All of this republican hand wringing and rationalization makes me sick.
20
You cannot be serious?
Donald Trump was neither articulate nor clever enough to invoke "Cadillac driving welfare queens" nor "strapping young bucks standing in line at the grocery store with food stamps waiting to buy T-Bone Steaks." nor "states rights" nor "affirmative action". Nor was Trump wise enough to promise tax cuts and increased spending on defense, Social Security and Medicare because neither deficits nor debt matter due to fact that we are Americans and this is America. And God is a gun toting Bible quoting tobacco chewing Southern gentleman.
Trump is the culmination of Reaganism without any of the political, governing and acting experience and talent or gift for rhetorical xenophobic racist misogynist euphemism.
Donald Trump was neither articulate nor clever enough to invoke "Cadillac driving welfare queens" nor "strapping young bucks standing in line at the grocery store with food stamps waiting to buy T-Bone Steaks." nor "states rights" nor "affirmative action". Nor was Trump wise enough to promise tax cuts and increased spending on defense, Social Security and Medicare because neither deficits nor debt matter due to fact that we are Americans and this is America. And God is a gun toting Bible quoting tobacco chewing Southern gentleman.
Trump is the culmination of Reaganism without any of the political, governing and acting experience and talent or gift for rhetorical xenophobic racist misogynist euphemism.
40
Dear Mr. Wehner,
Thank you for this thoughtful introspection. Many reasonable republicans called for self-examination after the 2012 election. Unfortunately, the forces at play in the Republican Party seem to have taken on a life of their own. You've suggested comments by Chris Christie in 2013 and John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2007 as signs the party was coming off its tracks. I'd look back much farther to the campaign strategies developed by Lee Atwater in the 1980s and, later, by Karl Rove. They understood, as the author Drew Westen says in his book, 'The Political Brain,' that voters can be effectively manipulated by appealing to their primal instincts rather than their reason. Wedge issues, culture wars, and vilification of opponents can sway people to ignore their reason and vote against their own best interests. Sadly, this political strategy has encouraged a type of republican politician who wants to win elections any way they can and to heck with winning rational arguments. I believe the "rot" you've glimpsed goes much deeper than you seem to suspect. I'm one of the "liberal critics" you mention, but for the good of the nation, I sincerely hope the Republican Party can identify the rot, remove it -- all the way to the foundation -- and rebuild.
Thank you for this thoughtful introspection. Many reasonable republicans called for self-examination after the 2012 election. Unfortunately, the forces at play in the Republican Party seem to have taken on a life of their own. You've suggested comments by Chris Christie in 2013 and John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2007 as signs the party was coming off its tracks. I'd look back much farther to the campaign strategies developed by Lee Atwater in the 1980s and, later, by Karl Rove. They understood, as the author Drew Westen says in his book, 'The Political Brain,' that voters can be effectively manipulated by appealing to their primal instincts rather than their reason. Wedge issues, culture wars, and vilification of opponents can sway people to ignore their reason and vote against their own best interests. Sadly, this political strategy has encouraged a type of republican politician who wants to win elections any way they can and to heck with winning rational arguments. I believe the "rot" you've glimpsed goes much deeper than you seem to suspect. I'm one of the "liberal critics" you mention, but for the good of the nation, I sincerely hope the Republican Party can identify the rot, remove it -- all the way to the foundation -- and rebuild.
36
I really liked this piece. As a lifelong Democrat in my mid 40s, I do find myself floating toward the center lately and wonder if there couldn't be room for me within some sort of moderate Post-Republican Party? Maybe Trump finally caused the reshuffling of the deck that has been so long in coming and yet was absolutely necessary in a cathartic sense. The wing-nut conspiracy theory crowd needs something they can call their own. Why not let them have the title of "Republicans" so the rest of us civil, reasonable people can get on with the true business of governing? Like when a company completely rebrands itself. A radical idea? Yes. But it may be just what the party and the country needs in order to distance itself from those who have become lost in the wilderness of ideology.
Are people like me left with no choice other than being "Independent?" People who are socially liberal yet fiscally conservative, who believe in taxing the billionaires but also believe illegal immigration is out of control, who are against abortion in general but believe there should be exceptions, people who hated the state of health care before Obamacare yet believe the ACA is fundamentally flawed? Maybe I'm just a man without a party but if there are enough of us then we cease to be outliers. At some point there must be an acceptance of some sort of middle path, a common ground where effective governing can flourish. Until that time we can expect year after year of childish antics from our leaders.
Are people like me left with no choice other than being "Independent?" People who are socially liberal yet fiscally conservative, who believe in taxing the billionaires but also believe illegal immigration is out of control, who are against abortion in general but believe there should be exceptions, people who hated the state of health care before Obamacare yet believe the ACA is fundamentally flawed? Maybe I'm just a man without a party but if there are enough of us then we cease to be outliers. At some point there must be an acceptance of some sort of middle path, a common ground where effective governing can flourish. Until that time we can expect year after year of childish antics from our leaders.
21
Curious that the author, a republican, says he loves his country more than his party. It seems that most republicans do not love their country and that republican congress people only care about getting re-elected. USA used to be admired by the rest of the world, now we are justifiably their butt of jokes. What are we best at now?
16
How refreshing to encounter a Conservatve who has not taken leave of his senses--who is still tethered to reality, and capable of critical thinking (and, wonder of wonders, capable of self-examination)! Who has a political philosophy that doesn't begin and end with NO TAXES and NO REGULATION!
It would be nice to return to a two-party system again, instead of "a Conservative party, and a loony bin," as Bill Maher put it.
It would be nice to return to a two-party system again, instead of "a Conservative party, and a loony bin," as Bill Maher put it.
14
This kind of top-down analysis assumes that the GOP's problems are caused by party grandees like Trump and Palin, that individuals at the top somehow created the anti-intellectualism and racial resentment out of thin air.
That seems wrong to me. The problem lies with the people who made Trump and Palin their champions, the regular Joes out there who never met a conspiracy they didn't like, who hate anyone who isn't like them, who attribute all their woes their foreigners and distant "elites."
Republican leaders flatter themselves when they ask how they contributed to the making of this monster. They're wrong. The monster was already out there, just waiting to wreak havoc for the first politician to acknowledge their resentments.
So, maybe the problem isn't the Republican Party. Maybe it's the American people. Maybe this country isn't as good as we like to pretend.
That seems wrong to me. The problem lies with the people who made Trump and Palin their champions, the regular Joes out there who never met a conspiracy they didn't like, who hate anyone who isn't like them, who attribute all their woes their foreigners and distant "elites."
Republican leaders flatter themselves when they ask how they contributed to the making of this monster. They're wrong. The monster was already out there, just waiting to wreak havoc for the first politician to acknowledge their resentments.
So, maybe the problem isn't the Republican Party. Maybe it's the American people. Maybe this country isn't as good as we like to pretend.
14
Mr. Wehner remembers the Republican Party of the 1980's as one that "had become a party of ideas, of governing experiment."
I remember the 1980's as when Republicans claimed that government's the enemy - and soon made it so by turning as much of our voice in government over to the Corporate Powers.
I remember the 1980's as when Republicans claimed that government's the enemy - and soon made it so by turning as much of our voice in government over to the Corporate Powers.
26
What a beautiful article.
I grew up in a Yugoslavia, which was sort of success story in the Communist Block. As the Party ruled all aspects of life some kind of strict rationalism ruled the education and the everyday life. Nationalism, racism etc. were thing of the sad and violent past.
That’s what I saw around myself as I child, that people found that certain things didn’t need explanation, you just did it because that was the right thing to do. As the Communists lost ground all over the region at the end of 80’s, they all turned to populism, demagoguery, which in that multi ethnic country meant violent nationalism. It was like the gates of hell suddenly opened. All that horrible emotions resurfaced in politics and the everyday life. It was appalling to see. Terrifying. Like
a virus of madness. All this the turned very ugly with a violent civil war, etc.
I was lucky to escape, save my sanity and life. I lived in 4 more countries since, but I could never figure out, how on earth people in our time can reject rationalism and just basic humanity overnight.
What makes them want to “win the election more important than win an argument” for start?
It’s still a mystery …
I grew up in a Yugoslavia, which was sort of success story in the Communist Block. As the Party ruled all aspects of life some kind of strict rationalism ruled the education and the everyday life. Nationalism, racism etc. were thing of the sad and violent past.
That’s what I saw around myself as I child, that people found that certain things didn’t need explanation, you just did it because that was the right thing to do. As the Communists lost ground all over the region at the end of 80’s, they all turned to populism, demagoguery, which in that multi ethnic country meant violent nationalism. It was like the gates of hell suddenly opened. All that horrible emotions resurfaced in politics and the everyday life. It was appalling to see. Terrifying. Like
a virus of madness. All this the turned very ugly with a violent civil war, etc.
I was lucky to escape, save my sanity and life. I lived in 4 more countries since, but I could never figure out, how on earth people in our time can reject rationalism and just basic humanity overnight.
What makes them want to “win the election more important than win an argument” for start?
It’s still a mystery …
14
It is more than tragically ironic that the same Party than saved our united Republic in the mid-19th Century is now poised to tear it down.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
www.endthemadnessnow.org
6
As a 66 year old Mississippi Democrat who came of political age as the Republican southern strategy unfolded in our state, your comments give me hope for the Republican Party and our country.
George
George
4
The GOP will have to reinvent itself? Isn't that what they were going to do after the election in 2008? Nothing happened then that I can see. So OK guess I'll be a sucker and believe them one more time. Suggestion: This time why don't you TALK to your constituents to understand their concerns. Novel idea. . . . Otherwise we'll end up with the same old, same old . . .
8
The most honest, thoughtful, refreshing commentary by the right I've seen this year, from your pen to the rational Republicans out there, we need two functioning parties to make our country work.
13
"The 2016 presidential campaign has revealed dark and disturbing things about not only Donald J. Trump but also the party that nominated him."
More seriously, the 2016 presidential campaign has revealed dark and disturbing things about America. Trump did not invent anti-intellectualism, nativism and xenophobia: they have long been present in America. Some historians might say that they are part of our national ethos (Andrew Jackson comes to mind).
There are two fundamental issues which both parties need to address over the next four years.
First, there has to be a serious effort to address the economic costs of globalization that have been disproportionately born by Americans with less than a college education - regardless of their ethnicity. Globalization has benefited some of us far more than others.
Second, the "pay for play" system of campaign financing must be reformed. Many Americans accurately perceive that powerful special interests use campaign donations and super-PACs to shape legislation and the tax code to fit their needs and not those of the nation as a whole. Too many of our congressmen have to spend 50% of their time fundraising for the next election.
My fear is that neither of these will be addressed. A smoother tongue, more polished demagogue will emerge in 2020 with an authoritarian message that will appeal to not just to the anti-intellectualist, nativist and xenophobic elements in America, but to those who have been harmed by globalism.
More seriously, the 2016 presidential campaign has revealed dark and disturbing things about America. Trump did not invent anti-intellectualism, nativism and xenophobia: they have long been present in America. Some historians might say that they are part of our national ethos (Andrew Jackson comes to mind).
There are two fundamental issues which both parties need to address over the next four years.
First, there has to be a serious effort to address the economic costs of globalization that have been disproportionately born by Americans with less than a college education - regardless of their ethnicity. Globalization has benefited some of us far more than others.
Second, the "pay for play" system of campaign financing must be reformed. Many Americans accurately perceive that powerful special interests use campaign donations and super-PACs to shape legislation and the tax code to fit their needs and not those of the nation as a whole. Too many of our congressmen have to spend 50% of their time fundraising for the next election.
My fear is that neither of these will be addressed. A smoother tongue, more polished demagogue will emerge in 2020 with an authoritarian message that will appeal to not just to the anti-intellectualist, nativist and xenophobic elements in America, but to those who have been harmed by globalism.
17
Excellent article and I enjoyed reading it.... I would add the following items:
1. The spin doctors are responsible for the brain washing of so many American citizens. They have bent the truth, encouraged conspiracy and stopped, just a little, shot of calling for armed revolution against our national government.
2. The Republican Party should also stop being used/guided by the Democratic Party... what do I mean by this? If the Dems support an issue, the Repubs ALWAYS take the opposite view. This means the Dems can cherry pick the issues they want to support, and force the Repubs to take the opposite stand... Keep the government open... shut it down. Support gay marriage, NO WAY... and the list goes on and on.
3. Perhaps the Republican Party should kick out those that are way out of bounds. Let the Tea Party forms its own party. Let the conspiracy folks do their own thing. Let them all run their own candidates. Cleaning out the corners would allow the Republican Party to shift away from extreme measures and move towards the middle. Compromise is NOT a nasty word... its needed for the benefit of our nation...
1. The spin doctors are responsible for the brain washing of so many American citizens. They have bent the truth, encouraged conspiracy and stopped, just a little, shot of calling for armed revolution against our national government.
2. The Republican Party should also stop being used/guided by the Democratic Party... what do I mean by this? If the Dems support an issue, the Repubs ALWAYS take the opposite view. This means the Dems can cherry pick the issues they want to support, and force the Repubs to take the opposite stand... Keep the government open... shut it down. Support gay marriage, NO WAY... and the list goes on and on.
3. Perhaps the Republican Party should kick out those that are way out of bounds. Let the Tea Party forms its own party. Let the conspiracy folks do their own thing. Let them all run their own candidates. Cleaning out the corners would allow the Republican Party to shift away from extreme measures and move towards the middle. Compromise is NOT a nasty word... its needed for the benefit of our nation...
26
It is not for nothing, it appears, that the GOP labeled its own thoughtful self-analysis of 2012 an "autopsy."
Thinking members of the Party, a distinct minority, got many things right in their post-Romney analysis. Then the critical mass of angry ideologues ran in precisely the opposite direction of their own commissioned report, bringing the GOP to what it is today.
For those on the other side, there is no reason to crow, whatever tomorrow's electoral outcome. As we can now see plainly, the Party of Dysfunction is playing with refusal to accept either the election results or to allow Supreme Court vacancies that do not suit its ideological script. Consequently, the nation may face a constitutional crisis.
It takes a majority to govern, but only a handful of flame throwers to immobilize constitutional governance to the point of inutility. This would make Vladimir Putin smile very broadly.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
Thinking members of the Party, a distinct minority, got many things right in their post-Romney analysis. Then the critical mass of angry ideologues ran in precisely the opposite direction of their own commissioned report, bringing the GOP to what it is today.
For those on the other side, there is no reason to crow, whatever tomorrow's electoral outcome. As we can now see plainly, the Party of Dysfunction is playing with refusal to accept either the election results or to allow Supreme Court vacancies that do not suit its ideological script. Consequently, the nation may face a constitutional crisis.
It takes a majority to govern, but only a handful of flame throwers to immobilize constitutional governance to the point of inutility. This would make Vladimir Putin smile very broadly.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
11
Hand-wringing over your late-career legacy, Mr. Wehner?
Mr. Trump is a creation of Republican Party attitudes, policies, and strategies over the "last three Republican administrations;" he is not some sort of aberrant interloper.
The semi-academic references in your article cannot obscure the fact that
"One of the appealing things to me about the Republican Party in the early 1980s, as a young conservative.." means, in standard English, that the party was somehow a young conservative. A senior fellow at whatever policy center must have an editor with basic syntactical skills.
Regrets and back-dated recriminations will not, I hope, count for much in the new political climate, whatever the outcome of our painful and distorted election on November 8.
Regards,
JV
Mr. Trump is a creation of Republican Party attitudes, policies, and strategies over the "last three Republican administrations;" he is not some sort of aberrant interloper.
The semi-academic references in your article cannot obscure the fact that
"One of the appealing things to me about the Republican Party in the early 1980s, as a young conservative.." means, in standard English, that the party was somehow a young conservative. A senior fellow at whatever policy center must have an editor with basic syntactical skills.
Regrets and back-dated recriminations will not, I hope, count for much in the new political climate, whatever the outcome of our painful and distorted election on November 8.
Regards,
JV
5
Trump could be elected President. If he is we must not think that opposing his stupid and ignorant ways is going to work nor to help our nation survive his obvious incompetence. We are a nation and we must work together to keep it working and it's integrity intact. So we will work with him and try to make whatever develops as best as we can make under the circumstances. We will work to survive and to retain as much good as we can. In the end, Trump is just a silly man who will be history in a few years while our country must serve the interests of all of us throughout our lifetimes and those of future generations. We must work to enable it to endure as a free and prosperous country. We have seen what happens when the Republicans opposed Obama just to make his Presidency fail, it hurt everybody and did not drive Obama from office as the Republicans wanted. Just by opposing Trump, no good will come.
2
The problem with the Republican Party didn'5 begin with Donald Trump, although it can be convenient to believe that.
The problem began with the obstruction of President Obama, the plan to deny him every plan that he put forth.
I hope that Republicans take a hard look at their behavior and contempt for the rule of law and go back to becoming the "loyal opposition".
The problem began with the obstruction of President Obama, the plan to deny him every plan that he put forth.
I hope that Republicans take a hard look at their behavior and contempt for the rule of law and go back to becoming the "loyal opposition".
13
Pundits like this are too easy on the Trump supporters. Instead of referring to them as misguided dupes we need to call them out for the racist, bigoted, narrow minded know nothings that they are.
The big news about this election is the shockingly large size of America's hate crazed subculture. Until we Americans face up to the reality of this destructive group of individuals, nothing will change in our failing democracy!
The big news about this election is the shockingly large size of America's hate crazed subculture. Until we Americans face up to the reality of this destructive group of individuals, nothing will change in our failing democracy!
23
Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity Michael Savage, et al, did not arrive with the election of Barack Obama, they arrived in the late 80's and early 90's and they have been moving to take over the republican party ever since. Is it so hard for Mr. Wehner to see that. He has been writing op ed's on the unsuitability of Trump since the summer. Was he asleep since the Clinton impeachment? And just in case he forgot, Reagan famously bragged that he told the David Duke's of this country, I don't agree with you, but I am happy to take your vote. Sooner or later, that one comes back to bite you.
6
Mr. Wehner,
Where were you when this GOP became malignant? Your words are well said. Moreover, they're more than timely; but you should have been screaming at the top of your lungs in 2010, when the tea party, the gun nuts, the anti-government types, the racists, the "American Firsters" were welcomed with open arms by the GOP leadership.
Where were you when this GOP became malignant? Your words are well said. Moreover, they're more than timely; but you should have been screaming at the top of your lungs in 2010, when the tea party, the gun nuts, the anti-government types, the racists, the "American Firsters" were welcomed with open arms by the GOP leadership.
4
The Republican Party has not run on ideas since Tom Delay. It has used physical tactics to prevail in any contest. The two major physical obstructions are gerrymandering and voter suppression. Keep the party intact by protecting the voters with the most objectionable reasons to vote.
3
I fear Republican politicians will double down rather than follow Mr. Wehner's advice. This time around, instead of reaching across the aisle to have their hands bitten off, Democrats need to reach out to those who voted against them to find common ground. Only by agreeing to disagree, and tabling divisive issues, can the country start working together to fix real problems that afflict our society.
2
Yes, you will have to start over.
1
"The forces that propelled Mr. Trump’s rise need to be confronted and defeated....But if these forces are not defeated, what happened this year will be replicated in one form or another, and the Republican Party will continue to inflict great harm on our republic."
The 'forces' that spawned Trump are all GOP and they are nothing new. They are the head busting, murdering anti civil rights folk, the smirking anti-ERA folk, the NRA, the Norquist tax dodgers and the Tea Bag Party, among many others and the worst of them.
They are Goldwater, Nixon and his thug gang, Falwell, Robertson, Buchanan, Wallace, Faubus, Duke, Cheney, and the other scuttling lowlife that have led the GOP for decades. Trump has a bigger mouth and is louder than most, and he has the allure of ticky-tacky gilt. And he's a star. On TV. He said so, so it's true.
Trump just gave voice to the birthers and craven insulters of Obama. Wind him up, pull his string and out comes a laundry list of grievances, profanities, inanities, insults, delusional rants and flagrant lies. But he's the GOP's boy. He tells it like is and all that.
There will be life after Trump, no matter how long it takes to shove him off stage, but we all will remain besmirched, tainted, unable to get rid of the stench no matter how long we stand in the shower. It's as if we were all young beauty contestants who got grabbed by a body part and subjected to crude sexual assault by an old, fat letch.
It's hard to forget that.
The 'forces' that spawned Trump are all GOP and they are nothing new. They are the head busting, murdering anti civil rights folk, the smirking anti-ERA folk, the NRA, the Norquist tax dodgers and the Tea Bag Party, among many others and the worst of them.
They are Goldwater, Nixon and his thug gang, Falwell, Robertson, Buchanan, Wallace, Faubus, Duke, Cheney, and the other scuttling lowlife that have led the GOP for decades. Trump has a bigger mouth and is louder than most, and he has the allure of ticky-tacky gilt. And he's a star. On TV. He said so, so it's true.
Trump just gave voice to the birthers and craven insulters of Obama. Wind him up, pull his string and out comes a laundry list of grievances, profanities, inanities, insults, delusional rants and flagrant lies. But he's the GOP's boy. He tells it like is and all that.
There will be life after Trump, no matter how long it takes to shove him off stage, but we all will remain besmirched, tainted, unable to get rid of the stench no matter how long we stand in the shower. It's as if we were all young beauty contestants who got grabbed by a body part and subjected to crude sexual assault by an old, fat letch.
It's hard to forget that.
9
What we see with Trump is how prevalent is the instinct to scurry back to what seemed to work in the past when everything is changing and nothing is the same it was. The unusual expansion and need for more and more people ended in the mid-1970's and nothing that has been attempted has brought back that time of prosperity which benefitted all. Cutting taxes and shrinking government to enable markets to operate unencumbered has not helped us as a nation but Republicans cannot let it go. Global climate change is going to destroy everything that we have built if we continue to deny it. The terrorism that is bringing misery is a product of disparities of people's well being. We must adapt even as we feel least in control. Trump's message expresses the mindless fear and insecurity but he least of all understands what is going on. The people who have college educations understand that there are no simple answers, that everything that involves man is uncertain and is very complex and that the order and security which we feel in our day to day lives is an exception in the history of man. Without the cooperation of people our societies will return to the traditional ways of life that existed for a thousand centuries instead of how we have lived for about two, where people could only trust in their small communities and were at war with all strangers, and succumbed to disease and violent ends far more than we can imagine, today.
1
So you basically want Republicans to be more like Democrats? I agree Republicans could use more respectable methods of carrying out the will of their electorate that doesn't incite such anger and hatred, but they've also been subject to quite a bit of denigration from the other party. It takes two to tango and BOTH sides need to learn how to work together.
3
Precisely the wrong response to a Clinton victory will be demonizing Trump's massive white uneducated base. Sure, they're often racist, sexist, and homophobic, but their ancestors were all MUCH more so during the Depression, when James Agee and Walker Evans broke the heart of anyone with a heart in focusing on their tragic plight in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The only reason there is a Trump today is that the FDR Democratic Party has been replaced by Goldman Sachs and friends, and their Clinton political actors, with a neoliberal party that has knowingly used identity politics to divide and conquer the lower classes of America--especially whites vs. blacks and Hispanics--in order to keep the lower orders of all races from joining together to overwhelming defeat the oligarchs who control both parties and have the same central goal: the rich getting richer at the expense of the lower classes, without any threat of political revolt from any party. The Kochs and the like were shocked this year when Trump started speaking to the white lower classes and totally neutered the elites who've controlled the party for decades. Sanders almost did the same thing in the Democratic Party, stopped only by the Clintons' dishonest appeal to the blacks for Goldman Sachs. It's time for a new Democratic Party which foregrounds the economic problems of all our lower orders, as FDR did, and stops dividing us from each other with identity politics.
5
Mr. Wehner, I appreciate your seriousness and thoughtfulness, but I must object to the idea that Trump is in any way a 'surprise' to thinking Republicans. Appeals to the bigoted, the xenophobic, the sexist have been slightly more subtle before Trump but hardly new. Voter disenfranchisement--de rigueur for Republican electoral strategies. Obstructionism--at least 8 years of waiting for the 'will of the people' to be expressed only to drop that like a live grenade when that will didn't match the rabid worldview of those from highly gerrymandered right-wing districts. Against governmental overreach? Well, yes, if it means a few more dollars out of my pocket, but no, when it takes the form of unaccountable police force or military adventurism and global imperialism. "Thinking Republicans," all two dozen of them, need to realize that they must no longer associate with the brand "Republican" in any way, and ideally come into the Democratic tent where sane people can have reasonable arguments about objective reality; otherwise accept your role in making the country you claim loudly to cherish into a reality-denying banana republic. As long as you self-identify as Republican with the party's current state, you are the problem.
4
I realize you can only fit so many GOP mea culpas into an op-ed piece, but there are a couple you failed to mention:
1. The GOP kowtowing to the self-enriching lobbying of the super-donors, such as the Koch brothers, to allow their various manufacturing and energy production efforts turn our planet into a sewer of toxic pollutants.
2. The GOP encouraging the climate change deniers. This is unconscionable.
3. To make it the GOP's number one priority, according to Senator McConnell, to do everything in its power to make President Obama's term in office be an utter failure.
1. The GOP kowtowing to the self-enriching lobbying of the super-donors, such as the Koch brothers, to allow their various manufacturing and energy production efforts turn our planet into a sewer of toxic pollutants.
2. The GOP encouraging the climate change deniers. This is unconscionable.
3. To make it the GOP's number one priority, according to Senator McConnell, to do everything in its power to make President Obama's term in office be an utter failure.
9
Most liberals and democrats are truly pining for a responsible republican party, so that we are not forced to vote for and nominate centrists, because the danger of the opponent getting elected is too great. we would like the ability to nominate liberals who can make ideological battle with responsible conservatives to test out all ideas.
Secondly, the reassessment described must begin with an acknowledgement that the country has voted for the new president, and that duly elected she should be allowed the chance to succeed without automatic cries of betrayal if some conservatives compromise and allow bi partisan ideas to be tested.
Finally, real american first republicans second know that to abandon the nomination of supreme court justices is a terrible precedent to have been set. it should not continue, and should swiftly be apologized for.
Secondly, the reassessment described must begin with an acknowledgement that the country has voted for the new president, and that duly elected she should be allowed the chance to succeed without automatic cries of betrayal if some conservatives compromise and allow bi partisan ideas to be tested.
Finally, real american first republicans second know that to abandon the nomination of supreme court justices is a terrible precedent to have been set. it should not continue, and should swiftly be apologized for.
2
Want to see an American President in action who
strongly resembles Donald Trump and Mussolini?
Watch “Gabriel Over the White House,” a wild, but extremely interesting 1933 film starring Walter Huston.
Available today on YouTube or in the White House in January if we aren’t very careful tomorrow.
strongly resembles Donald Trump and Mussolini?
Watch “Gabriel Over the White House,” a wild, but extremely interesting 1933 film starring Walter Huston.
Available today on YouTube or in the White House in January if we aren’t very careful tomorrow.
2
... who strongly resembles Donald Trump. alt-right conservatives and Mussolini?"
5
A very interesting article though its too late. With changing demographics we will effectively be a one party ruled country for at least a generation.
1
a nice editorial and nice to think that republicans have finally woken up and realized the damage to American society they have created and hopefully it will lead to a better, saner Republican party. This loathsome divisiveness that Fox, etc and the Republicans went along with, started a longer time ago. Certainly it was already in full blown during Bill Clinton. Obama could have done much more good for America if the intention of a Republican Congress wasn't just to fight him on everything even though it would have helped all Americans. Thank you for seeing the light, hopefully others will also. America needs good leaders.
5
Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the ETHICS and Public Policy Center. Ethics and republican Peter Wehner in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
8
Mr. Wehner, if you truly love your country more than your party, could you please write about your party's plans to tie Hillary up with investigations for the next two years? about their announcement that they won't vote for ANY of her SC nominees?
Instead of joining hands with like-minded Dems to alleviate some of the problems that brought us Trump, the party is continuing to follow the behavior that elevated him.
Instead of joining hands with like-minded Dems to alleviate some of the problems that brought us Trump, the party is continuing to follow the behavior that elevated him.
54
So, the Republican Party can be fixed by going back to being a party of ideas, you say. Can we discuss what ideas? There are some of the ideas that the Republican Party has advanced of late when its standard-bearer is not talking about grabbing women by the [redacted]:
1. Slashing safety nets and privatizing or cutting Social Security.
2. Doing nothing about racial bias in law enforcement.
3. Cutting taxes for the wealthiest while denying evidence trickle down doesn't work.
4. Supporting increased interference with women's reproductive rights and access to contraception.
5. Gutting the Voting Rights Act and supporting voter suppression efforts aimed at people of color.
6. Limiting consumer access to bankruptcy protection.
7. Gutting the CFPB.
8. "Fixing" the Affordable Care Act by replacing it with a version of the old system in which millions of Americans won't need to worry about how to pay high premiums because they will be denied coverage.
9. Supporting the massive corporate welfare program of allowing employers to pay low-wage workers so little that they need to rely on food stamps to support themselves and their families.
I could go on, but I have some other things to do today.
It's time for a new set of ideas.
1. Slashing safety nets and privatizing or cutting Social Security.
2. Doing nothing about racial bias in law enforcement.
3. Cutting taxes for the wealthiest while denying evidence trickle down doesn't work.
4. Supporting increased interference with women's reproductive rights and access to contraception.
5. Gutting the Voting Rights Act and supporting voter suppression efforts aimed at people of color.
6. Limiting consumer access to bankruptcy protection.
7. Gutting the CFPB.
8. "Fixing" the Affordable Care Act by replacing it with a version of the old system in which millions of Americans won't need to worry about how to pay high premiums because they will be denied coverage.
9. Supporting the massive corporate welfare program of allowing employers to pay low-wage workers so little that they need to rely on food stamps to support themselves and their families.
I could go on, but I have some other things to do today.
It's time for a new set of ideas.
48
Republicanism now more resembles a religion than a political party. You have a sysphian task ahead.
3
Gee, I wonder why "since the election of Barack Obama, we have witnessed on the Republican side the rise of fear, anger and apocalyptic rhetoric." Gee, I wonder why the election of a true centrist could cause such wacko vituperation? Hmmmmm, let me see.......
And then let's figure out how the Republicans since Nixon's southern strategy have courted and stoked these elements. AND then let's look at an American education system right through the heart of the suburbs and rural areas of America--NOT the inner cities--that creates voters who can't tell the difference between fact and lie. (I'm excepting those who don't WANT to tell the difference.)
And then let's figure out how the Republicans since Nixon's southern strategy have courted and stoked these elements. AND then let's look at an American education system right through the heart of the suburbs and rural areas of America--NOT the inner cities--that creates voters who can't tell the difference between fact and lie. (I'm excepting those who don't WANT to tell the difference.)
1
"Self-renewal starts — but doesn’t end — with self-examination."
The GOP/ TRUMP/ and White America do not know how to self examine.
The default position is to blame the government, politicians and HC.
White male/ female privilege has embedded in their mindset that whatever they do is right and by the hand of their god - the extremist & everyday christians - Jesus did not live by the current christian mindset.
I'm fiscally conservative but socially liberal - i know many people of this mind set - we voted for HC - we will not attach our votes to the republicans/ sharia law christians now or in the future.
The GOP/ TRUMP/ and White America do not know how to self examine.
The default position is to blame the government, politicians and HC.
White male/ female privilege has embedded in their mindset that whatever they do is right and by the hand of their god - the extremist & everyday christians - Jesus did not live by the current christian mindset.
I'm fiscally conservative but socially liberal - i know many people of this mind set - we voted for HC - we will not attach our votes to the republicans/ sharia law christians now or in the future.
4
I am curious about how other Republicans who support Trump, particularly those who are *supposedly* Christians, are reacting to Peter Wehner these days....have they cast him aside or are there any who listen to him?
2
Trump's mob is KKK-esque. It reveals what a sick nation the US is.
5
Thank you Mr Wehner for being an apparently rare republican who loves his country more than his party! Would that there were more, but at least there are a few of you.
That said, the problem you speak of dates back MUCH further than the 2008 appearance of empty-minded Sarah Palin.
It dates to the 1980's - when you were a young conservative, legitimately intrigued by a party of conservative ideas - when Saint Ronald, at the behest of Roger Ailes and his ilk, did away with the very correctly names Fairness Doctrine that required the public airwaves contain roughly equal time for both/all sides of any discussion. That opened the floodgates to extremist right wing radio and TV focused on paranoia, hate and denial of reality.
The extreme right wing lunacy you admirably argue against has MUCH more to do with the appearance of Rush Limbaugh and his thousands of wingnut clones taking over the radio waves - and Mr Ailes' so-called "news" channel on TV - than anything Palin said in 2008 or bridge-blocking Christie said in 2013!!
A thousand yes's to your call for republican and American self-reflection. But if you're going to do it, you need to get to the ROOTS of the problem, not just the green part of the weeds that have grown so terribly around us.
That said, the problem you speak of dates back MUCH further than the 2008 appearance of empty-minded Sarah Palin.
It dates to the 1980's - when you were a young conservative, legitimately intrigued by a party of conservative ideas - when Saint Ronald, at the behest of Roger Ailes and his ilk, did away with the very correctly names Fairness Doctrine that required the public airwaves contain roughly equal time for both/all sides of any discussion. That opened the floodgates to extremist right wing radio and TV focused on paranoia, hate and denial of reality.
The extreme right wing lunacy you admirably argue against has MUCH more to do with the appearance of Rush Limbaugh and his thousands of wingnut clones taking over the radio waves - and Mr Ailes' so-called "news" channel on TV - than anything Palin said in 2008 or bridge-blocking Christie said in 2013!!
A thousand yes's to your call for republican and American self-reflection. But if you're going to do it, you need to get to the ROOTS of the problem, not just the green part of the weeds that have grown so terribly around us.
3
Sounds like you want to help America and your party. Simple suggestion - be a leading voice against all this nonsense about the Supreme Court. Let her nominate and let the Senate vote. That's how you can help. Be a mensch.
2
If DT is so bad that he causes an epidemic of nightmares, why – after a billion dollar campaign, endless endorsements, a celeb parade – is HRC only 1% ahead?
We Dems may have chosen the wrong candidate.
We Dems may have chosen the wrong candidate.
3
First of all republicans must confront their leadership. This article reads very nice, but it leaves out Mitch McConnell's decision immediately following Obama's election that he would block everything he could to make him a failed president. It didn't work. That is the problem with your republican party right there. Before you blame everything on Trump, you should look at the leadership that not only got you there, but hasn't changed one bit. I doubt they ever will. Until you change your leadership, you'll have no new ideas. You only have obstruction. That is your governing philosophy.
1
I think the GOP's ugly means of operating goes WAY back, easily traced to Newt Gingrich for one. So, why have you been a Republican supporter ever since? Why has anyone with any concern for ethics?
4
Give me a break!
Your party stopped being the party of Lincoln when Nixon adopted the Southern Strategy. That's when large numbers of racists joined your ranks. It makes me sick when Ryan refers to the GOP with the Lincoln epithet. You apparently joined up during Reagan, the perpetrator of the welfare queen myth. So, Mr. Wehner, you yourself have a lot of soul-searching to do. Where did the anti-intellectualism really start? Well, obviously, since racism stems from ignorance, that Southern Strategy was the original root cause. I am not saying that there aren't plenty of racists in all parts of the country. But, nobody can tell me that, despite some strides, places like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other southern states do not have more than their share of ignorant racists. And, that racism against African-Americans has simply been extended by Trump and his ilk to people of the Muslim faith and to those of Mexican heritage. You don't look like you have a whole lot of Asian Americans and Jewish Americans in your "coalition" any more either. And, then as Barry Goldwater warned Bob Dole, you gave the Christian Right enormous influence over the GOP. So, your party has so much soul-searching to do and so many changes that need to be made, perhaps it should be disbanded. I guess I'll be long dead before anything like that will ever happen. I'll give you credit for criticizing Trump's disgraceful birtherism.
Your party stopped being the party of Lincoln when Nixon adopted the Southern Strategy. That's when large numbers of racists joined your ranks. It makes me sick when Ryan refers to the GOP with the Lincoln epithet. You apparently joined up during Reagan, the perpetrator of the welfare queen myth. So, Mr. Wehner, you yourself have a lot of soul-searching to do. Where did the anti-intellectualism really start? Well, obviously, since racism stems from ignorance, that Southern Strategy was the original root cause. I am not saying that there aren't plenty of racists in all parts of the country. But, nobody can tell me that, despite some strides, places like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other southern states do not have more than their share of ignorant racists. And, that racism against African-Americans has simply been extended by Trump and his ilk to people of the Muslim faith and to those of Mexican heritage. You don't look like you have a whole lot of Asian Americans and Jewish Americans in your "coalition" any more either. And, then as Barry Goldwater warned Bob Dole, you gave the Christian Right enormous influence over the GOP. So, your party has so much soul-searching to do and so many changes that need to be made, perhaps it should be disbanded. I guess I'll be long dead before anything like that will ever happen. I'll give you credit for criticizing Trump's disgraceful birtherism.
5
Trump really needs to win this election so that the entire world can be spared the self-righteous blather coming from people like Wehner. It would be nice if they moved to Canada, but the Canadians wouldn't stand them for long.
My advice to Peter et al, move to Texas and find out how the real world works....
My advice to Peter et al, move to Texas and find out how the real world works....
2
The right wing media hypes conspiracies and hate to keep the audience tuned in till the next commercial. Public radio and TV and the main networks try to be even handed even when the emperor has no clothes. We are almost living in George Orwell's 1984.
2
The country needs a responsible conservative party. As much as I disagree with them, conservative ideas have legitimacy. However, given that over 40% of My Fellow Americans believe in Donald Trump, all I can say to people like Peter Wehner is, good luck with that principled, thoughtful, intellectual Republican Party.
3
I'll go ahead and admit it because no one seems to have the guts: I have absolutely loved this election season. LOVED IT.
A roomful of Hollywood writers high on gluten-free hash brownies and organic lattes couldn't have come close to scripting this thing. This season of "Mr. Trump Runs For President and Says Insane Crazy Stuff on Twitter" was flat out awesome. We owe a huge debt to His Yugeness. A debt we will only be able to relieve with multiple bankruptcies and clever accounting.
Pay no heed to this babble about "everyone" being sooo happy that this is finally over. Nonsense! Admit it. America hasn't had so much fun, and more importantly, wasted so much time from work, since Alex stole that blue/gold dress from Target.
Is anyone aware of the 4 year trek of brain-crushing boredom looming before us? Has anyone actually heard Her speak? The PAIN. The boredom. ON it drones - like having your soul sucked out by a Harry Potter Dementor while getting a root canal and removing an ingrown toenail.
Bu-lieve me. If you think this past season of Trumpkins was good, it will be nothing compared to the coming seasons of: Mr. Trump Pushes a Big Red Button at the White House, and Mr. Trump Mistakenly Builds a Wall Between America and Canada. Great things are coming our way!
You've all just gotten used to the new standard so you don't properly appreciate the gift.
I can't go back. I won't go back. Please America, I beg you, think this through.
Don't Make America Boring Again.
A roomful of Hollywood writers high on gluten-free hash brownies and organic lattes couldn't have come close to scripting this thing. This season of "Mr. Trump Runs For President and Says Insane Crazy Stuff on Twitter" was flat out awesome. We owe a huge debt to His Yugeness. A debt we will only be able to relieve with multiple bankruptcies and clever accounting.
Pay no heed to this babble about "everyone" being sooo happy that this is finally over. Nonsense! Admit it. America hasn't had so much fun, and more importantly, wasted so much time from work, since Alex stole that blue/gold dress from Target.
Is anyone aware of the 4 year trek of brain-crushing boredom looming before us? Has anyone actually heard Her speak? The PAIN. The boredom. ON it drones - like having your soul sucked out by a Harry Potter Dementor while getting a root canal and removing an ingrown toenail.
Bu-lieve me. If you think this past season of Trumpkins was good, it will be nothing compared to the coming seasons of: Mr. Trump Pushes a Big Red Button at the White House, and Mr. Trump Mistakenly Builds a Wall Between America and Canada. Great things are coming our way!
You've all just gotten used to the new standard so you don't properly appreciate the gift.
I can't go back. I won't go back. Please America, I beg you, think this through.
Don't Make America Boring Again.
15
I assume, Jack M, that your post is meant to be satirical. I haven't enjoyed this election cycle at all. It has gnawed at my gut until I can no longer shake off the the feeling of deep desperation if Trump wins this election.
2
There are some things more important than entertainment, and the presidency is probably the first one on the list.
The stuff Trump says and hopefully never gets the chance to do as president is better left to Hollywood scriptwriters.
When people have been dumbed down to a degree where they can no longer make that distinction, our democracy is at great risk.
Clearly what you wrote is tongue in cheek (and well written), but I hope you are in a very small minority.
Once of my concerns during this race was that people are naturally "mischievous" and love a good prank. We may have arrived at a point where
that desire for the outrageous and novel overcomes any common sense that we may still possess.
Believe me, if Trump gets the chance to do the things he said he would, I guarantee you won't be laughing for long.
The stuff Trump says and hopefully never gets the chance to do as president is better left to Hollywood scriptwriters.
When people have been dumbed down to a degree where they can no longer make that distinction, our democracy is at great risk.
Clearly what you wrote is tongue in cheek (and well written), but I hope you are in a very small minority.
Once of my concerns during this race was that people are naturally "mischievous" and love a good prank. We may have arrived at a point where
that desire for the outrageous and novel overcomes any common sense that we may still possess.
Believe me, if Trump gets the chance to do the things he said he would, I guarantee you won't be laughing for long.
1
So, Mr. Wehner,
whom are you and your fellow "reasonable" Republicans voting FOR tomorrow?
If YOUR Party's nominee loses tomorrow, the very FIRST thing your Party MUST do for the good of the country is to formally concede the election to Secretary Clinton, whether or not YOUR nominee agrees.
whom are you and your fellow "reasonable" Republicans voting FOR tomorrow?
If YOUR Party's nominee loses tomorrow, the very FIRST thing your Party MUST do for the good of the country is to formally concede the election to Secretary Clinton, whether or not YOUR nominee agrees.
4
This is a very thoughtful piece & I'm a Democrat.
The GOP could start re-building by abandoning the threats to keep SCOTUS paralyzed and the shameful on-going efforts at voter suppression. Party of Lincoln, shame on you.
2
Mr. Wehner:
If your party had "good ideas", you would not have to go dumpster diving for support from the likes of the alt-right, conspiracy theorists, second amendment nut jobs and people who believe President Obama was born in Kenya (over 40% of republicans).
Why do you think people like that gravitate to your party and not to the Democrats?
All you have to do is begin acting like a real governing partner and these people will recede back into the shadows where they belong.
Stop humoring them.
The rest will take care of itself.
If your party had "good ideas", you would not have to go dumpster diving for support from the likes of the alt-right, conspiracy theorists, second amendment nut jobs and people who believe President Obama was born in Kenya (over 40% of republicans).
Why do you think people like that gravitate to your party and not to the Democrats?
All you have to do is begin acting like a real governing partner and these people will recede back into the shadows where they belong.
Stop humoring them.
The rest will take care of itself.
1
The electronic age that turned the world pea size and moved America from " the other side of the pond" to being the neighbour over the hedge also created a state of awareness here in England ..that you, in America also have politics. You also have " fors and against" arguments, political philosophies as Mr Wehner so elegantly espoused.. But you have something we do not have.. anger.. naked physical abusive no hold barred blind hot anger.. "I want to see her hang!" ...cold steel anger. Its like a swirling black ominous cloud and suddenly we fear it's coming over the hedge and it worries us . Asking my milkman, my Barber and the check out lady in the supermarket, my doctor friend, and a lawyer neighbour, a retired Prison officer, a businessman and the teenage son of an Italian neighbour... Are you going to vote for Mr Trump ? and they know I mean, with your head and your heart - not a pen onto paper. Not a single expletive sound from one of them, not a single monosyllabic nod of the head . A few heads lifted to the heavens and sought safety, a few eyebrows raised ..you can't be serious. My retired prison officer in a rush of thought asked ..How in the h,,,,, did they get to choose such a man!!. I will read Mr Wehner again. The press and TV gave balanced exposure to both candidates.. In this "home of the brave home land of the free" he would not have a snowball in hells chance of 5% of the vote.
If Donald Trump was an aberration...if Hillary Clinton saves the day...will the GOP yet again hold another autopsy to find out why the party has died and learn nothing from the results? Will Mitch McConnell round up the usual suspects for a clandestine meeting to form a plan to obstruct the Woman the way he and his henchmen blocked the Black? Thank you, Peter Wehner for putting country before party. May your loyalty become a trend.
1
Wow Mr Werner, you actually sound like a bleeding heart liberal in your Republican Party.
1
Well said, but I would add something about the need for experience and sanity. Trump has zero (0) experience in government. He never even ran for any political office, before. You don't start at the top. You start at the bottom and work your way up, with humility.
But I think we have to question Donald Trump's sanity, yes. Who, in his right might would run for president with his unstable mentality? And where is his intelligence? Does he have ADD or a learning disability, LD? It's written all over his FACE!
"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time. (Att. Lincoln)
Let's be honest about Trump. A TV star he is, but a president he is not. How could we let him fool us for so long?
==================================================
But I think we have to question Donald Trump's sanity, yes. Who, in his right might would run for president with his unstable mentality? And where is his intelligence? Does he have ADD or a learning disability, LD? It's written all over his FACE!
"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time. (Att. Lincoln)
Let's be honest about Trump. A TV star he is, but a president he is not. How could we let him fool us for so long?
==================================================
2
This essay shows courage, but it ignores a few key, intolerant constituencies in the Republican Party.
So let's take a moment and recognize that the GOP has become dependent on fundamentalist Christians for votes and cash. Three of the Republican nominees--Ted Cruz, Bobbie Jindal, Mike Huckabee -- shared the stage with and pandered to a lunatic and cruel pastor, Kevin Swanson, because they sought to earn votes at his rally of "the faithful." Pastor Swanson advocates the execution of all gays in America. You can watch his ugly performance, and Ted Cruz's smirk, by Googling "Maddow Swanson." Rachel Maddox helped break the story.
Oh yeah, and two of the candidates noted above (Ted Cruz, Bobbie Jindal) happen to be the direct sons of immigrants, yet they have demonized more recent immigrants. I guess they're really "white" now, and all the new FOBs are lower class. (Ted
Cruz's influential and nutty dad, Rafael, an immigrant from Cuba, argued that Barack Obama ought to be sent back to Kenya.)
Homophobia. Xenophobia. "Religious Freedom" rants that challenge Roe v Wade and a woman's right to sovereign control of her own body.
The Republican Party has nurtured and watered this poison ivy for years, and now it's in the trees. Donald Trump is, in many ways, just a weird blossom. It's the leaves and stems and roots you'll have to worry about, sir.
So let's take a moment and recognize that the GOP has become dependent on fundamentalist Christians for votes and cash. Three of the Republican nominees--Ted Cruz, Bobbie Jindal, Mike Huckabee -- shared the stage with and pandered to a lunatic and cruel pastor, Kevin Swanson, because they sought to earn votes at his rally of "the faithful." Pastor Swanson advocates the execution of all gays in America. You can watch his ugly performance, and Ted Cruz's smirk, by Googling "Maddow Swanson." Rachel Maddox helped break the story.
Oh yeah, and two of the candidates noted above (Ted Cruz, Bobbie Jindal) happen to be the direct sons of immigrants, yet they have demonized more recent immigrants. I guess they're really "white" now, and all the new FOBs are lower class. (Ted
Cruz's influential and nutty dad, Rafael, an immigrant from Cuba, argued that Barack Obama ought to be sent back to Kenya.)
Homophobia. Xenophobia. "Religious Freedom" rants that challenge Roe v Wade and a woman's right to sovereign control of her own body.
The Republican Party has nurtured and watered this poison ivy for years, and now it's in the trees. Donald Trump is, in many ways, just a weird blossom. It's the leaves and stems and roots you'll have to worry about, sir.
3
In Florida, Trump is courting Jewish voters.
I find it incomprehensible Jews would vote for any person endorsed by the klan and various white nationalist groups.
Another losing tactic.
I find it incomprehensible Jews would vote for any person endorsed by the klan and various white nationalist groups.
Another losing tactic.
2
Simple solution. Those who love their country more than the GOP need to abandon ship. Take a bunch of lifeboats. Get yourself to Terra Firma and declare yourself the NEW Party. N stands for Nation. E for Everyone. W for Wins.
Or find a better name or acronym.
Leave religion out of it. Leave demagoguery out of it. Leave anti this, that and the other out of it. State some goals and ideals that fit the NATION. Not a narrow band of wealthy, white, educated gun lovers and a large bunch of white stooges you can Con. Forget the Con! Stand for something that appeals to thinking, caring, fact-driven persons.
It might just work!
Or find a better name or acronym.
Leave religion out of it. Leave demagoguery out of it. Leave anti this, that and the other out of it. State some goals and ideals that fit the NATION. Not a narrow band of wealthy, white, educated gun lovers and a large bunch of white stooges you can Con. Forget the Con! Stand for something that appeals to thinking, caring, fact-driven persons.
It might just work!
3
One of the best pieces written all year. Well done Mr. Wehner.
1
Wehener's GOP must face a terrible reality -- there isn't life after Trump.
Trump took the majority of the votes of the GOP base. It is the Trump party now. The ideas that Mr. Wehner and the "old conservatives" espouse are held by no more than about 20% of what was the party, less than 10% of the American electorate.
It is crucial that all Americans understand what Trump's appeal and Trumpism mean:
* a surprising number want everything Trump is peddling: dumb white males rule, everybody else (women too) made subordinate or deported. This is the "alt-right" faction -- their goal is Rhodesia, but they'd probably take 1950's Jim Crow if they could get it. And fascism is integral, perhaps the primary goal. Fundamentally this is loser white males dreaming of bling-o-rama, free groping, id gone wild -- the whole Trump package.
* the remainder are just hoping for a return to 1950, imposed by some sort of weird "christian" Sharia ... dreaming for some sort of evangelical Khomeni-ism. This is racist and sexist too -- just substituting a veil of religiosity for naked "grab them by the pussy." That these people got swept up with Trump demonstrates how hypocritical and pathetic these hopes are.
The alt-right is irredeemable. The christian Sharia are unlikely to change, and may actually be more dangerous than the alt-right.
Collectively they dominate the GOP. Wehner's people aren't going to take their party back.
Trump took the majority of the votes of the GOP base. It is the Trump party now. The ideas that Mr. Wehner and the "old conservatives" espouse are held by no more than about 20% of what was the party, less than 10% of the American electorate.
It is crucial that all Americans understand what Trump's appeal and Trumpism mean:
* a surprising number want everything Trump is peddling: dumb white males rule, everybody else (women too) made subordinate or deported. This is the "alt-right" faction -- their goal is Rhodesia, but they'd probably take 1950's Jim Crow if they could get it. And fascism is integral, perhaps the primary goal. Fundamentally this is loser white males dreaming of bling-o-rama, free groping, id gone wild -- the whole Trump package.
* the remainder are just hoping for a return to 1950, imposed by some sort of weird "christian" Sharia ... dreaming for some sort of evangelical Khomeni-ism. This is racist and sexist too -- just substituting a veil of religiosity for naked "grab them by the pussy." That these people got swept up with Trump demonstrates how hypocritical and pathetic these hopes are.
The alt-right is irredeemable. The christian Sharia are unlikely to change, and may actually be more dangerous than the alt-right.
Collectively they dominate the GOP. Wehner's people aren't going to take their party back.
7
The only thing that could fix your party, Mr. Wehner, is a Stalinist purge beginning with Ryan, McConnell, Christie, Cruz, and Giuliani and moving down into the ranks of the House obstructionsists like Chaffetz, Buck, and Jordan.
4
Mr. Wehner, if you find yourself in Boston give me a call. Dinner and drinks are on me.
Didn't the GOP "atopsy" itself four years ago? Instead of governing and embracing facts and science it proceeded to shut down the government and continue to deny climate change and wink at birtherism. And due to Trump's outrageousness the GOP will undoubtedly forget the hideous primary season and demogoguery of Cruz and Rubio, the two "mainstream" GOP candidates who all the pundits said would beat Hillary. Cruz is an anarchist who showed "integrity" until he voted for the guy who he said was unfit. Rubio was a demagogue with a cute face who repeatedly implied that Obama was some '"plant" sent to the oval office to tear down our democracy. Don't get me started on Chaffetz who said the p$^sy tape was a bridge too far and woudn't vote for Trump until he did because he is about to impeach our soon to be new president who - by the way - was cleared again by the FBI.
Go to the excellent article on demographics of the voters. There is a reason why the GOP loses with EDUCATED voters. We are tired of the ignorant rhetoric, cynicism and do nothingness of McConnell and the House "Freedom" Coaltion. Trump is not an anonomaly. The GOP has done nothing for the citizens of this nation, aside from wars, in well over 20 years. Don't think it is just that freak show Trump who has you in Siberia (wink wink). You are a hodgepodge of niche voters. Join the 21st century and seriously try to govern rather than obstruct and maybe you'll be relevant again.
Go to the excellent article on demographics of the voters. There is a reason why the GOP loses with EDUCATED voters. We are tired of the ignorant rhetoric, cynicism and do nothingness of McConnell and the House "Freedom" Coaltion. Trump is not an anonomaly. The GOP has done nothing for the citizens of this nation, aside from wars, in well over 20 years. Don't think it is just that freak show Trump who has you in Siberia (wink wink). You are a hodgepodge of niche voters. Join the 21st century and seriously try to govern rather than obstruct and maybe you'll be relevant again.
Dear Peter, the lesson I will learn and hopefully also the 49.99& of US voters for Trump , if the Clinton team get 50.01%
is how to improve the message not abandon it
I am confident that the Clinton presidency will be the worser of the Obama presidency
courtesy of the Obama legacy
"Apres moi le deluge"
(of course we have to go through The Terror first.. then Napoleon...)
=
course, if'n we win...
'gnashing of teeth and rending of garments,'
to go all biblical on you
is how to improve the message not abandon it
I am confident that the Clinton presidency will be the worser of the Obama presidency
courtesy of the Obama legacy
"Apres moi le deluge"
(of course we have to go through The Terror first.. then Napoleon...)
=
course, if'n we win...
'gnashing of teeth and rending of garments,'
to go all biblical on you
If there's one fallout for me, it is this: I will HATE the New York Times, the Washington Post, the broadcast networks, and the worthies in the two parties. You are empty, worthless, unprincipled, lawless, self-dealing, corrupt parasites. Every single last one of you. Period.
4
I'm always amazed when the Trump supporters brag about being the party of Linciln...they shot him didn't they?
1
Please, please America...do the right thing tomorrow. We are counting on you.
3
Are you sure, Peter that you are not a Democrat?
1
This is not America - at least the one I THOUGHT I grew up in.
But then "Always look on the bright side of life..."
We can now finally deal with:
Women's rights
Immigration
Income inequality
Education
And much much more...
But then "Always look on the bright side of life..."
We can now finally deal with:
Women's rights
Immigration
Income inequality
Education
And much much more...
1
Who, exactly, is going to do this self-examination? Ryan? McConnell? Priebus? The GOP did a self-examination after Romney lost. Instead of heeding it, they doubled down on being "the party of stupid."
4
The RNC/Congress was more focused on hating (more than mere obstruction) the American President, they couldn't even see through to the ultimate destruction of our revered institutions. Self-centered, two-faced, and with feigned moralism - they lost their focus and duty in the mire of their own doo-doo. The Republican demise began way back with the im-'moral majority' - remember that Congressional lot? (lott, noot and bunch) - dumbing down, eliminating science and education, double standards, alpha-male, women-shaming, hypocrisy, too long to list. Well bully-good now for old -pubs who thought they were holding on to a higher order of patriotism now grown to dangerous nationalism. The is what DJT finger pinched, plucked and high-jacked. He saw a weakness and exploited it while Ryan and crew stood around and watched. Dead and buried GOP. Talk about a vacuum. The same word used about the President's decision to withdraw troops in the ME. We have a sucking sound from our own American soul that will require more than a simple self-examination. It will take years of culling out the underground hate organizations and positive humanistic and civic education to heal the damage. The job for a Woman - not the same men who created the chasm.
2
The author is condescending in calling Trump and his supporters anti-intellectual, nativist and xenophobic. To stand up for one's country is not xenophobic or nativist. Trump supporters include large numbers of well-educated people, including minorities and immigrants.
Trump is failing because he is incoherent and inarticulate. But the issues he has raised must be addressed by both parties. It is not nativism and xenophobia that drive most Trump supporters. It is a sense that American national interests have been ignored, damaged and even vilified by BOTH parties.
BOTH parties, over the past three decades, have come to accept that globalism in everything (global climate management, global trade, global migration) is inherently superior to national interests. BOTH parties have become tools of global-fetishist organizations and individuals: multinational corporations, global media organizations, wealthy donors with global investment interests, all of whom believe, AXIOMATICALLY, that national interests must be subjugated to global demands. This Utopian view is crashing of its own weight.
American government must first work effectively for Americans. We have failed our own fellow-citizens in our infatuation with global Utopia. The view that American political parties and politicians must serve Americans first has an intellectual basis. It is not nativism or xenophobia.
Trump is failing because he is incoherent and inarticulate. But the issues he has raised must be addressed by both parties. It is not nativism and xenophobia that drive most Trump supporters. It is a sense that American national interests have been ignored, damaged and even vilified by BOTH parties.
BOTH parties, over the past three decades, have come to accept that globalism in everything (global climate management, global trade, global migration) is inherently superior to national interests. BOTH parties have become tools of global-fetishist organizations and individuals: multinational corporations, global media organizations, wealthy donors with global investment interests, all of whom believe, AXIOMATICALLY, that national interests must be subjugated to global demands. This Utopian view is crashing of its own weight.
American government must first work effectively for Americans. We have failed our own fellow-citizens in our infatuation with global Utopia. The view that American political parties and politicians must serve Americans first has an intellectual basis. It is not nativism or xenophobia.
1
Is There Life After Trump? I had the same question for NYT. Negative Trump articles, many deserved, most passionately written, have the been cornerstone of NYT for the past 4-6 months. What is the NYT going to do with itself when Trump goes away?
Did Wehner miss the well publicized 2012 post mortem?
How'd that "outreach to Hispanics" work out for you?
Whatever issues the RNC sought to address in 2012 are multiple times worse now.
And is the party simply going to double down on obstructionism as its only strategy? Now is the time for responsible, patriotic Republicans to step up and tell their $enators that blanket obstructionism is unacceptable seditious behavior. Lets start with you, Mr. Wehner, and get John Roberts to weigh in, too.
How'd that "outreach to Hispanics" work out for you?
Whatever issues the RNC sought to address in 2012 are multiple times worse now.
And is the party simply going to double down on obstructionism as its only strategy? Now is the time for responsible, patriotic Republicans to step up and tell their $enators that blanket obstructionism is unacceptable seditious behavior. Lets start with you, Mr. Wehner, and get John Roberts to weigh in, too.
3
Trump is the gilded chicken come home to roost. For decades the GOP has glorified and promoted willful ignorance and prideful stupidity, and denigrated "elitist" education and culture. They developed a solid base of arrogance and ignorance that could be manipulated through fear and mistrust with dog-whistle messaging and bombastic radio show sermonizing. The base has bolted. They will be duped by the GOP establishment no more. They will be duped by their new hero; a super duper who speaks their language, and has them believe what they want to believe.
Eight years out we are still dealing with the wreckage from the Cheney/Bush administration. It could take generations to come back from a certain disastrous Trump administration.
Eight years out we are still dealing with the wreckage from the Cheney/Bush administration. It could take generations to come back from a certain disastrous Trump administration.
2
What a lovely analysis. However, you are missing the essence of 'what is going on.' Are we to believe that all the people supporting Trump actually believe all the so-called conspiracy theories? Or that they are down in the gutter with him? Or feel about people the way he may? It is much more likely that people are just fed up with being lied to by slickster salespeople who say they will seal the driveway with "half down", then never show up to do the job. Then get folks like you to blame the victim. No, most people are simply cleaning house and willing to try something, anything, that can bring some change to the stagnation. You sir, are so bedazzled with your theory that you cannot see what is directly in front of you.
1
Today being Monday, the election has not jet been decided.
Mind the Bexit.
Mind the Bexit.
2
Whichever republicans thinking of running in 2020 better start building a base of the undecideds and independents by working with President HRC and demonstrating an ability to govern by consensus. Any candidate who behaves as the republican congress has behaved for the last 8 years is looking at only getting the Trump supporters as his votes and will lose again and hopefully in the state legislatures as well in 2018.
1
Trump lived out his fantasy of having throngs of devotees hang on his every word giving lectures at the podium. Now back to stiffing everybody who has the misfortune of entering into a contract with him. He never wanted it to end what with his efforts at tossing innuendo filled phrasings about overthrowing the status quo to militias in the hinterlands. There's not a lot wrong with our lives that a little skill brush up won't remedy. The scorched Earth last ditch farewell will never get off the ground. He knows better than all the generals about ISIS, because ISIS is how he treats his employees.
Several things disturb me about the whole Trump experience, particularly in reference to the press coverage.
The first is the $ millions in free coverage given to him by the press in an effort to ramp up ratings. This is your creation.
The second is the condescending attitudes and descriptions given to the millions of Americans who back him. It is apparently a 'sin' to use code words when talking about minorities but OK when talking about others. So there is no peep when the NYT talks about under educated, white, conservatives, read: stupid white rednecks; yet the whole country would go up in arms if the same thing was done to a minority group. The attitude of the press is an impediment to making progress.
Trump is a con man, but he has tapped into a large group of people who feel disenfranchised by the existing political establishment. You / I may not agree with some of their views, but they are not going away and they have proven that they will no longer be ignored. Contempt and demonizing this group is not going to help bridge the gap and coming together MUST happen. It does not matter who started it or what happened in the past, we must deal with the here and now. It will be messy, take time and no one will be happy, but if we want to avoid even worse possibilities in the future, we have to find a way to come together.
The first is the $ millions in free coverage given to him by the press in an effort to ramp up ratings. This is your creation.
The second is the condescending attitudes and descriptions given to the millions of Americans who back him. It is apparently a 'sin' to use code words when talking about minorities but OK when talking about others. So there is no peep when the NYT talks about under educated, white, conservatives, read: stupid white rednecks; yet the whole country would go up in arms if the same thing was done to a minority group. The attitude of the press is an impediment to making progress.
Trump is a con man, but he has tapped into a large group of people who feel disenfranchised by the existing political establishment. You / I may not agree with some of their views, but they are not going away and they have proven that they will no longer be ignored. Contempt and demonizing this group is not going to help bridge the gap and coming together MUST happen. It does not matter who started it or what happened in the past, we must deal with the here and now. It will be messy, take time and no one will be happy, but if we want to avoid even worse possibilities in the future, we have to find a way to come together.
Wehner articulates well the crises of conservatism and the GOP that will follow Trump's hoped for defeat tomorrow. Can the party root out the several deep dis-functions that he names as producing Trumpism? Fifty years ago W.F. Buckley had the stature to sideline Birchite extremists from American conservatism. Now they are at the center. Are there conservative leaders today, like Wehner, with the stature to be followed by the GOP rank and file politicians? If not, the next Trump may be more effective than the first one. And let me add a small caveat about this essay I admire. Did Wehner have to say that he does not agree with Obama about much? A good place to start in reforming conservatism might be to say, "I can admire Obama's commitment to governance, his intelligence, and his civility," even as I disagree with many of his policy positions."
1
I am completely amazed by conservative Republicans like Peter Wehner who decry what has happened to their Republican Party with the rise of Trump and Trumpism and see themselves has having to responsibility what has happened. Mr. Wehner, I must tell you that there is an clear line from the beginnings of conservative Republicanism to the rise of Trump. The Republican party of today began with Nixon with his demonization of his enemies; to Reagan who demonized liberals, brought conservative evangelicals and their beliefs into the party, who instituted discredited supply-side economics policies - that continues to form the core of conservative Republican thinking; to President Clinton, whom Republicans regarded as completely illegitimate for “stealing” a second term from Bush; to Bush/Cheney who founded the national security state, war with lies, discredited the “reality based;” to Pres. Obama, whom Republicans rejected, discredited and delegitimized from the moment he took office, never agreed with anything he said, did or with any indisputable fact he stated.
And now the Republicans have Trump and Trumpism that contains everything and everyone Republicans have inherited from their past. Be certain that the Republican party isn’t going to look in the mirror and face down the demons. Trump and Trumpism isn’t going away, it’s now at the core of the party’s belief system and will only become more hardened and intense, and will attract more of those who believe in its values.
And now the Republicans have Trump and Trumpism that contains everything and everyone Republicans have inherited from their past. Be certain that the Republican party isn’t going to look in the mirror and face down the demons. Trump and Trumpism isn’t going away, it’s now at the core of the party’s belief system and will only become more hardened and intense, and will attract more of those who believe in its values.
3
Obviously Trump and others like him have crossed some horrible line. They even shock me who expects next to nothing from Democrats let alone Republicans. But what does Peter think was going on all those years he was part of Republican administrations? Peter talks about Trump and Palin. How did he see Lee Atwater and the Willie Horton ads. Atwater asked for forgiveness as he neared death. Hopefully the gods granted it to him. But the dye was cast.
3
Senator Bob Corker one of the leading Republicans who sold his soul.
Let's get real. The G.O.P. has been a steady source of evil,
from Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Dubya; and the party
is now a cancer in the body of the republic.
from Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Dubya; and the party
is now a cancer in the body of the republic.
1
How do you fix the new Republican Party? With the truth. Like the witch from the wizard of oz who disappeared when hit with water so too must these Republican clowns be hit constantly and repeatedly with the truth. They live in a flat world and must be shown that this is false
The self-examination after the 2012 election appeared genuine...but it was NEVER implemented. Self-examination about GOP changes since the 1950s (post-McCarthy) is in order, but without implementation it is just so much hot air--like the 1936 Soviet Constitution.
Sounds like you got work cut out for you, Mr. Wehner. I'm just trying to figure out how the Republican Party even justifies its own existence anymore. The GOP is a burden on our society. But if you come up with something of value in your self-examination process, I'm all ears.
3
The real question should be, Is there life with Trump.
Thank you Mr. Wehner for your very principled statement concerning your Party. It is people like you speaking as a republican who might save our Democratic process. I apologixe for writing a previous comment fatuously before reading your article for it deserved the deepest respect as a voice crying in your Republican wilderness.
How do you save a political party whose head has been poisoned by 25 years of right-wing, talk-show vitriol that allowed a man like Donald Trump to rise to the top? Self-reflection? I don't think so.
34
The Liberal spin room has run the whole campaign on the line that Trump is a train wreck. But today's Upshot finally admits that he will run a closer race than the last two GOP candidates. Despite the scorn of MSM at every turn. The full tilt boogie use of "comedians" in free "news reports" (note to Dems, ComedyCentral did not elect Obama, they were the icing roses atop a very thick cake), and a huge defection by the GOP establishment.
Truth is Trump did quite well. Riding a swell of distrust and distress. Betting on the largest, in fact super majority, demo tranche among voters.
The height of the silliness is a "soccer mom" redux trope from Liberals...college educated white women to the rescue (now, an Hispanic wave"...). The #s show their 20% plus for Clinton, amounting to a mere 2% of the entire turn out, was negated by the 4% of "uneducated" white women advantage Trump.
This is not over, but I bet Dems net only 3 in Senate, less than ten House. She gets 47.5%, Trump somewhere over 46%. If he manages to sneak through in the EC it will be by less than 8. If she gets the EC, less than 20.
Meaning the cruddy campaign was the Dems. When they could have had 53 Senate, and within 205 to 209 House.
And the take away? Simple, Obama ran as being for all the less than upper crust. She ran only for those not white (or "college educated", upper crusty, women breaking through a symbolic, and fictional, "glass ceiling", folk hit concrete walls on the road of life all the time ).
Truth is Trump did quite well. Riding a swell of distrust and distress. Betting on the largest, in fact super majority, demo tranche among voters.
The height of the silliness is a "soccer mom" redux trope from Liberals...college educated white women to the rescue (now, an Hispanic wave"...). The #s show their 20% plus for Clinton, amounting to a mere 2% of the entire turn out, was negated by the 4% of "uneducated" white women advantage Trump.
This is not over, but I bet Dems net only 3 in Senate, less than ten House. She gets 47.5%, Trump somewhere over 46%. If he manages to sneak through in the EC it will be by less than 8. If she gets the EC, less than 20.
Meaning the cruddy campaign was the Dems. When they could have had 53 Senate, and within 205 to 209 House.
And the take away? Simple, Obama ran as being for all the less than upper crust. She ran only for those not white (or "college educated", upper crusty, women breaking through a symbolic, and fictional, "glass ceiling", folk hit concrete walls on the road of life all the time ).
1
I appreciate Mr. Wehner's reflections, just as I appreciate the strong stands that some Republicans, like Senator Jeff Flake, have taken against Mr. Trump and what he stands for. Unfortunately, the line from Sarah Palin to Mr. Trump is a lot longer and wider that Mr. Wehner accepts. The Republican party has become rigidly ideological. It's not about rethinking taxes, government regulation, or government itself, it's about eliminating what you can and obstructing what you cannot. Once you marry these political and economic questions to a core of "values voters" who believe in absolute, god-given law, you don't have much room for compromise. Our federal government is at the top of a pyramid of popular participation and local experimentation. Without a will to compromise and accept periodic shifts in the balance of power (based on the rumblings from below), it can't function. Many Republicans are fine with that. The dilemma is fundamental. At their core, Republican elected officials support business friendly economic policies that have been radicalized and turned into absolutes, by their need to rely on voters wedded to uncompromising religious values or simple "black and white" bigotry. I'm not saying Republican economic policies have no merit (though I largely disagree with them), but they are not likely to win wide popular support without the appeals to "values" or "bigotry" that we have seen from a Ted Cruz in the first case, or Trump in the latter.
1
Even though it's already conducted its own autopsy, it seems like the Republican Party is committing suicide, but trying to make it look like a murder.
In some of Mr. Trump's (and some of those who used to seem relatively sensible who support him) more heated rhetoric, it seems like mass suicide with a desire to take everyone else out at the same time. If we cannot take it all, then you may take none of it.
Nativisim, paranoia, xenophobia, voter suppression -- none of this seems particularly new to the Republican Party -- these hounds have come home.
If there were ever a reason to vote against the Orange Man, it's the specter of the increasingly unhinged Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General.
In some of Mr. Trump's (and some of those who used to seem relatively sensible who support him) more heated rhetoric, it seems like mass suicide with a desire to take everyone else out at the same time. If we cannot take it all, then you may take none of it.
Nativisim, paranoia, xenophobia, voter suppression -- none of this seems particularly new to the Republican Party -- these hounds have come home.
If there were ever a reason to vote against the Orange Man, it's the specter of the increasingly unhinged Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General.
1
Trump is Republicanism without the polish of a political pro and is thus naked and brutal in its purity.
2
Since the time of Ronald Reagan, the Republican elite has been saying that "government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem" and "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'."
Now, that elite is confounded that Republican voters prefer a President with no government experience.
The self-examination called for in this essay should begin by acknowledging Galatians 6:7 ... "You reap what you sow."
Now, that elite is confounded that Republican voters prefer a President with no government experience.
The self-examination called for in this essay should begin by acknowledging Galatians 6:7 ... "You reap what you sow."
How can there be a future for American democracy when half the elctorate doesn't care about the truth or facts?
2
Trump will be cast into the political wilderness by the top Republican Party leaders.
There is some unfinished business.
For CIA/NSA/Homeland Security
• How to prevent Russia from hacking into US computer systems to affect US presidential elections.
• If proven true, US must RETALIATE forcefully in this cyber warfare against Russia. If Russia wants a cyber war, then they will get one in full measure. So do not ever mess with the US in future.
The US & UK must firmly end Julian Assange interference
• Julian Assange is abusing Wikileaks to interfere in US elections.
• Wikileaks specifically targets one particular candidate only; so as to help the other to win the election.
• UK must cut the electricity and water supply to the Ecuador embassy in London. Including cutting all telephone and electronic communication.
• UK may give Ecuador embassy 2 weeks to hand over Julian Assange; failing which the British SAS fully armed anti-terror commandos will violently force entry into the Ecuador Embassy and arrest Julian Assange, handcuff him and bring him to a prison van outside.
Ecuador
• Does the Ecuador President really want to shelter a rapist?
• Why?
• Ecuador must think of justice for the rape victim.
• Get rid of this misbehaving creep who has overstayed his welcome in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
• Assange had abused his host’s hospitality
• It is time to hand over this rapist to the UK police.
There is some unfinished business.
For CIA/NSA/Homeland Security
• How to prevent Russia from hacking into US computer systems to affect US presidential elections.
• If proven true, US must RETALIATE forcefully in this cyber warfare against Russia. If Russia wants a cyber war, then they will get one in full measure. So do not ever mess with the US in future.
The US & UK must firmly end Julian Assange interference
• Julian Assange is abusing Wikileaks to interfere in US elections.
• Wikileaks specifically targets one particular candidate only; so as to help the other to win the election.
• UK must cut the electricity and water supply to the Ecuador embassy in London. Including cutting all telephone and electronic communication.
• UK may give Ecuador embassy 2 weeks to hand over Julian Assange; failing which the British SAS fully armed anti-terror commandos will violently force entry into the Ecuador Embassy and arrest Julian Assange, handcuff him and bring him to a prison van outside.
Ecuador
• Does the Ecuador President really want to shelter a rapist?
• Why?
• Ecuador must think of justice for the rape victim.
• Get rid of this misbehaving creep who has overstayed his welcome in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
• Assange had abused his host’s hospitality
• It is time to hand over this rapist to the UK police.
Americans will have to choose the bad from between the bad and the worse,which makes their choice absurd.
Mr. Wehner, As a long-standing Democrat, your article almost makes me want to join your pursuit of a political party redeemed from the sad state to which Mr. Trump – and many others – have brought it. We sorely need the thoughtful, creative conservative party of which you write.
1
We are all pleased with this opinion piece, and hope that we will see a groundswell of other Republicans standing with you, Mr. Wehner, especially over the next 24 hours.
But we don't.
I really can't name anyone who has had the courage to loudly and continually divorce themselves from Trump pre-election by supporting the only sane outcome of this election; President Hillary Clinton. You are all too afraid to anger the Trump base. If there are others like you, where are they? I realize that it pains them to say Vote for Hillary, but seriously, what other choice do you really have if, as you say, you love your country more than your party?
Your party has lost all of its credibility. Spare us if, after Sec. Clinton becomes Madam President, we hear more Republicans making noises about putting country above party. You all are willing to gamble that country you love for the sake of tired and failed old policies and whatever thrill you all get from power.
I barely believe you now. I doubt that I will believe another Republican on anything for a very, very long time.
Such damage you and yours have done.
But we don't.
I really can't name anyone who has had the courage to loudly and continually divorce themselves from Trump pre-election by supporting the only sane outcome of this election; President Hillary Clinton. You are all too afraid to anger the Trump base. If there are others like you, where are they? I realize that it pains them to say Vote for Hillary, but seriously, what other choice do you really have if, as you say, you love your country more than your party?
Your party has lost all of its credibility. Spare us if, after Sec. Clinton becomes Madam President, we hear more Republicans making noises about putting country above party. You all are willing to gamble that country you love for the sake of tired and failed old policies and whatever thrill you all get from power.
I barely believe you now. I doubt that I will believe another Republican on anything for a very, very long time.
Such damage you and yours have done.
2
Seems like my first comment attempt is not posting, but I'd like to reiterate, that I really liked Mr. Wehner's column and analysis. And that to take things a step further, the three things he mentions are nearly always used by fascism to gain power.
Down with the smart people, throw the immigrants (or Jews, capitalists, Tutsi, Shiites, or any minority group) out, and they're both up to something nefarious. That's the rallying cry of fascism.
So I'd agree that the GOP has to change, or it will basically turn into the Nazi party.
Down with the smart people, throw the immigrants (or Jews, capitalists, Tutsi, Shiites, or any minority group) out, and they're both up to something nefarious. That's the rallying cry of fascism.
So I'd agree that the GOP has to change, or it will basically turn into the Nazi party.
1
"The forces that propelled Mr. Trump’s rise need to be confronted and defeated."
The forces that propelled Mr. Trump cannot be defeated. They must be addressed. Come November 9th, you'll realize Trump voters cross party lines. HIs voters are the folks fed up with the looting of America, be it by way of legislation that allows the financial sector and major corporations, or by way of regime change, engineered by Mrs. Clinton during her service as SS, as in Ukraine, Libya and Syria.
Until the so-called 'elite' understand that, the Trump or Bernie movements will continue. We want our tax dollars to serve OUR needs, not the ambitions of the elite.
The forces that propelled Mr. Trump cannot be defeated. They must be addressed. Come November 9th, you'll realize Trump voters cross party lines. HIs voters are the folks fed up with the looting of America, be it by way of legislation that allows the financial sector and major corporations, or by way of regime change, engineered by Mrs. Clinton during her service as SS, as in Ukraine, Libya and Syria.
Until the so-called 'elite' understand that, the Trump or Bernie movements will continue. We want our tax dollars to serve OUR needs, not the ambitions of the elite.
1
It sounds like you're already a Democrat.
There's a full range of policy positions available to Democrats. We've got Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Jon Tester, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Claire McCaskill, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Joe Manchin. The ideological range there would need 3 political parties in a European parliament. Clinton would be a Conservative in the UK, for example. What binds them together is respect for democratic institutions, a belief in America's goodness, and aspiration for a more equal, more just and more prosperous America for all.
Welcome aboard.
There's a full range of policy positions available to Democrats. We've got Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Jon Tester, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Claire McCaskill, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Joe Manchin. The ideological range there would need 3 political parties in a European parliament. Clinton would be a Conservative in the UK, for example. What binds them together is respect for democratic institutions, a belief in America's goodness, and aspiration for a more equal, more just and more prosperous America for all.
Welcome aboard.
1
Thank you for this column. To go all the way back to Socrates, "the unexamined life is not worth living." But your repetition of Margaret Thatcher's dictum may also be part of the problem. "First win the argument." On science issues particularly. too many Republicans think these questions are just like a College debate. My argument is just as good as yours. Well, nature doesn't care about how carefully you construct your argument. There are certain patterns that are just unstoppable. Continue to put more and more greenhouse gases into a finite atmosphere. There will be problems, no matter whether you can convince the news media to report that "not all scientists agree."
actuarial tables tell us donald trump will be dead in a decade or two. unless one sees some hidden gift in the son-in-law, there is no heir-apparent. my guess is that we who survive this sorry episode of american history will look back on mr trump as a black swan.
These last 8 years the Republican Party in Washington has refused to govern. Even before President Obama's Inaugural Celebration was complete, the Republicans conspired to obstruct anything and everything the President proposed. You did not name these conspirators. Regarding budget and tax policy, the Republican gave up their responsibility to the American people and signed a pledge with Grover Norquist. Thus they abdicated their constitutional responsibility to determine the nation's financial spending and means of raising money in times of war and emergency. During the Afghan and Iraq wars only the combat soldiers and their families were asked to sacrifice. Instead the Republicans lowered taxes on the very wealthy. Sacrifice was not equally shared. California, in the midst of a drought, with a Democratic Governor and Legislature economically are doing very well. Kansas with a Republican Governor and Legislature economically are doing very poorly. Republicans have demonstrated economic incompetence at the State and Federal levels. You did not address the Republican Party's efforts to intimidate American's right to vote. You totally ignored the anti-science attitudes of the Republican Party regarding Climate Change, Fracking and Earthquakes, and allowing statistical reporting of gun violence to the appropriate Congressional committees. Conceal and carry gun laws show Republicans favor John Wilkes Booth over President Lincoln.
1
You address, Mr.Wehner, xenophobia and nativism. How about misogyny (at every level) and racism (at every level but key issues of voter surpression and gerrymandering)? Or perhaps Republicans like you think those two fundamental issues are okay as presented by your current nominee?
In so far as, (and as long as) the Republican Party has made common purpose with a significantly large block of racists, xenophobes, know nothings, and zelots (a phenomena that Democrats clearly saw and pointed out all along) to the point where these voters now have enough power to nominate one of their own by forming a plurality within the coalition, then the Republican party's problems aren't solvable. After all, you can't stop people from voting for your candidate or registering themselves as Republicans, there is no process for kicking voters out of a political party when the goal is to get as many voters as possible. While the Republican party may once have been the party of ideas, I can't for the life of me come up with a single good one they've come up with in my life time. So, if you're Republican who can't stand Trump... either join a different party or start a new one.
By remaining a Republican, you're proudly announcing that you're okay with making common cause with these conspiracy theorists and whackos. Own it! Or better yet, don't.
By remaining a Republican, you're proudly announcing that you're okay with making common cause with these conspiracy theorists and whackos. Own it! Or better yet, don't.
1
"Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind" is a very apt description for the rise of Trump within the larger context of Republican Party theories and strategies over the last half-century. Yet inasmuch as there wants to be some self flagellation within the Party on the one hand, remember that Trump did not get to where he is in a vacuum. The media was a big enabler, and, if nothing else, Trump knows how to work the media. It may well be time to bring back the equal time doctrine and treat all the candidates of all parties as just that, candidates, not news items. Bias in the media does us no favors, from the constant lambasting of Trump, to the blatant disregard of Bernie Sanders; even the very staid NY Times has seemed more a mouthpiece for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton in particular, rather than an objective source of news. One may counter that this is only a useful counterweight to Fox, but the lack of true journalistic integrity hurts the Republic as much as anything else.
Perhaps it is time for the Republicans to go full circle. Repudiate the more extremist elements and reconstitute themselves as the Whigs. "Deja vu all over again," to quote Yogi Berra.
Perhaps it is time for the Republicans to go full circle. Repudiate the more extremist elements and reconstitute themselves as the Whigs. "Deja vu all over again," to quote Yogi Berra.
1
what I find difficult to understand is the need to include an image of Trump with such an article. Really, everyone knows what he looks like, so why bother with another photo ?
Trump has had 95% of the liberal biased American press and media smearing him every day, and he is still likely to win the election. That calls for Trump to found a new party to fight liberalism.
2
Laughable as the press devoted a thousand times more coverage to the nontroversies of Clinton's email and foundation than her actual policy positions.
Also laughable that reportage of Trump's own words and deeds are considered smears.
Also laughable that reportage of Trump's own words and deeds are considered smears.
Your little world is upside down? Scratching your head for answers does not help. The American voter has completely rejected the political "establishment" (and that includes you) and this is a revolution of historic proportions. While your friends argued about which bathroom for trans-genders, regular people, a great number of them, are not finding work, struggling to keep their house, buy food, pay for health care, etc. They see no evidence from anyone in the uncaring ruling class (and that includes you) are doing anything to help. This pre-revolution is exactly the same with the Democrats. Dramatic action is needed or you will end up like Louis XVI and those other nincompoops.
1
The damage to US credibility is done! His ascension through the carcass of the GOP like a maggot fueled mass hysteria, extremism, and crackpot plans that showed the world how fragile and easily duped half the US population is. His tarantula instinct to prey on the less to uneducated is especially disgusting since they have neither the time to deal with his total wall of lies or the basic foundation of knowledge to know a serpent when they hear one. There were no grounds for any real Christian to follow his sham circus because he is not a promise keeper, yet they did.
2
Trump is a democrat plant, if he wins the democrats win. If Clinton wins then he did his job of destroying the republican party in 2016.
Are his supporters all Democrat plants? Are his campaign staff and surrogates Democratic plants? Why would the GOP allow an interloper to take over its party? No matter what theory you posit, the GOP is in trouble.
1
Peter, thanks. Really, we can debate the lack of policy ideas (or the inevitable outcome of government is the problem, trickle down, down, down, economics is a morality play, war is a convenient political tool, sex unless engaged in as a means of projecting male power is bad, etc. etc. etc.) later. I do thank you for your reasoned and respectful writings this season. It is clear you love your country. USA! Still the greatest human experiment in the history of mankind for another 30+ hours. Here's praying for us all. USA!
I'm with her.
I'm with her.
1
Assuming Trump loses, do you think the GOP is going to abandon the base it has built over the last few decades? Do you think the government is going to crack down on armed hate-groups, militias and incitement? Do you think Democrats are going to get a clue regarding the destructive nature of neo-liberal economics?
If anything, I fear the right-wing backlash and the rotten economics that drive it will continue and worsen. Our officials are too trapped in their own perceptual bubbles to hear anyone else or learn anything -- and that goes for the media as well.
If anything, I fear the right-wing backlash and the rotten economics that drive it will continue and worsen. Our officials are too trapped in their own perceptual bubbles to hear anyone else or learn anything -- and that goes for the media as well.
1
So, in sum, the proto-fascist party needs to stop its stupid, racist, sexist, anti-democratic nonsense and it will be all good. Good luck with that.
5
If candidate Trump loses this election, I definitely think it is a win for the establishment. Undoubtedly this movement is emerging not only in the US but in Europe in reaction to the incongruent policies of governments that completely ignore the consequences of their policies. The root of the problem is the collapse of the Middle Class, a consequence of economic and political policies combined with corruption, that are conveniently ignored by the Media and the politicos.
The "experts" probably are not aware or forgot, but Argentina was a fairly developed country both economic and culturally when the Perons emerged and ruined it. History tends to repeat itself.
The "experts" probably are not aware or forgot, but Argentina was a fairly developed country both economic and culturally when the Perons emerged and ruined it. History tends to repeat itself.
2
The Republican Party is a big tent of anti-science, pro-gun, pro-life, and well, pro-white leanings. For it to be relevant in the Presidential contests of the future, it needs to dramatically reinvent itself while not losing its core support from aging white folk, lest it suffer their fate.
This essay tells the tale of the thunderstorm befuddling the traditional rational Republican moderates.
My Congressmen for the past two or three cycles have been an anti-Darwinist M.D. (?) and currently a minister.
Is such approaching regressive normativeness?
My rationalism:
The USA economy traumatically "recessed" approx eight years ago, and the results are ... heck ... what they are, never mind the slow but steady recovery.
The unfairnesses and angers of our complicated, often contradictory, political-economic system are what DJT, masterful marketeer,
is brilliantly selling.
One is witnessing the pious Evangelicals actually voting for the cleverly semi-confessional libertine.
Yesterday, I heard this on C-SPAN radio: actually telling his rallying kool-aided, hyper-convinced followers in Iowa that Hillary wants to cut Social Security, and they bought it, or probably knew it a nutty lie, but indulge such nasty rhetoric.
My Congressmen for the past two or three cycles have been an anti-Darwinist M.D. (?) and currently a minister.
Is such approaching regressive normativeness?
My rationalism:
The USA economy traumatically "recessed" approx eight years ago, and the results are ... heck ... what they are, never mind the slow but steady recovery.
The unfairnesses and angers of our complicated, often contradictory, political-economic system are what DJT, masterful marketeer,
is brilliantly selling.
One is witnessing the pious Evangelicals actually voting for the cleverly semi-confessional libertine.
Yesterday, I heard this on C-SPAN radio: actually telling his rallying kool-aided, hyper-convinced followers in Iowa that Hillary wants to cut Social Security, and they bought it, or probably knew it a nutty lie, but indulge such nasty rhetoric.
1
Ou are sir unfortunately in the minority of your party. You've contributed to this dangerous situation by your silence and excusing all that happened under Bill Clinton's Presidency. Endless investigations, all known to be without warrant, until ah-ha, Monica Lewinsky. The constituents of the modern Reopublican party are in large part people who are less educated, religious and rural. They feed upon with no resistance all information from the mouths of party leaders. That is why the press, for all its charge of being liberal, sets a higher standard and a tougher time for Clinton. She's smart. She should know better. The republicans have create da small, yet dangerous army of armed supporters who believe violence is the answer. The party simply obstructs and creates conspiracies when it doesn't go there way, which lately is hardly ever. Now their target is impeaching a President who hasn't even been elected yet, and a Supreme court in need of a 9th Justice. They've vowed to keep it empty, and even suggested we don't need nine. Eight is enough. This is your party sir. If you mean what you say, do more to change things.
2
This "life after Trump" talk is premature.
I don't like the major papers already pronouncing his candidacy to be a thing of the recent past.
He could win. He could win. I am not confident he won't, and I won't be until the votes are counted.
We could be living in Trump's America in a few days. In early 2017, there will be a surge of lawsuits against journalists and newspapers critical of him, against academics and intellectuals. When more people vigorously protest in print, encourage civil disobedience, etc., there could be treason trials.
In early 2017, there will be massive mobilizations to round up and interrogate Latino US citizens. There will be massive holding camps hastily built to hold those found to lack proper documentation. These camps will soon also hold protestors against President Trump's policies, which may well include his efforts to invoke emergency powers.
This nightmare is not far-fetched. He has already explicitly and repeatedly demonstrated a contempt for the very idea of truth and facts. He has already demonstrated his contempt for the rule of law. Without truth and facts and law inhibiting him, he and his followers are free to act on their hatreds and contempt for everybody who stands in their way. They have already begun the breakdown of social, legal, and political norms. In victory, the total breakdown will be swift and complete.
This is not a far-fetched nightmare, and it hasn't been prevented yet.
I don't like the major papers already pronouncing his candidacy to be a thing of the recent past.
He could win. He could win. I am not confident he won't, and I won't be until the votes are counted.
We could be living in Trump's America in a few days. In early 2017, there will be a surge of lawsuits against journalists and newspapers critical of him, against academics and intellectuals. When more people vigorously protest in print, encourage civil disobedience, etc., there could be treason trials.
In early 2017, there will be massive mobilizations to round up and interrogate Latino US citizens. There will be massive holding camps hastily built to hold those found to lack proper documentation. These camps will soon also hold protestors against President Trump's policies, which may well include his efforts to invoke emergency powers.
This nightmare is not far-fetched. He has already explicitly and repeatedly demonstrated a contempt for the very idea of truth and facts. He has already demonstrated his contempt for the rule of law. Without truth and facts and law inhibiting him, he and his followers are free to act on their hatreds and contempt for everybody who stands in their way. They have already begun the breakdown of social, legal, and political norms. In victory, the total breakdown will be swift and complete.
This is not a far-fetched nightmare, and it hasn't been prevented yet.
2
Mr. Wehner, let me give you the solution. Split the party into two, one sane and another insane. Start to rebuild the "sane" party from the bottom up again. You might even attract some so called "Reagan Democrats" along the way. You might be very surprised to learn that your new party of "sane" may get a lot of support from the public. Sometimes, it will be much better and faster to have a fresh start rather than trying to fix the broken one. Right now at this point of history could be the perfect time to start this movement
1
The Republican Party must decide that government can work, and surely the American people prefer to have a government that works. Leaders getting elected, through a massive expenditure of dollars, only to sit in office trying to make sure NOTHING gets accomplished is not what the American people want. Republicans do not want to accomplish anything with government because then government might have claim to legitimacy when applied thoughtfully. An eight-year tantrum because, suddenly, it cannot be assumed that old white men will run everything is not a platform. It is a self indulgence.
2
There is no courage in the Republican party to speak truth to its followers. Responsible, ethical, moral representatives would have dismissed the birther and Muslim theories immediately. They'd also admit that we can't fight wars, lower taxes and balance the budget all at the same time. They also need to realize that the majority of their followers rely on social security and medicare.
2
Refreshing. Remind me of what the Republican Party was and could have been. We should not also forget that several media outlets gave a platform to people like Trump, Ann Coulter and Trump. God save the Republic from its tyrants.
Mr Wehner, I have enjoyed your calm, thoughtful pieces this season. But if the Trump side of politics is not going anywhere then what you are describing as a solution is a three party system. This is not a bad thing. We need more, not fewer, choices. Even if you are not planning on a white collar career, I believe two years of university level education is a good investment in all Americans. With some basic civics classes. I hear Democrats and Republicans talk about rights they think they have that appear no where in our founding documents. The anti science, mix religion with government, stuff is just part of the problem. The anti fact news is a big threat. Looking forward to your Nov 14th column.
1
Mr. Trump won't go away if he isn't voted into the Presidency. People are that awake and that angry.
Get ready for more dissension and less cooperation.
Oh - and get ready for the mainstream media to start reorganizing and figuring out how to regain all those lost readers/viewers. It failed miserably (including the NYT) in being fair, and in covering all the candidates and their policies.
Get ready for more dissension and less cooperation.
Oh - and get ready for the mainstream media to start reorganizing and figuring out how to regain all those lost readers/viewers. It failed miserably (including the NYT) in being fair, and in covering all the candidates and their policies.
1
You write about the Republican party as if it still existed. Trump has merely been able to take what used to be a Republican entity and show it what it is. We have the Conservative part there. The Republican party disappeared decades ago.
This is incredibly astute:
"I don’t agree with President Obama on very much, but he was right when he said there was a straight line that could be drawn from Ms. Palin to Mr. Trump. A party that produces Ms. Palin as its vice-presidential nominee and Mr. Trump as its nominee is at war with reason."
"I don’t agree with President Obama on very much, but he was right when he said there was a straight line that could be drawn from Ms. Palin to Mr. Trump. A party that produces Ms. Palin as its vice-presidential nominee and Mr. Trump as its nominee is at war with reason."
2
Republicans can show they are serious about reassessing what they represent by immediately disempowering the so-called Freedom Caucus. They have let 40 white men hold the country hostage to their ideological "purity" far too long.
2
What a joke. Peter Wehner is described as being "a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, served in the last three Republican administrations". In short, he is a member of the Republican party establishment. Naturally, he and other Republican party establishment types want to examine everybody but themselves and hold ordinary voters accountable for the rise of Donald Trump. For the record Mr. Wehner, it wasn't the Republican primary voter who started and lost multiple overseas wars, presided over an economic collapse and the destruction of American prestige and as a final insult, lined up behind yet another Bush family member as the 2016 presidential nominee. That all happened (and wretchedly failed) because of you and your fellow Republican establishment wise-men who were running the show, not the rank and file Republican voters who you believe need to change their ways. A Trump administration couldn't possibly be any worse than the ones you were a part of. Period.
4
"political recklessness" must include responsibility for the failures of GOP congressional leadership to manage party discipline in the interest of maintaining majorities. Tea Party (and similar outlying) radicals who call themselves Republicans should not have been 'allowed in': they should been forced to accept the 'third party' label and remain truly minority backbenchers. IMHO 'allowing then in' - in the interest of preserving majorities - has been a major contributor to the impending death of the fiscally responsible/socially libertarian GOP I supported for 50 years ...but no longer.
1
Sorry, Mr Wehner, but if Republicans were capable of self-examination they would never have selected Trump as their candidate, not many of those who claim to be Republican candidates.
2
Finally an honest assessment from M. Wehner.
Let's hope it's not too late.
All Republican leaders need to adopt his closing sentiment:' I love my country far more than I love my party'.
Let's hope it's not too late.
All Republican leaders need to adopt his closing sentiment:' I love my country far more than I love my party'.
1
You're forgetting: Donald Trump won the primaries. He got the most support for the most Republicans. That's not the emboldened fringe. That's your party. It's quixotic at best to think intellectualism can be forcibly injected down its throat.
2
The vast majority of Trump supporters are not stupid or evil. For the most part, they are good people who’ve been conned.
Those of us who live and work in the New York City area and (like me) have done business with Donald Trump know the real Donald Trump.
He’s a con artist.
There are dozens of good, honest hard-working people in the construction business he has cheated.
So, why do so many good people get sucked in? All great con artists have the ability mesmerize the people they’re going to con, and convince them that he alone, speaks the truth. Then, when they’re won over, they will aggressively defend the con. It’s normal.
Attacking the good people Trump has won over is pointless and insulting. And since their belief is tied to their love of this country they will take personal offense at any suggestion their candidate is fake. Most of them could even sit down with a room full of the small businesspeople that Trump has cheated and listen to their stories and still come away calling them all haters.
Trump owns these good people. Here’s the proof, straight from The Art of the Con: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters”. Translation: “I have these fools eating out of my hand. I can do anything, say anything, and they’ll buy it.”
So, if you know the real Trump, what to do? Vote. And do all you can to get the vote out. Hillary may be flawed and may have only one good selling point: she’s not Donald Trump.
Those of us who live and work in the New York City area and (like me) have done business with Donald Trump know the real Donald Trump.
He’s a con artist.
There are dozens of good, honest hard-working people in the construction business he has cheated.
So, why do so many good people get sucked in? All great con artists have the ability mesmerize the people they’re going to con, and convince them that he alone, speaks the truth. Then, when they’re won over, they will aggressively defend the con. It’s normal.
Attacking the good people Trump has won over is pointless and insulting. And since their belief is tied to their love of this country they will take personal offense at any suggestion their candidate is fake. Most of them could even sit down with a room full of the small businesspeople that Trump has cheated and listen to their stories and still come away calling them all haters.
Trump owns these good people. Here’s the proof, straight from The Art of the Con: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters”. Translation: “I have these fools eating out of my hand. I can do anything, say anything, and they’ll buy it.”
So, if you know the real Trump, what to do? Vote. And do all you can to get the vote out. Hillary may be flawed and may have only one good selling point: she’s not Donald Trump.
5
First off Mr. Wehner, thank you for writing this article. It's refreshing to see a republican actually admitting to wrong-doing, but equally distressing because self examination is not what republicans (and all the different strands of conservatism) do well. You are almost alone in a sea of denial, finger pointing, wrong analysis, shaming and blaming. Admitting to wrong-doing, taking stock of the whys and hows, and then actually addressing the problems are a sign of maturity, civility, and seriousness, 3 things that the republican party clearly are not.
Reaganomics was exposed for the failure it is as far back as the early '90's, and again in '08, yet your think tanks and representatives continued to push it relentlessly. Friedman's Follies just didn't work for anybody except the very wealthy and you refused to admit it, and doubled down with blaming social welfare programs for any poor economic performance.
Pointing to the precise moment when anti-intellectualism became a pillar of the party's platform is not that difficult- Lee Atwood and Newt Gingrich birthed this monster, and later Frank Luntz and Karl Rove, along with the RW media with Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh leading the charge.
Political Recklessness also began with Newt, and Tom DeLay who is somehow not allowed to be mentioned in the RW or MSM press. The fact they were taken seriously and gained positions of great power is a clear indictment of the republicans to uphold these bullying liars as leaders.
Reaganomics was exposed for the failure it is as far back as the early '90's, and again in '08, yet your think tanks and representatives continued to push it relentlessly. Friedman's Follies just didn't work for anybody except the very wealthy and you refused to admit it, and doubled down with blaming social welfare programs for any poor economic performance.
Pointing to the precise moment when anti-intellectualism became a pillar of the party's platform is not that difficult- Lee Atwood and Newt Gingrich birthed this monster, and later Frank Luntz and Karl Rove, along with the RW media with Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh leading the charge.
Political Recklessness also began with Newt, and Tom DeLay who is somehow not allowed to be mentioned in the RW or MSM press. The fact they were taken seriously and gained positions of great power is a clear indictment of the republicans to uphold these bullying liars as leaders.
2
Interesting thoughts, Mr. Wehner. I agree wholeheartedly on the line from Palin to Trump. I would like to add that similar "soul searching" was done when Romney lost in 2012. Instead of becoming more inclusive, the party became even more white, narrow, nationalist, and then ended up nominating Trump. I think your article is about 20 years overdue.
2
Very thoughtful piece. One of the things explains the recent degrading of the Republican party is racism. Sorry to say, but that is what all these trends have in common.
Will a new Republican party be about to exist without a racist base?
Good luck with that....
Will a new Republican party be about to exist without a racist base?
Good luck with that....
2
Without millions of voters who embrace and espouse anti-intellectualism, political recklessness, xenophobia and nativism (to say nothing of homophobia, racism and misogyny) who would vote for the Republican Party. The Republican Party would cease to exist without the same voters who are destroying it.
2
This is my forth comment, going back to January this year, that Trump will not win this years presidential election.
The question of greater concern, were those who gave the demagogue support, whose minds were encapsulated with fear and anger, distorting rational thinking.
The passions these fears invoked will not subside when their perceived savior is not leading them to their distorted vision of a promised land.
A Clinton presidency will face four years of attacks from this disillusioned electorate supported now by Republican leadership in both chambers, refusing any cooperation, sacrificing the national interests for their ideological agenda.
There is only one possible solution, with no guaranteer, that is to elect more Democrats in both the Senate and House, hopefully to discourage the obstructionism the nation suffered under the last 12 years. If this were to happen, will or could the Democratic party rise to the occasion? If not, fours years from now the country will face another demagogue that now waits in the wings.
The question of greater concern, were those who gave the demagogue support, whose minds were encapsulated with fear and anger, distorting rational thinking.
The passions these fears invoked will not subside when their perceived savior is not leading them to their distorted vision of a promised land.
A Clinton presidency will face four years of attacks from this disillusioned electorate supported now by Republican leadership in both chambers, refusing any cooperation, sacrificing the national interests for their ideological agenda.
There is only one possible solution, with no guaranteer, that is to elect more Democrats in both the Senate and House, hopefully to discourage the obstructionism the nation suffered under the last 12 years. If this were to happen, will or could the Democratic party rise to the occasion? If not, fours years from now the country will face another demagogue that now waits in the wings.
1
I agree completely with Mr. Wehner. I think Trump is the culmination of forces that have been at work in the GOP since the 1980s, when figures like Gingrich, Limbaugh, Fox news under Roger Aisles and others began the long 'angrification' of the party. Over a period of decades, they persistently appealed to angry people, but of course anger is linked to fearfulness, suspicion, and - it must be said - ignorance. They succeeded. Now the GOP finds itself dominated by an angry, suspicious and ignorant segment of our population, whose positions are more reminiscent of left-wing populism than traditional conservatism.
1
Great article. I'd just add one thing: the Republican idea of party-over-country has done a huge amount of damage.
This includes things like the refusal to vote on ANY SC nominees, the demonization of Clinton over e-mails for doing only what many Repubs (including Powell and Bush) did, the announced intent to tie Clinton up with investigations for the next two years, the refusal to grapple with the very real health-care crisis in service of blanket obstruction, and so on.
I saw Repubs on one news shows positively gleeful about Bill Clinton's acknowledgement that the ACA has serious problems. None of them were advocating a better system or suggesting fixes; they were all just shouting, "We told you so!"
As a person who's been buying her own medical insurance for most of her life and who now has none, I find this utterly horrifying. They clearly didn't care about us, the people who are going without health care; all they cared about was the failure of the program, and they were happy about that.
This attitude is utterly poisonous.
This includes things like the refusal to vote on ANY SC nominees, the demonization of Clinton over e-mails for doing only what many Repubs (including Powell and Bush) did, the announced intent to tie Clinton up with investigations for the next two years, the refusal to grapple with the very real health-care crisis in service of blanket obstruction, and so on.
I saw Repubs on one news shows positively gleeful about Bill Clinton's acknowledgement that the ACA has serious problems. None of them were advocating a better system or suggesting fixes; they were all just shouting, "We told you so!"
As a person who's been buying her own medical insurance for most of her life and who now has none, I find this utterly horrifying. They clearly didn't care about us, the people who are going without health care; all they cared about was the failure of the program, and they were happy about that.
This attitude is utterly poisonous.
9
You're first sentence surprised me: "The 2016 campaign has revealed dark and disturbing" things about the GOP. How could you have not known this?! All I have to do is listen over and over again to GOP leaders who use veiled language to express racist/sexist-leaning comments. Think a few election cycles ago of Todd Aikin. Or how about Mitch McConnell announcing shamelessly that he will obstruct anything Obama proposes? And then there's the GOP Representatives who gleefully announced they would drag HRC through the mud in pointless Bengazi investigations just to taint her. I'm old enough to remember that Dem Tip O'Neill worked with Reagan to pass legislature. I'm also old enough to remember when Republican Sec. of States weren't accused of crimes because Americans got killed overseas (e.g. George Schulz). I remember GOP leaders over and over again claiming they are the party of true patriots while Dems are not. Or GOP understand "Family Values" and Dems do not. How could Peter Wehner be surprised about his party's disturbing behavior?! Seriously, they've behaved over and over again in the last 15 years as if they are the only party that's legitimate.
49
Mr. Wehner, This is a very readable and well thought out argument. What took your tribe so long to admit it? Where were all the Republican pundits who were supposed to be making a legible argument? You correctly point out Ms. Palin, and dare I say Trump, is the personification of thoughtlessness. However, the Republican punditry not only embraced her but applauded her on the way to creating a pathway that was fertile ground for a buffoon like Trump. Only in the face of insurmountable evidence of the thuggery of Mr. Trump did all your colleagues begin to shirk away after recoiling in horror. So maybe, just maybe, the finger ought to be pointed at your own team of pundits who perhaps pretended all these years that they had an argument worth pursuing. Maybe it was a house of cards that just fell apart. Maybe this misplaced belief in the philosophy of Ayn Rand ought to be rejected. Please look at the electoral map. The correlation between White population without a college degree and support for Republican candidates is almost 100%. Has your ilk subconsciously reverted to appealing and reinforcing the support within that segment? Before you shirk away your role in this mess and argue for generic betterment, I would suggest using the mirror - to reflect upon the collective self. As you say "First the argument, then the vote" to which I might add "First the Philosophy, then the argument'
22
It took you all the way to the end to assert that you love your country more than your party. One of the many problems with the GOP is the placement of party over country, winning over governing. If Sec. Clinton wins tomorrow, the GOP has vowed to obstruct her, to refuse to appoint judges, to investigate and impeach her without any basis for doing so at this point except the conspiracy theory mindset. The GOP has been hard at work developing this mindset and accompanying approaches (lie, lie, lie, then when people believe the lie, excuse yourselves and deny you said as such, creating damage and then refusing responsibility) since the 1960s, maybe earlier. Think McCarthy.
Serious Democrats want the Republican Party to self-examine and come back to some kind of reality, closer to middle ground. Some group will step in and fill the gap in our two-party system. It won't be about economics. It isn't really about economics now. The dissatisfaction among Trump supporters has more to do with a fear of failure among white males, that they somehow feel their personal power slipping away. When we still had slavery, white men who couldn't afford slaves still felt superior because they were white, and therefore _could_ own slaves. It's something inside a third of our people that fears, is insecure, and seeks to make some undefined other to be at fault. That is the issue you must address. That is what was whipped into a frenzy this election. Good luck defeating the monster you created.
Serious Democrats want the Republican Party to self-examine and come back to some kind of reality, closer to middle ground. Some group will step in and fill the gap in our two-party system. It won't be about economics. It isn't really about economics now. The dissatisfaction among Trump supporters has more to do with a fear of failure among white males, that they somehow feel their personal power slipping away. When we still had slavery, white men who couldn't afford slaves still felt superior because they were white, and therefore _could_ own slaves. It's something inside a third of our people that fears, is insecure, and seeks to make some undefined other to be at fault. That is the issue you must address. That is what was whipped into a frenzy this election. Good luck defeating the monster you created.
39
As far as the Constitution is concerned it appears as though the only thing in the Constitution that matters to republicans is the 2nd amendment. Pretty disgusting in my eyes.
1
"Over the years a large number of Republicans began to dismiss the craft of governing."
This began on Inauguration Day 1981 when Reagan famously declared that the "government is the problem". They haven't looked back since.
This began on Inauguration Day 1981 when Reagan famously declared that the "government is the problem". They haven't looked back since.
1
Trump is indeed a different category. But he is the GOP's product and there is a straight line from Palin. You can't go back any farther? Let me help: GW Bush's torture, outing CIA agents, wars of choice; GHBush's Willie Horton; Reagan's welfare queen, trickle down economics; Nixon's southern strategy and well, you get the picture. Perhaps not as straight as Palin/Trump but it is a line and it is unbroken.
And that's just the presidents. Do we really need to review Congressional trajectory?
We're getting despondent about this GOP that supposedly went through its hand wringing and soul searching after the last two elections. To say nothing came of it doesn't actually capture what happened, does it? Now, the willingness of GOP leaders to hitch their fortunes to Trump tells me nothing will change. I expect it to get worse. We already have senators openly talking about never confirming a Clinton Supreme Court nominees. And in the House, fanatics are already talking impeachment of someone who hasn't been elected yet.
These are the people who should engage in self-examination? That's not going to happen. They will just insist on dragging the rest of us along with their insane quest for control rather than governing.
But thanks for the nice sentiments about rebirth.
And that's just the presidents. Do we really need to review Congressional trajectory?
We're getting despondent about this GOP that supposedly went through its hand wringing and soul searching after the last two elections. To say nothing came of it doesn't actually capture what happened, does it? Now, the willingness of GOP leaders to hitch their fortunes to Trump tells me nothing will change. I expect it to get worse. We already have senators openly talking about never confirming a Clinton Supreme Court nominees. And in the House, fanatics are already talking impeachment of someone who hasn't been elected yet.
These are the people who should engage in self-examination? That's not going to happen. They will just insist on dragging the rest of us along with their insane quest for control rather than governing.
But thanks for the nice sentiments about rebirth.
2
Sigh. We heard this talk of 'reconstruction' after the 2012 elections. And we got lots of 'talk' and platitudes that sounded good on paper. It resulted only in a false neo-fascism. The truth is, the GOP has been so tainted and corrupted by the hatred and obstruction of Mitch McConnell's tea party termites and the superficial nonsense of Paul Ryan and the pseudo-intellectuals, that it cannot be reconstructed. The GOP sold its soul to the right-wing, Taliban Christians and the uber-Rich. The GOP is so corrupt that its stench will linger for decades.
The electoral college must be abandoned. It essentially deprives people of a voice if their state is democratic or republican and they are the opposite.
2
As we grow older and richer we generally grow more conservative. But the current republican party offers nothing in real ideas that appeal to me (me: 62 and $250K salary). I see no current reasonable alternative than voting Democratic. And many of my Republican friends feel the same. The cowardice of the current leaders of the party reminds me of the scene from Titanic when the well heeled are jumping into lifeboats in front of women and children. Better to survive as a coward than go down with courage and integrity. The real heroes are people like Mr. Wehner, Steve Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace, Charlie Sykes, Michael Steele and the rest that have stood up and warned of the approaching ice. Running for the lifeboats are Paul Ryan, John McCain (too late John), Yertle McConnell, Toady Guliani and all of their ilk.
A new ship is needed. The Titanic has gone down.
A new ship is needed. The Titanic has gone down.
2
Far more distressing than the rise of Trump was the fall of the press, and the fall of many of our most sacred government institutions into rampant corruption: the IRS, the State Department, the Justice Department, the FBI. It's as if national politics is now no more authentic than professional wrestling, and a heck of a lot less fun.
1
Please to also admit that Paul Ryan's proposals don't add up, literally. If worked out mathematically, with actual numbers, and the not-so-arcane processes of addition, subtraction, and multiplication, his plan for the budget, for example, doesn't do what he claims.
This person who is lauded as a "policy wonk" and a great intellectual of the GOP offers proposals just as loony as Sarah Palin's. Please admit that publicly, out loud and in print, for the good of the country. No doubt you well know it.
This person who is lauded as a "policy wonk" and a great intellectual of the GOP offers proposals just as loony as Sarah Palin's. Please admit that publicly, out loud and in print, for the good of the country. No doubt you well know it.
1
The Republican Party is The Problem...not Trump who merely carpet bagged his way to the nomination. In fact, the Trump nomination was the Republican Party's call to conscience, faced the ultimate fork in the road. The embrace of Trump by the Republican Establishment, and by extension all that Trump stands for is the final capitulation. The animals are now running the zoo, and the zookeeper(s) are now in the cages.
I believe the Republican Party as it once was, is now gone forever. The Party of Reagan has now devolved into the Party of Trump and Cruz hell-bent on the destruction of every institution that civil society has taken generations to build and cannot function without. The Party of Ideas, the ACA and the EITC are just two original Conservative ideas, is now the Death Star, the Party of Darkness.
I believe the Republican Party as it once was, is now gone forever. The Party of Reagan has now devolved into the Party of Trump and Cruz hell-bent on the destruction of every institution that civil society has taken generations to build and cannot function without. The Party of Ideas, the ACA and the EITC are just two original Conservative ideas, is now the Death Star, the Party of Darkness.
1
In order to move the country past what Trump has wrought, it will take GOP leaders who are willing to stand up and say that the crass, disgusting elements that have risen to the top in this election are not in any one's best interests, especially the country as a whole. From what this election has also shown, that won't likely happen. It appears Republicans are interested in keeping ship GOP on course, even with an iceberg looming right ahead. The problem is, we are all on the boat with them.
I want to go back to my GOP roots, but that's not likely to happen for a long, long time.
I want to go back to my GOP roots, but that's not likely to happen for a long, long time.
1
I think both parti s need to begin an effort where civility is brought back to our elections, hmmmm, maybe we need to work work on bringing civility to the culture in general.
As a liberal, while I WILL be celebrating that trump loses ( if that comes to pass) , I will not be looking to antagonize his supporters. We should all plan on sitting down and listening to one another, looking for common concerns, and addressing them in the ways I hope we all recognize are productive and civil
I hope, over the course of the rest of my life I never witness another lectionaries like this one; We are ALL responsible for it
Paul Richardson, Oakland California
As a liberal, while I WILL be celebrating that trump loses ( if that comes to pass) , I will not be looking to antagonize his supporters. We should all plan on sitting down and listening to one another, looking for common concerns, and addressing them in the ways I hope we all recognize are productive and civil
I hope, over the course of the rest of my life I never witness another lectionaries like this one; We are ALL responsible for it
Paul Richardson, Oakland California
1
The best article I have ever seen on Trump (and I'm a democrat). Should be read by every Republican -- no, every American.
1
With due regard, Peter, the trajectory of your party has been glaringly obvious for over 50 years now. Your jeremiad is decades late and trillions of dollars short, to say the least. The reality is that your party has been utterly devoid of ideas for decades, and has relied instead upon moronic, unsustainable ideology such as the delusional Grover Norquist "no new taxes ever" pledges, or what George H.W. Bush correctly called "voodoo economics." Your party has fomented bigoted Christian extremists and systematically gutted women's healthcare primacy and privacy. Your party has aggressively sought to prevent anyone inclined to vote "D" rather than "R" from doing so, through disgraceful Jim Crow tactics in every red state in the nation. There is a reason why only GOTP led states are screeching about "voter fraud" and stopping people from voting - but where were you to lead the charge about your own party's direct complicity in perpetrating nationwide voter fraud? Your party, sir, needs to die a painful death. Any "resurrection" will require you to belatedly acknowledge the role of a functional government in a healthy democracy - recognize that compromise is necessary for the welfare of the nation - and accept that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Until all of that and more is done, and you kick all of the seditious demagogues to the curb permanently, you are still a man without a party.
4
And you forgot all the voter suppression efforts conducted by the Republicans. That in and of itself demonstrates the party's contempt of democracy.
2
I think we need to remember that our fathers and grandfathers gave their lives, their futures, to fight fascism and keep it from our shores. Trump voters need to confront their reasons for supporting this same ideology, and decide whether it's at odds with those values their family members fought to defend.
I need to believe the hatred and bigotry we have witnessed is an anomaly, that it will fade to the shadows, like Trump. Senator McCarthy is a footnote in our history, a misstep, my hope is he will be joined by Donald Trump, and we will be able to work together again for all our futures.
I need to believe the hatred and bigotry we have witnessed is an anomaly, that it will fade to the shadows, like Trump. Senator McCarthy is a footnote in our history, a misstep, my hope is he will be joined by Donald Trump, and we will be able to work together again for all our futures.
1
I used to consider myself a Republican but not any more. One of the traps the GOP has fallen into is defining itself by opposition to Democratic platforms and policies. It feels like the party is always reacting to some imagined threat, i.e. a Democratic policy that is going to cause the end of life as we know it. Obama was president for 8 years… the country has not imploded. Maybe the GOP is so worked up because he HASN'T failed. They have to imagine threats because it's difficult to find actual ones.
Personally, I place a high value on education and social safety nets. These are not issues that the GOP cares about. Do I think these areas need reform? Of course! But slashing funding is not reform. Giving kids the ability to choose to go to a different public school if the one they would normally go to is subpar is not reform either, by the way. I think it would be detrimental to the country to go into these areas with the apparent lack of thought and judgment that the majority of GOP leadership seems to display.
I voted Democratic across the board for the first time in my life this year (early voting). The other GOP candidates allowed Trump to come to power and they refused to hold hearings for Pres. Obama's SCOTUS nominee. If I refused to do my job, I would be fired. I think the members of Congress who refused to do their jobs should be fired and I did my part to make that happen.
I hope the party reorganizes itself as a result of these events but it seems doubtful.
Personally, I place a high value on education and social safety nets. These are not issues that the GOP cares about. Do I think these areas need reform? Of course! But slashing funding is not reform. Giving kids the ability to choose to go to a different public school if the one they would normally go to is subpar is not reform either, by the way. I think it would be detrimental to the country to go into these areas with the apparent lack of thought and judgment that the majority of GOP leadership seems to display.
I voted Democratic across the board for the first time in my life this year (early voting). The other GOP candidates allowed Trump to come to power and they refused to hold hearings for Pres. Obama's SCOTUS nominee. If I refused to do my job, I would be fired. I think the members of Congress who refused to do their jobs should be fired and I did my part to make that happen.
I hope the party reorganizes itself as a result of these events but it seems doubtful.
1
"They embraced a style of politics characterized by unceasing combativeness, intemperance and a deep hostility toward compromise and temperamental moderation."
Paging Newt Gingrich.
Paging Newt Gingrich.
The recent U.S. presidential campaign is remarkable for what has been revealed about the values and principles of the Republican Party and the United States more generally.
Certainly there is no need to repeat the many insults, fabrications, lies, distortions, prejudices, slanders, and calumnies spouted by Trump and his supporters regarding women, minorities, Jews, Muslims, veterans, the aged and disabled, Mexicans, Arabs, the media, university elites, Washington politicians, Republican leaders, and even the Pope.
Even as thoughtful journalists have sought to winnow the truth from the flood of Trump's speech so freighted with untruths and hatred, it should be emphasized that the "fact checkers" have neglected to consider a key element of Trump's thinking and the sources of his muddled views.
We are referring, of course, to Trump's 1974 abduction by aliens from outer space (AFOS), which indelibly altered his perceptions of earthly realities. On January 16, 1974, Trump was de-molecularized and transported through an intergalactic wormhole to the planet Zoron, where his brain was reprogrammed with Zoronic protocols. After being returned to Earth, Trump has served as a Zoron agent to destabilize American and global politics, thus allowing AFOS to infiltrate our planet.
Many aspects of Trump can therefore be easily explained. The orange tinge to his hair and complexion are characteristic Zoron features, for example. And of course, Trump is not a moron, he is a Zoron!
Certainly there is no need to repeat the many insults, fabrications, lies, distortions, prejudices, slanders, and calumnies spouted by Trump and his supporters regarding women, minorities, Jews, Muslims, veterans, the aged and disabled, Mexicans, Arabs, the media, university elites, Washington politicians, Republican leaders, and even the Pope.
Even as thoughtful journalists have sought to winnow the truth from the flood of Trump's speech so freighted with untruths and hatred, it should be emphasized that the "fact checkers" have neglected to consider a key element of Trump's thinking and the sources of his muddled views.
We are referring, of course, to Trump's 1974 abduction by aliens from outer space (AFOS), which indelibly altered his perceptions of earthly realities. On January 16, 1974, Trump was de-molecularized and transported through an intergalactic wormhole to the planet Zoron, where his brain was reprogrammed with Zoronic protocols. After being returned to Earth, Trump has served as a Zoron agent to destabilize American and global politics, thus allowing AFOS to infiltrate our planet.
Many aspects of Trump can therefore be easily explained. The orange tinge to his hair and complexion are characteristic Zoron features, for example. And of course, Trump is not a moron, he is a Zoron!
1
In the classic fable of the scorpion riding the water buffalo across the river, the scorpion stings the water buffalo despite the fact that they both will drown. "It's my nature," the scorpion says. The Republican Party will continue to foment fear and anger and dishonesty for years to come. Life in the 21st century does not bode well for their constituency of under educated whites, many with claims of deep religious principles - that they readily abandon. Perhaps there will be a national crisis at some point and the hostility and ignorance of the GOP will triumph. Until then, what else do they offer? We all witnessed the venom in the veins and the leadership that climbed aboard. "It's my nature," the scorpion said.
1
Sorry, but this covers only half the story. The real question is why Trump appeals to a working class electorate who will get screwed by his agenda. Why? In part because the Dems have run against Trump and not against the real Republican platform. It's there, in clear black and white, and the Dems.' campaign never touches on it. So Trump can make his case as to why Hillary is this or that, and the Dems play defense instead of showing voters what would really happen if we have a Republican president willing to sign any and all legislation that Paul Ryan produces. Why is this not the story? I just don't get it.
1
If women and minorities are to be included in the fabric of America, then the mostly White male Republican party must deligitamize America's institutions, because the Republican party would have no message otherwise.
"The forces that propelled Mr. Trump’s rise" are the same as have propelled the Republican Party since the Southern Strategy of the nefarious Nixon. He is just more open about it.
The Republican Party has already inflicted great harm on our republic by doing this.
Those three destructive trends did not just emerge over the last decade. They are the essence.
The Republican Party in the early 1980s was not a party of ideas, of governing experiment. It was the same then as it is now. Trump has merely exposed it by saying openly what it did by code word and innuendo. It is the exact same appeal. It has nothing to do with "governing." It has always been about refusal to govern, and "law enforcement" aimed at its targets.
If Mr. Trump loses, the party faces a daunting reconstruction challenge, but it will try to go back to what it was, the same essence done with code words instead of open confrontation. That is not different, just lying.
Republicans need to ask themselves if their party will be characterized by its aspirations or its resentments? It has always been the aspirations of a few at the expense of those they resent.
Win or lose, Republican have the same problems.
The Republican Party has already inflicted great harm on our republic by doing this.
Those three destructive trends did not just emerge over the last decade. They are the essence.
The Republican Party in the early 1980s was not a party of ideas, of governing experiment. It was the same then as it is now. Trump has merely exposed it by saying openly what it did by code word and innuendo. It is the exact same appeal. It has nothing to do with "governing." It has always been about refusal to govern, and "law enforcement" aimed at its targets.
If Mr. Trump loses, the party faces a daunting reconstruction challenge, but it will try to go back to what it was, the same essence done with code words instead of open confrontation. That is not different, just lying.
Republicans need to ask themselves if their party will be characterized by its aspirations or its resentments? It has always been the aspirations of a few at the expense of those they resent.
Win or lose, Republican have the same problems.
3
The main thing the Republican Party needs to do is to get past its hypocrisy. They pander to the fears of the low income worker while dong nothing to create jobs and in fact continue to allow the use of H1B visas to bring in foreign workers instead of making businesses set up training programs or helping them to do so. Just last week, Trump himself applied for 100 more of those Visas to bring in workers for his clubs and casinos. Then there is the constant cutting of funds for education except when for profit charter schools want taxpayer money. Poor areas too often have poor schools which doesn't help people rise above the life they were born into. Cutting funds to Planned Parenthood doesn't stop abortions but does prevent low income people from getting prenatal care they can afford, so that the child they are carrying can be born healthier. And then there is the constant referral to gun violence in low income majority black areas of different cities. Why don't we have as much discussion about serial murderers, the majority of whom are white men. Just his week here in SC we have the breaking story of a middle aged white man who got caught with a woman chained like a dog in a cargo container on his large acreage and he admitted to killing not only her boyfriend when he locked her up two months ago, but at least four others in a motorcycle shop eight years ago and they are digging up his property looking for other bodies. Time for some reality and honesty.
34
Nice to read this, but as the saying goes, a day late and a dollar short. The rancid nature of things had to be completely unmistakable the moment Mitch McConnell, from the very first days after President Obama's election, stated that his goal was to Obama a one term president. Who could not see then where this kind of talk would lead? That was the time to speak out forcefully, not now.
1
One of the best opinion pieces I've ever read, including for the writing itself. Really great. Unfortunately, I see no signs that the GOP is capable of introspection. In fact, it appears to me that it has the that personality which, the more it's character flaws are pointed out (in hopes of a fix) the more it digs in, much like its nominee. I do give a lot of credit to the Republicans who have said, and meant, they will not inflict Donald Trump on this country or the world, party be damned. I admit I didn't think it was possible, with a few exceptions. I worry, though, that that kind of Republican will be run out, much like Bill Weld was, Lincoln Chafee...RINOs, to coin a term.
Donald Trump himself is not especially important (assuming that he loses tomorrow). I expect that if he loses he will ride off into the sunset and go back to constructing tall buildings with his name on them.
What is important is that almost half of American voters approve of his message, or, at a minimum, cannot take Hillary Clinton. (To be fair, Ms. Clinton is firmly in the pocket of the moneyed class and can be relied upon to look after the interests of her financial sources and no one else, particularly.) But.....why Trump? Are 40%+ of Americans suddenly bad people? Or do they have genuine grievances which deserve attention?
Unless serious work is done on the issues that are important to these people, our troubles are not over. Quite the contrary, things will get worse.
What is important is that almost half of American voters approve of his message, or, at a minimum, cannot take Hillary Clinton. (To be fair, Ms. Clinton is firmly in the pocket of the moneyed class and can be relied upon to look after the interests of her financial sources and no one else, particularly.) But.....why Trump? Are 40%+ of Americans suddenly bad people? Or do they have genuine grievances which deserve attention?
Unless serious work is done on the issues that are important to these people, our troubles are not over. Quite the contrary, things will get worse.
1
The path is--immigration reform, education for all, health care for all, overwhelming infrastructure renewal, and common-sense gun management. You know--become a civilized country.
And--the Republican party will split in two, between the real entrepreneurs and the irrational white-patriarchy leeches.
And--the Republican party will split in two, between the real entrepreneurs and the irrational white-patriarchy leeches.
1
The best immediate way to deal with Trump and the Republican anti-intellectualism, political recklessness and appeals to nativism and xenophobia is to focus on turning out tomorrow and voting for Clinton, encouraging your friends and family to get out, and helping those who need help in finding or getting to the polls.
Another is for the country to vote in a Democratic Congress as well, and give the change that voters chose back in 2008 a chance.
Another is for the country to vote in a Democratic Congress as well, and give the change that voters chose back in 2008 a chance.
So what do we do now to reconstruct the two party system? If trump wins we must pray there is even another election in 2020. If he loses we must pray there is a viable second party to keep our balance.
You mention both anti-intellectualism and appealing to less-educated voters. That's the rub right there. Politics is exceptionally complicated here in the 21st century. Being angry that jobs have left your neck of the woods and understanding the local, national and geo-political reasons for those jobs leaving are very different things. The same people who want the jobs back from overseas, spend much of their money on cheap imports at big box stores, and while they pine for a long lost past, would probably not be willing to go back to saving for months for a new coat as our grandparents did. Many those jobs went overseas because the companies needed to be competitive, wanted to be more profitable, and knew that Americans, used to cheap, cheap, cheap, would quickly switch brands and stores if their prices rose. Obviously, I've simplified this to an almost silly degree, but not to the degree of many who simply blame it all on "the other" - immigrants, evil politicians on the other side of the aisle (and even the same side), and so on. But, again, these issues we face are extremely complicated and so that simple explanation is really all many of us can (or are willing to take the time to) understand. It takes a lot more time and effort to be an informed citizen these days, and many simply choose not to, and those folks are primed and ready for the likes of a Trump, who sees an extremely complicated issue like illegal immigration and proposes we build one wall.
For the sake of this country I hope Republicans will do some soul searching whether Mr. Trump loses or not. They came up with a report in 2012 after they lost twice to Mr. Obama but then threw out the baby with the bathwater immediately. I think those who did that are still in the party. I do not believe the party has reached the point of critical mass where it feels the need to cleanse itself. Based on the rhetoric still emanating from the echo chambers, I believe Mr. Wehner's opinion is in a minority. Some more election cycles will perhaps be required before the critical mass for a purge is sensed. But for the sake of the country, I hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Mr. Wehner - I listened to an interview you gave on the POTUS station on XM radio during the summer in which you discussed the future of the Republican Party. I was then and am now happy to see that some republicans are still rational. I think you need to go back to three events to help explain the devolution of the party leading to the nomination of Sarah Palin for VP and Donald Trump for president:
1) The notion started by Reagan that government is the problem. He famously said that the worst words in the English language were: "I'm from the government and here to help." The political history of most of the 20th century has been about the rise of progressivism - the idea that government can and should help solve social problems. The GOP has gone from an important counter-balance (some ideas do need tempering) to destroying that idea (see: Brown, Michael, FEMA)
2) Supply-side economics and it's ugly step-child, low taxes on the wealthy. Time to admit those ideas don't work.
3) The GOP embracement of social bigotry starting with Nixon's Southern Strategy to Reagan's States' Rights speech in Miss. to the adoption of "wedge" issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage in order to pry working-class democrats away from the party. That's when the GOP started down the road to become the all white party it is today.
Today's GOP is not Eisenhower's GOP. Back then it was about fiscal conservativism balanced with steady social policies. It was about governance. That's been lost.
1) The notion started by Reagan that government is the problem. He famously said that the worst words in the English language were: "I'm from the government and here to help." The political history of most of the 20th century has been about the rise of progressivism - the idea that government can and should help solve social problems. The GOP has gone from an important counter-balance (some ideas do need tempering) to destroying that idea (see: Brown, Michael, FEMA)
2) Supply-side economics and it's ugly step-child, low taxes on the wealthy. Time to admit those ideas don't work.
3) The GOP embracement of social bigotry starting with Nixon's Southern Strategy to Reagan's States' Rights speech in Miss. to the adoption of "wedge" issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage in order to pry working-class democrats away from the party. That's when the GOP started down the road to become the all white party it is today.
Today's GOP is not Eisenhower's GOP. Back then it was about fiscal conservativism balanced with steady social policies. It was about governance. That's been lost.
1
Some time ago, the Republican Party moved in a direction that I could no longer support. I continue to "hope" for some national figure to do for my "ex-party" what Bill Clinton did for the Dem's in his presidential run, and move the party to the center.
I hear free college and cringe. But I hear the vitriol and anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-compromise drumbeat and turn my back and walk away. The full leadership of the Republican Party is to blame for sticking to the last 20 years policy prescriptions, with the end result a Trump candidacy.
Why did Mitt Romney not get this, and move to the center?
I hear free college and cringe. But I hear the vitriol and anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-compromise drumbeat and turn my back and walk away. The full leadership of the Republican Party is to blame for sticking to the last 20 years policy prescriptions, with the end result a Trump candidacy.
Why did Mitt Romney not get this, and move to the center?
First rule: rally your base. Moving to much to the center would have alienated his supporters.
tRump is not so much the logical conclusion of the GOP--rather, the GOP is the result of a far-right media which has been fanning the the flames of conspiracy, anti-progressivism, government hatred, racism, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism for decades. Started by Rush Limbaugh, who has drawn the ear of white males everywhere ("kudos!") this anti-everything movement , with vast advertising revenue at stake, draw those who have sought to surpass him: Alex Jones, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter. But it wasn't a one-way street: as extremism drew audiences and thus money, both the audience and the media began to shape each other; a toxic feedback loop was born. But even if these commentators knew the damage their words have done to the country, they not only can't stop--they have to keep their slice of the audience, and thus advertising sales revenue. The only way is to become more extreme. In the world of far-right media, moderation is financial death. Remember when Mitt Romney insisted "I'm severely conservative!"? He had no choice in the face of his competition, and neither does the far-right media. They are locked in an arms race of toxic thought.
While the Right has used anger, the Left, in the form of Jon Stewart et al has used humor. Laughter is powerful, but the tide of anger, whipped up mostly for the sake of entertainment itself and advertising revenue, has swamped it.
While the Right has used anger, the Left, in the form of Jon Stewart et al has used humor. Laughter is powerful, but the tide of anger, whipped up mostly for the sake of entertainment itself and advertising revenue, has swamped it.
1
"Even liberal critics of the Republican Party who believe Mr. Trump was an inevitable result of the party’s political machinations have to concede he is in a different category than the nominees who preceded him."
If the author can explain how Ted Cruz is in a different category than Donald Trump I would be very interested to see the resulting logical contortions.
If the author can explain how Ted Cruz is in a different category than Donald Trump I would be very interested to see the resulting logical contortions.
The only way to change would be to really vote out the Republicans and send them into the wilderness to regroup and come up with something acceptable. Unfortunately it won't happen this election. As a dual U.S. Canadian citizen, I have seen this happen several times in Canada and we currently have a good, Liberal government after a decade of a Conservative government that tried U.S. Republican style tactics to stay in power. Many people may scorn Prime Minister Trudeau's "sunny ways" but most Canadians will take his style and civility any day over the U.S. political nightmare.
"Many of us could not continue to be a part of a political institution defined by Donald Trump, by Breitbart.com and Ann Coulter, one that most resembles the right-wing nationalist parties we see in Europe."
The time to make that switch is now. Why don't we hear more about Republicans voting for a Democrat for President, just this one time?
The time to make that switch is now. Why don't we hear more about Republicans voting for a Democrat for President, just this one time?
And what happened following the famous Republican autopsy following the 2012 election? Nothing. The party's 2016 platform, which doubled down on the worst parts of its identity, proved that the soul-searching was mere window dressing.
I say that as a registered independent who has voted for many Republicans (including Romney) and would like it to be a better party.
I say that as a registered independent who has voted for many Republicans (including Romney) and would like it to be a better party.
1
There also needs to be a cessation in the suppression of voting rights. Voter fraud is a myth closely tied to nativism/xenophobia. It's not just in the south, but throughout the country. I'm a liberal, but consider myself a pragmatic one. I would welcome a thoughtful conservative/moderate counterbalance to elicit the best ideas for solving important problems the country faces. However, as long as the republican party insists on denying the rights of citizens to vote and have their voices heard as part of the national conversation, I can't in good conscience participate in that dialogue
Before the self-examination, before any other action, should Hillary Clinton win, there is an immediate need for Republican leaders in Congress to go on record to say they will not be obstructionist and that they will not automatically oppose every single measure she proposes.
I really, really blame people like Ryan and McConnell and others for sanctioning these beliefs for years (with a nudge and a wink) because it helped their short-term agenda to do so, damn the long term consequences. If Ryan stands up there and says this, he'll probably be voted out of the speakership by party extremists. So what? It's time for the Republican leaders to draw some lines. They don't believe the drivel, but it was a short-term weapon for them. Time to lay it down.
I really, really blame people like Ryan and McConnell and others for sanctioning these beliefs for years (with a nudge and a wink) because it helped their short-term agenda to do so, damn the long term consequences. If Ryan stands up there and says this, he'll probably be voted out of the speakership by party extremists. So what? It's time for the Republican leaders to draw some lines. They don't believe the drivel, but it was a short-term weapon for them. Time to lay it down.
2
This was an excellent opinion piece. The Republicans chose not to follow the prescriptions of the 2012 post-election "autopsy" report, and Donald Trump was the result.
As far as our country goes, the best thing would be if the Democrats take back the Senate tomorrow, along with a victory by Hillary Clinton. With a Democratic controlled Senate, we will soon have a 9-member Supreme Court -- something which many Republican senators are conveniently forgetting is in the Constitution.
A Democratic Senate could force some Republicans to engage in some introspection, instead of plotting and recriminations, which is their plan if they retain control.
Good luck to all of us Americans. And vote Democratic.
As far as our country goes, the best thing would be if the Democrats take back the Senate tomorrow, along with a victory by Hillary Clinton. With a Democratic controlled Senate, we will soon have a 9-member Supreme Court -- something which many Republican senators are conveniently forgetting is in the Constitution.
A Democratic Senate could force some Republicans to engage in some introspection, instead of plotting and recriminations, which is their plan if they retain control.
Good luck to all of us Americans. And vote Democratic.
2
The most immediate thing responsible Republicans can do to rebuild themselves and earn respect is to squelch any further talk or action related to endless investigations and impeachment of Clinton should she win. This is mere grandstanding and is inflammatory, damaging and divisive rhetoric. If you're committed to a better political environment and actually contributing constructively to our nation, do your best to stop this senseless and self-destructive behavior. Do it publicly, privately and fast.
60
Mr. Wehner, the Republican party is dying because it has no new ideas. By its very nature it is regressive and unprepared for the 21st century.
I'm sorry to say, Mr. Wehner, that your party remains alive only by cheating. By that I mean gerrymandering, screaming voter fraud, shutting down early voting booths and ranting about biased media. And remember the GOP promise to stonewall Obama? That happened 8 years ago.
Trump's whining about rigged elections is really no different than the current whispers about the GOP blocking supreme court nominees for four years. Both are shameful and harmful to our nation.
I'm sorry to say, Mr. Wehner, that your party remains alive only by cheating. By that I mean gerrymandering, screaming voter fraud, shutting down early voting booths and ranting about biased media. And remember the GOP promise to stonewall Obama? That happened 8 years ago.
Trump's whining about rigged elections is really no different than the current whispers about the GOP blocking supreme court nominees for four years. Both are shameful and harmful to our nation.
74
Thank you.
It seems to me, all of the good ideas that Republicans have are shouted down by the forces of greed.
None of the Republican policies work. The economic policies espoused by your party only make the rich richer. This isn't opinion, just look at the facts. Just take a look at the policies that actually improved the lives of the people living under them, and you'll see why Republican economic policy does not bring voters to the polls.
So what you do have to get voters is fear. Fear of social change. Fear of people who are different. Your party has been using bigotry, racism, fear to get people to the polls for decades. How can you be surprised that they chose Trump?
Come up with some ideas that work. Come up with ways to compromise to make the programs that are already at work in our country better. Extricate yourselves from the pockets of the greediest.
We know what happens when countries do not have a strong safety net for the most vulnerable. Take a look around the world at what life is like in those countries. We know what happens when business is allowed to run without regulation. Because that has happened, and we've seen the devastation.
We know what happens when we try through force, fear, and hatred to keep a group of people down, be it by denying marriage rights, voting rights, equal rights. We've been through all of this.
Stop being the party of the past, and come up with some good ideas for the present. And let us know what they are.
It seems to me, all of the good ideas that Republicans have are shouted down by the forces of greed.
None of the Republican policies work. The economic policies espoused by your party only make the rich richer. This isn't opinion, just look at the facts. Just take a look at the policies that actually improved the lives of the people living under them, and you'll see why Republican economic policy does not bring voters to the polls.
So what you do have to get voters is fear. Fear of social change. Fear of people who are different. Your party has been using bigotry, racism, fear to get people to the polls for decades. How can you be surprised that they chose Trump?
Come up with some ideas that work. Come up with ways to compromise to make the programs that are already at work in our country better. Extricate yourselves from the pockets of the greediest.
We know what happens when countries do not have a strong safety net for the most vulnerable. Take a look around the world at what life is like in those countries. We know what happens when business is allowed to run without regulation. Because that has happened, and we've seen the devastation.
We know what happens when we try through force, fear, and hatred to keep a group of people down, be it by denying marriage rights, voting rights, equal rights. We've been through all of this.
Stop being the party of the past, and come up with some good ideas for the present. And let us know what they are.
43
Life after Trump is highly optimistic! His hatefulness probably won't stop as he is basically a nasty-minded self-serving person. But we won't be stuck with a narcissistic, self-loving and pompous megalomaniac. His conceit is unending and he has absolutely no self control. One only has to look at his face when he gives speeches at how horrifying he would be to represent our country to the world! Do not hesitate to Dump Trump!
Trump's a clown. Someday a hero may come forward and restore the republic and dismantle the hollow empire. Personally I don't care if that person comes from the left or the right. That person will be hated and reviled by the New York Times and every other establishment water carrier.
Anyone who believes he will quietly ride off into the sunset is delusional.
It's anyone's guess what will spill out of his mouth after he loses.
It's the wackos he inspires that scare me.
There is another Timothy McVeigh out there.
It's anyone's guess what will spill out of his mouth after he loses.
It's the wackos he inspires that scare me.
There is another Timothy McVeigh out there.
Peter,
You remind me of the Germans who were against Hitler & died in concentration camps along with all the other rightist innocent people.It’s very difficult not to be swept up into a mob of people that are convinced they are the true Americans, & soldiers of God.My accounting professor like to say, figures don’t lie, but liars figure. What he failed to say is you can manipulated figures to support your position.As an example our latest unemployment figures are 4.9 % , which seems to be great accomplishment, over what the Bush recession gave us. What it doesn’t tell us is the state of mind of millions of Americans, who are working two jobs to make up for the income they lost before their jobs went overseas.It doesn’t tell you about the homes that were lost & never replaced, & it doesn’t tell you about the broken families that are the result of a substandard life.It doesn’t tell you about what Clinton calls the deplorable are really the disgruntled, & disenfranchised that only Trump speaks to.There is a tragic tale behind the numbers, the pundits rather not talk about.
You remind me of the Germans who were against Hitler & died in concentration camps along with all the other rightist innocent people.It’s very difficult not to be swept up into a mob of people that are convinced they are the true Americans, & soldiers of God.My accounting professor like to say, figures don’t lie, but liars figure. What he failed to say is you can manipulated figures to support your position.As an example our latest unemployment figures are 4.9 % , which seems to be great accomplishment, over what the Bush recession gave us. What it doesn’t tell us is the state of mind of millions of Americans, who are working two jobs to make up for the income they lost before their jobs went overseas.It doesn’t tell you about the homes that were lost & never replaced, & it doesn’t tell you about the broken families that are the result of a substandard life.It doesn’t tell you about what Clinton calls the deplorable are really the disgruntled, & disenfranchised that only Trump speaks to.There is a tragic tale behind the numbers, the pundits rather not talk about.
1
Would anyone hire a loosing baseball coach to turn around their football team,
that's about the same as electing trump
that's about the same as electing trump
2
Where are the leaders of the Republican party to come from? Clearly there are none in the Senate. Why are there no GOP politicians willing to say that, even if Trump loses, they will accept and work with the new administration? I see no leaders in the GOP.
1
The US has faced political chaos throughout its history. To have chaos is actually more normal than not, so the US will struggle, but endure.
RE: "The 2016 presidential campaign has revealed dark and disturbing things about not only Donald J. Trump but also the party that nominated him."
Some of the most dark and disturbing things are those who affiliate themselves with Trump or see a place for them in the Republican party. As reported in the Times today vigilantes, white supremacists, and nationalists feel they have representatives of their views in Trump and the party. Another is the support of Iran's Ayatolla Khamenei for Trump and his and Putin's use of the crassness and base comments dragging the election into the gutter Trump to support their viewpoints for their people that democracy does not work. Then there is Kim Jong Un's endorsement for Trump.
Then there are the Republican supporters themselves who proudly display buttons and Ti-shirts and chant vulgar slogans about Clinton as woman at rallies and on-line. These are the typical items aimed at qualifications or character but directly at her sex. And sometimes quite literally. And for those who write off such behavior as simply impassioned contempt we not only have Trump himself as setting the example for this group but officials who feel that crude references to women who dare to aspire are acceptable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/01/a-texas-state-...
"Dark and disturbing" seems to be putting it mildly.
Some of the most dark and disturbing things are those who affiliate themselves with Trump or see a place for them in the Republican party. As reported in the Times today vigilantes, white supremacists, and nationalists feel they have representatives of their views in Trump and the party. Another is the support of Iran's Ayatolla Khamenei for Trump and his and Putin's use of the crassness and base comments dragging the election into the gutter Trump to support their viewpoints for their people that democracy does not work. Then there is Kim Jong Un's endorsement for Trump.
Then there are the Republican supporters themselves who proudly display buttons and Ti-shirts and chant vulgar slogans about Clinton as woman at rallies and on-line. These are the typical items aimed at qualifications or character but directly at her sex. And sometimes quite literally. And for those who write off such behavior as simply impassioned contempt we not only have Trump himself as setting the example for this group but officials who feel that crude references to women who dare to aspire are acceptable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/01/a-texas-state-...
"Dark and disturbing" seems to be putting it mildly.
4
So there is at least one rational Republican who puts country before party.
If the Republican Party wants to regain credibility, it must extricate itself from its current position of political capture by the likes of the Koch Brothers and their Heritage foundation and American Legislative Exchange Council. But if it does that then Mr. Wehner may be out of a pay check from his current employer. One must ask how, during these decades of anti-science and anti-intellectualism, Mr. Wehner continued to support them?
2
"Our allegiance isn’t to a party; it is to a set of ideas and ideals, to the good of the whole..."
Really? Since when?
Really? Since when?
5
Yes there is life after Trump, but now as we know it today.
The GOP that most of us remember is gone and it's not coming back. Over the last two decades the party has encouraged and at least tolerated fringe elements from the religious right, Alt-right, bigots and extremists of every kind. The party looked the other way when these elements spewed their hate filled rhetoric so long as it was directed at Democrats. Over time, the fringe has now become mainstream within the party which is exactly why you have Trump.
Remember that Trump won the nomination by a landslide. Common sense Republicans like Bush and Kasich did not get above 5%. And in the end, had it not been Trump, it would have been Cruz, who is the opposite side of the same coin.
Trump won by being very clear from day one on who he was and what he represented. He never waivered on his core hate filled message and the Republicans loved him for that.
What does all of this portend for future elections. Simple, if you're a Republican thinking about running for office of any kind, the only way that you'll make it past the nomination process is if you follow and spew the rhetoric that you're seeing today. If you're insightful, intelligent, and balanced in your approach and thinking, you don't stand a chance.
The good news to all of this is the Democratic party has an enormous opportunity to expand it's base as the GOP moves closer and closer to what anyone would call an extremist group.
The GOP that most of us remember is gone and it's not coming back. Over the last two decades the party has encouraged and at least tolerated fringe elements from the religious right, Alt-right, bigots and extremists of every kind. The party looked the other way when these elements spewed their hate filled rhetoric so long as it was directed at Democrats. Over time, the fringe has now become mainstream within the party which is exactly why you have Trump.
Remember that Trump won the nomination by a landslide. Common sense Republicans like Bush and Kasich did not get above 5%. And in the end, had it not been Trump, it would have been Cruz, who is the opposite side of the same coin.
Trump won by being very clear from day one on who he was and what he represented. He never waivered on his core hate filled message and the Republicans loved him for that.
What does all of this portend for future elections. Simple, if you're a Republican thinking about running for office of any kind, the only way that you'll make it past the nomination process is if you follow and spew the rhetoric that you're seeing today. If you're insightful, intelligent, and balanced in your approach and thinking, you don't stand a chance.
The good news to all of this is the Democratic party has an enormous opportunity to expand it's base as the GOP moves closer and closer to what anyone would call an extremist group.
58
I live in one of those towns where white people feel they've been economically left behind. Instead of trying to get an education, instead of even looking for work thirty miles away in a town that is prospering, they instead sit on their front porches, smoking, and crying that all the jobs are being given to Blacks (only that isn't the word they use) and Mexicans. Since there are less than a dozen Blacks and Mexicans in town, that's hard to believe. They think Republicans will build factories in this little dying town, although it hasn't happened before.
So they won't go to work, they won't go to school. You'd think they'd have time to ponder the election deeply. Here's what they've told me so far. Hillary Clinton will take away their guns. The fact that that's impossible doesn't faze them. That's all they care about. All they worry about. Politics and their lives are all about guns.
So they won't go to work, they won't go to school. You'd think they'd have time to ponder the election deeply. Here's what they've told me so far. Hillary Clinton will take away their guns. The fact that that's impossible doesn't faze them. That's all they care about. All they worry about. Politics and their lives are all about guns.
15
I live in a similar town. The young people that do get an education, leave and rarely return. The population are drawing at straws and hoping to return to a time when you could get a decent job without too much effort. But now there is global competition and a need for technical training which employers used to provide but don't anymore. They complain that immigrants are taking their jobs, but they don't personally know any. They never hold the employers responsible for any of this and most of them descended from immigrants themselves. It's a toxic mix.
His racial hatreds and misogyny are not cited as positives when people explain why they want to vote for Trump. These things are not okay to them. They think he's going to change things without having shown any ability yet, to hold the office. Even his greatness as a businessman seems to be more borrowing money, setting problems aside, finagling taxes. So, here's the real problem. Membership in the back-room club is exclusive, exceedingly so, and not in the least diverse. People think their candidate will stop the Democrats from controlling the White House for another four years. And though they want to vote, they want to negate the meaning of the vote by envisioning America run by a junta of Republicans with whom Trump hasn't feuded.
1
I've been wondering if there was Life after Trump for The Media. Will they remember how to cover news that goes beyond sensational high school gossip & daily popularity assessments? If they're lucky, Clinton will win the Presidency & lose the Legislature, so there'll be plenty of nasty partisanship about the Supreme Court and every other appointment. But what if the Dems win the House, and something of substance actually happens? Climate Change, infrastructure, tax codes! I hope there are still reporters in the field who can tell about such things intelligently.
3
Trump like Bernie Sanders, will go back to his day job, and the deplorable's will have to as they, say shift for themselves. The GOP is so fractured they have no bench strength. Corporate America has a good tax set up under the Democrats, and intend to keep it that way. TPP will offer another massive inexpensive labor pool for profits. We still manage a consumption dependent economy, even now with oil exports. Prices have to remain affordable as people earn less. Long live WaL Mart.
1
Like many rational, articulate, well informed Republicans bemoaning the demise of their party, all Mr. Wehner need do is realize that the Democratic Party is home to his ideas. Aside from recent accommodations to Bernie Sanders voters (priorities that will wither by February), the moderate and pragmatic Clinton agenda aligns with his own, and that is not a bad thing for the Country he loves.
Alas, your analysis is incomplete. Moral and intellectual vacuity of republicans is vast - and rooted to factors other than those you describe.
Let's start with the selling of the republican soul to the religious right; it is neither religious, nor right. Go ahead, get into bed with people who want to stop math, education, reason, racial equality. Into bed with people all too frequently caught in financial scandals, pot full of meth, and young people in bed. Never mind the far right fringes (alt right) now gone mainstream that you have courted.
Let's talk of the notion that republicans embody; i.e., they are entitled to rule (you touch on this a little bit, but not sufficiently). If they are not in power, they will criminalize being black, being democratic, being woman. And instead of playing ball, sit on the ball until ALL umpires are those that they selected. Call it for what it is.
The talk of personal responsibility, fiscal discipline, fiscal conservatism is just talk. Republicans rule like fiscal liberals (it was Reagan and Bush I and II that ran up the debt and deficit). There is no real world analog to your ideology. Goldwater loved every water program, Thune loves every farm program, Dole loved every ethanol program (while riding around in an ADM jet). You want fiscal discipline for others, not for yourself.
It is the basic moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the republican party, and its grand pooh bahs, that is the problem. Deal with it.
Kalidan
Let's start with the selling of the republican soul to the religious right; it is neither religious, nor right. Go ahead, get into bed with people who want to stop math, education, reason, racial equality. Into bed with people all too frequently caught in financial scandals, pot full of meth, and young people in bed. Never mind the far right fringes (alt right) now gone mainstream that you have courted.
Let's talk of the notion that republicans embody; i.e., they are entitled to rule (you touch on this a little bit, but not sufficiently). If they are not in power, they will criminalize being black, being democratic, being woman. And instead of playing ball, sit on the ball until ALL umpires are those that they selected. Call it for what it is.
The talk of personal responsibility, fiscal discipline, fiscal conservatism is just talk. Republicans rule like fiscal liberals (it was Reagan and Bush I and II that ran up the debt and deficit). There is no real world analog to your ideology. Goldwater loved every water program, Thune loves every farm program, Dole loved every ethanol program (while riding around in an ADM jet). You want fiscal discipline for others, not for yourself.
It is the basic moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the republican party, and its grand pooh bahs, that is the problem. Deal with it.
Kalidan
1
Many of the GOP's strongest adherents live in an alternate universe of beliefs and ideas, which precludes reconciliation with our nation's best interests. The Republican Party's race baiting, vilification of the other, unwillingness to adapt to modernity and call for a return to yesteryear are signs that that Party will does not have a bright future.
1
Kudos for trying, Peter. For a fuller look at American anti-intellectualism, read Susan Jacoby. Ditch Margaret Thatcher--you may prefer to win the heart of the argument and not just the shouting match, Brexit-style. Study Kellyanne Conway, Kayleigh McEnany, Scottie Nell, Lewendowski, Trump Jnr., and a host of other Trump surrogates. They’ve learned to repeat their lessons so well they might be circus performers. We want honesty in debate not just Luntz-inspired, Barron-honed “winning.”
Analyze the frustration that drives many into the Trump camp and ask when worry becomes paranoia. Ask why we have over 1,000 documented hate groups. Ask just how well you understand the major forces that are shaping the world of trans-national mega-corporations, of the “financial services sector,” of the conversion of capital into monopoly money that spins on a wheel making more and more money with fewer and fewer jobs. Don’t look to bigots for answers.
Analyze the frustration that drives many into the Trump camp and ask when worry becomes paranoia. Ask why we have over 1,000 documented hate groups. Ask just how well you understand the major forces that are shaping the world of trans-national mega-corporations, of the “financial services sector,” of the conversion of capital into monopoly money that spins on a wheel making more and more money with fewer and fewer jobs. Don’t look to bigots for answers.
3
I would love to have seen this published in the Wall Street Journal, where it would have a better chance of reaching the audience that really needs to hear it.
I also would love to see the author confront the way other prominent republicans are, at this moment, doubling down on these dangerous tendencies - for example, proclaiming they will never confirm another Supreme Court justice. That is reckless politics indeed, and it's not coming from Trump.
I also would love to see the author confront the way other prominent republicans are, at this moment, doubling down on these dangerous tendencies - for example, proclaiming they will never confirm another Supreme Court justice. That is reckless politics indeed, and it's not coming from Trump.
2
"But if these forces are not defeated, what happened this year will be replicated in one form or another, and the Republican Party will continue to inflict great harm on our republic."
Republicans of good will need to leave the party to Trump and his toadies (Ryan, Cruz) and start over again.
Republicans of good will need to leave the party to Trump and his toadies (Ryan, Cruz) and start over again.
4
Excellent article. If the republicans want to spend the next four years being obstructionist and "getting even" they will lose all credibility, they may even destroy the parties viability. Similarly, Hillary needs to lose her bunker mentality, reach out to moderate republicans, and become the president of the people, not just the movers and shakers. A daunting task for both sides.
2
"That worries me a great deal more, because I love my country far more than I love my party"
Mr. Wehner, in 1980 your sentiments represented the majority of Republicans. Now, you are a small faction. I have to ask, were the tax cuts really worth it?
Mr. Wehner, in 1980 your sentiments represented the majority of Republicans. Now, you are a small faction. I have to ask, were the tax cuts really worth it?
7
In other words, the worst is yet to come. The notion that political polarization and hateful divisiveness in society couldn't get any worse is just wishful thinking. Looking at Obama, with his brilliance and talent to inspire, makes me wonder whether any leader can emerge who could convince Americans to coalesce around our common strengths.
3
Paraphrasing a famous thinker, a ghost is haunting the less educated folks of rural areas—the ghost of democracy. All the powers of old FOK Brothers and their extreme right-wing allies have entered into a holy alliance, together with FOK News, to exorcise this evil spirit. Mediocre Trumpism, they hope, will triumph tomorrow over this terrifying scenario that should have remained in Dante’s realm of Inferno or the biblical Armageddon. Although tomorrow night, after the results, these folks would have the opportunity of re-enacting Massada it would be preferable that they face reality and protect and defend the Constitution that they so often cite, but hardly understand.
2
Mr. Wehner you write the Republican Party in the early 1980s had become a party of ideas, of governing experiment. Unfortunately we now know that experiment failed about 99% of us. It wasn't much more than a big tax cut to the wealthy disguised in flag waving and the social issue du jour (abortion, gay marriage etc). It contained the seeds of its own failure.
I am not sure your remedies are even possible in the GOP anymore. But I do appreciate hearing a Republican putting country first.
I am not sure your remedies are even possible in the GOP anymore. But I do appreciate hearing a Republican putting country first.
5
Mr Wehner continues to believe there is a republican party to save. Trump IS the republican party now. There is no returning to the days of yore. Any attempt to create a third party will only make Trump's party viable for decades to come, since it clearly represents a third of our electorate. It is time for moderate republicans to join the democratic party and push Trumpism to the ash heap of history. Anything else will only serve to prolong this nightmare.
6
I trace the rot back a little farther, to the the point where Republicans quit believing in government and determined instead to eliminate it.
The idea people of those heady Reagan years observed that it's hard to kill a program that runs well. So they concluded that step 1 is to discredit it. The easiest way to make an agency look hapless is to starve it. Defunding reduces the apparent IQ of any manager by a good 20 points. Think Amtrak or NASA.
To make assurance double sure, put less-than-competent managers in charge. Think FEMA under either Bush administration.
Call it the 4D strategy: Defund. Deprofessionalize. Discredit. Dismantle.
Say what you will about Mister Bush, you could always take him exactly at his word. Brownie did indeed do "a heck of a job," if we'd stopped to realize just what job that was.
The idea people of those heady Reagan years observed that it's hard to kill a program that runs well. So they concluded that step 1 is to discredit it. The easiest way to make an agency look hapless is to starve it. Defunding reduces the apparent IQ of any manager by a good 20 points. Think Amtrak or NASA.
To make assurance double sure, put less-than-competent managers in charge. Think FEMA under either Bush administration.
Call it the 4D strategy: Defund. Deprofessionalize. Discredit. Dismantle.
Say what you will about Mister Bush, you could always take him exactly at his word. Brownie did indeed do "a heck of a job," if we'd stopped to realize just what job that was.
9
The Republicans never quit believing in power: "government" -- was only the story they sold the fools.
There is always power, and they want it, but cannot get it democratically. So they've shifted toward fascist overthrow.
There is always power, and they want it, but cannot get it democratically. So they've shifted toward fascist overthrow.
The number of people who support useless cardboard political candidates like Trumpty Dumpty will decrease in the future only if (A) these people wise up and stop supporting the Self-Righteous GOP until it fixes itself with ample doses of Humility (this will take decades), and (B) these people literally wise up and strive to educate themselves, not only on the issues, but also on Life.
But that won't happen.
But that won't happen.
4
Mr. Wehner needs to add a big one to his incomplete list of Republican conspiracy theories: climate change denial. Until Republicans start recognize that the climate is warming due to greenhouse gas emissions and that inaction dooms humanity, their grip on reality will be tenuous and they will be unworthy of votes. Birtherism is not the only way that Republicans ignore objective reality.
8
The specter of Barry Goldwater haunts the GOP. Goldwater’s stance against the Civil Rights Act forged an alliance of anti-regulation money and the undereducated ultra-nationalist, fundamentalist, and racist white male. Solidified by Nixon’s Southern Strategy, the GOP transformed LBJ’s Southern Democrats into Republicans. Heedless of promises to working class voter,s the elites profited. The Democrats, hardly less beholden to big money, championed the interests of the disenfranchised at the expense of the white lower middle class. The markets rose and the privileged maintained and expanded capital. The GOP, with only lip service opposition from the Democrats, maintained a grip on the economic agenda, thinking they could keep their Tea Party polite. And then we elected and re-elected a Black president with a Muslim name and the pawns of the GOP lost it and rebelled.
What turns white conservatives reactionary? A perception too many non whites are getting a piece of their pie. This is Trump's base. What makes religious conservatives reactionary? The sanctioned transgression of enfranchised gays, uppity women, and gender benders coming out of the shadows. Cruz country. Trump and Cruz supporters share "us violated by them". They chose Trump, the bigger bully, who encouraged impotent whites to share his narcissistic desire to tower. They're going to get screwed again.
What turns white conservatives reactionary? A perception too many non whites are getting a piece of their pie. This is Trump's base. What makes religious conservatives reactionary? The sanctioned transgression of enfranchised gays, uppity women, and gender benders coming out of the shadows. Cruz country. Trump and Cruz supporters share "us violated by them". They chose Trump, the bigger bully, who encouraged impotent whites to share his narcissistic desire to tower. They're going to get screwed again.
10
Many years ago I voted Republican. I became an independent when I could no longer tolerate the party's pandering to racism and ignorance. The elevation to Trump to the head of the ticket has been an on going process for more than 30 years. I felt certain many years ago that anyone with an education or thoughtfulness would eventually have to abandon the Republican Party. It has taken a much longer time than I thought, but the day seems to have finally arrived. The author expresses my feelings 30 years too late.
7
The article makes many good points, but I would like to add one more. I believe the Democratic party is also responsible for the rise of Trump. It has been well documented that many Trump supporters are not considered traditional Republicans, but rather many are traditionally Democratic voters of blue collar, working class Americans who feel their government and President has abandoned them. They feel they have gotten short changed by NAFTA, illegal immigration, excess regulations, etc. and feel the government (Democrat and Republican) is not paying attention to their interests. I think ignoring the momentum behind Trump by trying to completely stifle it is going to embolden further the populist movement that catapulted Trump and to some extent Bernie Sanders to the national political stage, much to the astonishment of Democratic and Republican political elites alike.
27
For a party that talks about morality, character, family and Christian values, all I've seen from them is a penchant for sidling up to some pretty unsavory characters they feel they must tango with in order to win elections, or at least defeat the enemy, which appear to be Democrats.
I think the first step in healing the GOP might be to deprogram them fro seeming to literally consider Democrats to be as much an enemy as ISIS, or Russia during the Cold War. It is startling the bellicosity and venom they have toward Democrats. Gingrich, of course, began this brainwashing, but it has taken hold. Every Democrat that either is president now or is on the verge of becoming president has been met with promises of impeachment once in office, from this party which, when GWB was president, told us we must all blindly support the president or it meant we hated America, hated the troops, loved Saddam and the terrorists, didn't get 9/11, etc. (more of that brainwashing). They spent $70 million to try to undo Bill Clinton's legal election; they began talking of impeachment before Obama was even elected; and here we are again. The GOP has become anti-democratic; it will not, and cannot, accept the elections of Democrats to the presidency, promising agenda of impeachment/removal, or of making sure the Dem is a one-term president....I don't know, Mr. Wehner. I think the GOP's disease has metastasized to stage 4. At this point, it's a snake consuming itself.
I think the first step in healing the GOP might be to deprogram them fro seeming to literally consider Democrats to be as much an enemy as ISIS, or Russia during the Cold War. It is startling the bellicosity and venom they have toward Democrats. Gingrich, of course, began this brainwashing, but it has taken hold. Every Democrat that either is president now or is on the verge of becoming president has been met with promises of impeachment once in office, from this party which, when GWB was president, told us we must all blindly support the president or it meant we hated America, hated the troops, loved Saddam and the terrorists, didn't get 9/11, etc. (more of that brainwashing). They spent $70 million to try to undo Bill Clinton's legal election; they began talking of impeachment before Obama was even elected; and here we are again. The GOP has become anti-democratic; it will not, and cannot, accept the elections of Democrats to the presidency, promising agenda of impeachment/removal, or of making sure the Dem is a one-term president....I don't know, Mr. Wehner. I think the GOP's disease has metastasized to stage 4. At this point, it's a snake consuming itself.
2
I'd like to give Mr. Wehner credit for some degree of self-examination -- but this is frankly more of a cover-up. His notion that the problems he is concerned with began somewhere in the last decade is wildly wrong. They have been growing parts of Republicanism for years.
Anti-intellectualism was a noticeable force in Republicanism much earlier than Wehner acknowledges (think of Agnew, and the need to weaken arguments against Reagan), but also it has grown to be a far more profound problem than Wehner acknowledges. Many Republicans see public schools and universities as a major part of their problems.
Political recklessness -- Wehner seems to have completely forgotten the Gingrich years.
Nativism and xenophobia. This list conveniently leaves out racism. What was the "Southern Strategy" about? Doe Mr. Wehner not know that for many people "conservative values" is in part code for racism and xenophobia? He may not endorse those meanings himself, but can he really be unaware that that's what many people hear when Republicans use that slogan?
Anti-intellectualism was a noticeable force in Republicanism much earlier than Wehner acknowledges (think of Agnew, and the need to weaken arguments against Reagan), but also it has grown to be a far more profound problem than Wehner acknowledges. Many Republicans see public schools and universities as a major part of their problems.
Political recklessness -- Wehner seems to have completely forgotten the Gingrich years.
Nativism and xenophobia. This list conveniently leaves out racism. What was the "Southern Strategy" about? Doe Mr. Wehner not know that for many people "conservative values" is in part code for racism and xenophobia? He may not endorse those meanings himself, but can he really be unaware that that's what many people hear when Republicans use that slogan?
1
Dear Peter,
Why does not your column exhort Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday?
Given the choice I think Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan would all join George H.W. Bush in voting for Hillary Clinton this year.
The people of the United States deserve a functioning federal government with their elected officials performing their roles in full compliance with their sworn oaths of office, providing funding for the execution of the federal government's lawful responsibilities, fully staffing federal judicial positions and ambassadorships, and respecting the voting choices of the majority of ALL Americans regardless of their race, color, creed, gender, or sexual preference.
Why does not your column exhort Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday?
Given the choice I think Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan would all join George H.W. Bush in voting for Hillary Clinton this year.
The people of the United States deserve a functioning federal government with their elected officials performing their roles in full compliance with their sworn oaths of office, providing funding for the execution of the federal government's lawful responsibilities, fully staffing federal judicial positions and ambassadorships, and respecting the voting choices of the majority of ALL Americans regardless of their race, color, creed, gender, or sexual preference.
1
I think that the change in the Republican party is permanent. There will be another Trump. The next one will be much more knowledgable. He will also have a much cleaner background. There will not be multiple divorces, bankruptcies and lawsuits. He will proudly release his tax returns. There will be no recordings of lewd remarks. He will probably be a veteran and go to church. But his philosophy will be the same as Trump's.
2
To become a credible political party once again, the GOP must take concrete action to demonstrate that it actually can. First, it must totally reject the fringe Tea Party minority that has hijacked the party and made compromise a four letter word. Second, it must demonstrate that its party members can actually govern and reject simply being the party of "no." These actions will certainly mean losing support from within and will likely mean losing seats in the short term. Rebuilding credibility takes time and comes with a price.
2
Not necessarily. As it is likely that the Republicans will retain control of the House; a majority centrist coalition with like minded or at least pragmatic Democrats could be formed.
Safe from primary challenges for the next two years, the coalition would have the requisite votes to enact legislation reached through compromise thereby breaking the current gridlock.
The Democrats under a likely President Clinton would participate so that their platform would not be completely stymied and moderate Republicans would be able to both free themselves from the tyranny of extremism and temper policies straying too far to the left.
In a perfect world, a grateful electorate would then reward those choosing to govern rather than obstuct and consign the malefactors to the ignominy they so richly deserve.
Safe from primary challenges for the next two years, the coalition would have the requisite votes to enact legislation reached through compromise thereby breaking the current gridlock.
The Democrats under a likely President Clinton would participate so that their platform would not be completely stymied and moderate Republicans would be able to both free themselves from the tyranny of extremism and temper policies straying too far to the left.
In a perfect world, a grateful electorate would then reward those choosing to govern rather than obstuct and consign the malefactors to the ignominy they so richly deserve.
A principled Republican from the mold of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bush Sr. and Jr. would not vote for Donald Trump under any set of circumstances.
A draft-dodging coward, a crotch-groping and tongue-thrusting misogynist, a racist that warms the cockles of the hearts of white sheet and pointy hat wearers, a foul-mouthed adulterer...any one of these would have summarily and abruptly stricken this man from consideration in years past. Yet the likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, even Ted Cruz, whose wife was pointedly insulted by Mr. Trump, have abandoned any pretense to principle and have voted, or will tomorrow, for Donald Trump.
A genuine conservative in the Republican Party has become as rare as a white buffalo, a beast revered by the true natives of this land. The last one born in Texas was shot while still but a calf. By a white man. I can guarantee you this: that shooter supports Donald Trump. Welcome to the new Repulsivecan Party, Mr. Wehner.
A draft-dodging coward, a crotch-groping and tongue-thrusting misogynist, a racist that warms the cockles of the hearts of white sheet and pointy hat wearers, a foul-mouthed adulterer...any one of these would have summarily and abruptly stricken this man from consideration in years past. Yet the likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, even Ted Cruz, whose wife was pointedly insulted by Mr. Trump, have abandoned any pretense to principle and have voted, or will tomorrow, for Donald Trump.
A genuine conservative in the Republican Party has become as rare as a white buffalo, a beast revered by the true natives of this land. The last one born in Texas was shot while still but a calf. By a white man. I can guarantee you this: that shooter supports Donald Trump. Welcome to the new Repulsivecan Party, Mr. Wehner.
1
Regarding the claim of "nativism": How it is an "ugly force" in politics when people want their government to represent the governed, i.e., its citizens, and not people who have broken the duly-passed laws of its government?
It would be foolish to write off Trump's nomination as solely attributable to his bigly personality. He is but an unattractive vessel in the US for a gathering nativist, anti-globalist, anti-capitalist movement the world over. Bernie Sanders was a much a product of this phenomenon as Donald Trump. And neither were a product of their respective party establishments.
All this soul searching is a bit rich. Is the author actually just bemoaning the loss of party control by its apparatchiks? I mean, the Democrats didn't lose control of their party, and allow an upstart socialist to usurp their chosen one. Seems Mr. Wehner has political operative envy. Something like afflicted Stalin when he saw how effectively Hitler was able to quell internal divisiveness. Which led to his many purges.
Wehner obviously doesn't get it, but it's political apparatchiks like him who, among other things, both Trump and Sanders supporters were rallying against. And even if Trump loses, the impulse won't go away. So it might do well for him to ally with the New York Times as he's done here. Eventually, it will be the people against the parties and their media enablers. And the next demagogue that arises to lead the people won't likely be as nice as Mr. Trump.
It would be foolish to write off Trump's nomination as solely attributable to his bigly personality. He is but an unattractive vessel in the US for a gathering nativist, anti-globalist, anti-capitalist movement the world over. Bernie Sanders was a much a product of this phenomenon as Donald Trump. And neither were a product of their respective party establishments.
All this soul searching is a bit rich. Is the author actually just bemoaning the loss of party control by its apparatchiks? I mean, the Democrats didn't lose control of their party, and allow an upstart socialist to usurp their chosen one. Seems Mr. Wehner has political operative envy. Something like afflicted Stalin when he saw how effectively Hitler was able to quell internal divisiveness. Which led to his many purges.
Wehner obviously doesn't get it, but it's political apparatchiks like him who, among other things, both Trump and Sanders supporters were rallying against. And even if Trump loses, the impulse won't go away. So it might do well for him to ally with the New York Times as he's done here. Eventually, it will be the people against the parties and their media enablers. And the next demagogue that arises to lead the people won't likely be as nice as Mr. Trump.
Quote ; '' One of the appealing things to me about the Republican Party in the early 1980s, as a young conservative, was that it had become a party of ideas, of governing experiment- ''
Aye, and the American people were the guinea pigs in that experiment. ( with disastrous results )
Trickle down economics have destroyed the middle and lower classes. Culture wars have drove a wedge between many groups within society Trying to drown government in a bathtub for thirty plus years has left it gridlocked. ( Especially when republicans are out of power and treat Democrats as not legitimate )
There is plenty more I could accuse conservatism of doing, but the end result is Mr. Trump as your candidate and your downfall as major party, never to hold the Presidency ever again.
Aye, and the American people were the guinea pigs in that experiment. ( with disastrous results )
Trickle down economics have destroyed the middle and lower classes. Culture wars have drove a wedge between many groups within society Trying to drown government in a bathtub for thirty plus years has left it gridlocked. ( Especially when republicans are out of power and treat Democrats as not legitimate )
There is plenty more I could accuse conservatism of doing, but the end result is Mr. Trump as your candidate and your downfall as major party, never to hold the Presidency ever again.
4
Yes. "Greed is good" is hardly a good foundation for good ideas and governance.
1
I'll admit, I've become so absorbed with my hate for trump that there will be a hole in my psyche on Nov 9th - but I'll live. The Republican party in its current form will not. By allowing the nomination and rise of trump, they have inflicted a post war Germany size mortal wound that at best will split the party in half for at least a decade. Their cadre of young, rising stars who have national appeal wasn't deep to begin with (Ryan, Kasich, Rubio), but by backing trump they have now all been exposed as immoral, self serving politicians who stand for nothing but re-election. Oh, and their key demographics have been trending in the wrong direction for a long time.
It will be fascinating to see what trump does after the election if, God willing, he loses. He's such an ignorant, arrogant fool that it seems unlikely he'll accept defeat even though the blame for his loss belongs squarely at his feet. The FBI closed the email nonsense - again, the polls show a 4 pt. national lead for Clinton, the Philly transit strike is over, the election day weather forecast is good and most importantly minority voters are turning out in Florida and Nevada in record number...trump might be in trouble.
It will be fascinating to see what trump does after the election if, God willing, he loses. He's such an ignorant, arrogant fool that it seems unlikely he'll accept defeat even though the blame for his loss belongs squarely at his feet. The FBI closed the email nonsense - again, the polls show a 4 pt. national lead for Clinton, the Philly transit strike is over, the election day weather forecast is good and most importantly minority voters are turning out in Florida and Nevada in record number...trump might be in trouble.
1
Get ye to the polls young Scott! NC can still go democratic at the top for Hill, off that gas bag McCrory AND help flip the Senate! Whatever your Tobacco Road flavor GO and GO BIG! We're rooting for you.
A temerarious Trump continues to chug along, propagating his quixotic ideas, and offering a pollyannaish propositions to end the nation's economic, foreign, monetary, and other similar maladies. So far, he has lured quite a large number of gullible voters into believing he is the true messiah of hope. Voters need to be circumspect about what to believe, and what to discard as a whole bunch of bunkum. His malice towards a lot of individuals, treading on his path, has caused a lot of malaise.
Hillary's travails travel with her wherever she goes. Clinton foundation, and email straits are some of the low hanging fruits for the Trump camp to assail. But then, her temperament is less loathsome than Trump's. Trump's grandiosities, such as building a wall near Mexico, and bringing back the jobs from China and Mexico, seem like lip services. If a less hated person is let go, it may be a like a proverbial slip between the cup and the lip.
His wife, Melania's words about Trump being a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather, and a good human being, are listened to by many with knitted eye brows. He creates quite a foofaraw, wherever he goes, and whatever he talks about. The ruckus he creates in his listeners seems quite ominous. The groups that endorse him can be potential trouble makers themselves. Something has to be done to curb this malignancy,
Hillary's travails travel with her wherever she goes. Clinton foundation, and email straits are some of the low hanging fruits for the Trump camp to assail. But then, her temperament is less loathsome than Trump's. Trump's grandiosities, such as building a wall near Mexico, and bringing back the jobs from China and Mexico, seem like lip services. If a less hated person is let go, it may be a like a proverbial slip between the cup and the lip.
His wife, Melania's words about Trump being a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather, and a good human being, are listened to by many with knitted eye brows. He creates quite a foofaraw, wherever he goes, and whatever he talks about. The ruckus he creates in his listeners seems quite ominous. The groups that endorse him can be potential trouble makers themselves. Something has to be done to curb this malignancy,
Republicans have pretended for years that their principles were based on small government and free trade and family values, all while appealing to a base electorate motivated by fear and bigotry. Well, the wolf concealed in sheep's clothing has been fully unmasked in the persons of Donald Trump and Chris Christie. A return to decency would be welcome.
2
It would be nice if the republican congress put their hate aside and decided to work for the people of our country, but I do not see that happening. They will continue to do investigations into nothing issues like Benghazi, emails, foundations and will ignore the business they were hired to do. They have had at least 4 months off this year - who gets paid full time for that? They are already saying they wont confirm any of Hillary's Supreme Court picks, so if she has two terms will we be down to the 4 republican justices? If you have any influence with republican leadership, tell them to start being leaders for the good, not the evil. We need budgets, immigration legislation, climate change and environmental fixes, infrastructure; just about everything that the republican congress has put on the back burner since Obama was elected but really since Bill Clinton was first elected. We need them to start earning their pay. We also need to get rid of gerrymandering so we can have candidates who are worthy of all of the people, not just the special interests.
2
This is not a decision point for the Republican Party. Instead Trump or Sanders populists ( or whatever we want to label them ) have to realize first that the 2 party system is stacked against them, second that the 2 party system is here to stay, and third that in order to get your voice heard reliance upon one party in that 2 party system is more likely to mean you get nothing. What this means is that in some regions of the country or within a state, Tea Partiers are Democrats while in other regions they are Republicans. It makes no sense when you view it through a ideological lens. But at least these populists ( both liberal and conservative ) will get something. It is simply how the 2 party system works. It is messy, makes no sense, but it works when you accept it.
Eventually, African American and Hispanic citizens will also realize how to use the 2 party system. They are no different from white blue collar voters. Only in America!!
Eventually, African American and Hispanic citizens will also realize how to use the 2 party system. They are no different from white blue collar voters. Only in America!!
Mr Werner, I lost faith in the party in which I was raised when Republicans I know (and there are many) began opening tying comments about politics in America to less-than-awesome comments about race in general and President Obama in particular. We all have a lot to answer for, I know, when the race issue comes up, but it was a melancholy moment indeed when I was forced to realize just what my Republican friends were saying. Chickens always come home to roost, sooner or later. We may be getting the culture we deserve.
1
From a distance, the media helped Trump get the GOP nomination. Then the media discovered that Trump was deeply flawed and tried to tear him down. This man has so many faults that all should have seen that he was and remains unqualified for office. The NYT is certainly not the worst offender among the media, but it should have exposed Trump's problems earlier. I hope that President Clinton will empower the FCC to reestablish the "fairness doctrine" in the electronic media. This is needed to forstall a future Trump clone.
1
Mr Wehner, I have additional questions for the Republican leadership and Republican constituents. Assume that Hillary Clinton wins the election. Do Republicans believe that the act of winning the presidency confers legitimacy upon Clinton's leadership? Is she entitled to nominate candidates for the Supreme Court, whom Senators can consider and then vote for or against depending on that person's qualifications? Can she expect to begin work with Congress with an attempt at good will and comity on all sides, as all of them are there through the action of the people?
I would be very interested to know your views on this.
I would be very interested to know your views on this.
1
I am skeptical, as I was after the past two elections, that the Republican Party will reflect, pivot to substance/ideas or change much at all. If Hillary wins, they will again obstruct (they have said exactly that), and attack in the next race. They refused to work with Obama for the better of the country, why should we expect anything different (even if the next president is white)? The party will only reform when it loses completely and devastatingly in both houses as well and a new party is re-born. I am not holding my breath.
2
How can you be so obtuse?
Your quaint notion of conservative ideas and their importance went out the window with the bath water a long, long time ago. Your party cast its lot with the .1% almost two generations ago. Their evisceration of the nation's middle classes came at no political, economic, or most importantly, judicial cost them and their families. They created the Trump supporter, who frankly is just looking for a living wage job and some hope in their lives.
The steady drumbeat of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has been nothing short of an assault on our democratic institutions. The gerrymandering of enough House seats to create an artificial Republican majority nothing short of a coup d'etat.
Your handringing over your party's future simply ignores the poltical facts of the last forty years.
But let's be clear, the .1% don't just use the Republican party for their own ends. The Democrats are at fault too, although perhaps only slightly less so. They are the ones who repealed Glass Steagall and then looked the other way as the Wall Street Master of the Universe committed literally billions of dollars of thoroughly documented fraud yet weren't prosecuted. To say nothing of did no time.
It's all very well to weep for Argentina on this day before the election. But isn't it time we collectively woke up and smelled the .1%'s coffee?
After all, that's what's on the boil.
Your quaint notion of conservative ideas and their importance went out the window with the bath water a long, long time ago. Your party cast its lot with the .1% almost two generations ago. Their evisceration of the nation's middle classes came at no political, economic, or most importantly, judicial cost them and their families. They created the Trump supporter, who frankly is just looking for a living wage job and some hope in their lives.
The steady drumbeat of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has been nothing short of an assault on our democratic institutions. The gerrymandering of enough House seats to create an artificial Republican majority nothing short of a coup d'etat.
Your handringing over your party's future simply ignores the poltical facts of the last forty years.
But let's be clear, the .1% don't just use the Republican party for their own ends. The Democrats are at fault too, although perhaps only slightly less so. They are the ones who repealed Glass Steagall and then looked the other way as the Wall Street Master of the Universe committed literally billions of dollars of thoroughly documented fraud yet weren't prosecuted. To say nothing of did no time.
It's all very well to weep for Argentina on this day before the election. But isn't it time we collectively woke up and smelled the .1%'s coffee?
After all, that's what's on the boil.
2
The author writes: "One of the appealing things to me about the Republican Party in the early 1980s, as a young conservative, was that it had become a party of ideas, of governing experiment." I remember vividly that era: returning to college in 1980, watching younger students stand up at the beginning of the semester and demanding to know if the professor was planning to use Socialism to teach art history... then storming out of the auditorium. In short, Republicans stormed out of the auditorium of public discussion when they decided "the government is the problem." Some governing experiment.
5
Amen to the man from Missouri. At least there is someone else in the state who has not drunk the Kool-Aid.
Adding to other comments re the post Trump world (hopefully), one other thing that will not go away is the vast, very well funded propaganda machine of the right and far right that has produced the Cult of Trump by disseminating lies to his cult members. Given the unswerving allegiance to Trump that I have observed in a very small set of family and other acquaintances, I believe that it fair to characterize them as a cult. What becomes of the cult if the great leader does not succeed? Hopefully, we shall find out - but it may not be pleasant.
1
Trump have been playing all the time, and many people ended believing that elections are a game. Boast to find loopholes to avoid paying taxes may be considered business ability. Making fun of others, can also be taken as a joke. Bragging about what he does to women due to its fame, is an act of arrogance. Underestimate a mother’s hero is despicable. These can be considered personality traits of a candidate, so for many people, these facts may seem fun or irrelevant, and therefore they don’t bother about those details.
Not paying taxes, when you have high income, is another kind of issue that should draw the attention of everyone (we are talking about USA). The fact that someone who does not pay taxes, hides his taxable income and boasts of doing so, can get so far as presidential candidate is amazing. In the best case, he is being dishonest with all those who do pay their taxes, and those who live for a salary depending on them (army, veterans, lawmakers, White House's security personnel, etc).
The problem is we are talking about the election of the US President (nothing more nor less) and americans should not vote for the best television showman of the world. Can you imagine Hillary starring a reality show?
For the last, the game became too boring, stressful and (definitely) too risky.
Not paying taxes, when you have high income, is another kind of issue that should draw the attention of everyone (we are talking about USA). The fact that someone who does not pay taxes, hides his taxable income and boasts of doing so, can get so far as presidential candidate is amazing. In the best case, he is being dishonest with all those who do pay their taxes, and those who live for a salary depending on them (army, veterans, lawmakers, White House's security personnel, etc).
The problem is we are talking about the election of the US President (nothing more nor less) and americans should not vote for the best television showman of the world. Can you imagine Hillary starring a reality show?
For the last, the game became too boring, stressful and (definitely) too risky.
2
What a great piece! I have been a left leaning democrat for life and miss a reasonable counter point on the right. We have lost the ability to reach consensus because our leaders have stopped trying to reach it but only to "win". Win what? We all lose when there is no effort to come to consensus.
I blame, in part, that we have blunted ourselves with too much reality TV ( which is far from real) and social media where just about anything goes. We argue instead of discuss. We don't think, we only react. We don't respect, we only demonize what is different. The leaders show us the way. They show us how to do it well or badly. We have been badly led. Obama tried to show us the high ground but he was drowned out by those who could not stand to see him in the White House.
Now we are an unruly crowd of angry people who can't imagine what consensus even is.
I blame, in part, that we have blunted ourselves with too much reality TV ( which is far from real) and social media where just about anything goes. We argue instead of discuss. We don't think, we only react. We don't respect, we only demonize what is different. The leaders show us the way. They show us how to do it well or badly. We have been badly led. Obama tried to show us the high ground but he was drowned out by those who could not stand to see him in the White House.
Now we are an unruly crowd of angry people who can't imagine what consensus even is.
72
The Democratic Party has equally been corrupted by rabid liberals, who regard everyone else not sharing their opinion with the same contempt the right wing of the Republican party does with those not sharing their views.
What we fail to consider is that Hillary AND Trump are viewed very unfavorably by roughly half of the voters identifying with their respective own party. This is particularly remarkable, as roughly 40% of voters identify as independent, and thus most likely centrist, because they feel that they cannot fit readily into the box built by either party. If we now add those Democratic or Republican voters who view their respective candidates unfavorably to that block then we end up with roughly 60% of voters who would likely vote for a moderate center candidate, if such a party existed.
Time to change that! We need a party in the middle that is governed by logic, reasoning and integration/compromise, not surreal choices that are determined by the lunatic fringe.
What we fail to consider is that Hillary AND Trump are viewed very unfavorably by roughly half of the voters identifying with their respective own party. This is particularly remarkable, as roughly 40% of voters identify as independent, and thus most likely centrist, because they feel that they cannot fit readily into the box built by either party. If we now add those Democratic or Republican voters who view their respective candidates unfavorably to that block then we end up with roughly 60% of voters who would likely vote for a moderate center candidate, if such a party existed.
Time to change that! We need a party in the middle that is governed by logic, reasoning and integration/compromise, not surreal choices that are determined by the lunatic fringe.
21
Yes to the notion of more than the existing two parties.
But a huge NO to the ongoing sham of false equivalency that you wallow in.
Who exactly is the "we" that you refer to?? If it's based on the lie of "equal guilt" then I want no part of it.
And you can just stay on the Orient Express while Americans of conscience attempt to rebuild an almost-shattered democracy.
But a huge NO to the ongoing sham of false equivalency that you wallow in.
Who exactly is the "we" that you refer to?? If it's based on the lie of "equal guilt" then I want no part of it.
And you can just stay on the Orient Express while Americans of conscience attempt to rebuild an almost-shattered democracy.
Dude, your simple theories don't hold up. I view Clinton negatively for a whole host of reasons and I enthusiastically voted for her. Go figure.
It's a fantasy to believe the Republican party, that repeatedly argued for the debunked Supply Side economics, and that fought against evidence and science on just about any issue (climate change, evolution, war of choice, gay rights, the choice of the woman and her doctor) once was a party of ideas. For more than 50 years, it has been a party dominated by people seeking a return to the idealized white male patriarchy of the past.
108
Thank you Peter Wehner for this thoughtful article. While I agree with some of my fellow commenters that the rot set in with Reaganomics, resulting in extreme income inequality and the breakdown of the social contract that was the thing that made America great (Trumpism being a recipe for making America small and mean, among the other dangers and hatreds he offers), there is room for honest conservatism in our public conversation. It should not be equated with the despoliation, lack of compassion, and treating facts as something to be dismissed because they are inconvenient. Our earth and climate are not subject to politics, and the evidence is mounting.
I hope thoughtful Republicans will do serious soul-searching, and overcome political profiteers and operators who want to burn down the house. Looting is dangerous.
Hatred and exclusion and lies and business chicanery are not Christian either. People who think of themselves as religious should re-examine their basic texts and embrace the golden rule. Jesus the person was not at all in favor of institutionalizing rigid discrimination against women or gays, for example. He would be appalled at excluding people from his table.
Wisdom is in short supply lately. Wealthy interests and an automated system that benefits cheaters excludes it (value to shareholders does not trump preserving our beautiful and bountiful earth; endless expansion and exploitation on a finite planet will leave a toxic wasteland all too soon).
I hope thoughtful Republicans will do serious soul-searching, and overcome political profiteers and operators who want to burn down the house. Looting is dangerous.
Hatred and exclusion and lies and business chicanery are not Christian either. People who think of themselves as religious should re-examine their basic texts and embrace the golden rule. Jesus the person was not at all in favor of institutionalizing rigid discrimination against women or gays, for example. He would be appalled at excluding people from his table.
Wisdom is in short supply lately. Wealthy interests and an automated system that benefits cheaters excludes it (value to shareholders does not trump preserving our beautiful and bountiful earth; endless expansion and exploitation on a finite planet will leave a toxic wasteland all too soon).
7
Here is where confusion reigns with consetvative intellectuals: the "ideas" Ronald Reagan brought to the mainstream had bern tried and failed several times over since the dawn of industrialization. You cannot feed the economic engine witbout healthy demand for goods, not paper. For that to happen consumers need money in their pockets, and transparency regarding the risks if they decide to put that money into financial instruments. Businesses do not increase investment in their own growth just because they won some tac breaks. And for the record, Sarah Palin did not start out as a conventional governor. As mayor of Wasilla this feminist decided to charge rape victims gor the kits used to collect evidence. She was hand-picked by male intellectual consetvatives lime William Kristol because she had nice eyes.
Trump has led a riot and an insurrection manned from the dark underside of American society - the morally handicapped and the intellectually challenged.
For decades such people have responded to the dog whistles blown by Republican and conservative leaders. Trump dropped the pretense and spoke openly in clear language. His clarion call has rallied multitudes who think now is the time for them to come into the light with their racism, misogyny, xenophobia, ignorance and bigotry.
To remedy the illness that afflicts the Republican Party and reverse the destruction, Mr Wehner and his allies must first and emphatically divorce themselves from this mob of deplorables.
Next, they need to rebuild the moral and intellectual foundation of their party. They might start with some basic ideas:
-All people are created equal, and are endowed with certain unalienable rights.
-All people, have the right to equal protection under the law, and an equal opportunity to marry, to learn, to work, to live freely.
-All citizens have the right to vote, and have their votes counted.
If Mr Wehner wants to make things better, he should build a movement based on American values.
For decades such people have responded to the dog whistles blown by Republican and conservative leaders. Trump dropped the pretense and spoke openly in clear language. His clarion call has rallied multitudes who think now is the time for them to come into the light with their racism, misogyny, xenophobia, ignorance and bigotry.
To remedy the illness that afflicts the Republican Party and reverse the destruction, Mr Wehner and his allies must first and emphatically divorce themselves from this mob of deplorables.
Next, they need to rebuild the moral and intellectual foundation of their party. They might start with some basic ideas:
-All people are created equal, and are endowed with certain unalienable rights.
-All people, have the right to equal protection under the law, and an equal opportunity to marry, to learn, to work, to live freely.
-All citizens have the right to vote, and have their votes counted.
If Mr Wehner wants to make things better, he should build a movement based on American values.
1
Self-examination? It would be wonderful if that alone would suffice, but it's too little, too late. Where were the calls for honesty and decency during the rise of Limbaugh and Drudge and their ilk? Where was the call for sanity during the spectacularly hypocritical impeachment of Bill Clinton by people like Newt Gingrich? Where, after all these years, was the insistence upon actual fairness and balance on Murdoch's wing-nut TV? Trump is no accident, and anyone claiming to be a conservative intellectual could easily have seen him coming years ago, but it was oh-so convenient to scare up the fear and spittle and thereby the votes of the hoi polloi, wasn't it? And without doing that, the modern Republican party could never have succeeded in major elections with its ideology of untrammeled free markets.
The Democratic party, too, is not without blame for many failures of insight, not least with regard to our serious failures in educating our people about good citizenship. But who knows how much better off our country would be had Republicans engaged thirty ago in the reflection Mr. Wehner calls for today. One thing is as certain as anything can be; tomorrow we wouldn't be contemplating the specter of a President Trump.
The Democratic party, too, is not without blame for many failures of insight, not least with regard to our serious failures in educating our people about good citizenship. But who knows how much better off our country would be had Republicans engaged thirty ago in the reflection Mr. Wehner calls for today. One thing is as certain as anything can be; tomorrow we wouldn't be contemplating the specter of a President Trump.
I watched several episodes last night of “The Crown”, the new Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth. They were mostly about the Queen’s coming to grips with her responsibility for preserving the monarchy for the purpose of unifying and protecting her nation.
We have lost a great deal of our respect for unity and constitutional government in the past year; and the fault lies almost entirely with the Republican Party whose demonstration of incompetence, cowardice
and desertion of duty in failing to reject and oust Mr. Trump in the face of his direct attacks on our liberties, freedoms and traditions is likely to go down in history as the most abject failure of political leadership ever witnessed in this country.
Americans intending to split their ballots between Mrs. Clinton and Republican candidates for Senate and House seats in order to maintain some balance of power between them are doing themselves and this country no service.
The need this time as never before in our history is for a complete routing of one of our major political parties so as to give this still good and wonderful country some real chance of eventual recovery.
We have lost a great deal of our respect for unity and constitutional government in the past year; and the fault lies almost entirely with the Republican Party whose demonstration of incompetence, cowardice
and desertion of duty in failing to reject and oust Mr. Trump in the face of his direct attacks on our liberties, freedoms and traditions is likely to go down in history as the most abject failure of political leadership ever witnessed in this country.
Americans intending to split their ballots between Mrs. Clinton and Republican candidates for Senate and House seats in order to maintain some balance of power between them are doing themselves and this country no service.
The need this time as never before in our history is for a complete routing of one of our major political parties so as to give this still good and wonderful country some real chance of eventual recovery.
1
This thoughtful piece misses three obvious and interrelated steps if the Republican party (or some rational version of it) is to play a constructive role in our vibrant and evolving national life. First, stop being the party of "no." Contribute, compromise and commingle. Second, replace the entrenched Republican leadership in Congress, the RNC, and, to the extent possible, in allied organizations. A clean sweep is necessary to remove all vestiges of an obviously dysfunctional party. We the people benefit when responsible legislators openly and honestly offer and debate good ideas. Three, keep Congress in session for longer periods with substantive agendas rather than as despicable ploys to prevent interim appointments. Yes, there should be a respectful tension between the legislative and executive branches but the shameful, dishonest and unpatriotic tactics employed by Republicans to stymie any constructive action must stop. Are Republicans willing and able to do these things to restore their dignity and reputation?
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The Republican party has served up an American disaster in the form of D.Trump. If we survive, they must address how things got this way.
Top of the list: change the nominating process so that delegate votes are awarded proportionately, not plurality "winner take all". Second, both Dems and Republicans need to examine the whole process of nomination for president. We need a system that would virtually guarantee us wider, better choices. We might need to go to a system whereby the voters pick three or four candidates and the convention then, actually, decides.
Second, turn off the bubble machine. By that I mean Republicans who constantly attack from their lairs on Capitol Hill need to decide how much demonization is enough. By spending major parts of the last 7+ yrs. trying to destroy Hillary Clinton, all they have "accomplished" is to give Trump a chance to be president and assured that if Hillary becomes president she is wounded from day one. Nobody wins if you disrupt and destroy the presidency itself as an institution.
Third, Republicans need to realize they have created a monster they can't control. There is a direct link between their outrageous, radical fringe and the constantly swirling rumors and lies that millions of Americans see online every day. Responsible leadership can call down junk like birtherism and the idea that Obama is not a Christian. Instead, they aid it or look the other way while it grows into a ugly, diseased vine. That vine is strangling them
Top of the list: change the nominating process so that delegate votes are awarded proportionately, not plurality "winner take all". Second, both Dems and Republicans need to examine the whole process of nomination for president. We need a system that would virtually guarantee us wider, better choices. We might need to go to a system whereby the voters pick three or four candidates and the convention then, actually, decides.
Second, turn off the bubble machine. By that I mean Republicans who constantly attack from their lairs on Capitol Hill need to decide how much demonization is enough. By spending major parts of the last 7+ yrs. trying to destroy Hillary Clinton, all they have "accomplished" is to give Trump a chance to be president and assured that if Hillary becomes president she is wounded from day one. Nobody wins if you disrupt and destroy the presidency itself as an institution.
Third, Republicans need to realize they have created a monster they can't control. There is a direct link between their outrageous, radical fringe and the constantly swirling rumors and lies that millions of Americans see online every day. Responsible leadership can call down junk like birtherism and the idea that Obama is not a Christian. Instead, they aid it or look the other way while it grows into a ugly, diseased vine. That vine is strangling them
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The political situation in America today is eerily similar and fraught with the same dangers as the political situation prior to the Civil War. At that time, the southern states desparately wanted to preserve an outdated economic and undemocratic social system that was based on slave labor and privilege. Today, many Trump supporters desparately want to return to a social and economic system that preserves the America of the 1950s in which minorities, women, and gays are marginalized and denied their rightful place in American society; however, although the inevitable forward march of democracy can be delayed it cannot be denied.
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It is hard not to see the root cause of these developments in gerrymandered districting designed and implemented by the Republicans. Though the main purpose was to make the districts easy win for themselves, the Republicans created a different and more potent kind of challenge in the form of tea party and the extremists interested in crippling the working government.
As they gained some recognition, the TP discovered a new weapon: Primary challenge to a Republican if they do not play game with them. It has come to a point they even spill their fight to Senate races. They frustrated the house speaker Boehner to the point of retiring.
The weapon they created is not haunting them and making the party to function as they used to, driven by their principles and willingness to find working compromises to do the nation's work.
National standards for districting, designed and implemented by independent scientists will quickly remove the chains of the Republicans.
As they gained some recognition, the TP discovered a new weapon: Primary challenge to a Republican if they do not play game with them. It has come to a point they even spill their fight to Senate races. They frustrated the house speaker Boehner to the point of retiring.
The weapon they created is not haunting them and making the party to function as they used to, driven by their principles and willingness to find working compromises to do the nation's work.
National standards for districting, designed and implemented by independent scientists will quickly remove the chains of the Republicans.
Well reasoned article. An additional 'wrong track' for the Republicans of late is the widely held perception that Republicans refuse to work with the other side of the aisle to identify areas of agreement. To publicly state that you will never work with the other side of the aisle, as Senate Majority Leader McConnell has said, bolsters this perception. Such a position is antithetical to the oath taken to serve the United States of America to the best of your abilities.
As recent polls indicate, Americans are fed up with both parties and their leaders, in large part due to the that nothing is getting done in Washington. Current Republican leadership, and in many cases recent Democratic leadership, in the House and Senate have not put their differences aside to work with the other side of the aisle for the good of our country. And the Republican party has lost many opportunities to bringing in new members to the party due to this policy of obstruction.
Creating sound legislation in our changing environment is very difficult and requires working with the other side to make things happen. Maybe working with Democrats on issues that both sides can agree on will bring more people back to the Republican party.
As recent polls indicate, Americans are fed up with both parties and their leaders, in large part due to the that nothing is getting done in Washington. Current Republican leadership, and in many cases recent Democratic leadership, in the House and Senate have not put their differences aside to work with the other side of the aisle for the good of our country. And the Republican party has lost many opportunities to bringing in new members to the party due to this policy of obstruction.
Creating sound legislation in our changing environment is very difficult and requires working with the other side to make things happen. Maybe working with Democrats on issues that both sides can agree on will bring more people back to the Republican party.
I am strongly opposed to any early efforts by President Hillary Clinton to make nice with the cowards, knaves, lowlifes, wafflers and hangers-on in the Republican Party who supported Mr. Trump's evil ambitions.
They carried out a scorched earth policy of the vilest kind against her and need to be rewarded in-kind with IRS audits, parking tickets, cars towed away to distant parking lots, inability to get their children into good day care centers, exposure of their marital infidelities, sexual peccadilloes, associations with dubious individuals and enterprises; whatever can be thought of to seriously damage their credibility, reputation and careers as long as it is true.
I would call it the Department for Getting Even, give it Cabinet status, put Huma Abedin in charge of it and assign major responsibility for determining the punishments to be meted out to Anthony Weiner.
They carried out a scorched earth policy of the vilest kind against her and need to be rewarded in-kind with IRS audits, parking tickets, cars towed away to distant parking lots, inability to get their children into good day care centers, exposure of their marital infidelities, sexual peccadilloes, associations with dubious individuals and enterprises; whatever can be thought of to seriously damage their credibility, reputation and careers as long as it is true.
I would call it the Department for Getting Even, give it Cabinet status, put Huma Abedin in charge of it and assign major responsibility for determining the punishments to be meted out to Anthony Weiner.
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... and assign major responsibility to Anthony Weiner for determining the punishments to be meted out.
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Lost in almost every discussion of parties reforming, finding a new way, appealing to a larger group of constituents: we look back at the Good Old Days, when, unlike the way it's been for 24 years, members of each party knew how to reach across the aisle and work with each other for the good of the country. The comity we remember was the product of FDR and the New Deal: Republicans were battered senseless starting in 1932, they had to moderate and rein in their greed-based policies, and as a result the country experienced an unprecedented 50 year bounty of good government. We had a liberal consensus; Republicans were constrained by the memory of the beating they experienced at the hands of FDR.
No longer. With Ronald Reagan, Americans forgot why we had instituted the progressive legislation that they enjoyed, and the Republicans were able to convince enough Americans that the New Deal was no longer relevant; I clearly remember slogans like "Greed Is Good!" in the 1980s. Once the Republicans realized that FDR was no longer around to whup them if they misbehaved, they ran rampant, tearing up the social contract and hollowing out the middle class to transfer money to the 1%. Donald Trump is the ultimate expression of the Republican ethos, and we've been shown that it is a horror show.
Republicans need to be beaten back into submission before we can have anything resembling a constructive dialog.
No longer. With Ronald Reagan, Americans forgot why we had instituted the progressive legislation that they enjoyed, and the Republicans were able to convince enough Americans that the New Deal was no longer relevant; I clearly remember slogans like "Greed Is Good!" in the 1980s. Once the Republicans realized that FDR was no longer around to whup them if they misbehaved, they ran rampant, tearing up the social contract and hollowing out the middle class to transfer money to the 1%. Donald Trump is the ultimate expression of the Republican ethos, and we've been shown that it is a horror show.
Republicans need to be beaten back into submission before we can have anything resembling a constructive dialog.
Being politically incorrect can get you fanfare and free media, but a vision of the nation's need for political correction, can get you elected. The first, being politically incorrect, is already won by the Republican candidate. His fanfare his free media is a continuing landslide. But the second, having a vision of political correction, is won by neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidate. Infrastructure, student debt, health insurance, security, are not debated. There are no calls by the candidates to patriotic sacrifice and no affirmations by the candidates of the American allegiance to justice and truth. No, these candidates have merged high values of sacrifice, justice and truth to become the sacrifice of justice and truth. These candidates have not been recruited, no one pleaded for their candidacy. One is the outsider candidate who wants to be an insider. the other is the insider candidate who plays an outsider. They were not called by their fellow Americans to leave their security and comfort as private citizen and to come and serve. They were not reluctantly persuaded by the citizens to support and defend the constitution. The candidates have rather called citizens to uphold and defend their ambitions, and their ideas, their lies, their smears are a means to their ambition.
When I read this article and subsequent posts it illustrates what I believe is our biggest issue as a nation. The idea that those who have a different opinion than our own must be poorly educated, bigots, racist etc... When you see most of our recent elections split so evenly it is hard for me to say, and harder to listen to, half the country is really ignorant regardless of which side you are on.
Discounting any groups views by calling them "the problem" goes against what is one of the best parts of our nation. The ability to have an opinion and to be able to voice it. I am reading many statements about intellectualism vs those without college degrees. Sounds a little like royalty speaking of the surfs.
Regarding this article, I believe the points about the republican party, and in fact the democratic party as well, is that things are changing. Whether it's the Tea Party or Bernie Sanders, The two party system is too limiting for the variety of voices in our country.
Both parties are soon to see themselves fighting for their place on top of the political system. I believe we will see new voices and parties that will inspire our country into it's next evolution. Our two presidential challengers are so fascinating and I believe this election, regardless of the winner, will bring new voices to significance. it would be hard for our "two party system" to have put forth two more hated and flawed individuals.
Cheers to an exciting and uncertain future.
Discounting any groups views by calling them "the problem" goes against what is one of the best parts of our nation. The ability to have an opinion and to be able to voice it. I am reading many statements about intellectualism vs those without college degrees. Sounds a little like royalty speaking of the surfs.
Regarding this article, I believe the points about the republican party, and in fact the democratic party as well, is that things are changing. Whether it's the Tea Party or Bernie Sanders, The two party system is too limiting for the variety of voices in our country.
Both parties are soon to see themselves fighting for their place on top of the political system. I believe we will see new voices and parties that will inspire our country into it's next evolution. Our two presidential challengers are so fascinating and I believe this election, regardless of the winner, will bring new voices to significance. it would be hard for our "two party system" to have put forth two more hated and flawed individuals.
Cheers to an exciting and uncertain future.
If Trump and Clinton are the best the two leading parties can put forward for President of the United States, those parties don't deserve their status and need to examine who they are, their principles and qualifications for being a candidate as well as the process for nominations as well. Trump certainly isn't a Republican or necessarily a conservative. Clinton owes her position to being a "Clinton" and a "woman" If she were Hillary Smith or a Frank Clinton she would be nowhere. The leadership of the Republican Party has lacked integrity in the whole campaign. Why didn't some of the Democratic Party's big names give a free pass to Clinton? Both parties are badly damaged now and whoever becomes President will have a hard time and no traditional honeymoon- for good reason. Both parties need to look inwards and reform to prevent such a debacle in the future. Both parties also need to come together to take ridiculous money factor out of politics. A good start would be to ban all PACs, they have proved to be corrosive to the political process. Oddly, if Trump wins, I'd like to see him out and Pence replacing him and if Clinton wins, I'd like to see her out and Kaine replacing her.
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Me. Werner is certainly correct to say that conservatism in the 1980s was an intellectual movement that championed the states as laboratories of democracy. The federal government also experimented with conservative economic theory.
Missing from this editorial is any discussion of the results of these experiments. Every hypothesis put forward conservatives have been disproven repeatedly, small states, large states, the federal government have all impoverished themselves and their citizens.
If you are staking a claim as the party of ideas, you must be able to accept the results of your experiments and accept that disproved your theories. Rather than do that, which is the requirement of intellectual inquiry, the GOP embraced their anti-intellectualism, xenophobia and homophobia which was hidden just below the surface the whole time.
The time to fix the GOP was during the first Clinton administration. But maybe you'll be lucky and the fourth Clinton administration won't be too late.
Missing from this editorial is any discussion of the results of these experiments. Every hypothesis put forward conservatives have been disproven repeatedly, small states, large states, the federal government have all impoverished themselves and their citizens.
If you are staking a claim as the party of ideas, you must be able to accept the results of your experiments and accept that disproved your theories. Rather than do that, which is the requirement of intellectual inquiry, the GOP embraced their anti-intellectualism, xenophobia and homophobia which was hidden just below the surface the whole time.
The time to fix the GOP was during the first Clinton administration. But maybe you'll be lucky and the fourth Clinton administration won't be too late.
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"Even liberal critics of the Republican Party ... have to concede [Trump] is in a different category than the nominees who preceded him. President Obama and Hillary Clinton have both said as much."
This was a strategic decision, not a legitimizing of the modern-day Republican Party. Clinton chose to focus on the "deplorables" to encourage traditional Republicans like yourself to defect to her. In fact I think this was the wrong strategy because it detached the Presidential race from the equally-important contest to regain control of the Senate. It encouraged ticket-splitting -- voting for Clinton to stop Trump, yet still voting for unreconstructed obstructionists like Richard Burr. In my mind Clinton should have tied Trump to the Republican Party from day one. Sadly the way the campaigns are covered today places too much emphasis on the Presidency and the personalities of the candidates and ignores the policy consequences of electing one party or the other to hold the instruments of power.
I also have to challenge your presentation that sees these trends in your party as recent. In my mind the line from Donald Trump goes back to the decision by Richard Nixon to adopt a "Southern strategy" and appeal to racist whites abandoned by the Democrats in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Ronald Reagan had no problems appealing to his constituency either. It was no accident that he announced his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
This was a strategic decision, not a legitimizing of the modern-day Republican Party. Clinton chose to focus on the "deplorables" to encourage traditional Republicans like yourself to defect to her. In fact I think this was the wrong strategy because it detached the Presidential race from the equally-important contest to regain control of the Senate. It encouraged ticket-splitting -- voting for Clinton to stop Trump, yet still voting for unreconstructed obstructionists like Richard Burr. In my mind Clinton should have tied Trump to the Republican Party from day one. Sadly the way the campaigns are covered today places too much emphasis on the Presidency and the personalities of the candidates and ignores the policy consequences of electing one party or the other to hold the instruments of power.
I also have to challenge your presentation that sees these trends in your party as recent. In my mind the line from Donald Trump goes back to the decision by Richard Nixon to adopt a "Southern strategy" and appeal to racist whites abandoned by the Democrats in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Ronald Reagan had no problems appealing to his constituency either. It was no accident that he announced his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
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Avatar New York 50 minutes ago
"The GOP doesn't need reconstruction; it needs extinction."
I always knew that the most disgusting part of the US election would be the celebrations of the winning part, whoever will win.
As scary as Trump is I really fail to understand who can possibly celebrate the election of someone like Hilary Clinton for president, or Donald Trump for that matter.
And the idea that Trump supporters will be "put in their place" by the win of Hilary Clinton, that is just building much bigger powder keg for 2020 election and that one will likely explode. Sooner or later there will be someone way politically smarter than Donald who will use it to win presidency - and that will be really scary moment.
"The GOP doesn't need reconstruction; it needs extinction."
I always knew that the most disgusting part of the US election would be the celebrations of the winning part, whoever will win.
As scary as Trump is I really fail to understand who can possibly celebrate the election of someone like Hilary Clinton for president, or Donald Trump for that matter.
And the idea that Trump supporters will be "put in their place" by the win of Hilary Clinton, that is just building much bigger powder keg for 2020 election and that one will likely explode. Sooner or later there will be someone way politically smarter than Donald who will use it to win presidency - and that will be really scary moment.
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The elephant in the GOP room is that much of the party's success during the last 8 years has been built on racist opposition to the nation's first black president. It will take exceptional leadership to lead the party away from that because it is a guaranteed bloc of votes. Do those Republican leaders exist? Can they succeed? Will they realize their scorched earth obstructionist stance led directly to Trump? Those are questions that must be answered if this party is going to move into the 21st century.
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You have made a crucial point here. It is all very well wishing for root and branch reform within the GOP, but that is simply not going to happen without courageous and daring leadership. I see no-one on the Republican horizon even remotely gutsy enough (let alone capable) to make that happen.
Paul Ryan and similar may have thought they were keeping their powder dry until 2020, but in fact their cowardice in the meantime has rotted it through and through and now it is useless.
Are there any visionary Republicans ready to grasp the nettle? ... Thought not.
More's the worse for America.
Paul Ryan and similar may have thought they were keeping their powder dry until 2020, but in fact their cowardice in the meantime has rotted it through and through and now it is useless.
Are there any visionary Republicans ready to grasp the nettle? ... Thought not.
More's the worse for America.
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Peter Wehner has done a masterful job of elucidating how the GOP became "a party at war with reason". One can argue which of the numerous factors he cites are the most causitive but it's hard to rebut his conclusion.
A more valuable exercise is to explore how the GOP could rehabilitate its reputation, reject those advancing truly disgraceful prejudices, repudiate the politics of division and reassemble those who are left into a new GOP.
The first task is to avoid being primaried on the right by the Frankenstein's monster created when extremism was concentrated thanks to the gerrymandering of Congressional districts. The second is to (gasp) make common cause with the Democrats thereby forming a majority coalition and isolating the crazies into an ineffective rump.
During the next two years the coalition could break the gridlock and actually address the multitude of issues on which the long suffering electorate is desperate to see progress.
Even with a President Clinton at the helm, as seems likely, a centrist coalition could develop a philosophy such as Evan McMullen extols, one that is fiscally conservative yet socially progressive.
A more valuable exercise is to explore how the GOP could rehabilitate its reputation, reject those advancing truly disgraceful prejudices, repudiate the politics of division and reassemble those who are left into a new GOP.
The first task is to avoid being primaried on the right by the Frankenstein's monster created when extremism was concentrated thanks to the gerrymandering of Congressional districts. The second is to (gasp) make common cause with the Democrats thereby forming a majority coalition and isolating the crazies into an ineffective rump.
During the next two years the coalition could break the gridlock and actually address the multitude of issues on which the long suffering electorate is desperate to see progress.
Even with a President Clinton at the helm, as seems likely, a centrist coalition could develop a philosophy such as Evan McMullen extols, one that is fiscally conservative yet socially progressive.
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I think one point missed here is that the refusal of the Republican Party to compromise on legislative initiatives for the past eight years has been a major contributing factor to the economic pressures leading to Mr. Trump's appeal to the struggling white working middle class. The irony is there -- the Party has brought about it's own crisis. It's time for the leaders, especially Mr. Ryan and Mr. McConnell to put their responsibility to our country ahead of their responsibility to their party and at least try to work with the new President, should she win the election, to solve some of the pressing problems. There are areas where this is possible, infrastructure being one of the most obvious, that would help the economy and benefit the public at large. It's now up to them to get our government working again.
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I am heartened by your essay. Especially, the last line. I love my country, too. I valued the ability to agree to disagree with friends and family that did not share my political perspective. And though my philosophies place me on the other side of the isle, I always felt the country benefitted from the debate and toggle that existed between the two parties. I have wondered, in recent years, about when and why what-is-best-for-the-country ceased to prevail over bipartisan politics. I miss hearing the voice of moderate Republicans which seems drowned out by Tea Party and other extreme constituencies.
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Donald Trump is the logical conclusion of fifty years of Republican race baiting, antiscience ideology, and ruthlessness. He may be the most egregious, the most vile, the most reckless nominee ever, but he is hardly unique. It's too simplistic to say that his followers are motivated by economic malaise; while this is a factor, it has been debunked many times by researchers, who point out that most of his followers are financially middle class and not facing any particular economic hardship. His is a race-based candidacy, the logical product of Nixon's Southern strategy and Reagan's welfare queens.
The current crop of Republicans has covered itself in ignominy, from Ryan's grotesque efforts to walk a tightrope to McConnell's cynical silence to the numerous Trump supporters, including government officials, who have suggested that Ms. Clinton should be executed for treason.
The cynicism, lack of patriotism, and sheer hate and ugliness that pervade the Republican Party have been laid bare over the course of the campaign. I wish I believed that this will change; being part of the evidence-based world, however, I do not. If you disagree, you need to listen to Jason Chaffetz, Ted Cruz, Richard Burr, and their colleagues as they promise four more years of partisan witch hunts and obstruction.
The current crop of Republicans has covered itself in ignominy, from Ryan's grotesque efforts to walk a tightrope to McConnell's cynical silence to the numerous Trump supporters, including government officials, who have suggested that Ms. Clinton should be executed for treason.
The cynicism, lack of patriotism, and sheer hate and ugliness that pervade the Republican Party have been laid bare over the course of the campaign. I wish I believed that this will change; being part of the evidence-based world, however, I do not. If you disagree, you need to listen to Jason Chaffetz, Ted Cruz, Richard Burr, and their colleagues as they promise four more years of partisan witch hunts and obstruction.
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I agree completely with A New Yorker.
The GOP world is a zero-sum game called Darwin, in which there are "winners" and "losers" - "makers" and "takers" if you will - and in my 50+ years I've never seen anything that leads me to believe the GOP will ever change...except for the worse.
It's "leaders" serve the NRA, the KKK, and other "family values" groups, and they have historically been on the wrong side of history (at least since Lincoln).
They use their followers for votes, but they leave them in the dust, preying upon their fears, their lack of education, and their racist, misogynist hatred of a changing world...using these, they control the surging throng well, but they've made no efforts to educate them using verifiable facts, and they've done nothing to help them legislatively...unless you can count 60+ futile votes to repeal Obamacare "help".
I would love nothing more than for a reasonable, rational, evidence-based group to emerge...but looking at Boehner then Ryan, McConnell, Chaffetz, Cruz, Rubio, and the others, it is clear they have no regard either for the Constitution or the people the Constitution is meant to serve...nor do the Grover Norquists, Rush Limbaughs, and Ann Coulters who spread falsehood and hate wherever and whenever they open their mouths.
I do hope there is life after Trump; but I'm not sure I hope the GOP survives as a party, given the harm they've inflicted on our country through their greed, selfishness, callousness, and dishonesty.
The GOP world is a zero-sum game called Darwin, in which there are "winners" and "losers" - "makers" and "takers" if you will - and in my 50+ years I've never seen anything that leads me to believe the GOP will ever change...except for the worse.
It's "leaders" serve the NRA, the KKK, and other "family values" groups, and they have historically been on the wrong side of history (at least since Lincoln).
They use their followers for votes, but they leave them in the dust, preying upon their fears, their lack of education, and their racist, misogynist hatred of a changing world...using these, they control the surging throng well, but they've made no efforts to educate them using verifiable facts, and they've done nothing to help them legislatively...unless you can count 60+ futile votes to repeal Obamacare "help".
I would love nothing more than for a reasonable, rational, evidence-based group to emerge...but looking at Boehner then Ryan, McConnell, Chaffetz, Cruz, Rubio, and the others, it is clear they have no regard either for the Constitution or the people the Constitution is meant to serve...nor do the Grover Norquists, Rush Limbaughs, and Ann Coulters who spread falsehood and hate wherever and whenever they open their mouths.
I do hope there is life after Trump; but I'm not sure I hope the GOP survives as a party, given the harm they've inflicted on our country through their greed, selfishness, callousness, and dishonesty.
The rise of Trump shows the failure of Reaganism.
Trump is supported by different groups - the neo-isolationists, the bigots, sure. But also those who feel left behind economically, who feel the Establishment is not listening to them. And this group is right: the Establishment isn't listening to them. Trumpism prevails where the economy has failed. And the economy has failed because of slavish adherence to failed dogma.
The Establishment is too busy listening to big donors, who use behind lofty sounding philosophies like Reaganism or Libertarianism to cloak their bottomless greed and lack of concern for the country. It is too busy spouting lower taxes and regulations to think about programs now that could provide opportunities, self-respect and self-reliance to their less well off constituents.
So, first the Republican Party must learn to just say no to some of their donors. And to those narrowly focused on dogma so they don't have to listen to the real needs of constituents.
And, maybe, instead of mindlessly applauding those who quote approvingly the Reagan joke about "We are the Government and we are here to help", by actually making the Government work, Republicans can reclaim the high road.
Trump is supported by different groups - the neo-isolationists, the bigots, sure. But also those who feel left behind economically, who feel the Establishment is not listening to them. And this group is right: the Establishment isn't listening to them. Trumpism prevails where the economy has failed. And the economy has failed because of slavish adherence to failed dogma.
The Establishment is too busy listening to big donors, who use behind lofty sounding philosophies like Reaganism or Libertarianism to cloak their bottomless greed and lack of concern for the country. It is too busy spouting lower taxes and regulations to think about programs now that could provide opportunities, self-respect and self-reliance to their less well off constituents.
So, first the Republican Party must learn to just say no to some of their donors. And to those narrowly focused on dogma so they don't have to listen to the real needs of constituents.
And, maybe, instead of mindlessly applauding those who quote approvingly the Reagan joke about "We are the Government and we are here to help", by actually making the Government work, Republicans can reclaim the high road.
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And the Democratic Party must learn to say no as well. Only the rhetoric between the two parties is different. The Democrats will make a big issue out of immigration points, ethnic and racial minority points while leaving the so-called moral majority out of the loop. Additionally, the media is largely to blame for this electoral mess. Conventional newspaper wisdom has neglected to inform the public on the issues and there has been no follow-up on a number of them, only the 24/7 blockbuster ranting of politicians, so-called celebrities, wonks and editorials pushing their selective points. The tech 24/7 social media, junk emails, advertising and campaign slogans have also been a distraction when it comes to any thoughtful discussion of the issues. So we don't really have a choice about who to vote for. I'm surprised that anyone actually shows up at the polls at all.
Under what rock has Wehner been living that Trump had to reveal the nature of the Republican party? It has been appealing to racism for fifty years. Wehner continues the tradition of lying about it, pretending that he does not condone racism.
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I think this reader's response misses the fact that Republicans and conservatives have offered (in the past) an alternative vision with the country's best interest in mind. What would be the alternative? Parties of the center left and left only? Wehner's column acknowledges that the rot has been some years in the making. I for one will vote for HRC and across the Democratic ticket, but I respect thoughtful conservative writers and this country needs an intellectually honest party of the center right.
skepto--I can hardly believe the hubris of this writer to point these things out on November 7, 2016, the day before the election! If he were so concerned about our necessary self-examination, he should have been making these points at least 8 years ago, when the ultra-right wing racists (many in the Republican Party, itself,) and white supremacists, really rose up out of their dark, slimy holes. Where have you been hiding, Mr. Wehner?
Where were you when the Grand Wizard of our U.S. congress was mentoring Hillary? Esteemed by the likes of you, Robert Byrd's hood and white gown was still hanging in his closet when he served the left wing finger pointers like you.
Having a convenient memory works well for liberals.
Having a convenient memory works well for liberals.
If Donald Trump wins the forces of darkness will have triumphed. It's that simple. Even if we dodge the bullet of his election we will still be faced with Republicans in Congress who deny the role of government in the lives of their citizens except for the defense of the nation. So if you want anarchy on a national scale vote Republican and let your fellow citizens and the democracies of the civilized world be damned.
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Mr Werner is absolutely correct about where the "Republican Party" needs to go for the good of the party and more importantl, the country. However, has he heard the people that attend Trump's rallies? Do you think they they are reading this article? Do you think they are going away? Do you think Fox news is going away? Do you think Trump is going away, even if he loses?
I suspect Mr. Werner knows the answers to these questions and what he can't bring himself to admit, but knows deep down inside, it is time to form a new party.
I suspect Mr. Werner knows the answers to these questions and what he can't bring himself to admit, but knows deep down inside, it is time to form a new party.
23
This reminds me of an old joke. How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? One. But the light bulb has to want to change. The republican party has shown no desire to change from the path that was laid out a long time ago when the Republican enacted their southern strategy, appealing to racism and bigotry. Why are we surprised at where it has taken them?
35
Regardless the outcome of tomorrow's vote it will yet not be time for an autopsy. The party who nominated this nightmarish candidate will be alive - just not well. Still some hope, but only if the patient goes on chemo.
5
What puzzles me is that Trump is described a new phenomenon when all symptoms would lead to a diagnosis that he is simply the latest iteration of the Tea Party.
He is the anger component of that party. That anger is the result of justifiable desperation coupled with a lack of critical thinking . This lack of critical thinking is because of a several generations of lower commitment to education. Eventually that takes its toll.
If this is not addressed then soon we will be controlled like in ancient Rome by a fickle mob.
we're the puppets...
He is the anger component of that party. That anger is the result of justifiable desperation coupled with a lack of critical thinking . This lack of critical thinking is because of a several generations of lower commitment to education. Eventually that takes its toll.
If this is not addressed then soon we will be controlled like in ancient Rome by a fickle mob.
we're the puppets...
20
Mr. Wehner, the Republican Party is a giant burning funeral pyre of greed, white spite and sedition wrapped in a Confederate flag inside the barrel of a right-wing shotgun.
The Republican Party, the uncontested Party of Stupid, doesn't need a makeover or another empty post-mortem analysis.
The Republican Party needs to be deconstructed before it proceeds to deconstruct the United States of America into a failed nation state...assuming that hasn't already happened.
The fact that the Gridlock Over People and Grand Old Propaganda party requires voter suppression, the gerrymander, the filibuster, and low voter turnout to 'win' is prima facie evidence that Russian tyranny is their political aspiration, not American democracy.
The Republican Party not only despises public education, but it also champions de-education, disinformation, propaganda, falsity and encourages the hatred of science, evolution and historical fact.
Thomas Jefferson, a strong believer in educating the citizenry, said "no nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity."
So America's punishment has arrived, with the Republican's Nasty Ignorant Donald Trump Nation riding the fumes of Fake News, Hate Radio, Reality TV and Grand Old Prevarication to political suicide.
The Republican Party has punished American democracy with decades of cultured ignorance, hate and ill will.
Let the Grand Old Pyre burn to the ground, apologize to America for Republican sedition, and start educating the citizenry.
The Republican Party, the uncontested Party of Stupid, doesn't need a makeover or another empty post-mortem analysis.
The Republican Party needs to be deconstructed before it proceeds to deconstruct the United States of America into a failed nation state...assuming that hasn't already happened.
The fact that the Gridlock Over People and Grand Old Propaganda party requires voter suppression, the gerrymander, the filibuster, and low voter turnout to 'win' is prima facie evidence that Russian tyranny is their political aspiration, not American democracy.
The Republican Party not only despises public education, but it also champions de-education, disinformation, propaganda, falsity and encourages the hatred of science, evolution and historical fact.
Thomas Jefferson, a strong believer in educating the citizenry, said "no nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity."
So America's punishment has arrived, with the Republican's Nasty Ignorant Donald Trump Nation riding the fumes of Fake News, Hate Radio, Reality TV and Grand Old Prevarication to political suicide.
The Republican Party has punished American democracy with decades of cultured ignorance, hate and ill will.
Let the Grand Old Pyre burn to the ground, apologize to America for Republican sedition, and start educating the citizenry.
157
Thank you for this comment. You said it all in the first paragraph. But at the core is education, and respect for education. The purveyors of lies and conspiracy theories are particularly demonic, as they are all educated and know exactly what they are doing. I don't believe for a second that Paul Ryan, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Stone, et al., buy what they sell. It's greed and hunger for power, plain and simple. And the great nation of the United States has been made to pay for this maneuver by the few. GOP: not known for real apologies or for taking responsibility. I'm not holding my breath. I'm looking at real estate in Cape Breton.
2
Well said!
1
Of course there is life after Trump. One of the big questions is how much of the media, including the NYT, will recover from one of the all-around worst (least informative and balanced, mostly shrill partisan tone) performances covering an election in modern memory. The Trump saga owes as much to a loss of the nation's moral and ethical compass as it does to how poorly and inconsistently the press covered ALL of the candidates. including those that didn't hail from the two bankrupt political parties we have and any one of whom could have given voters more important things to think about, not just more choices. Few entities in the nation deserve more scorn in this regard than the NYT, which all but emerged as the DNC house organ, giving both the Donald and Mr. Sanders (let alone Mr. Johnson and Dr. Stein) even-handed attention with their almost 2-year Clinton coronation is inevitable drumbeat. I can't recall any period in my life where the NYT veered so far off course in its election coverage and your hyperbolic attention for Mr. Trump in the last 60 days, as he gained on Ms. Clinton, can be pointed to as one of the reasons this campaign became such morass. Your readers are smarter and deserved better.
23
The Sanders supporters need to understand one important thing. MSM was wildly excited to have a fun race on the Democratic side. In pursuit of this and primarily lots of new readers, and viewers, they covered the romantic part of the race non stop....all the kids who never paid attention before flocking to Bernie. The heady idea of a "revolution." The rallies. The notion that because everyone his supporters knew supported him and actually almost worshipped him proved that any outcome to the contrary must be "rigged." All the new subscribers so that they could comment. What they failed to cover were the nitty gritty of his promises. The promises he made where he had not one vote of support in the Senate other than his own. The shallowness of his slogans. His inability to defend his ideas economically. His failure to release tax returns. We Hillary supporters were outraged that MSM gave him a pass on everything to keep the race going. They constantly conflated wins in caucus states with actual wins. They allowed him to pivot to his slogans whatever questions he was asked. They did the same with Trump. While holding Hillary to a completely different standard. Trump would have squashed Bernie like a bug.
1
Oh, please. The NYT thoroughly covered all of Clinton's scandals. It's true that it's obvious that they do not care for Mr. Trump, but their coverage didn't neglect Hillary's various misdeeds.
All the candidates? I didn't see much commentary on Japanese baseball teams during the WORLD Series. Why not?
What a brave and thoughtful piece. I used to vote for the best informed and thoughtful candidates, which often included many Republicans. However,
The modern Republican Party has abandoned principled governance for charlatans and mountebanks undeserving of consideration, whose primary interests are themselves and their half-baked ideas.
The modern Republican Party has abandoned principled governance for charlatans and mountebanks undeserving of consideration, whose primary interests are themselves and their half-baked ideas.
44
Democrats have half-baked ideas; Republicans don't have any idea.
If the straight line drawn from Ms. Palin to Mr. Trump is continued, the next stop is Ted Nugent. If the GOP wants to be taken seriously by new voters it needs to stop the blatant lies, obfuscation and posturing and get on with making a positive difference for the majority. This campaign from them has been nothing short of disgraceful.
63
Here is how to save the moral core of the Republican Party:
1) Champion Climate Stabilization - through technological innovation rather than regulation
2) Promote Higher Education and High Culture - through expansive federal funding for public universities, opera houses, museums, and literary magazines
3) Support School Choice - while simultaneously pumping money into the public school system
4) Champion Universal Pre-K - as a way to level the playing field early on as an alternative to affirmative action
5) Defend the Integrity of the Judicial System - by passing civil rights for gay and transgender people, and abortion rights for women, through state and federal legislation rather than judicial fiat
1) Champion Climate Stabilization - through technological innovation rather than regulation
2) Promote Higher Education and High Culture - through expansive federal funding for public universities, opera houses, museums, and literary magazines
3) Support School Choice - while simultaneously pumping money into the public school system
4) Champion Universal Pre-K - as a way to level the playing field early on as an alternative to affirmative action
5) Defend the Integrity of the Judicial System - by passing civil rights for gay and transgender people, and abortion rights for women, through state and federal legislation rather than judicial fiat
55
Agree, and you can afford this by stop paying for the constant, extraordinarily expensive warfare on the other side of the planet. It does not affect our security, accelerates the possibility of terrorism within our borders and is morally reprehensible. It is unbelievable that we are bombing, as we speak, seven different countries and your average American cannot name more than one or two.
Consider your #1 applied generally: "win the war through technical innovation rather than troops and casualties," or "eliminate ZIKA by technical innovation, rather than doing what we know how to do now through conventional means," or even "stop illegal immigration with technical innovation ... don't bother with any border enforcement at all!"
There is no "moral core" here it all -- indeed the complete opposite. It is instead "don't do anything until it costs nothing." Worse yet, as Republicans generally reduce funding for science, particularly any science that might get in the way of their big donors keeping current oligopolies going ... your "moral core" idea adds the stinger ".... and we'll make sure it never will."
There is no "moral core" here it all -- indeed the complete opposite. It is instead "don't do anything until it costs nothing." Worse yet, as Republicans generally reduce funding for science, particularly any science that might get in the way of their big donors keeping current oligopolies going ... your "moral core" idea adds the stinger ".... and we'll make sure it never will."
"through technological innovation rather than regulation..." Like Mr. Exxon and Mrs. Mobile will be good neighbors if we pay them enough?
1
ALL Republicans and Democrats who are elected to federal-level office need to be reminded that THE ENTIRE COUNTRY is your constituency. Your constituency is NOT only people who think just like you, and it is also NOT lobbyists.
If Congress members behaved in a way that showed concern for the welfare/well-being of ALL AMERICANS, we'd be on a better path. Your duty is to the 300+ million of us who make up this country - that is your first duty and pretty much your only duty.
My message to those who wish to govern via obstruction & partisan rancor is this: GET OUT; YOU ARE IN THE WRONG LINE OF WORK. Make way for someone who knows & cares about ALL Americans.
Compromise is not a dirty word; obstruction is a dirty word. Elected officials have to decide if they're in this for themselves or to actually SERVE THIS NATION AND ITS CITIZENS.
If Congress members behaved in a way that showed concern for the welfare/well-being of ALL AMERICANS, we'd be on a better path. Your duty is to the 300+ million of us who make up this country - that is your first duty and pretty much your only duty.
My message to those who wish to govern via obstruction & partisan rancor is this: GET OUT; YOU ARE IN THE WRONG LINE OF WORK. Make way for someone who knows & cares about ALL Americans.
Compromise is not a dirty word; obstruction is a dirty word. Elected officials have to decide if they're in this for themselves or to actually SERVE THIS NATION AND ITS CITIZENS.
107
no, the constituency is
(i) the people who voted for you
or
(ii) the district you represent
btw, if you restrict governance to citizens that leaves out all the southern invaders
and no, obstruction is democracy
and compromise goes both ways, nominally
(i) the people who voted for you
or
(ii) the district you represent
btw, if you restrict governance to citizens that leaves out all the southern invaders
and no, obstruction is democracy
and compromise goes both ways, nominally
Republicans: look at that face of Trump. He is your face now. Think of the ways that you could have avoided this.
And to put it sadly and plainly: you abused your political base, and also crippled it. That was intentional ... you always laughed at them behind their backs, but also feared them. You needed them angry but docile ... no natural state.
They have risen up in a final inchoate rage, not just a bull in a china shop, but the bull in the china shop after the picadors have set their lances and the blood is in their eyes.
They will smash all the china, but the reality is that they are too few, too wounded, and too angry to do anything other than rush at the red cape, and in the end succumb.
You are laughing, right? It is your show. Sometimes the bull does get the matador, but the bull always dies in the end.
And to put it sadly and plainly: you abused your political base, and also crippled it. That was intentional ... you always laughed at them behind their backs, but also feared them. You needed them angry but docile ... no natural state.
They have risen up in a final inchoate rage, not just a bull in a china shop, but the bull in the china shop after the picadors have set their lances and the blood is in their eyes.
They will smash all the china, but the reality is that they are too few, too wounded, and too angry to do anything other than rush at the red cape, and in the end succumb.
You are laughing, right? It is your show. Sometimes the bull does get the matador, but the bull always dies in the end.
19
A good piece by a respected Republican of which there are fewer and fewer. The "yuuge" problem is an aging white, ill educated, xenophobic, bigoted, homophobic (shall I go on?) GOP primary voter who put Trump and the country in the danger we presently.
This former Republican sees no future for the party under its present leadership that does nothing but obstruct, denigrate and defend policies that defeat the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They call themselves "Patriots", I call them "Quislings" as they would deliver Trump to the White House and the country to a foreign power, Russia. Shame on all of you in that rotten political house.
This former Republican sees no future for the party under its present leadership that does nothing but obstruct, denigrate and defend policies that defeat the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They call themselves "Patriots", I call them "Quislings" as they would deliver Trump to the White House and the country to a foreign power, Russia. Shame on all of you in that rotten political house.
54
The U.S has turned a corner and is not going back. Time goes forward not backward.
Blacks, Women, Jews, Gays. Latinos and other immigrants are no longer going to the “back of the bus”.
Trump and his angry mob of deplorables, will go back under the rock, once the media turns off the spotlight.
Trump is/was a false leader, all fluff. He had no policy, no plan, and no experience. But we gave him a spotlight.
He is/was an American Television creation, fueled by media. Ignore the man-child.
Blacks, Women, Jews, Gays. Latinos and other immigrants are no longer going to the “back of the bus”.
Trump and his angry mob of deplorables, will go back under the rock, once the media turns off the spotlight.
Trump is/was a false leader, all fluff. He had no policy, no plan, and no experience. But we gave him a spotlight.
He is/was an American Television creation, fueled by media. Ignore the man-child.
31
But at least it was an idea. What is wrong is to keep promoting it when the experiment had failed with major consequences.
It will be a lot harder to put Trumpismo back under the rock than you think.
They have tasted blood ... and they like it. They have greatly enlarged the Overton window --
* "Grab them by the pussy" is American discourse today. No one really believes Trump's denials -- he's denying what he's caught on video-tape bragging about, and more than a dozen women confirm. What has happened is that Trump has made sexual assault a "wink and a nod" part of Trumpismo, and the Republican base, including most of the women, have bought into it.
* Totally cray-cray conspiracy theories, birtherism and all -- are now "GOP
mainstream." Trumpismo has taken its body-politic from "party of stupid" to "party of outright insane."
* Wehner cannot bring himself to discuss the worst -- Trump's casual calls to fascist overthrow: "Lock her up," and "rigged" and "get your guns."
This ugly genie can't be stuffed back in the bottle easily. Basically America will need to "ride it out" -- waiting for the Trumpers to die off. The only saving grace is that their children mostly aren't Trumpers.
They have tasted blood ... and they like it. They have greatly enlarged the Overton window --
* "Grab them by the pussy" is American discourse today. No one really believes Trump's denials -- he's denying what he's caught on video-tape bragging about, and more than a dozen women confirm. What has happened is that Trump has made sexual assault a "wink and a nod" part of Trumpismo, and the Republican base, including most of the women, have bought into it.
* Totally cray-cray conspiracy theories, birtherism and all -- are now "GOP
mainstream." Trumpismo has taken its body-politic from "party of stupid" to "party of outright insane."
* Wehner cannot bring himself to discuss the worst -- Trump's casual calls to fascist overthrow: "Lock her up," and "rigged" and "get your guns."
This ugly genie can't be stuffed back in the bottle easily. Basically America will need to "ride it out" -- waiting for the Trumpers to die off. The only saving grace is that their children mostly aren't Trumpers.
Mr Wehner came of age in the time of Reagan when ideas mattered. So, let's examine some of Saint Ronnie's ideas and we can see in them a good part of the trajectory that leads to Trumpism. First, "supply side economics," and the absurd notion of giving the wealthy more and more and still more will somehow produce economic growth. This has been debunked by any serious economist, and its results show. However, the idea lives today in the extreme tax policies of the Republicans, who beggar our future with it. How about St Ronnie's notion of climate science (or science in general)..."trees cause pollution," "ketchup is a vegetable," and so on. Climate denialism is a creature of Reagan's fevered brain and coincides nicely w supply side...to keep resources where they belong in the hands oif the 1% and the corporations. How about the attack ion government itself..."government as the enemy" and the radical privatization and deregulation that has put so many of our shared, critical institutions at risk. I can go on and on...."welfare queens" and RR's toadying to racists in his speech at Philadelphia MS. Sure Ronnie had ideas and sold them w a great smile and affable personality. But here in this saint of their party is the rot that ends in Trump. Ronnie had ideas, but they were fetid, ignorant, and destructive of the common good. Maybe Mr Wehner's political self-examination should be less myopic when it comes to the history of the Party of Trump that threatens our republic.
95
It's important to recognize how disabled Ronald Reagan was in his second term -- a consequence of taking a bullet, consequences of the surgery that saved him, and the creeping Alzheimers.
As a human I can recognize the beauty and the tragedy of Ronnie soldiering on, keeping his smile, pretending all was well, trying to project "strength" for the nation. He was doing his best to do what FDR did -- hiding the infirmity.
The difference was that FDR's infirmity didn't take his mind, and Ronnie's did.
The other terrible difference is that the creeping loss of intellect became normative among Republicans -- the sunny but clueless end-stage Reagan mouthing platitudes became the Republican goal.
Nobody wants the withered legs and disabilities of FDR's polio.
As a human I can recognize the beauty and the tragedy of Ronnie soldiering on, keeping his smile, pretending all was well, trying to project "strength" for the nation. He was doing his best to do what FDR did -- hiding the infirmity.
The difference was that FDR's infirmity didn't take his mind, and Ronnie's did.
The other terrible difference is that the creeping loss of intellect became normative among Republicans -- the sunny but clueless end-stage Reagan mouthing platitudes became the Republican goal.
Nobody wants the withered legs and disabilities of FDR's polio.
I read yesterday that Trump actually has some policies in place. He plans to end all funding for anything related to climate change and global warming and turn America's back on worldwide agreements to defeat those. He plans to privatize our highway and road system, charging tolls to pay for building and maintaining roads. Imagine what this will do to those who can't afford to pay to drive to work. We all know he made some shifts in the GOP platform to favor Russia. What we face on Wednesday if he's elected is much, much worse than has been imagined so far.
1
And lest we forget, beggaring our country with impossible debt in pursuit of "star wars," defense shield (brilliantly ensuring we are MAD and NUTS!). He wasn't know as Ronnie Ray Guns for nothing. Ah but I digress. Great ideas indeed.
1
Someone needs to post a list of all of the prominent Republicans who have supported Donald Trump. We should never forget how close they pushed us toward disaster.
McConnell, McCain, Ryan, Christie, Cruz, Rubio, Giuliani, Pence, Carson, Palin, Scott, Sessions, and no doubt many more I'm overlooking.
McConnell, McCain, Ryan, Christie, Cruz, Rubio, Giuliani, Pence, Carson, Palin, Scott, Sessions, and no doubt many more I'm overlooking.
55
You forgot Trey Gowdy.
Is there life in business as usual elites, that give us hope before elections and disappointment after? Who thought the Obama administration will wage wars every minute of the two terms in office? Those wars cost close to one full year of GDP that Obama could have spent on promises to voters but did not. Judging from her initiative in Libya neither will Mrs. Clinton.
5
Out of curiosity, what "initiatives" should Mr. Obama have spent those dollars on? He wanted a bigger recovery package. He had to compromise. He wanted a more expansive version of healthcare reform. He had to compromise. He's been pushing for infrastructure reform for years and has been denied it.
I don't think he's perfect. But wake up. President Obama has been dealing with an outright hostile legislature for six years, a legislature that isn't actually pursuing an agenda, merely blocking the Democratic agenda.
Your attitude is exactly what Mr. Wehner is lamenting in his article. His whole op-ed piece is a call to Republicans and conservatives to stop demonizing the opposition, and to create their own political agenda and pursue it. Instead of embracing the idea of, you know... governing, you've taken all his points and instead of refuting them, have merely said that we can't have nice things because elites and Obama and Hillary Clinton. Vote to change that. Vote based on an idea, and not what some talking head on television or the radio or the internet says.
I don't think he's perfect. But wake up. President Obama has been dealing with an outright hostile legislature for six years, a legislature that isn't actually pursuing an agenda, merely blocking the Democratic agenda.
Your attitude is exactly what Mr. Wehner is lamenting in his article. His whole op-ed piece is a call to Republicans and conservatives to stop demonizing the opposition, and to create their own political agenda and pursue it. Instead of embracing the idea of, you know... governing, you've taken all his points and instead of refuting them, have merely said that we can't have nice things because elites and Obama and Hillary Clinton. Vote to change that. Vote based on an idea, and not what some talking head on television or the radio or the internet says.
Dear Pressure, You may have missed the unjustified invasion of Iraq and the justified but mismanaged invasion of Iraq or the party of NO's continuous obstruction of democracy that Obama inherited. Do you think that might have had an impact on how fast Obama could wind down the Bush/Republican wars? Oh, how about keeping Guantanamo detainees forever without a trial. The Republicans walk around holding up the Constitution but apparently never read it. Get real!
You are engaging in revisionist history and bizarre snakes-under-the-bed fear mongering -- somewhere aligned along the peculiar Republican -- Bernie axis.
Obama inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the war in Iraq being started by the intentional creation of false intelligence by Cheney/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld to stampede Congress into war.
The military action in Libya lasted from March 2011 to the end of October, under the aegis of the UN ... see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
claiming that Libya represents some extraordinary war-mongering on HRC's part is just ridiculous. Go back and look at Ronnie's great victories in Lebanon ... that nobody remembers or cares about today. Peacekeeping failures happen. Claiming that they represent intentional bellicose war-making is stupid.
Obama inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the war in Iraq being started by the intentional creation of false intelligence by Cheney/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld to stampede Congress into war.
The military action in Libya lasted from March 2011 to the end of October, under the aegis of the UN ... see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
claiming that Libya represents some extraordinary war-mongering on HRC's part is just ridiculous. Go back and look at Ronnie's great victories in Lebanon ... that nobody remembers or cares about today. Peacekeeping failures happen. Claiming that they represent intentional bellicose war-making is stupid.
Thank you for writing this article and articulating my thoughts in such a eloquent manner. I am a lifetime Republican voting for Clinton.
45
Why label yourself a Republican?
1
Right idea, but they're going to have to look much deeper than this, especially in the anti-intellectualism department. It wasn't Trump who grew the climate change denier ranks. It is Rubio who cannot simply say that the Earth is more than 8000 years old. One can scarcely hear Trump's voice in the noisy GOP chorus howling that the Obama administration has been a failure of calamitous (I'd say Biblical, but, well, you know) proportions, despite what is, objectively, a stunningly successful before-and-after picture.
The GOP has tilled, tended, enriched, and watered this soil for more than three decades now. It has become reflexively ideological on far too many issues: Common Core, ACA, terrorism, trade, immigration, energy, you name it.
I'll close with this towering example. Republicans, if you truly want to self-assess and regain relevance, start with tax policy. We have done it your way for 35 years now. Top rates are half what they were. Now we quibble over a point or two, but make no mistake: the tax policy we have is pure Republican orthodoxy. What do we have to show for it? Chronic deficits and intractable income inequality. Try confronting that.
Because if you think Trump arose from occasional, isolated mistakes like Palin, you will never fix yourselves. Look in the deep, scary places. Maybe it's your cherished orthodoxies that have failed you.
The GOP has tilled, tended, enriched, and watered this soil for more than three decades now. It has become reflexively ideological on far too many issues: Common Core, ACA, terrorism, trade, immigration, energy, you name it.
I'll close with this towering example. Republicans, if you truly want to self-assess and regain relevance, start with tax policy. We have done it your way for 35 years now. Top rates are half what they were. Now we quibble over a point or two, but make no mistake: the tax policy we have is pure Republican orthodoxy. What do we have to show for it? Chronic deficits and intractable income inequality. Try confronting that.
Because if you think Trump arose from occasional, isolated mistakes like Palin, you will never fix yourselves. Look in the deep, scary places. Maybe it's your cherished orthodoxies that have failed you.
105
This is an honest and honorable assessment. Mr. Wehner implies what must be a particularly painful truth for someone who's spent his career advancing Republican politics and policies: in the end, liberals understood his party and its voters better than he did.
I agree that reflection and self assessment are in order (for the Democrats too--when your anointed candidate almost loses to Bernie Sanders, you've missed something big). While it's probably an obvious point, I think the real driver of the descent from Reagan/GHW Bush to Palin and Trump is that Republicans ceded control of their narrative to entertainers whose motivations were not the public good, or even power, but attention and money.
They approached the reality of pluralistic politics as if it were a zero-sum showdown of good vs. evil. They started to dehumanize the other side. And many Republicans either tolerated it or enthusiastically joined in.
Not only am I unsure how they walk back from that; I'm far from convinced it's possible. As an American who wants to see my fellow citizens well represented, and as a Democrat who knows my party gets it wrong sometimes, I wish them luck.
I agree that reflection and self assessment are in order (for the Democrats too--when your anointed candidate almost loses to Bernie Sanders, you've missed something big). While it's probably an obvious point, I think the real driver of the descent from Reagan/GHW Bush to Palin and Trump is that Republicans ceded control of their narrative to entertainers whose motivations were not the public good, or even power, but attention and money.
They approached the reality of pluralistic politics as if it were a zero-sum showdown of good vs. evil. They started to dehumanize the other side. And many Republicans either tolerated it or enthusiastically joined in.
Not only am I unsure how they walk back from that; I'm far from convinced it's possible. As an American who wants to see my fellow citizens well represented, and as a Democrat who knows my party gets it wrong sometimes, I wish them luck.
18
The author's initial premise about GOP'ers being the party of ideas in the early 1980s is where he went wrong - those ' ideas ' were nothing but flim flam wrapped in bought and paid for pseudo intellectualism from conservative think tanks, funded by movement conservatives like the Kochs, and pushed by A.L.E.C.
The utter bankruptcy of those ideas was exposed in St. Ronnie's first year in office, when his budget director, David Stockman, admitted to one and all that the numbers had been entirely made up, since
" None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers ":
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/12/the-education-of-dav...
confirming what Bush 41 had called in the 1980 primaries ' voodoo economics '.
Further confirmation was not needed, but nevertheless evident in the deficit spending St. Ronnie engaged in, whereby Ray-gun took the national debt that had been run up in the previous 190 years of the Republic, and almost tripled it - in only 8 years.
The Big Lie of voodoo economics, bolstered with trickle-downdom are ideas only in the sense of their political fraudulence.
The utter bankruptcy of those ideas was exposed in St. Ronnie's first year in office, when his budget director, David Stockman, admitted to one and all that the numbers had been entirely made up, since
" None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers ":
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/12/the-education-of-dav...
confirming what Bush 41 had called in the 1980 primaries ' voodoo economics '.
Further confirmation was not needed, but nevertheless evident in the deficit spending St. Ronnie engaged in, whereby Ray-gun took the national debt that had been run up in the previous 190 years of the Republic, and almost tripled it - in only 8 years.
The Big Lie of voodoo economics, bolstered with trickle-downdom are ideas only in the sense of their political fraudulence.
55
In my lifetime, the Party of Greed and Stupidity has never been a "party of ideas." Instead it has been a cult of superstitions. The first and most powerful superstition is an attachment to a worthless and vengeful Sky God who really watches out for his POGS. The second superstition is that economics is a magical playground. Tax cuts are all you need and the economy will hum right along. This belief in voodoo economics has always been false and destructive. The third superstition is that logic applies to other people but not to the Party of Greed and Stupidity. Abortion is wrong because we say it is, say the POGS. Logic is fine for science, but science is too much trouble it it asks us to respond to Global Warming. Let the eggheads deal with such hoaxes! Anyone who thinks Reagan had ideas, as Mr. Wehner seems to suggest, needs to read a serious Reagan biography. For Reagan it was superstition at the top and superstition all the way down.
80
"Self-renewal starts — but doesn’t end — with self-examination."
The defining feature of the Republican party is absolute resistance to self-examination. Just look at the completely un-self-aware presidential nominees they keep offering up.
The defining feature of the Republican party is absolute resistance to self-examination. Just look at the completely un-self-aware presidential nominees they keep offering up.
38
I do not think they want to reflect on the good of the country. The current Republican Party is at peace with a dictatorship that allows them to abuse and plunders. The country does not matter to them and people are just a commodity. And if we do not understand that and fight back, Trump is only the beginning.
Republicans enjoyed having attack dogs that they could disavow--Limbaugh, Hannity, Chafetz, Issa et al. They enjoyed calling names---Muslim, socialist and less polite terms. They enjoyed conspiracy theories--birtherism, climate change denial, Obama is gay, Hillary is a murderer etc. After all, it was a lot of fun to watch their attack dogs chew at Secretary Clinton and President Obama. Sure beats the hard work of responsible governance.
But it turned out that the circus became the reality for "the base" and Republicans now have a system in which winning the primary ensures that you will lose the election because the fringe is the base. So, to answer Governor Christie's complaint, a Republican candidate for President can neither be interested in ideas nor can they expect to win the election.
What is the solution: trust the voters to have intelligence. Cut out the social conservative stuff. Concentrate on the deficit. Stop reinforcing prejudice. Concentrate on the 90% of issues that you have in common with a good and decent and intelligent fellow like President Obama.
Right now Republicans acts like junior high school boys on the playground.
But it turned out that the circus became the reality for "the base" and Republicans now have a system in which winning the primary ensures that you will lose the election because the fringe is the base. So, to answer Governor Christie's complaint, a Republican candidate for President can neither be interested in ideas nor can they expect to win the election.
What is the solution: trust the voters to have intelligence. Cut out the social conservative stuff. Concentrate on the deficit. Stop reinforcing prejudice. Concentrate on the 90% of issues that you have in common with a good and decent and intelligent fellow like President Obama.
Right now Republicans acts like junior high school boys on the playground.
70
Republicans should start with a basic question -- are they Americans? The answer of course will be "yes." Then they must decide which comes first, party or country. If the latter, then doing what is best for the country is more important than working for 8 years to insure the president is a failure. Vitriol is no excuse for ignoring patriotism.
35
Some republicans have already outlined a program of obstructionist politics in the event of a Democratic victory.
32
What's good for the goose, is good for the gander! A Democratic Congress, to the most degree it can be changed this election, will prevent a continued Obstructionist Republican Congress! We the People would finally be able to get something beneficial happening!
Is there life during Trump?
Through this unspeakable mess of a campaign between two, to say the least, unappealing candidates, the thought occurs this fine and great country with its strong and courageous populace will survive.
This election debacle is not the Civil War.
Through this unspeakable mess of a campaign between two, to say the least, unappealing candidates, the thought occurs this fine and great country with its strong and courageous populace will survive.
This election debacle is not the Civil War.
4
It is difficult to decide whether T.S. Eliots's "The Hollow Men " or "The Second Coming" best describe the current GOP and it's presidential candidate. When Eliot says :
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity"
How can one not think of men like John McCain and Ted Cruz?
When Eliot speaks of:
"A gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun" and the "rough beast which slouches toward Bethlehem to be born" how can we not think of Donald Trump?
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity"
How can one not think of men like John McCain and Ted Cruz?
When Eliot speaks of:
"A gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun" and the "rough beast which slouches toward Bethlehem to be born" how can we not think of Donald Trump?
12
Yeats, not Eliot, but I take your point.
Your quotations come from the poem entitled "The Second Coming" which was written by William Butler Yeats, not by T. S. Eliot.
Susan, your reference to Eliot's "Hollow Men" is right on, but the following great and apt quotes were wrought by W.B. Yeats.
Wehner: "Of course, if Mr. Trump wins, it won’t simply be the Republican Party that faces its moment of reckoning. Our republic will, too. That worries me a great deal more, because I love my country far more than I love my party."
Unfortunately, PW, I fear you are in the minority. Wish that was not the case, for the sake of our country. Although you clearly have an interest in advancing the public/common good, that is not what is motivating a majority of Republicans in America, especially those holding public office.
Unfortunately, PW, I fear you are in the minority. Wish that was not the case, for the sake of our country. Although you clearly have an interest in advancing the public/common good, that is not what is motivating a majority of Republicans in America, especially those holding public office.
11
What the R party needs to do is accept some pain in the short term to get stronger in the long term. The center right must let the "freedom" caucus know that they will not be allowed to run the party. The extremes in the caucus are against any compromise to pass legislation. The center right will have to hold their noses and take the best deal they can get with Democratic support. This will be painful. It would accomplish two things for the long term: 1 They won't be able to be accused of failing to accomplish anything, with every issue brought to the brink, and 2 the tea baggers will see that they will be left out of the discussion if all they add is obstinacy and political purity. Eventually, after being marginalized, they will have to agree to be part of the messy wonderful way that policy is forged in this country. They mostly need to remember that Reagan felt if you get 75% of what you want, take it and fight again another day. But get something done. Admit there is a gray area between complete win and complete loss. That's what we call doing your job for the country, not for your party and not just for yourself.
9
Yeah, but you are voting for him, anyway.
7
No, he isn't. Back in January, he gave the reasons why:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/opinion/campaign-stops/why-i-will-neve...
Now, he still voted for Reagan, Bush I, and an unbelievable twice for Bush II, but he has at least drawn the line at Trump.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/opinion/campaign-stops/why-i-will-neve...
Now, he still voted for Reagan, Bush I, and an unbelievable twice for Bush II, but he has at least drawn the line at Trump.
1
Ah -- but I see now that he has said he won't vote for Clinton, either. In other words, he won't do the only thing that has a hope of preventing a Trump victory. And yet he claims to love country more than party. Hah. Some love.
Mr. Wehner, it's your actions that count. This op-ed piece is undermined by your apparent plan to write in a candidate, which is absolutely useless.
Mr. Wehner, it's your actions that count. This op-ed piece is undermined by your apparent plan to write in a candidate, which is absolutely useless.
1
No, given Peter Wehner's expressed opinions, it is clear that he will not vote for Donald Trump.
1
"The 2016 presidential campaign has revealed dark and disturbing things about not only Donald J. Trump but also the party that nominated him." Not the 1964 Goldwater campaign? Or the 1968 and 1972 Nixon campaigns? Or the 1980 Reagan campaign? Or maybe the 2000 Florida putsch and the 2004 Ohio shenanigans during W's campaigns? How many wake-up calls does it take for supposedly principled Republcians to realize that the party of Lincoln has been hijacked by reactionary racists hellbent on cutting taxes on the 1% and slashing the social safety net to the exclusion of everything else?
33
The GOP doesn't need reconstruction; it needs extinction.
18
Thoughts on Republicans and Democrats on election day Nov. 2016?
I do not think there is a particularly positive choice between the two parties; I do not think choosing one over the other will save America or put it on the right track or keep it on its course of progress or the like. I think the big takeaway from politics in 2016 is that the American educational system is a gigantic bubble in the economic sense, that it has not been doing over the decades what it claims not only that it can do but what it has been doing.
When people constantly call the Republican party anti-intellectual--this, the party of supposedly the white heartland of America--after decades of education, then obviously education is failing; apparently there is a limit to nurture over nature of humans or nurture has not been rigorously implemented. And if Democrats think they are off the hook, somehow obviously the party that embraces education, well that is just absurd, because they have been precisely the party that speaks loudest about the theory of nurture over nature, education, which has been failing.
If Democrats cannot succeed in educating white America first, then how are they going to deal with not only lagging whites but lagging minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics in America? It appears we have a gigantic educational failure disguised on one hand by Republican patriotism, religion, etc. and on the other by Democrats claiming to already be educated and capable of educating everyone.
I do not think there is a particularly positive choice between the two parties; I do not think choosing one over the other will save America or put it on the right track or keep it on its course of progress or the like. I think the big takeaway from politics in 2016 is that the American educational system is a gigantic bubble in the economic sense, that it has not been doing over the decades what it claims not only that it can do but what it has been doing.
When people constantly call the Republican party anti-intellectual--this, the party of supposedly the white heartland of America--after decades of education, then obviously education is failing; apparently there is a limit to nurture over nature of humans or nurture has not been rigorously implemented. And if Democrats think they are off the hook, somehow obviously the party that embraces education, well that is just absurd, because they have been precisely the party that speaks loudest about the theory of nurture over nature, education, which has been failing.
If Democrats cannot succeed in educating white America first, then how are they going to deal with not only lagging whites but lagging minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics in America? It appears we have a gigantic educational failure disguised on one hand by Republican patriotism, religion, etc. and on the other by Democrats claiming to already be educated and capable of educating everyone.
5
Americans educate rich and mid- to upper-middle class whites quite well. We do not educate lower-middle-class and poor people well, whatever their color. It is a matter of class and money, not race or ethnicity.
2
Without Republican obstructionism, Democrats would certainly be able to provide for us what is for our well-being and safety. Down ballot voting Democrat is our imperative.
The dilemma is that this failure is orchestrated and overseen by an overwhelmingly democratic teachers and administrators group, that is one of the most loyal democratic constituencies.
I argue that the dictum "follow the money" is the key to analyzing our political process and its conflicts. When campaigns spend more than a billion dollars, politicians are caught in a money trap. There are two ways to raise such large sums, get a lot of people to donate small amounts, or get a few people to donate large sums. The large donors expect returns on these investments, except for perhaps a few that are truly altruistic. The GOP seems to have adapted policies that cater to their large donors. Whether they truly believe trickle down economics or not, they do believe in enriching their donor class. Thus a plutocracy is the essential source of their quest for power. Mr. Sanders pursued the other strategy for fund raising. Until there is major campaign finance reform, the political process will struggle over its inherent conflicts.
4
THE POST TRUMP GOP Will have a life thoroughly Trumped by the Trumpenstein Monster. Imagine the wreckage of the nation were he elected. He's had 15 business failures and 4 bankruptcies. Trump has made sure to make a profit off of tax breaks, taking full advantage of all the GOP legislation passed to favor the 1% at great cost to the 99%. He derisively called that "being smart" and informed Hillary that what he had done was "called business." The GOP has been closed for the business of governance and legislation for many years. It has long been in a state of moral, intellectual and ethical bankruptcy. I, for one, don't believe that the dead will rise again. But those who continue to bow to the Union Jack have been going at it since the end of the Civil War. The South has risen again, with malice toward all. Look at the results.
6
For a moment I thought the bit in your comment about bowing to the Union Jack might be an allusion to Brexit. But could it be that you really mean the "stars and bars" of the Confederacy?
1
Your clarity of thought needs to be printed everywhere! Please visit every blogsite you can and just copy paste this comment! I hope you don't mind but giving you the credit, that is exactly what I will be doing.
"One of the appealing things to me about the Republican Party in the early 1980s, as a young conservative, was that it had become a party of ideas, of governing experiment." The GOP om the 1980's as the party of ideas? You are out of your mind. Was it the opposition to a woman's right to choose, or the courting of the religious right that you thought were great ideas? Or was the great idea to appeal to the lowest base instincts in some segments of the population, and be surprised when they took control of the party?
To be honest, I was once a Republican. I left the party in 1980 because I could not stand what Reagan was bringing into it. My family in Connecticut left it one by one, because the GOP has drifted further and further right over the last 40 years.
To be honest, I was once a Republican. I left the party in 1980 because I could not stand what Reagan was bringing into it. My family in Connecticut left it one by one, because the GOP has drifted further and further right over the last 40 years.
28
This column will not be read by the people whom it would most benefit, which signifies what might be the most pressing problem of all: the stranglehold conservative media has on the GOP's base and the nature of that media. As we can see from the rise of Trump-like figures all over Europe, said media can't be the sole factor in Trump's rise; but that's not to say it didn't play a major role in filling the People with paranoia and prejudice, and in nurturing anti-intellectualism.
Trump is indeed, as you wrote months ago, the man the Founders feared. The Republic was explicitly designed to prevent this from happening; and yet it did happen. That great beast, the American people, has been loosed upon the land. It thinks it knows what it wants but will end by running wild and destroying itself. We must make a great effort to tear the People away from our Ann Coulters and our Sean Hannitys, let alone our Alex Joneses.
What the world has not learned how to do is to prevent, during times of great economic anxiety, the rise of demagogues. Everyone knows that it happens, but that is not the point. The point is, What must be done, when another economic crisis strikes, as it inevitably will, to prevent another Trump? This question deserves more attention, I should think.
Perhaps because of central banks' actions we didn't get Great Depression 2.0. Perhaps that's why Mr. Trump is only mildly, as opposed to entirely, Hitlerian.
Trump is indeed, as you wrote months ago, the man the Founders feared. The Republic was explicitly designed to prevent this from happening; and yet it did happen. That great beast, the American people, has been loosed upon the land. It thinks it knows what it wants but will end by running wild and destroying itself. We must make a great effort to tear the People away from our Ann Coulters and our Sean Hannitys, let alone our Alex Joneses.
What the world has not learned how to do is to prevent, during times of great economic anxiety, the rise of demagogues. Everyone knows that it happens, but that is not the point. The point is, What must be done, when another economic crisis strikes, as it inevitably will, to prevent another Trump? This question deserves more attention, I should think.
Perhaps because of central banks' actions we didn't get Great Depression 2.0. Perhaps that's why Mr. Trump is only mildly, as opposed to entirely, Hitlerian.
14
I admit, you had me till I got here: "It is not as if the trends cited above were unknown to responsible Republicans and conservatives before the advent of Mr. Trump. They were, and some party loyalists challenged them at the time....."
No the did not. In fact, a straight line can be drawn from Barry "It's my diner and I'll decide who eats there" Goldwater, to Richard "Southern Strategy" Nixon, to St. Ronald "Young Buck & Welfare Queen" Reagan, to George H.W. "Willie Horton" Bush, to George W. "John McCain's illegitimate mulatto daughter" Bush, and finally onto Donald "No More Dog Whistles, Please" Trump.
I read all the conservative pundits & columnists I can of late; to the last, they claim to lament what has become of their beloved Republican Party. What they really lament, though, is the coalition they built is falling apart: the chickens no longer think that Colonel Sanders is on their side.
He never was. The base never was interested in lowering taxes on the rich, or slashing Medicare and Social Security. That's how you got the Conservative Entertainment Complex, who long ago figured out what the Republican base wanted.
And there is no equivalent on the left: Air America (RIP) and MSNBC don't compare to Rush or Hannity or O'Reilly or Beck.
No, Peter: it's your party and you can cry if you want to, but it's a half-century in the making.
No the did not. In fact, a straight line can be drawn from Barry "It's my diner and I'll decide who eats there" Goldwater, to Richard "Southern Strategy" Nixon, to St. Ronald "Young Buck & Welfare Queen" Reagan, to George H.W. "Willie Horton" Bush, to George W. "John McCain's illegitimate mulatto daughter" Bush, and finally onto Donald "No More Dog Whistles, Please" Trump.
I read all the conservative pundits & columnists I can of late; to the last, they claim to lament what has become of their beloved Republican Party. What they really lament, though, is the coalition they built is falling apart: the chickens no longer think that Colonel Sanders is on their side.
He never was. The base never was interested in lowering taxes on the rich, or slashing Medicare and Social Security. That's how you got the Conservative Entertainment Complex, who long ago figured out what the Republican base wanted.
And there is no equivalent on the left: Air America (RIP) and MSNBC don't compare to Rush or Hannity or O'Reilly or Beck.
No, Peter: it's your party and you can cry if you want to, but it's a half-century in the making.
45
Depends on what you call life. If Mrs. Clinton wins, we’ll most likely continue breathing, but, like the platypus, we won’t evolve. We will spend four MORE years in bootless faction. If Trump wins, we’ll see little progressive movement for four years, but we’ll move forward again – on taxes, regulation, immigration reform, national security … on many things. And that movement would not be unrelievedly conservative, because Trump is more a Democrat than a Republican in many ways.
Yet liberals would prefer to freeze solid for four MORE years rather than suffer any outcome that doesn’t further their agendas.
Things haven’t gone more “terribly awry” in the Republican Party than they have in the Democratic. We wouldn’t have the polarized standoff we have if not for the monumental hubris of undivided Democratic government during the 111th Congress, and Harry Reid’s subsequent obstructionism. Americans finally ended all that, but the damage had been done.
Peter’s romantic view of headier days is clouded. America in modern times ALWAYS had a strong taint of anti-intellectualism, regardless of party affiliation. And political recklessness is merely a sign of desperation at unacceptably dysfunctional government. Nativism and xenophobia are excessive but understandable reactions to an attenuation of culture and to the conviction by some that culture has no value.
I love my country far more than I love my party, too. But we must NOT tolerate four MORE years of political paralysis.
Yet liberals would prefer to freeze solid for four MORE years rather than suffer any outcome that doesn’t further their agendas.
Things haven’t gone more “terribly awry” in the Republican Party than they have in the Democratic. We wouldn’t have the polarized standoff we have if not for the monumental hubris of undivided Democratic government during the 111th Congress, and Harry Reid’s subsequent obstructionism. Americans finally ended all that, but the damage had been done.
Peter’s romantic view of headier days is clouded. America in modern times ALWAYS had a strong taint of anti-intellectualism, regardless of party affiliation. And political recklessness is merely a sign of desperation at unacceptably dysfunctional government. Nativism and xenophobia are excessive but understandable reactions to an attenuation of culture and to the conviction by some that culture has no value.
I love my country far more than I love my party, too. But we must NOT tolerate four MORE years of political paralysis.
8
The political paralysis, of course, is completely a product of congressional Republicans' refusal to work with President Obama in anyway shape or form. This refusal was announced from the moment he was selected by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, so it is not just a conjecture by me.
And your assertion that anti-intellectualism is a characteristic of the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party is simply unfounded. One party clearly embraces the well-established science regarding climate change, human reproduction, etc. While one party, the Republican Party,refuses to except it. It is also quite clear that the Republican Party has for years relied on soundbites and excoriated Democrats when they attempted to actually explain issues. New wants is something that Republicans simply refuse to acknowledge.
And your assertion that anti-intellectualism is a characteristic of the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party is simply unfounded. One party clearly embraces the well-established science regarding climate change, human reproduction, etc. While one party, the Republican Party,refuses to except it. It is also quite clear that the Republican Party has for years relied on soundbites and excoriated Democrats when they attempted to actually explain issues. New wants is something that Republicans simply refuse to acknowledge.
14
RE: "But we must NOT tolerate four MORE years of political paralysis."
True - which means we must vote straight Democrat in order to "clear the swamp" of the obstructionists that have dominated the landscape as so clearly illustrated by the past actions of the Republicans in Congress, and now government agencies, as well as the pronouncements of what the Republicans have in store should they not get their way in this election.
True - which means we must vote straight Democrat in order to "clear the swamp" of the obstructionists that have dominated the landscape as so clearly illustrated by the past actions of the Republicans in Congress, and now government agencies, as well as the pronouncements of what the Republicans have in store should they not get their way in this election.
18
"Trump stayed on message"...I heard them say......
Wow...give the guy a cookie
not the Presidency...it's not a toy.
Wow...give the guy a cookie
not the Presidency...it's not a toy.
7
Since the Republican Party has shown that it is completely bankrupt and unworthy of members like Mr. Wehner, the best and perhaps only thing Mr. Wehner and like minded folks can do is abandon the GOP and start a new Party. One that isn't in thrall to the alt-right, the KKK, racist, misogynistic, fundamentalist Christian supernaturalists and those seeking to return to a 1950's utopia that never existed in the first place.
They can work for an alternative to socialism that is right-centrist while understanding that listening to and working with people who may propose solutions other than the ones they espouse is the first step to meaningful creativity in dealing with the complex issues of the 21st century.
I think all of us, even the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, would welcome such a fair minded political group, a new Party from the burnt out ashes of the old Republican wasteland.
They can work for an alternative to socialism that is right-centrist while understanding that listening to and working with people who may propose solutions other than the ones they espouse is the first step to meaningful creativity in dealing with the complex issues of the 21st century.
I think all of us, even the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, would welcome such a fair minded political group, a new Party from the burnt out ashes of the old Republican wasteland.
26
What will the Republican Party do after the election? Just what it has said it will do: obstruct her every appointment to the courts, filibuster every piece of Democratic legislation, and proceed to hobble her administration with endless investigations.
72
And wait until we have Trump TV operated by Roger Ailes and Steven Bannon...
3
It's better than having them in the Cabinet
1
Mr. Wehner: We all know that Clinton will win. I truly hope she changes her ways in the White House, but that is a subject for another day. The middle class has had enough, as they have been left to wilt, and die by the elite of America. Trump represented hope for the middle class. He wasn't the answer but at least he represented hope.
I know the upper middle class and the rich and powerful find it hard to understand the middle class. They live check to check, decent healthcare is out of reach, no such thing as a vacation and saving money only involves the change jar in the kitchen.
Maybe the rich will give this some serious thought on their way to the Hamptons or Martha's Vineyard next summer but I doubt it.
I know the upper middle class and the rich and powerful find it hard to understand the middle class. They live check to check, decent healthcare is out of reach, no such thing as a vacation and saving money only involves the change jar in the kitchen.
Maybe the rich will give this some serious thought on their way to the Hamptons or Martha's Vineyard next summer but I doubt it.
10
Maybe time to change the ol' definition of middle class if 'living check to check' puts you in it.
Perhaps you mean aspirational middle class.
However, what you describe can be pilloried the same way people who are considered poor are: Do you have two cars? a flat screen t&v? etc???
are they more important than saving for retirement? more important than having a good health care plan?
Perhaps you mean aspirational middle class.
However, what you describe can be pilloried the same way people who are considered poor are: Do you have two cars? a flat screen t&v? etc???
are they more important than saving for retirement? more important than having a good health care plan?
4
Actually I was one of the lucky people who came up in a different time. Opportunities were available to me. I have a nice pension and I have never had to worry about healthcare costs or saving money. The point is that there are very few opportunities today, and simply receiving a cost of living increase doesn't exist in the private world anymore. Pensions don't exist. If 'aspiration" includes paying the monthly rent and the food bill then you may have a point.
3
The money not spent on a flat screen TV is not going to fund one's retirement. Also in NH not owning a car means not working for most of the state. Meaningful health insurance cost about 7 to 8 hundred dollars per month so lets do some math . Rent 1000.00/month, car 300.00 per month, health insurance 750.00/ month, food 600.00, everything else, you set a figure, the point being in order to save money one needs to earn enough to live first.
Such crocodile tears! It's as if the other Republican candidates were somehow reasonable compared to Mr. Trump. But he represents views that have been prevalent in that party for decades, he just delivers them with vulgarity. The anti-science, anti-intellectual, religiously extreme, anti- gender equality, xenophobic attitudes are nothing new, and for decades Republicans have been chomping at the bit to abolish or seriously undermine programs that serve the public good, such as Social Security and Medicare. The pretense of supporting the military is shared by Trump and his Republican colleagues. The only real difference with the self-proclaimed "party of ideas" is that Trump rails against free trade agreements, although anti-capitalist stances fit in with the xenophobic hyper nationalism of many within the party.
35
Trump has had an amazing unifying effect. I have agreed with Arthur Brooks, Ross Douthat and now Peter Wehner.
All I can say, Mr. Wehner, is where have you been?
We have been yelling about the anti-intellectualism for more than a few years, as we have watched partisans attack biology curriculums and AP history courses, even as they cut funding for Liberal Arts at our flagship public Universities. Sarah Palin is a distraction compared to that.
We have been yelling about recklessness since before a seriously large group from the GOP decided to vote to undermine the full faith and credit of the US, which would have had us default on debt. Isn't Trump, who thinks he can unilaterally force NATO to pay more, Mexico to build a wall, and China to stop exporting to us, just an extension of that reckless ignorance?
And Nativism? Xenophobia? Been yelling about that too. That is a result of both ignorant voters and a party willing to use illegal immigration as a cover for the real culprits in job loss - automation, and an enormous and cheap global labor market that will not go away.
None of these have been hidden issues, and yet is taken the natural culmination of the central rotten core of the GOP coalition - Donald Trump - to make it obvious to our conservative thinkers. What took y'all so long?
All I can say, Mr. Wehner, is where have you been?
We have been yelling about the anti-intellectualism for more than a few years, as we have watched partisans attack biology curriculums and AP history courses, even as they cut funding for Liberal Arts at our flagship public Universities. Sarah Palin is a distraction compared to that.
We have been yelling about recklessness since before a seriously large group from the GOP decided to vote to undermine the full faith and credit of the US, which would have had us default on debt. Isn't Trump, who thinks he can unilaterally force NATO to pay more, Mexico to build a wall, and China to stop exporting to us, just an extension of that reckless ignorance?
And Nativism? Xenophobia? Been yelling about that too. That is a result of both ignorant voters and a party willing to use illegal immigration as a cover for the real culprits in job loss - automation, and an enormous and cheap global labor market that will not go away.
None of these have been hidden issues, and yet is taken the natural culmination of the central rotten core of the GOP coalition - Donald Trump - to make it obvious to our conservative thinkers. What took y'all so long?
89
Wait, so doubling the national debt to 20 trillion dollars is not undermining the full faith and credit of the US government? Whew!
Mr. Wehner sounds as if he hasn't truly grasped the effect of Donald Trump, or the damage done to this country by GOP attitudes and actions since the end of the Reagan era.
Where have you been, Mr. Wehner? You've been diagnosing some problems but dancing around the elephant in the room which is: Republicans are so consumed with power they will destroy anything in their way to attain and keep it.
What do you say about the following:
1. obstructionism so severe as to shut down government
2. broken record tax policies that reward wealth accumulation not growth
3. social/religious policies that seem lifted straight from the mid-fifties
4. interventionist foreign policy based more on economic than patriotic goals
5. a goal of limited government, resulting in tax cuts (in states) and budget goals that cut basic human services
6. blind support for the NRA over the wishes of all citizens for much -needed safety measures.
Enter Trump, and things get worse: threats to block a Clinton administration's nomination of judges and justices; a refusal to accept election results; cries to put Hillary Clinton in prison, to be impeached without cause.
And you wonder how and why the GOP has gone astray? Mr. Wehner, the GOP offers the common man, as well as our many ethnic groups, absolutely nothing.
Until your party gets back to the role of government, including compromise to achieve the greater good of legislation and refutes "no-nothingism," it's doomed to extinction.
Where have you been, Mr. Wehner? You've been diagnosing some problems but dancing around the elephant in the room which is: Republicans are so consumed with power they will destroy anything in their way to attain and keep it.
What do you say about the following:
1. obstructionism so severe as to shut down government
2. broken record tax policies that reward wealth accumulation not growth
3. social/religious policies that seem lifted straight from the mid-fifties
4. interventionist foreign policy based more on economic than patriotic goals
5. a goal of limited government, resulting in tax cuts (in states) and budget goals that cut basic human services
6. blind support for the NRA over the wishes of all citizens for much -needed safety measures.
Enter Trump, and things get worse: threats to block a Clinton administration's nomination of judges and justices; a refusal to accept election results; cries to put Hillary Clinton in prison, to be impeached without cause.
And you wonder how and why the GOP has gone astray? Mr. Wehner, the GOP offers the common man, as well as our many ethnic groups, absolutely nothing.
Until your party gets back to the role of government, including compromise to achieve the greater good of legislation and refutes "no-nothingism," it's doomed to extinction.
295
We have to look no further than the rampant obstructionism throughout Obama's tenure, Ted Cruz's government shutdown and the hijacking of the Supreme Court to see that Trump is not unique, but rather that he represents the culmination of Republican "ideology."
My hope is that a thorough drubbing on Tuesday will make the Party of Lincoln reconsider its direction.
My hope is that a thorough drubbing on Tuesday will make the Party of Lincoln reconsider its direction.
23
All of what Mr. Wehner says was said in 2008 and 2012 as well. The GOP did its autopsy, promptly ignored the results and went on a continued rampage of scorched earth obstruction, appeals to racism and fear and mounting a concerted campaign of lies - about the economy, about healthcare, about Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton in particular. They will not change, in fact I expect them to get worse.
46
So the cost of ACA is roughly 20K per family per year going to 30K? Yup it looks like turning over our lives and economy to the liberals is the way to go!
1
"Our allegiance isn’t to a party; it is to a set of ideas and ideals, to the good of the whole."
The Republican Party has not shown a commitment to the good of the whole for three decades. So please tell that to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. And then boot them, the members of the so-called Freedom Caucus, and their obstructionist colleagues in the Senate out of office, so our government can get something done for a change.
The Republican Party has not shown a commitment to the good of the whole for three decades. So please tell that to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. And then boot them, the members of the so-called Freedom Caucus, and their obstructionist colleagues in the Senate out of office, so our government can get something done for a change.
24
In a previous column, you said you were not voting for Hillary Clinton. Is that still the case? Voting for her is the best way to stop Trump. Voting third party is a half step. Or, do you still love your party more than country?
Senator Rubio accused Obama of purposely undermining the country. Many senators have stated that they are essentially going to gut the Supreme Court. The House has held almost non-stop investigations into Clinton. Are you sure it's only Trump that's is in a different category?
Senator Rubio accused Obama of purposely undermining the country. Many senators have stated that they are essentially going to gut the Supreme Court. The House has held almost non-stop investigations into Clinton. Are you sure it's only Trump that's is in a different category?
210
If the back rooms Republicans started trying to figure out how to get rid of Barack Obama from his Inauguration Day onward, they will be having a hay day come January, 2017, won't they, as Hillary Clinton lays her hand on the Bible over at Capitol Hill?
But maybe, just maybe, they will figure out that little antic was a great part of their demise. After all, it got them one huuuuge problem and more in the end: Donald Trump. He stands for everything they seem to be. And it's not a "good thing" as Martha Stewart would say. Good riddance to Republicans and their party.
But maybe, just maybe, they will figure out that little antic was a great part of their demise. After all, it got them one huuuuge problem and more in the end: Donald Trump. He stands for everything they seem to be. And it's not a "good thing" as Martha Stewart would say. Good riddance to Republicans and their party.
13
Wasn't it the GOP Bobby Jindal was referring to when he said "we must stop being the stupid party"? Instead your party has doubled down on stupid.
As Dr. Phil would say, how's that been working out for you?
As Dr. Phil would say, how's that been working out for you?
28
Unfortunately, the Republican Party has become a haven for crazies, and although the roots of it go back much farther, the Tea Party was the first highly visible inkling that something was going terribly wrong. We all remember the picture of the woman with tea bags hanging from her hat...I mean, who DOES that kind of thing and expects to be taken seriously? Since then, the GOP has become a melting pot (how ironic) for every kind of unstable circus clown. I feel badly for Republicans who have lost their party to insanity, but see no other way to counter it other than by making a break and starting a new one. For all of our sakes, I wish you luck.
13
Republicans really need some counseling. You can't win the argument with those terrible, unworkable ideas. And that's what makes you reckless and xenophobic. Deep down you know that cutting taxes on the rich and selling your soul to corporations won't do the trick. And deep down you don't care. That's why you continue writing opinion pieces like this one.
We all need to be on the same team for a while. Stronger Together, as corny as it sounds, is really the only way. You Republicans need to give up your bad ideas. They're not going to help anyone.
We all need to be on the same team for a while. Stronger Together, as corny as it sounds, is really the only way. You Republicans need to give up your bad ideas. They're not going to help anyone.
16
Ouch!
The GOP gave control to its power to outside forces and now has totally lost its way. Can it find its way back? Doubtful. Can its lust for power allow it to take America down with it? Again that is doubtful. The FBI Took the bullet for the GOP when it seemed that the Dems were ready for a slam dunk, the only chance that the US had to address the US staying relevant to the issues facing the world.
Should Hillary arrive in the White House intact, she is still powerless or, at best, severely restrained at addressing the problems of America as she has to have support from at least a coalition of people on both sides. The GOP has sworn that it will never cooperate so that may spell the deepening doom ahead.
Just think, the people send a president to Administer and Execute the nation's business and all that the Congress does is obstruct. We the people send them all so, if we send the same old teams, can we expect any differences? Hillary needs help to do the job and the good ol boys need to go off the public payroll.
Should Hillary arrive in the White House intact, she is still powerless or, at best, severely restrained at addressing the problems of America as she has to have support from at least a coalition of people on both sides. The GOP has sworn that it will never cooperate so that may spell the deepening doom ahead.
Just think, the people send a president to Administer and Execute the nation's business and all that the Congress does is obstruct. We the people send them all so, if we send the same old teams, can we expect any differences? Hillary needs help to do the job and the good ol boys need to go off the public payroll.
9
I feel sorry for Mr. Wehner. While he has begun his long march back to reality and sanity he obviously does not realize just how far he has to go. All the traits he abhors and condemns in the current version of the Grand Old Pirates are simply the extreme expression of what started back in the 80's during the Reagan years.
Yeah. You got a long long ways to go Mr. Wehner.
Yeah. You got a long long ways to go Mr. Wehner.
23
"But somewhere along the way large numbers of Republicans began to devalue serious ideas."
A component of this anti-intellectualism is the refusal to acknowledge when an experiment has gone wrong, for example, trickle-down economics, an undeniable failure that is still championed by the contemporary GOP.
The mammoth issue not addressed in this column is the tactical decision of Republicans to co-opt evangelicals under the GOP banner. Many of these delusional people openly avow that God has selected Donald Trump as his instrument. You wanted religious fanatics? Well, now you've got them. Huge problem for "God's Own Party". Good luck with that one.
A component of this anti-intellectualism is the refusal to acknowledge when an experiment has gone wrong, for example, trickle-down economics, an undeniable failure that is still championed by the contemporary GOP.
The mammoth issue not addressed in this column is the tactical decision of Republicans to co-opt evangelicals under the GOP banner. Many of these delusional people openly avow that God has selected Donald Trump as his instrument. You wanted religious fanatics? Well, now you've got them. Huge problem for "God's Own Party". Good luck with that one.
42
Trickle down economics.......not that it doesn't work, but
the complete insult that the middle class should sit under the table in hopes
that crumbs fall their way......
And now Trump want's to see to it that the wealthy pay even less to
the society that they have been robbing blind since Reagan promoted
all those goodies for the top........The top does not share...Isn't that
clear by now?
the complete insult that the middle class should sit under the table in hopes
that crumbs fall their way......
And now Trump want's to see to it that the wealthy pay even less to
the society that they have been robbing blind since Reagan promoted
all those goodies for the top........The top does not share...Isn't that
clear by now?
3
“I love my country far more than I love my party.”
Peter Wehner’s excellent op-ed column ends with the phrase quoted above. Mr. Wehner’s column discusses the many faults and mistakes of the Republican Party which made it possible for an ignorant demagogue like Donald Trump to become its presidential nominee.
Mr. Wehner left out the most important flaw in the G.O.P. Very, very few Republicans can make the statement quoted above in all honesty.
Peter Wehner’s excellent op-ed column ends with the phrase quoted above. Mr. Wehner’s column discusses the many faults and mistakes of the Republican Party which made it possible for an ignorant demagogue like Donald Trump to become its presidential nominee.
Mr. Wehner left out the most important flaw in the G.O.P. Very, very few Republicans can make the statement quoted above in all honesty.
11
Neither does he. In his first anti-Trump op-ed, he also stated that, of course, he's not voting for Clinton. Voting third party is only half a measure to stopping Trump. If he really loved country over party, he would strongly endorse Clinton.
7
Perhaps a little introspection and humility would be in order. Nasty partisanship is not solely owned by one party. It has been alive and well across the political spectrum for as long as I can remember. It would serve us all well to acknowledge that when push comes to shove we are all Americans first (witness the post 9-11 unity). I have been a registered republican for most of my life, but have not identified myself by party affiliation in a dozen years. If anyone asks, I'm a citizen, a concerned citizen, who loves the idea of America. I think Wehner writes thoughtfully of the dilemma many conservatives find themselves in and it would be nice if our fellow Americans recognized that we are in this together and that casting stones while living in a glass house makes one look a bit foolish.
2
My only reservation about your sincerity, Alex Hawkins, comes from the false equivalency you urge to suggest that Democrats have been as much a party-first group as Republicans. They have not.
Putting that aside, may we assume that you have rejected Donald Trump and are casting your ballot for Hillary Clinton?
Putting that aside, may we assume that you have rejected Donald Trump and are casting your ballot for Hillary Clinton?
2
As awful as the political campaign season has been, the problems that lie beneath it are still going to be with us on Nov. 9 -- regardless of who wins. From my perspective, I hope Clinton wins, because that would at least confirm that a (slim?) majority of the population rejects the dystopian nightmare that Trump so often represents.
There is an article in the Guardian this weekend about Schenectady, NY and the mood that prevails in American cities that have lost their industrial base.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/06/general-electric-factory...
Having grown up in Schenectady during its period of peak prosperity, I recognize the sense of entitlement cited in the article: people assumed that they would move on to college -- or to jobs at GE -- as a matter of course. No one seemed to doubt the certainty that life as it was lived in high school -- not exactly rigorous -- would continue in the workplace, at whatever level: union or management.
Trump resonates with people who cling to the belief that the period of prosperity that lasted from WWII into the 1970's was the natural order: what every American deserves. And in a pinch, this belief argument seems to hinge on defining "real" Americans, vs. the wannabe immigrants.
Fact is, times have changed. Hoping so fervently that the majority of voters agree, and recognize that reality (or its closest approximation) is the best policy.
There is an article in the Guardian this weekend about Schenectady, NY and the mood that prevails in American cities that have lost their industrial base.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/06/general-electric-factory...
Having grown up in Schenectady during its period of peak prosperity, I recognize the sense of entitlement cited in the article: people assumed that they would move on to college -- or to jobs at GE -- as a matter of course. No one seemed to doubt the certainty that life as it was lived in high school -- not exactly rigorous -- would continue in the workplace, at whatever level: union or management.
Trump resonates with people who cling to the belief that the period of prosperity that lasted from WWII into the 1970's was the natural order: what every American deserves. And in a pinch, this belief argument seems to hinge on defining "real" Americans, vs. the wannabe immigrants.
Fact is, times have changed. Hoping so fervently that the majority of voters agree, and recognize that reality (or its closest approximation) is the best policy.
8
If your party is running on the premise that Americans do not deserve jobs or college (and that those things rightfully belong to illegal aliens!)...and that we should "give up" in this "brave new world" of no jobs, the welfare dole, and accepting a third rate existence....then frankly, there WILL arise a very angry new Conservative Party that will make you wistful for the old days of that crazy Donald Trump.
There´s no reason why the people currently representing the Republican party should be involved in politics, legislating hatred at such decibels it is deafening. If Trump has done one thing I like is that he has demonstrated who is the backbone of the Republican party and turned it into rubble -- with a little help from the alt-right media/press and his acolytes, every one who is as detestable as Trump himself.
Goodbye. Good riddance.
Goodbye. Good riddance.
14
You better believe there will be fallout for the Republican Party when this election is said and done.
People will still cling to the fact that their neighbors who put Donald Trump signs in their yards could really be the same neighbors they've known for years.
The same neighbors they thought were kind and caring really supported the vulgarity and cruelty and ugliness of Donald Trump and the boys. Unimaginable.
And those feelings will continue to instill hostility which will be aimed and accelerated toward the Republican Party on the whole. As Republicans like Paul Ryan, Jim Sensenbrenner, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker, assembled together on a rally stage exciting crowds after FBI Comey threatened "pertinent information" which was nothing more than a hill of beans, they look like fools.
Prior to Comey's letter, they were distancing themselves from Trump - but then exhibited their desperation by allowing the Comey announcement to light their fire, falsely, and just shows their unreachable, long gone integrity on any level anymore.
The Republican Party is a bunch of fools. Christie, Giuliani, Trump, Walker, Ryan, McConnell, Pence, McCain, Rubio, and all of them - they might as well retreat to the boys' locker room. That's where they belong. That's disgustingly who they are. Vulgar, classless boys, talking dirty. Even Melania depicts that.
People will still cling to the fact that their neighbors who put Donald Trump signs in their yards could really be the same neighbors they've known for years.
The same neighbors they thought were kind and caring really supported the vulgarity and cruelty and ugliness of Donald Trump and the boys. Unimaginable.
And those feelings will continue to instill hostility which will be aimed and accelerated toward the Republican Party on the whole. As Republicans like Paul Ryan, Jim Sensenbrenner, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker, assembled together on a rally stage exciting crowds after FBI Comey threatened "pertinent information" which was nothing more than a hill of beans, they look like fools.
Prior to Comey's letter, they were distancing themselves from Trump - but then exhibited their desperation by allowing the Comey announcement to light their fire, falsely, and just shows their unreachable, long gone integrity on any level anymore.
The Republican Party is a bunch of fools. Christie, Giuliani, Trump, Walker, Ryan, McConnell, Pence, McCain, Rubio, and all of them - they might as well retreat to the boys' locker room. That's where they belong. That's disgustingly who they are. Vulgar, classless boys, talking dirty. Even Melania depicts that.
161
You are failing to understand what gave us Trump, it is NAFTA pure and simple. The religious nonsense is just noise. The issue is, as it always is, wages and futures.
1
I am sorry to hear this reasonable voice in the desert. Where are the Republican leaders who should be disawowing Trump in public, as his nomination represents a major risk for constitutional democracy? The silence and omission of the Bush family speaks volumes...
11
The Bushes are dead to Republicans today and will remain in the wilderness for generations. Their actions and words have revealed their attitude towards the common voters, that they were members of an elite who thought they owned the party and could do with it as they wish. Nothing exemplified that attitude more than their belief that their family could and should produce three presidents. While the father was certainly a fairly good president W angered almost as many Republicans as he did Democrats. He will remembered as the president who dragged us into an unending conflict in the Middle East. He will also be remembered for not honoring a commitment he'd made to support the party's nominee. His brother came across as lacking commitment to principles that are the embodiment of Republican principles.
To withhold a vote for the party's nominee can be seen as a protest. To vote for the other side is treason.
I'm sure they're plotting a new faction to further undermine the Republican Party. Who needs them?
To withhold a vote for the party's nominee can be seen as a protest. To vote for the other side is treason.
I'm sure they're plotting a new faction to further undermine the Republican Party. Who needs them?
3
@NYHUGENOT: what you said. The Bushes are absolutely dead to me. Jeb (!) has signed his political death warrant; he can't ever run again for any office. The stink of failure is all over him.
Let's be honest here: the Bushes stabbed Trump in the back because they were furious about Jeb (!) screwing up so badly. They did think they were an elite, entitled to 3 Presidents in one family. And yes, they did renege on a promise to support the nominee of the Party -- you know, the guy who won all the votes?
Whatever respect I had for Poppy Bush was lost absolutely 100% when he announced he was voting for Hillary.
Let's be honest here: the Bushes stabbed Trump in the back because they were furious about Jeb (!) screwing up so badly. They did think they were an elite, entitled to 3 Presidents in one family. And yes, they did renege on a promise to support the nominee of the Party -- you know, the guy who won all the votes?
Whatever respect I had for Poppy Bush was lost absolutely 100% when he announced he was voting for Hillary.
1
Another thoughtful analysis, by a principled Republican that will go exactly nowhere come November 9. Mr. Wehner remembers the 80s as a time when the Republicans were a "party of ideas, of governing experiment." The problem with that is most of those ideas have been proven wrong time and time again, and yet they can't seem to move on from them. Supply-side economics doesn't work. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not lead to revenue growth. Global climate change is real and is mostly driven by human activity. The Republican party long ago staked out ideological, pseudo-intellectual positions on these and many other issues that they are unable to disavow. To change a policy position on these issues requires that they admit they have been wrong for a very long time, which is difficult to do. In other words their "Anti-intellectualism" comes less from a recent dis-interest in engaging in the argument, than it does from an unwillingness to admit that they long ago lost the argument.
20
The only way to move forward is to elect a Democratic President and Senate and hope for the best. This election showed the seedy side of America and it will take Republican action to move the Country forward. In a two party system you need two healthy parties or else you are left with what we have observed over the last twelve months. The first step for the Republican Party is to stop trying to make our Democracy into a Theocracy. Step 2, stop dealing in conspiracy theories and hatred. Step 3, provide solutions to problems we face that are based in fact. The bar has been set so low for The Republican Party it's hard for me to imagine the Republican Party's reputation not improving over the next four years. I hope it does for the good of our democracy.
202
As I said elsewhere there is no hope for the Republican Party. Honest patriots must abandon this sham institution and create a new Party of rational right-centrist thinkers.
Your comment about abandoning theocracy is certainly in the forefront of necessary reform.
Your comment about abandoning theocracy is certainly in the forefront of necessary reform.
1
"The only way to move forward is to elect a Democratic President and Senate and hope for the best."
Yep. A Dem senate will let Hillary wean the supreme court of reactionaries so that when redistricting comes around in 2020, gerrymandering can be moderated somewhat. The GOP needs to be blasted to pieces and then hopefully the honest members can reaggregate into a political party that does not represent war crimes, racism, sexism.
Yep. A Dem senate will let Hillary wean the supreme court of reactionaries so that when redistricting comes around in 2020, gerrymandering can be moderated somewhat. The GOP needs to be blasted to pieces and then hopefully the honest members can reaggregate into a political party that does not represent war crimes, racism, sexism.
3
Ha! The only thing worse than the Republican Party is the Democratic Party, at least the Republicans are honest. NAFTA and corporate rule gave us Trump. Capitalism is dead. Money in politics killed the Republican Party, and it remade the Democratic Party into corporatists.
Anyone championing the Democratic Party as the savior of the people did not read Podesta's emails or the text of Clinton's Wall Street speeches.
Anyone championing the Democratic Party as the savior of the people did not read Podesta's emails or the text of Clinton's Wall Street speeches.
One one of the most irrational beliefs is the idea that humans are driven by reason or knowledge
7
I'm sorry but this apology is way too shallow; its timeline too truncated. I lived through the conservative ferment of the 1970's and 80's, and its anti-intellectualism was evident from the first - ideology presented as radical ideas.
When a political idea fails (small government, trickle-down economics) intellectuals would reassess and alter their approach. Instead we have had the Republican Party double-down on their failures for a generation.
I'm hoping the Millennials can lead us out of this mess. I have no expectation that Republicans will reform themselves. The line from Mr. Reagan to Mr. Trump runs pretty straight and true. Anti-intellectualism, political recklessness (need I say Iran-Contra), and white-guyism - racism, anti-feminism, nativism and xenophobia have been promoted all along.
When a political idea fails (small government, trickle-down economics) intellectuals would reassess and alter their approach. Instead we have had the Republican Party double-down on their failures for a generation.
I'm hoping the Millennials can lead us out of this mess. I have no expectation that Republicans will reform themselves. The line from Mr. Reagan to Mr. Trump runs pretty straight and true. Anti-intellectualism, political recklessness (need I say Iran-Contra), and white-guyism - racism, anti-feminism, nativism and xenophobia have been promoted all along.
20
Thank you, Mr. Wehner, for your willingness to begin the conversation. I respect anyone who is willing to come to the table and discuss ideas and issues.
I am also seriously concerned about the anti-intellectualism (which has now caught deep and vigorous root in the alt-right soil) that has continued to drown out rational journalist's voices for more than a decade.
But the inexorable demon that has long plagued the American Conservative movement is the twice-failed experiment of a "Non-Federalist Confederacy." The perpetual myth that states rights matter more than national needs is not novel, and it is not recent. The near canonization of Jefferson, without the harsh assessment of the "States First" approach that he and the other leaders from the south championed, fashioned our first national failure.
The demise of the Articles of Confederation (1777-1789), and the adoption of our current Constitution was an exercise in self-sacrifice and acceptance of compromise. Yes, it also left festering wounds that became the Civil War, and the second failure of a Confederacy to the superior model of the Republic.
Can you imagine Jason Chavetz or Mitch McConnell being willing to put aside their petty grasps at personal fiefdoms and step up to the table to negotiate a different way forward?
Find me minds who can accept their responsibility, combined with the conviction of knowing that such responsibility may lead to the loss of an election. Then we can truly move forward.
I am also seriously concerned about the anti-intellectualism (which has now caught deep and vigorous root in the alt-right soil) that has continued to drown out rational journalist's voices for more than a decade.
But the inexorable demon that has long plagued the American Conservative movement is the twice-failed experiment of a "Non-Federalist Confederacy." The perpetual myth that states rights matter more than national needs is not novel, and it is not recent. The near canonization of Jefferson, without the harsh assessment of the "States First" approach that he and the other leaders from the south championed, fashioned our first national failure.
The demise of the Articles of Confederation (1777-1789), and the adoption of our current Constitution was an exercise in self-sacrifice and acceptance of compromise. Yes, it also left festering wounds that became the Civil War, and the second failure of a Confederacy to the superior model of the Republic.
Can you imagine Jason Chavetz or Mitch McConnell being willing to put aside their petty grasps at personal fiefdoms and step up to the table to negotiate a different way forward?
Find me minds who can accept their responsibility, combined with the conviction of knowing that such responsibility may lead to the loss of an election. Then we can truly move forward.
9
Rick Santorum and his comment about 'intellectual snobs.
1
It may sound and feel good to say it, but sorry Mr. Wehner, your notion the modern Republican Party was ever a party of ideas is as fantastical nonsense as any utterance made by Donald Trump, unless of course you are talking about ideas to win elections by pandering to worst hate and ignorance that exists and apparently runs awfully wide and deep among many American voters.
I'm still waiting for someone on the right to try explaining the rightwing's big idea behind the "Southern Strategy" if it wasn't back then and still is now about winning elections. And just how long and how badly does trickle-down-tax-cuts-for-the-rich have to be proven wrong before it stops being the rightwing's basic economic policy?
Lets get one thing straight, Donald Trump is no outliar to the Republican party; he is the very essence of everything the Party has stood for and used to pander to voters for half a century except with the veneer of high sounding code words and the village idiot as the mouth piece.
I'm still waiting for someone on the right to try explaining the rightwing's big idea behind the "Southern Strategy" if it wasn't back then and still is now about winning elections. And just how long and how badly does trickle-down-tax-cuts-for-the-rich have to be proven wrong before it stops being the rightwing's basic economic policy?
Lets get one thing straight, Donald Trump is no outliar to the Republican party; he is the very essence of everything the Party has stood for and used to pander to voters for half a century except with the veneer of high sounding code words and the village idiot as the mouth piece.
34
Is there any longer a reason for the Republican Party to exist? It's leaders and financial backers can't tolerate the talk radio wing of the party and they, in turn, have nothing but contempt for the Republican establishment. Everyone knows what a conservative is, but few could describe what the term Republican even means. The Republican Party is, in fact, now two separate parties attempting unsuccessfully to coexist.
The simplest solution is for the party establishment and financial backers to abandon the party to its most conservative elements and form a new party around a core group of explainable, centrist principles. Some might argue this would mean giving up the field to Democrats. Perhaps not. There are substantial numbers of Democrats who are not part of the progressive movement who are held in the party only by their disdain for an increasingly far right Republican alternative. A new party would be a safe haven for them.
Three healthy parties trumps (excuse the phrase) two. Even if the new party had the fewest senators and congressmen any legislation would require its support. With the financial backing removed from what was left of the Republican Party it would be weakened, as would a Democratic Party which would lose many of the unaffiliated voters who now give it their tepid backing.
There is a better way, a third way, now we just have to be bold enough to take it.
The simplest solution is for the party establishment and financial backers to abandon the party to its most conservative elements and form a new party around a core group of explainable, centrist principles. Some might argue this would mean giving up the field to Democrats. Perhaps not. There are substantial numbers of Democrats who are not part of the progressive movement who are held in the party only by their disdain for an increasingly far right Republican alternative. A new party would be a safe haven for them.
Three healthy parties trumps (excuse the phrase) two. Even if the new party had the fewest senators and congressmen any legislation would require its support. With the financial backing removed from what was left of the Republican Party it would be weakened, as would a Democratic Party which would lose many of the unaffiliated voters who now give it their tepid backing.
There is a better way, a third way, now we just have to be bold enough to take it.
5
Could a right wing moderate please start another party!!! This is a statement not a question. I would do it but I'm a Bernie left winger. You moderates do not even have the guts to abandon ship on the crazy ship that is being commanded now by Trump, Pence, Cruz, and company, which is the reason why Trump is so popular. Right winged moderates are gutless and Trump called you all on it.
8
Eight years ago, when the first black man entered the White House, the dormant racism surfaced, and today the author is scratching his head, wondering where Trump came from? Sir, representatives of your party should no longer be allowed within a 20 miles radius of any government building.
19
Peter Wehner detests Trump, but fecklessly.
I suggest to follow the advice of Conan the Barbarian. Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women (OK, maybe we draw the line at that, Conan was so '80s)
I suggest to follow the advice of Conan the Barbarian. Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women (OK, maybe we draw the line at that, Conan was so '80s)
1
Vote for Hillary Clinton
7
Despite being a life-long Democrat, I responded to your honesty and to your pain. My father--who described himself as the only union Republican in Chicago--was a convinced Republican, but that meant Taft and Eisenhower. What your argument lacks is leaders who can inspire, get our respect. Instead, you give us goofballs like Marco Rubio--and the party of Lincoln. Lincoln would not, for an instant, recognize the modern Republican Party. He was a Whig, who created the Republican party because the Whigs wouldn't give him his way on slavery. Still, that was a principled stand. Where is your cohort? Paul Ryan? Mitch McConnell? Complete boobs. Finally, there must be a leader, not an obstructionist, who commands respect across the political spectrum. Where is he (or she?). Maybe it's you.
9
We've heard this fantasy before.
The GOP will conclude that Trump wasn't ""conservative enough."
Bet the rent, and watch your wallet.
The GOP will conclude that Trump wasn't ""conservative enough."
Bet the rent, and watch your wallet.
16
In reality, Trump is a populist "wild card". He's not even a real Republican, and was a Democrat most of his life.
In the same way that Bernie Sanders was not a "real Democrat" and only joined the party last fall in order to qualify to run. Sanders is a lifelong Socialist.
Yet many liberals would LOVED to see Sanders on the ticket. He just didn't have the "fire in the belly" to stick out a long, tough race.
Trump did. Trump made mincemeat of 16 other candidates, some of whom were highly favored with huge financial backing.
What Trump did was amazing and magnificent. It will be studied by upstart politicians and grassroots groups for a generation or more....he came from nowhere, with no money and no backing, and WON THE NOMINATION....spending less money than anyone in recent history....and now within a hair's breath of the White House. It is not even impossible he will pull out a last minute victory. And all without even being a politician, or having won a single political office.
To ignore that, is to ignore history and the American people...at your peril.
In the same way that Bernie Sanders was not a "real Democrat" and only joined the party last fall in order to qualify to run. Sanders is a lifelong Socialist.
Yet many liberals would LOVED to see Sanders on the ticket. He just didn't have the "fire in the belly" to stick out a long, tough race.
Trump did. Trump made mincemeat of 16 other candidates, some of whom were highly favored with huge financial backing.
What Trump did was amazing and magnificent. It will be studied by upstart politicians and grassroots groups for a generation or more....he came from nowhere, with no money and no backing, and WON THE NOMINATION....spending less money than anyone in recent history....and now within a hair's breath of the White House. It is not even impossible he will pull out a last minute victory. And all without even being a politician, or having won a single political office.
To ignore that, is to ignore history and the American people...at your peril.
Thank you for articulating what could be the basis for redemption of the Republican party. They have done tremendous damage by dividing our nation and undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process. But it will not be enough if they become a "party of ideas" unless those ideas are based on science and data. Much of the Republic platform is based on magical thinking. They are hostile to science and data, whether that is about climate change or gun violence or early childhood education, because it will inevitably lead them to policies that they are ideologically hostile to: the need for government intervention. The roots of Trump go back to Reagan and his branding government as the problem and faith in wishful thinking.
6
No longer anything even remotely resembling a vocation or "calling," politics has become an extremely lucrative and "cushy" career for many of our elected representatives, and it is to be held onto at any cost. This is not just true of the GOP, but with their well-documented determination to obstruct the Obama Presidency from day one, whatever the cost to their constituents and the country, they have been the worst offenders. Their members have shut down the government and prevented even the enactment of laws to combat the Zika Virus to be passed, they have pledged craven fealty to the likes of Grover Norquist, bypassed our President and invited foreign heads of state to address our Congress, expressed support for people like Kim Davis or the Bundys who seek openly to defy our legal institutions, and have shirked their most basic constitutional responsibilities in illegally refusing to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court. Lastly, they have aided and abetted the candidacy of a dangerous demagogue whom they know to be unsuited in every way to hold high office. To have watched them flail about for the past months while they calculated whether supporting Donald Trump or disavowing him would win them more political capital with his deluded supporters, has been one of the most depressing and sickening spectacles of my lifetime. We must elect representatives who place America before Party and personal gain. Vote!
8
Calm down. There was life before Donald Trump said those immortal words "I'm running for president" and there will be life once again on November 9 regardless of the election results. However it pays to remember that losing GOP presidential candidates don't handle defeat gracefully. Therefore expect Trump to make snide remarks about a "rigged system" and "Crooked Hillary" should he be forced to concede. Should the GOP retain control of the House and the Senate President Hillary Clinton is going to have a really tough time getting anything through the still Republican controlled House and Senate. Her potential Supreme Court nominees will spend their time cooling their heels in front of Mitch McConnell's locked office door. (Please let Chuck Schumer become the new Majority Leader so sanity can be restored to the Senate). At the rate things are going the Supreme Court will cease to exist by 2030. There is no way the Republicans will ever acknowledge Hillary Clinton as a legitimate president and GOP lawmakers are going to find any excuse to draw up articles of impeachment against her. It doesn't matter that the FBI finally cleared her in the email crisis--Republicans will be in a "take no prisoners" attack mood. Fasten your seatbelts--it's going to be a very bumpy four years.
4
Part of anti-intellectualism is rejecting the scientific method as a source of understanding, as in the denial of global warming as a danger to humanity. Part of political recklessness is destroying political traditions for transient political gain, as in the routine use of the filibuster or budget grandstanding or refusal to approve appointments. Part of appealing to nativism and xenophobia is the Southern strategy started by Reagan in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
If the Republican Party is to clean itself up, it must address these parts of its three destructive trends. Mr. Wehner's list of fundamental questions is careful to omit them, which shows that he will not be contributing much to the cleanup and will be blocking it if it gets close to what really needs to be cleaned up.
The party also needs to come up with an honest assessment of dubya, or at least start mentioning him in public. It is pathetic to criticize the slowness of the Obama recovery without mentioning from what it was a recovery, for example, but it is standard in Republican discussions to treat 2008 as a year zero which somehow sprang into existence as if it were an example of creation ex nihilio.
If the Republican Party is to clean itself up, it must address these parts of its three destructive trends. Mr. Wehner's list of fundamental questions is careful to omit them, which shows that he will not be contributing much to the cleanup and will be blocking it if it gets close to what really needs to be cleaned up.
The party also needs to come up with an honest assessment of dubya, or at least start mentioning him in public. It is pathetic to criticize the slowness of the Obama recovery without mentioning from what it was a recovery, for example, but it is standard in Republican discussions to treat 2008 as a year zero which somehow sprang into existence as if it were an example of creation ex nihilio.
11
You say "I love my country far more than I love my party". Unfortunately the same cannot be said for most republicans.
- anti-science
- damaging the country is less important than seeing Obama fail
- racist
Until the republican party is represented by and elects reasonable, fair-minded, patriotic people who are open to compromise I see your party as a danger to the country.
Either reform the republican party or leave it.
- anti-science
- damaging the country is less important than seeing Obama fail
- racist
Until the republican party is represented by and elects reasonable, fair-minded, patriotic people who are open to compromise I see your party as a danger to the country.
Either reform the republican party or leave it.
14
The Republican Party is not a conservative party: they are radicals. The only solution is to crush them in the ballot box. Not just now, but for a decade or two. real conservativism can only be restored if the Republican Party is busted down to its constituent atoms. A long-time conservative, I will be voting straight party Democratic for the next 1-2 decades at least.
278
Hey McFly, Clinton is a corporatist center right Republican. Our only hope died with Bernie's exit, in a system rigged by the Democratic Party and the NYT.
2
Rigged? 16.9 million votes to 13.2 million is rigged?
1
No mention here of 8 years of relentless obstructionism, I notice.
455
Mr. Wehner appears to think he is a Republican. I am not sure why.
17
That puzzles me too. He is clearly NOT a conservative nor a Republican. Just like David Brooks and Ross Douthat, at some point they got very liberal. And they are RINOs.
It makes no sense to me. If you wake up some morning, and find you disagree 100% with your party .... CHANGE PARTIES.
People change parties all the time, so this is no big deal. You can change literally every time you vote!
It's not like some genetic DNA thing, deep in your soul.
The NYT seems to be aggressing courting such RINOs, to get them to post columns bashing Trump OR claiming "the GOP is dead". This is all very partisan and ideological. But it doesn't represent the vast majority of conservatives OR Republicans.
It makes no sense to me. If you wake up some morning, and find you disagree 100% with your party .... CHANGE PARTIES.
People change parties all the time, so this is no big deal. You can change literally every time you vote!
It's not like some genetic DNA thing, deep in your soul.
The NYT seems to be aggressing courting such RINOs, to get them to post columns bashing Trump OR claiming "the GOP is dead". This is all very partisan and ideological. But it doesn't represent the vast majority of conservatives OR Republicans.
As the mantle of political dominance passes from baby boomers to Millennials the Republican Party must do three things to remain a viable force in American politics.1) reject the dogma of intolerance reflected in its stands on social issues. It must abandon attempts to overturn Roe v Wade and deny equal status to the LGBT community. Millennials overwhelmingly support a woman's right to choose and total legal equality in gender orientation. 2) Abandon its practice of attempting to delegitimize and demonize its political opponents. The Birther issue concerning Barack Obama was insidious and contained a strong aroma of racism. Millennials have no tolerance for bigotry.Hillary Clinton is not a crook 3) Its serial distortion of facts must end. Global Warming is a scientific reality. Voter fraud is almost non existent. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment doesn't include the right to discriminate. PPH's primary function is health care for low income women not abortion.
52
All too true, but then Climate Change is only the most recent scientific fact that Republicans deny. Many of them (most?) still don't believe in Evolution. After all, it's only a Theory...
2
Good luck, you and the few moderate Republicans left in the party might want to start by cultivating younger voters. Because the old white base will never, ever accept any of your ideas. Ever.
75
the point is it doesn't matter. in the forseable future i cant see the Democrat's losing the presidency, conversely, with the gerrymandered seats i cant see Republicans ever losing congress now unless boundaries are dramatically redrawn. this leave the crap shoot of the Senate and this is where the Democrats have to focus. .
3
Supporters of Mr. Trump are ardent Republicans and Conservatives. We do not believe positive outcomes develop because of the progressive agenda. We stand, not necessarily for Trump, but for fighting abortion, increasing military, revising or eliminating the failed Affordable Care Act, Charter schools to replace our failing overly-financed failed public schools, etc. We want small government because progressive innovations and big spending a great country doesn't make.
3
As a non-Republican, I read this with a great deal of interest...and feel I can sum up your argument succinctly: either the GOP will rebuild itself as a party that believes in the Constitution and its principles, or it will throw out the Constitution and replace it with...the Bible?...the Art of War?...The Prince?...Mein Kampf?
The U.S. Constitution is a magnificent document that authorizes and acknowledges individual freedoms for citizens of all races, sexual orientations, genders, social statuses, economic statuses, ages, abilities (or disabilities), etc.
Since Reagan, the Republican party has increasingly thrown out the Constitution as a basis for its beliefs, its work methods, its respect (or lack thereof) of those across the aisle, and its treatment of any "others" who do not meet the criteria outlined in various assorted documents from the Bible to NRA propaganda sheets to white supremacist literature, ad nauseum.
The Republican party has become one big lie - it claims to love the Constitution while ignoring it, it claims to be a party for all while favoring rich white males, it claims to possess intellectuals but elects morons, it says it wants to govern when all it really wants is unbridled power, it says it believes in personal industry while Mitch McConnell tells the President he won't do his job until the legally-elected President is gone...you get the picture.
But it all starts with the Constitution, and the umbrella that document provides to ALL its citizens.
The U.S. Constitution is a magnificent document that authorizes and acknowledges individual freedoms for citizens of all races, sexual orientations, genders, social statuses, economic statuses, ages, abilities (or disabilities), etc.
Since Reagan, the Republican party has increasingly thrown out the Constitution as a basis for its beliefs, its work methods, its respect (or lack thereof) of those across the aisle, and its treatment of any "others" who do not meet the criteria outlined in various assorted documents from the Bible to NRA propaganda sheets to white supremacist literature, ad nauseum.
The Republican party has become one big lie - it claims to love the Constitution while ignoring it, it claims to be a party for all while favoring rich white males, it claims to possess intellectuals but elects morons, it says it wants to govern when all it really wants is unbridled power, it says it believes in personal industry while Mitch McConnell tells the President he won't do his job until the legally-elected President is gone...you get the picture.
But it all starts with the Constitution, and the umbrella that document provides to ALL its citizens.
131
What surprises the world is there has not yet been a 'million person march' in Washington D.C. of Americans demanding an end to the gross negligence of Congress in meeting their duty to fulfil the wish of 'we the people'. It is your congress members who are defying the will of the American people. Tell them that.
155
Mr Wehner: Where have you been for the past 25 years? The "destructive trends" that you trenchantly describe have been fomenting within your party for MORE than just a decade.
- Sarah Palin's anti-intellectualism didn't come from out of nowhere; it traces back to the early years of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
- Republican's intransigence didn't start with Ted Cruz; it began with Newt Gingrich in 1995.
- The current nativism and xenophobia didn't arise in a vacuum; your party has demonized the rights of "others" (e.g. women, minorities, and the GLBT community) all along. Remember the Moral Majority and the Culture Wars?
- Should we even mention Kenneth Starr?
Your column admits to many truths. However, your claim that "Even liberal critics... have to concede [that Trump] is in a different category than the nominees who preceded him" is specious. While you may not have *nominated* many wackos, your party has certainly given them undue credibility and power all along.
"Those of us who have long defended the Republican Party could do worse than honestly assess what role we might have played in all this, what we missed and why, and what more we could have done to stop it."
Sorry, but your new-found self-reflection rings hollow. There have been plenty of warning signs along the way, which you and your fellow "thoughtful" Republicans ignored.
Indeed, you all have been guilty of one of the most common crimes seen throughout human history: the complicity of silence.
- Sarah Palin's anti-intellectualism didn't come from out of nowhere; it traces back to the early years of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
- Republican's intransigence didn't start with Ted Cruz; it began with Newt Gingrich in 1995.
- The current nativism and xenophobia didn't arise in a vacuum; your party has demonized the rights of "others" (e.g. women, minorities, and the GLBT community) all along. Remember the Moral Majority and the Culture Wars?
- Should we even mention Kenneth Starr?
Your column admits to many truths. However, your claim that "Even liberal critics... have to concede [that Trump] is in a different category than the nominees who preceded him" is specious. While you may not have *nominated* many wackos, your party has certainly given them undue credibility and power all along.
"Those of us who have long defended the Republican Party could do worse than honestly assess what role we might have played in all this, what we missed and why, and what more we could have done to stop it."
Sorry, but your new-found self-reflection rings hollow. There have been plenty of warning signs along the way, which you and your fellow "thoughtful" Republicans ignored.
Indeed, you all have been guilty of one of the most common crimes seen throughout human history: the complicity of silence.
352
If it wins, my wife and I are starting over. In another country. Sayonara, suckers.
2
Thank you for this candid and thoughtful piece. I agree with you about the destructive trends you cite. I would add one more trend that was in evidence in your party long before Trump: deceitful, manipulative and bullying tactics.
For example: If a candidate, etc. is doing something it could be called on, immediately accuse the dems of it. Then, if the dems say, "well what about you?", then it looks like they're whining or dodging. And then there are all the lies, Swiftboat and the like, robocalls to misinform voters about voting procedures, or robocalls at 3am that claim they are on behalf of the dems. Etc. Not to mention the redistricting and the voter suppression tactics. And the ad hominem attacks and comportment reminiscent of a middle school playground.
The exact start of this also goes back a ways. But it got into higher gear with Karl Rove and jumped up another notch with the Tea Party. And it has proved to work extremely well for your party, as there are a lot of unreflective people out there who will just eat what they are served--an advantage of the anti-intellectualism you've encouraged.
This has put the Democratic party in a bind: When they've taken the high road, your party's lies and the manipulation have been believed by the public, and they've often lost. And when they've pushed back, as the Clinton campaign has done with Trump, they've had to descend into the same kind of nastiness that your party served over the net.
For example: If a candidate, etc. is doing something it could be called on, immediately accuse the dems of it. Then, if the dems say, "well what about you?", then it looks like they're whining or dodging. And then there are all the lies, Swiftboat and the like, robocalls to misinform voters about voting procedures, or robocalls at 3am that claim they are on behalf of the dems. Etc. Not to mention the redistricting and the voter suppression tactics. And the ad hominem attacks and comportment reminiscent of a middle school playground.
The exact start of this also goes back a ways. But it got into higher gear with Karl Rove and jumped up another notch with the Tea Party. And it has proved to work extremely well for your party, as there are a lot of unreflective people out there who will just eat what they are served--an advantage of the anti-intellectualism you've encouraged.
This has put the Democratic party in a bind: When they've taken the high road, your party's lies and the manipulation have been believed by the public, and they've often lost. And when they've pushed back, as the Clinton campaign has done with Trump, they've had to descend into the same kind of nastiness that your party served over the net.
22
Thank you Mr. Wehner. Congratulations on this major achievement: Honesty during so dishonest an election season.
"Anti-intellectualism. . . . Political recklessness. . . . Appealing to nativism and xenophobia"--an excellent start to an analysis of faults that bedevil the current internally fragmented, self-and-other obstructive and destructive, hapless GOP.
If the 4th century B.C. Greek cynic, Diogenes of Sinope, were still alive, he could extinguish his lantern and end his quest to find an honest man.
I am sure that you pretty much acknowledge that the GOP "leadership" and its media enablers are given to: gross oversimplifications, fear mongering, scapegoating, emotional appeals, accusations that opponents are disloyal or weak, attacks on the news media, obstructive refusals of virtually all compromise--and, yes, bald faced lies.
You come close to admitting that they are given to every ploy in the demagogue's play-book.
Why not forcefully declare that the current Republican Party has sold its soul to demagoguery and promoted a singularly sinister demagogue, Candidate Donald Trump?
Why not admit that Candidate Trump is the symptom, not the disease?
Why not openly declare that the entire current GOP "leadership", by its actions and even more so by its inactions, evidences sickness unto death?
Why not further acknowledge, as have so many others from John Lindsay onward: The Republican Party has definitively left you?
"Anti-intellectualism. . . . Political recklessness. . . . Appealing to nativism and xenophobia"--an excellent start to an analysis of faults that bedevil the current internally fragmented, self-and-other obstructive and destructive, hapless GOP.
If the 4th century B.C. Greek cynic, Diogenes of Sinope, were still alive, he could extinguish his lantern and end his quest to find an honest man.
I am sure that you pretty much acknowledge that the GOP "leadership" and its media enablers are given to: gross oversimplifications, fear mongering, scapegoating, emotional appeals, accusations that opponents are disloyal or weak, attacks on the news media, obstructive refusals of virtually all compromise--and, yes, bald faced lies.
You come close to admitting that they are given to every ploy in the demagogue's play-book.
Why not forcefully declare that the current Republican Party has sold its soul to demagoguery and promoted a singularly sinister demagogue, Candidate Donald Trump?
Why not admit that Candidate Trump is the symptom, not the disease?
Why not openly declare that the entire current GOP "leadership", by its actions and even more so by its inactions, evidences sickness unto death?
Why not further acknowledge, as have so many others from John Lindsay onward: The Republican Party has definitively left you?
12
A very thoughtful essay, but one that omits some of the deeper shortcomings within the GOP. Mr. Wehner ignores the electoral strategies pursued by the party since the 1970s, which Trump updated and embraced as his own. The infamous southern strategy pioneered by Nixon and perfected by Reagan successfully converted the white South into a loyal bastion of support for Republicans, in exchange for policies and party propaganda that depicted racial minorities as threats to law and order, as well as abusers of the public welfare system. Trump's birtherism drew its inspiration from the same poisoned source.
Wehner's reference to the political recklessness that climaxed in the government shutdown highlights the GOP's contempt for the federal government, which dates at least to the Reagan administration. If, as Reagan argued, the government is the problem, not the solution, then why not shut it down? Trump's openly expressed scorn for federal officials bears the imprint of Reagan's 'philosophy.'
Trump's signature issue of immigration restriction also reflects Republican unease with low-income arrivals who tend to vote Democratic once they obtain their citizenship papers. The voter id laws, which both Trump and state GOP leaders endorse, stems from the same determination to dampen electoral support for Democrats at the polls.
An attempt at reform through an assessment of one's faults belongs to the best traditions of our culture. But all the faults must be examined.
Wehner's reference to the political recklessness that climaxed in the government shutdown highlights the GOP's contempt for the federal government, which dates at least to the Reagan administration. If, as Reagan argued, the government is the problem, not the solution, then why not shut it down? Trump's openly expressed scorn for federal officials bears the imprint of Reagan's 'philosophy.'
Trump's signature issue of immigration restriction also reflects Republican unease with low-income arrivals who tend to vote Democratic once they obtain their citizenship papers. The voter id laws, which both Trump and state GOP leaders endorse, stems from the same determination to dampen electoral support for Democrats at the polls.
An attempt at reform through an assessment of one's faults belongs to the best traditions of our culture. But all the faults must be examined.
262
"All faults must be examined" including those of the old guard Republicans and those of the Democrats. Though I voted for Clinton I do respect the in my opinion righteous anger of thousand of Trump supporters who realize our smug elites in both parties have ignored them. In the world of today to have 12 million or so people in the country illegally and to not even now who they are is absolutely ridiculous. Those who have to deal daily with the negative impacts are not fools. The trade deals that were written by international corporations to line their own pockets by dumping thousands of hard working American on the trash heap are ridiculous. Jacking up energy prices in order to fight a vaguely understood and speculative "threat" is unnecessarily self-destructive. So, the Trump folks have a point whether you like it or not. Too bad Trump is Trump. But as for the republicans, which I am not, Trump's ideas aren't as bad as their "cut taxes on the rich while stripping the safety net" plans.
There will be life after Trump for all of us, Mr. Wehner. The question is, if Trump wins, what kind of life would it turn out to be. Another article in NYT today explores the rise of White Supremacist groups under the aegis of Trump. The sense of empowerment they feel is frightening, especially to non-white Americans. You lament that a demagogue like Trump has taken over the party. You rightly ascribe the blame where it belongs- the Republican Party itself. But the question you should ask yourself is one that all Republican leaders, whether politicians or pundits, who are opposed to Trump should be asking- did I do enough? You say that you love your country far more than you love your party. Did you feel the same way during the last eight years? For there was ample evidence that the Republican Party was bent on destroying the Republic as it fought a war of attrition with President Obama. It just might be too late for your beloved party, Mr. Wehner. It's not schadenfreude for me as I was an independent till this election and did not care much for the Democratic Party till Bernie Sanders came on the scene. No need to write a requiem song for your party yet, Mr. Wehner. But you might as well put just a few words on paper, and think about the tune. A new confederacy rises, right before our eyes, a confederacy led by a sybarite from New York. Both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis would turn over in their graves!
14
Mr. Wehner is missing the point. The Republican Party, and our great nation have already lost.
Whether Mr. Trump receives 43% or 45% of the vote, he will earn 43% of the votes from our fellow Americans -- something that should horrify every sane person, both in the U.S. and on the planet. These numbers tell us that "normal" Republicans, the ones who love their country more than their party or their racism, are an insignificant percentage of the Party of Lincoln (and Trump).
Sadly, Mr. Wehner is as ineffective as he is irrelevant.
Whether Mr. Trump receives 43% or 45% of the vote, he will earn 43% of the votes from our fellow Americans -- something that should horrify every sane person, both in the U.S. and on the planet. These numbers tell us that "normal" Republicans, the ones who love their country more than their party or their racism, are an insignificant percentage of the Party of Lincoln (and Trump).
Sadly, Mr. Wehner is as ineffective as he is irrelevant.
48
NAFTA gave us Trump. Corporate rule gave us Trump. A Democratic Party beholden to Wall Street gave us Trump. That the Democrats can't hold Ohio shouldn't be lost on anyone. It's about decent jobs and a future, nothing more.
The Democratic Party are the Republicans. I voted for Bernie and changed to non-affiliated the next day, ending 30 years of "membership" as a Democrat.
The Democratic Party are the Republicans. I voted for Bernie and changed to non-affiliated the next day, ending 30 years of "membership" as a Democrat.
2
I suppose you'd peg me as a liberal-leaning independent. In 2012, I got fed up enough with "A Romeny presidency will end America" rhetoric that I left the Democratic party and forgot about voting. I felt that McCain would have made a fine president in 2008, just as I believe Obama has been for the last eight years.
But there was a problem with McCain: Palin.
Senator McCain is an old man. Things happen to old men, and this "my way or the highway" Palin person, the one who paints opposing Democratic politicians with rifle sights, would slip into the job by default.
Next, a coalition of Republicans tells me, "If we don't get our way and rescind the affordable care act, we're going to hold your breath until you turn blue and pass out". And so they did, for sixteen days.
In the past, when people have said things like, "If Romney wins, I'm moving to Canada!" or "If Obama wins, I'm moving into the hills with my guns!", I've said, "why don't you instead have an extra beer tonight, go to work tomorrow, and try again in four years?"
And now we end up with a guy like Trump. As the Times's projection of a Clinton win have fallen from 91% to 84%, I've found myself wondering if it might soon be too dangerous to stay. I'm agnostic. Will it be, "pick a church or get shot?" What other groups might I fall into? What about those militia people and the “rigged election, second amendment" rhetoric?
If we don't get the crazies out of the driver's seat, we're going to crash the car.
But there was a problem with McCain: Palin.
Senator McCain is an old man. Things happen to old men, and this "my way or the highway" Palin person, the one who paints opposing Democratic politicians with rifle sights, would slip into the job by default.
Next, a coalition of Republicans tells me, "If we don't get our way and rescind the affordable care act, we're going to hold your breath until you turn blue and pass out". And so they did, for sixteen days.
In the past, when people have said things like, "If Romney wins, I'm moving to Canada!" or "If Obama wins, I'm moving into the hills with my guns!", I've said, "why don't you instead have an extra beer tonight, go to work tomorrow, and try again in four years?"
And now we end up with a guy like Trump. As the Times's projection of a Clinton win have fallen from 91% to 84%, I've found myself wondering if it might soon be too dangerous to stay. I'm agnostic. Will it be, "pick a church or get shot?" What other groups might I fall into? What about those militia people and the “rigged election, second amendment" rhetoric?
If we don't get the crazies out of the driver's seat, we're going to crash the car.
12
In 2008, Senator McCain was 72 -- 3 years younger than Bernie Sanders would have been had he won.
Nobody calls Bernie Sanders "too old to be POTUS" on the left.
Senator McCain is very much still alive -- still in office as a US Senator -- and likely to be re-elected! As he told us in 2008, he was hale and hearty. And he was.
I didn't like Palin, but the media went absolutely insane over her -- acting like the VP was some powerful position from which she would force her religion on the nation. That was crazy talk. Meantime, we lost out on a McCain Presidency. McCain is a very grounded, rational Republican from the old school -- everything you guys say you hate about Trump...McCain is the opposite.
Today, when people discuss 2008 as an election year, it is common for them to talk about "Palin vs. Obama"....as if Palin actually RAN for POTUS, and was the primary candidate! That's how twisted the narrative is. McCain is utterly forgotten.
BTW: I have literally never heard a conservative -- a mainstream Republican -- say he was "going to move to the hills with his guns!" if his candidate lost....but if you read these forums daily (as I do), you see many, many liberals who say this ALL THE TIME....they are moving to Canada, Europe, Sweden, Australia, etc.
It's such a common thing for lefties to say, it's become a kind of joke.
Nobody calls Bernie Sanders "too old to be POTUS" on the left.
Senator McCain is very much still alive -- still in office as a US Senator -- and likely to be re-elected! As he told us in 2008, he was hale and hearty. And he was.
I didn't like Palin, but the media went absolutely insane over her -- acting like the VP was some powerful position from which she would force her religion on the nation. That was crazy talk. Meantime, we lost out on a McCain Presidency. McCain is a very grounded, rational Republican from the old school -- everything you guys say you hate about Trump...McCain is the opposite.
Today, when people discuss 2008 as an election year, it is common for them to talk about "Palin vs. Obama"....as if Palin actually RAN for POTUS, and was the primary candidate! That's how twisted the narrative is. McCain is utterly forgotten.
BTW: I have literally never heard a conservative -- a mainstream Republican -- say he was "going to move to the hills with his guns!" if his candidate lost....but if you read these forums daily (as I do), you see many, many liberals who say this ALL THE TIME....they are moving to Canada, Europe, Sweden, Australia, etc.
It's such a common thing for lefties to say, it's become a kind of joke.
The Republicans party has made some terrible choices lately and has a difficult path ahead. Mr. Wehner diagnoses the issues accurately; like most fair-minded voters, I cannot abide the Republican embrace of crank conspiracy theories, dismissal of facts and logic, or scapegoating of powerless minorities. This does not mean I agree with the Democrats about everything, but right now there's simply no contest.
For all the difficult decisions ahead, however, the most important one deserves clear and straightforward answer: from now on, are Republicans going to be serious about governing or not? Do they want to work toward consensus, or wallow in rage? Do they want to work to improve the country, or just blow everything up?
Choose wisely.
For all the difficult decisions ahead, however, the most important one deserves clear and straightforward answer: from now on, are Republicans going to be serious about governing or not? Do they want to work toward consensus, or wallow in rage? Do they want to work to improve the country, or just blow everything up?
Choose wisely.
449
Sir, you left out pandering to religious zealots. I'll vote R again when an atheist or agnostic is your candidate. Preferably one with an advanced degree in reality.
41
In the beginning of this electoral tour through insanity, I thought Trump did actually have one asset. I thought he'd be candidate least likely to allow religion to metastasize to government. Of course, he threw that sole asset away by pandering for Evangelical votes during his conversion to "baby Christian."
5
Mr. Wehner an avalanche of racism, gun fanaticism, anti-intellectualism, anti-science, anti-government, this is what the Republican party *is*. It has worked *very hard* to get to these positions and made conscious decisions to go in this direction every day of every year since Gringrich et all took the House in 1994. It's not an accident. It's a carefully constructed political machine that was bought and paid for.
157
Actually since Reagan, even since Nixon, in order to dismantle the Roosevelt welfare state and give large tax cuts to the rich. The rich used to live in four bed room houses, now the live in ten-thousand square foot houses.
4
When Republicans cringe their hands about the current state of their party (by the way, isn't it about time to stop calling it the GOP?) and long back for times long gone, I always wonder what it is they miss. Do they miss the days of Newt Gingrich? Tom Delay? GW Bush? Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz or Donald Rumsfeld? It is telling they always refer to Lincoln or Reagan. Both died a longtime. Ago. So did their party.
14
Trump's doctor never disclosed that the candidate is suffering from a terminal case of Romney Primary Syndrome (RPS). RPS occurs when GOP candidates are infected and scarred during the primaries with crazy ideas and policies espoused by wacky candidates that ultimately lead to their eventual demise during the general election.
RPS has many symptoms and takes many forms but the main ones revolve around having constant hallucinations that the general population, including many invisible white voters, hold these same crazy ideas and will stampede to the polls to vote for them.
Trump thought he was inoculated against RPS but he contracted the fatal disease quite early during the primaries when he went farther to the right than Romney ever did in insulting minorities like Hispanics, blacks, Chinese and also the disabled. His delusional symptoms included thinking that come election time middle of the road voters would forget his bigoted insults and vote for him. Another was believing that whites would vote for him in record numbers. The final fatal flaw was thinking he was immune to RPS.
Unfortunately, RPS is considered to be 100% fatal for GOP candidates and, due to the wacky right wing makeup of the Republican Party, it is impossible for GOP presidential candidates to avoid contracting this disease in the modern era. However, can it be called a disease if it actually makes the human race healthier?
RPS has many symptoms and takes many forms but the main ones revolve around having constant hallucinations that the general population, including many invisible white voters, hold these same crazy ideas and will stampede to the polls to vote for them.
Trump thought he was inoculated against RPS but he contracted the fatal disease quite early during the primaries when he went farther to the right than Romney ever did in insulting minorities like Hispanics, blacks, Chinese and also the disabled. His delusional symptoms included thinking that come election time middle of the road voters would forget his bigoted insults and vote for him. Another was believing that whites would vote for him in record numbers. The final fatal flaw was thinking he was immune to RPS.
Unfortunately, RPS is considered to be 100% fatal for GOP candidates and, due to the wacky right wing makeup of the Republican Party, it is impossible for GOP presidential candidates to avoid contracting this disease in the modern era. However, can it be called a disease if it actually makes the human race healthier?
3
The Republican Party needs to acknowledge that:
- climate change is science based and real
- Immigration is a healthy and important part of American society
- women's health including abortion should be safe legal and none of the governments business
- GLBT issues is something to support, not oppose; the bathroom someone uses does not personally affect anyone else
- our healthcare system is not perfect but propose solutions backed up by experts instead of just blindly voting to repeal a law which made some significant progress
- systemic racism still exists and needs to be addressed using reasonable policies and ideas
- voter fraud is not a statistically significant problem and most laws attempting to combat it lower turnout of minority voters
- the right to own a gun should be restricted in the case of mental illness and for the safety of society
After truly considering these issues they may again have my support and the support of many people like me.
- climate change is science based and real
- Immigration is a healthy and important part of American society
- women's health including abortion should be safe legal and none of the governments business
- GLBT issues is something to support, not oppose; the bathroom someone uses does not personally affect anyone else
- our healthcare system is not perfect but propose solutions backed up by experts instead of just blindly voting to repeal a law which made some significant progress
- systemic racism still exists and needs to be addressed using reasonable policies and ideas
- voter fraud is not a statistically significant problem and most laws attempting to combat it lower turnout of minority voters
- the right to own a gun should be restricted in the case of mental illness and for the safety of society
After truly considering these issues they may again have my support and the support of many people like me.
29
You start off, Mr. Wehner, by saying that there is not much about which you agree with President Obama. Then you list several things that you apparently think the Republican Party of the future must embrace. And it turns out that these are the same ideas that Mr. Obama has been promoting over the past eight years. You're still blind Mr. Wehner. When you joined the Republican Party in the early 1980s, you were fascinated by its "ideas." Those are the same ideas that have brought us Donald Trump! It seems to me that you bigwigs in the Republican Party are incapable of appreciating good ideas -- and separating them from bad ones. You don't seem to have a firm grasp of scientific truth and reality. You and your ilk need a much better education in Science, Math, Logic, and Biology. Sitting around a table with your like-minded ideologue friends and composing complicated sentences that are not fact-based is not going to get you very far. Back to school, Mr. Wehner, and please take along some of the so-called "conservative intellectuals" with you. You all must first learn to differentiate truth from falsehood.
12
Mr. Wehner, where to begin?
Anti-intellectualism - R. Nixon was not a dummy, that was not his problem. St. Reagan was. He watched TV and his dementia was advanced by at least the middle of his second term. Bush I was not a dummy, Bush II, nominated twice, was. The problem has been long standing. Those *point-headed perfessors*, those *eggheads* have been reviled by your party for many decades. The *average Joe* parodied as Archie Bunker became your market.
Political recklessness - Not just at a federal level, but all down the line. Values issues, godliness as defined by a few, were deliberately used to draw attention away from the policies of the Republican administrations at both the federal and state levels, so that the poorly educated who you all love, wouldn't notice that a significant portion of the national wealth had been transferred from them to a few of the ultra rich. Dog whistling racism, was a core value. Gutting services, including education, became a holy grail.
Nativism and xenophobia - Republicans are not alone, but you do it best though, even when it works against your self interest. You ignored voters.
I couldn't believe that 17 person line up of nothings at the start of the primaries. There was not one person fit for the office. Not one, not a single candidate who had any rational idea how to make improvements, or even govern.
Is there anyone left in your party who is capable of the rational thought needed to put nation over party?
Anti-intellectualism - R. Nixon was not a dummy, that was not his problem. St. Reagan was. He watched TV and his dementia was advanced by at least the middle of his second term. Bush I was not a dummy, Bush II, nominated twice, was. The problem has been long standing. Those *point-headed perfessors*, those *eggheads* have been reviled by your party for many decades. The *average Joe* parodied as Archie Bunker became your market.
Political recklessness - Not just at a federal level, but all down the line. Values issues, godliness as defined by a few, were deliberately used to draw attention away from the policies of the Republican administrations at both the federal and state levels, so that the poorly educated who you all love, wouldn't notice that a significant portion of the national wealth had been transferred from them to a few of the ultra rich. Dog whistling racism, was a core value. Gutting services, including education, became a holy grail.
Nativism and xenophobia - Republicans are not alone, but you do it best though, even when it works against your self interest. You ignored voters.
I couldn't believe that 17 person line up of nothings at the start of the primaries. There was not one person fit for the office. Not one, not a single candidate who had any rational idea how to make improvements, or even govern.
Is there anyone left in your party who is capable of the rational thought needed to put nation over party?
30
Well said
1
Yes, there is life after Trump, but nastier, given that he poisoned the well of trust in all democratic institutions. Although he assaulted the vacuum created by the republican party's establishment, he was allowed to grow by a conspiracy of silence when he brought up the racist hysteria of "Birtherism". Crooked lying Trump is a despicable, nasty low life (from a stinky swamp, no doubt), ever so proud of his discriminatory behavior, and the cheating ways used to live in luxury at taxpayer's expense (the rest of us). Trump is a demagogue and a dangerous charlatan, who has nothing to offer but chaos and hate. He has been sued multiple times, is a failed businessman (witness his multiple bankruptcies, leaving his creditors holding the bag), and yet, walking away with millions extracted from his cheated clients. Those that still support this unscrupulous clown ought to be exposed as weak, hypocrites and/or misinformed and prejudicial folks being fooled by a con-man. Good riddance to a second class actor of a reality show, who'll wither without the limelight and applause a narcissist thrives on. And this bruised democracy of ours, however fragile, will recover in due time...if the G.O.P. sees the light, becomes cooperative in governing, and sheds its, thus far, doggone obstructionism.
9
After the 2012 postmortem was categorically ignored by the party, isn't it a delusion to think this round will be different?
The reality is that the Republican Party is actually two parties already. The hard liner alt right and inflexible ultra conservatives, and a faction of more reasonable members who are still interested in results through bipartisanship.
The party should just split once and for all!
Otherwise, this continuous dysfunction is the definition of insanity.
The reality is that the Republican Party is actually two parties already. The hard liner alt right and inflexible ultra conservatives, and a faction of more reasonable members who are still interested in results through bipartisanship.
The party should just split once and for all!
Otherwise, this continuous dysfunction is the definition of insanity.
9
It would be nice - if naive - to think that once this ugly moment has passed, the Democrats and the Republicans might give each other a bit of time and space to undertake the reflection and rebuilding that each of them needs to do.
My view (from a long way away) of the heart of the problem is that a majority of Americans believe now that government "Of the people, by the people, for the people" has been replaced by government "Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich." Many hard working, honest people who worked in industries that have now gone, have indeed been overlooked as mere "collateral damage" while relatively few became incredibly rich and very, very influential.
Hilary Clinton is a competent, professional politician, with long experience in government. In many people's minds this means she is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It should be no surprise that a candidate who positioned himself as an outsider come to storm the barricades would be appealing. Sadly it was Donald Trump who picked up that cudgel, a man who has never done anything for anyone other than Donald Trump.
My view (from a long way away) of the heart of the problem is that a majority of Americans believe now that government "Of the people, by the people, for the people" has been replaced by government "Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich." Many hard working, honest people who worked in industries that have now gone, have indeed been overlooked as mere "collateral damage" while relatively few became incredibly rich and very, very influential.
Hilary Clinton is a competent, professional politician, with long experience in government. In many people's minds this means she is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It should be no surprise that a candidate who positioned himself as an outsider come to storm the barricades would be appealing. Sadly it was Donald Trump who picked up that cudgel, a man who has never done anything for anyone other than Donald Trump.
295
The GOP's problems began when its leadership decided that winning elections took precedence over holding to principle, and that if Republican principles got in the way of an electoral victory, those principles were expendable. If all a political party wants to do is win, its candidates will wind up chasing any votes, regardless of how weird and wacky. This was first evidenced by the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP pick, and culminated in the nomination of a bull in a china shop who isn't a Republican, isn't a conservative, and has absolutely no philosophical or ideological underpinnings.
"We don't care what you think, what you believe, or what you do, as long as you win" is what brought us to a Trump candidacy and, hopefully, the demise of the modern Republican Party.
"We don't care what you think, what you believe, or what you do, as long as you win" is what brought us to a Trump candidacy and, hopefully, the demise of the modern Republican Party.
7
All political parties want to win, and all political parties "chase votes".
Seriously, you don't think the Dems are "in it to win it"? and don't CHASE VOTES? especially amongst minorities?
Seriously, you don't think the Dems are "in it to win it"? and don't CHASE VOTES? especially amongst minorities?
Most worrisome about the future direction of GOP is the infiltration into its ranks of “alt-right” . According to Wikipedia and other sources, the alt-right is a segment of right-wing ideologues who reject mainstream conservatism in the U.S. It is largely Internet-based and found on websites used by its members anonymously. The alt-right uses social media like Twitter and Breitbart News to convey its message. It supports Donald Trump, and opposes immigration and multiculturalism. It has no formal ideology, although white nationalism is fundamental. It has also been associated with white supremacism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, homophobia, antisemitism, ethno-nationalism, and right-wing populism.
Donald Trump has much in common with alt-right’s frightening beliefs. Especially worrisome is that Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon is Donald Trump’s Campaign CEO. News that Mr. Trump is preparing to establish a FOX-like TV network may not be a far-fetched rumor given that Mr. Bannon is already heading the largest media platform for the racist alt-right. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s likely loss next Tuesday, it is doubtful that "Trump & Company", in any of its manifestations, would be anything other than a propaganda machine eventually expiring much like Communist Party USA and the John Birch Society.
Donald Trump has much in common with alt-right’s frightening beliefs. Especially worrisome is that Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon is Donald Trump’s Campaign CEO. News that Mr. Trump is preparing to establish a FOX-like TV network may not be a far-fetched rumor given that Mr. Bannon is already heading the largest media platform for the racist alt-right. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of Mr. Trump’s likely loss next Tuesday, it is doubtful that "Trump & Company", in any of its manifestations, would be anything other than a propaganda machine eventually expiring much like Communist Party USA and the John Birch Society.
6
Well-reasoned and beautifully observed Mr. Wehner. Our country clearly has phenomenally deep-seated problems when half the voters have somehow come to believe Donald Trump may be a viable solution to our ills, even though he is in every way unqualified to be President and has not articulated a rational approach to addressing any substantive issue facing our country. Republican or Democrat we can only hope we all avert true disaster on Tuesday.
254
The only disaster will be if Clinton wins, while the thought of Bill Clinton roaming the White House again is revolting.
From the day Karl Hess wrote "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." the Republican party became the anti American party. A functioning democracy requires compromise but above all it requires respect. The innuendo included in the statement of extremism being a component of politics in a representative democracy is a declaration of war against the state. The assault on democracy may have begun with McCarthy but the declaration of war on the government of the United States was made by Goldwater in 1964. In 1980 Reagan came to power attacking government and 50 years of using government to enhance the rich at the expense of the many must cease if the USA is to survive. Sooner or later even the Trump voters will understand how they were used to rig the game. Government of the people is on life support and European Fascism called conservatism is the culprit.
13
The Republican Party will not heal from within. It has been infected by extremism stoked by media bias, racism, hatred of women, disdain for the environment, fear of real facts, and almost all helpful institutions. It should be treated like any sick patient. At minimum, an ER visit is needed, covered by Obamacare. Trump won his parties nomination with one of the lowest delegate percentage in their parties history, hardly representative of the rank and file. There were other obvious, qualified choices but the GOP was too afflicted to notice. If it has any hope at all, we, the independent, unaffiliated voters, should change our ways, and choose to belong to one party or another, making our moderate voices heard as GOP or DEM. It is really a very little thing to do, to check off one box or another when registering to vote, and to then vote for sanity in each and every primary. We could elect then representatives to Congress that actually pass laws, listen to our needs, and maybe even abolish the Electoral College.
1
That can only be achieved by rewriting a new Constitution . incorporated with the current one , for the needs of the nation and the people in this 21st century.
After the Congress is dissolved. We the people appoint some 50 odd elders ( no politicians) A new Constitution should in detail spell out all the reforms needed for the government of the the people, by the people and for the people and not something that these freaking politicians have have cooked up for their own interests.
Once the new Constitution is completed, debated, it to be ratified by the referendum of the people. One person, one vote, that folks is the law of the land.
After the Congress is dissolved. We the people appoint some 50 odd elders ( no politicians) A new Constitution should in detail spell out all the reforms needed for the government of the the people, by the people and for the people and not something that these freaking politicians have have cooked up for their own interests.
Once the new Constitution is completed, debated, it to be ratified by the referendum of the people. One person, one vote, that folks is the law of the land.
And who would write that Constitution? Who would ratify it?
Really, and lefties complain that it is "hard right conservatives, with their guns, who dream of taking down the government".....?
Really, and lefties complain that it is "hard right conservatives, with their guns, who dream of taking down the government".....?
Mr. Trump is a true Patriot and has done a great service to America.
Republican "ideas" were threadbare in 1980 and were manifest failures when tested under Reagan and George W. So all the Republicans had left to peddle was obstructionism and reactionary nonsense fueled by big, dark self-serving money rousing ignorant, disaffected folks. Fear sells-- so why not appeal to the basest impulses? So what's the surprise? Donald just did a better job of peddling vile nonsense because he's not afraid of being thrown out of the Country Club (which he owns). After the Dems take the White House and the Senate and appoint 4 Progressive Justices and overturn Citizens United, the Republican Party will cease to exist-and it's about 25 years overdue. I don't know what comes next to represent Conservative ideas but it's got to be better than this!
Republican "ideas" were threadbare in 1980 and were manifest failures when tested under Reagan and George W. So all the Republicans had left to peddle was obstructionism and reactionary nonsense fueled by big, dark self-serving money rousing ignorant, disaffected folks. Fear sells-- so why not appeal to the basest impulses? So what's the surprise? Donald just did a better job of peddling vile nonsense because he's not afraid of being thrown out of the Country Club (which he owns). After the Dems take the White House and the Senate and appoint 4 Progressive Justices and overturn Citizens United, the Republican Party will cease to exist-and it's about 25 years overdue. I don't know what comes next to represent Conservative ideas but it's got to be better than this!
11
Appoint 4 Justices? are you expecting a mass die off Justices? There is only ONE open seat. If Ruth Ginsbergs decides to retire suddenly....that's one more. It is unlikely Hillary won't keep backing Garland, so that will really be an Obama appointment.
Who are the other two you expect to suddenly quit? The rest of the Justices look pretty hale and hearty to me.
BTW: if the traditional Republican Party were to cease to exist....what would replace it, would be far more hard right and less to your liking.
Who are the other two you expect to suddenly quit? The rest of the Justices look pretty hale and hearty to me.
BTW: if the traditional Republican Party were to cease to exist....what would replace it, would be far more hard right and less to your liking.
You are correct except for one thing. Support by the Republican base in the broader public has been dependent for a long time on nativist hinting, or dog whistles. Even if you like the policy ideas of the GOP leaders like Paul Ryan (I don't), these ideas were never the ones that motivated large fractions of the working class to vote Republican. So Trump came along and celebrated their reasons for supporting the GOP. The only surprise is how large the number of people in this group is. So how is the Republican party going to recover from this and reform? If they do, they are liable to lose a lot of votes, enough so that they won't win any Presidential election. And it's even possible that the GOP would have to split into two parties to reform itself.
5
Nah. The folks like Wehner will join the Democratic Party, along with the fake RINOs like Douthat and Brooks. They will form a more conservative WING Of the Democrats....but Democrats they are.
The other real conservatives in the USA will form a new party. I don't know if they will keep the name "GOP" or not.
But I do know the GOP won't reform. They tried it in 2012, by embracing illegal immigration and they lost. Their voters do not want amnesty nor illegal immigration, and NO candidate who promotes amnesty or illegal immigration will ever win on the GOP ticket.
The other real conservatives in the USA will form a new party. I don't know if they will keep the name "GOP" or not.
But I do know the GOP won't reform. They tried it in 2012, by embracing illegal immigration and they lost. Their voters do not want amnesty nor illegal immigration, and NO candidate who promotes amnesty or illegal immigration will ever win on the GOP ticket.
I am glad that there are some Republicans that are finally realizing that they should put country over party, but the ascension of Trumpism proves that they waited too long and did too little to correct their numerous problems.
8
Single best op-ed I've read on NYT
2
Mr Wehner
Have you considered asking your fellow anti-Trump Republican intellectuals to make Get Out the Vote phone calls to registered Republicans in which you ask them to vote for Clinton? Two days left to do it.
Have you considered asking your fellow anti-Trump Republican intellectuals to make Get Out the Vote phone calls to registered Republicans in which you ask them to vote for Clinton? Two days left to do it.
8
Millions of Americans trust Trump because he appears on the TV screen in their living room and seems like one of the family. They can't be bothered to find out what's going on in the world, so they vote for the guy at the end of the couch in a business suit who doesn't take any guff.
If there's a sliver of hope for the republican party (and the republic), it's that in some ways Trump is an anomaly. No one else has his bizarro pedigree of reality TV businessman, obsessive media hogging, and pornographic flaunting of the trappings of success. Many would trade places with Trump, but few, if any, would be willing or able to play the part. For that, we should be grateful indeed.
If there's a sliver of hope for the republican party (and the republic), it's that in some ways Trump is an anomaly. No one else has his bizarro pedigree of reality TV businessman, obsessive media hogging, and pornographic flaunting of the trappings of success. Many would trade places with Trump, but few, if any, would be willing or able to play the part. For that, we should be grateful indeed.
2
"....because I love my country far more than I love my party."
I am so inspired to see a Republican say this. Because from what I have observed of Republican leadership, the vast majority definitely love their party more than their country.
I could go on & on citing evidence of their obstructionism, their dereliction of duty, their fixation on endless inquiries at tax-payer expense proving nothing but that they want to put Hillary Clinton in a bad light, their devotion in attempts to make minority voting more difficult, etc. But their silence in denouncing Donald Trump, who presents a clear & present danger to our country as President, no matter what horrid thing he said or did, is enough.
I am so inspired to see a Republican say this. Because from what I have observed of Republican leadership, the vast majority definitely love their party more than their country.
I could go on & on citing evidence of their obstructionism, their dereliction of duty, their fixation on endless inquiries at tax-payer expense proving nothing but that they want to put Hillary Clinton in a bad light, their devotion in attempts to make minority voting more difficult, etc. But their silence in denouncing Donald Trump, who presents a clear & present danger to our country as President, no matter what horrid thing he said or did, is enough.
12
All I read, every week in the NYT, are "Republicans" like Brooks and Douthat denouncing Trump. Any Republican who is willing to bash Trump is gladly handed a column here in which to do so.
So many lefties here are missing the big picture. Trump -- however much you hate him -- is running neck and neck with your Golden Goddess and Anointed One....and this WITHOUT major support of his own Party. Heck, the two living former GOP Presidents have repudiated Trump. The Speaker of the House won't campaign for him. I am not sure how much more you'd have to see before you acknowledge "The GOP is not supporting Trump".
So many lefties here are missing the big picture. Trump -- however much you hate him -- is running neck and neck with your Golden Goddess and Anointed One....and this WITHOUT major support of his own Party. Heck, the two living former GOP Presidents have repudiated Trump. The Speaker of the House won't campaign for him. I am not sure how much more you'd have to see before you acknowledge "The GOP is not supporting Trump".
The two George Bushes have not repudiated Trump. It is rumored that they will not be voting for him, but they have said nothing publicly against him. Also, not campaigning for someone is not the same as saying, "Donald Trump has absolutely no experience for this job; he is an immoral person who assaults women, doesn't pay taxes, doesn't pay his workers or vendors, manufactures his products overseas, has employed many undocumented workers, encourages a hostile foreign nation to hack our databases, is an immature bully who draws the support of white supremacists & you should NOT VOTE FOR HIM."
2
You are doomed because you are the party of voter suppression.
2
I would argue that the R's are doomed if they continue to alienate African Americans, Hispanics and women.
All the working class white guys in the land can't overcome those numbers.
All the working class white guys in the land can't overcome those numbers.
4
While you are seeking redemption Mr. Wehner, you might want to begin by being honest with the American people.
Tell them that supply-side, trickle-down economics is the biggest lie foisted upon America since Vietnam. Tell them that putting more money in billionaire's pockets does not increase the income of working class people.
Tell them that economies function upon demand, not just supply, and economic growth declines when people don't have money to spend.
Tell them that business, any business, doesn't care if they sell to the private sector or to government. The money from the sale spends just as well either way. Government spending is legitimate economic stimulation.
Tell them that government spending on physical and social infrastructure is not socialism. It's civilization.
Tell them that government can't solve all problems, but it can solve many. Government has a useful purpose. Again, something to do with civilization.
Tell them that hard scientific evidence is not an opinion. It is not partisan.
Tell that reducing government revenue by slashing taxes does not increase revenue.
Tell them that Social Security is a good thing and that there is nothing wrong by living off of it.
Tell them that a women's reproductive organs are not state property.
Tell them to stop watching Fox News. Tell them that main stream media is a legitimate source of information.
Tell them that rural poverty was not caused by Mexicans.
You certainly have much more to say.
Tell them that supply-side, trickle-down economics is the biggest lie foisted upon America since Vietnam. Tell them that putting more money in billionaire's pockets does not increase the income of working class people.
Tell them that economies function upon demand, not just supply, and economic growth declines when people don't have money to spend.
Tell them that business, any business, doesn't care if they sell to the private sector or to government. The money from the sale spends just as well either way. Government spending is legitimate economic stimulation.
Tell them that government spending on physical and social infrastructure is not socialism. It's civilization.
Tell them that government can't solve all problems, but it can solve many. Government has a useful purpose. Again, something to do with civilization.
Tell them that hard scientific evidence is not an opinion. It is not partisan.
Tell that reducing government revenue by slashing taxes does not increase revenue.
Tell them that Social Security is a good thing and that there is nothing wrong by living off of it.
Tell them that a women's reproductive organs are not state property.
Tell them to stop watching Fox News. Tell them that main stream media is a legitimate source of information.
Tell them that rural poverty was not caused by Mexicans.
You certainly have much more to say.
887
I think that about covers it. Thank you, Mr. Rozenblit.
10
I completely agree with you. But he's still a hero for coming out to write this article. Not many R's do it these days.
6
Well said. This comment merits it's own op-ed.
8