in these comments, the GOP has been lying to its followers for many years. Hordes of those who identify with the "r" column have a sense of betrayal and are angry at their leadership, enough so to support a dangerously empty suit like Trump.
The good news is there is, hopefully, still a majority of level headed people who realize it is a false choice.... conservatism or Trump.... You can actually go a third way. Vote the "D" column and get something far closer to functional policy, social justice and actual appreciation of scientific fact.
Hey, republican ostriches: pull your heads out of the sand. You'll find it's much easier to breathe, and you can see a lot more.
The good news is there is, hopefully, still a majority of level headed people who realize it is a false choice.... conservatism or Trump.... You can actually go a third way. Vote the "D" column and get something far closer to functional policy, social justice and actual appreciation of scientific fact.
Hey, republican ostriches: pull your heads out of the sand. You'll find it's much easier to breathe, and you can see a lot more.
4
Paul Ryan's new book is coming out soon. It describes the feckless behaviors of the Republican Party. It's called, "Profiles in Cowardice".
3
The media meltdown of the last 48 hours is due to Trump winning the second debate. The press wouldn't have gone quite so insane this week if Trump hadn't gotten back into the race by beating Hillary quite palpably. But now we see the id of the Establishment coming out in tweets like:
Matthew YglesiasVerified account
@mattyglesias
@DouthatNYT @jbouie My guess is that in a Trump administration angry mobs will beat and murder Jews and people of color with impunity.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/786014344148553728
Matthew YglesiasVerified account
@mattyglesias
@DouthatNYT @jbouie My guess is that in a Trump administration angry mobs will beat and murder Jews and people of color with impunity.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/786014344148553728
this entire article is one long apologia for putting the party's interest first, and morality and the country last. Party before country! I always say!
1
One thing I'm still not hearing from any of this republican mess - what's good for the country? You guys are jumping ship at this late hour because you know your candidate cannot win. The latest video just gives you the cover you need to pretend this is something other than the rats deserting a sinking ship. Now the message seems to be that "the world won't end if Hillary becomes President" - Which is a notion that the sane world has never questioned. You guys need to let your party burn to the ground. It has been nothing but a destructive force for many years.
1
Mr. Douthat,
I hope you will take seriously the commenters below who point out that the Republican Party's "Inferno" originated in its abandonment of rationality and reality in favor of anti-science, conspiracy theories, anti-government and, yes, racism and religious intolerance. Moderate Republicans who were sane, decent human beings were driven out. Fox News and others whipped up the irrational hysteria. And now here you are.
I hope you will take seriously the commenters below who point out that the Republican Party's "Inferno" originated in its abandonment of rationality and reality in favor of anti-science, conspiracy theories, anti-government and, yes, racism and religious intolerance. Moderate Republicans who were sane, decent human beings were driven out. Fox News and others whipped up the irrational hysteria. And now here you are.
2
As my grandmother use to say "Don't make a deal with the devil. You'll lose"
2
The GOP has spent years "training" their base to accept an ignorant, bigoted charlatan like Trump:
Facts don't matter -- Climate change is a hoax. Intelligence doesn't matter -- Palin is qualified.
Honesty doesn't matter -- Obama was born in Kenya. The MSM doesn't matter-- Trust Limbaugh, Breitbart, Hannity.
The Constitution doesn't matter -- except for the 2nd amendment.
Hard work doesn't matter -- you are "losing" because "they" are cheating.
Hate speech doesn't matter -- it's the P.C. police pushing you around.
The GOP leadership worked hard to pave the way for a dangerous demagogue. They just didn't get the demagogue they wanted. This time.
Facts don't matter -- Climate change is a hoax. Intelligence doesn't matter -- Palin is qualified.
Honesty doesn't matter -- Obama was born in Kenya. The MSM doesn't matter-- Trust Limbaugh, Breitbart, Hannity.
The Constitution doesn't matter -- except for the 2nd amendment.
Hard work doesn't matter -- you are "losing" because "they" are cheating.
Hate speech doesn't matter -- it's the P.C. police pushing you around.
The GOP leadership worked hard to pave the way for a dangerous demagogue. They just didn't get the demagogue they wanted. This time.
1
What a revolting development, no? What used to be the Grand Old Party, a mix of business, free enterprise, anti-tax, anti-social programs, white collar, church-going, anti-organized labor, banking and Wall Street oriented, mainly white elites, has been hijacked by the tattoo set, the swastika displaying crowd, the sleeveless, muscle bound, and the anti-intellectuals.
The irony, if it weren't for the tragedy of it all, would be amusing.
The irony, if it weren't for the tragedy of it all, would be amusing.
Deals with the devil or Wishes from th genie in the lamp rarely work out the way one desires.
You're omitting the clear fact that as a Canadian, Cruz is ineligible to serve. You in the GOP have one of two legal opinions to back you up, nothing even close the the congressional resolutions Goldwater and McCain received or a determination from the Supreme Court.
If Cruz had made it on the ticket, he wouldn't have stayed there..
What your party lacks is the strong leadership DWS had when she kept an outsider of her ticket. At the end of the day, Republicans have only themselves and their enablers to blame.
If Cruz had made it on the ticket, he wouldn't have stayed there..
What your party lacks is the strong leadership DWS had when she kept an outsider of her ticket. At the end of the day, Republicans have only themselves and their enablers to blame.
Republicans thought they'd pay for accepting Trump "with just a little of their decency, a mite of their patriotism, a soupçon of their honor."
But Ross, Republicans have been proving for at least the last eight years that they had none of those qualities to begin with, let alone to squander.
But Ross, Republicans have been proving for at least the last eight years that they had none of those qualities to begin with, let alone to squander.