O, gawd: Duplicity (Nixon) and simple-mindedness (Reagan) as Party legacy now owned by a real estate salesman possessed by his own low-road fakery (simple-minded AND duplicitous), as Party future.
2
The author focuses upon Trump as changing the GOP in the last three years. That is doubtful. Trump hasn’t changed the important fact of decades: control of the GOP by a handful of billionaires who have invented a massive brainwashing machine. It controls reality for 40% of the electorate, double that for Republicans, and enables them to almost guarantee re-election of their servile avatars in Congress. Their power in spreading disinformation and innuendo puts them in control of the GOP and who is in it.
Trump is a publicity hound rallying the troops with nonsense — a useful front man, but not the basic issue in the way of changing the GOP..
7
You're right, the Southern Strategy is the Trump Strategy!
1
The accidental President is void of principle. The Congress led by policy wonk Ryan failed to preserve the values and principles of the GOP. Trump has a cult following who will be looking for a new champion when he leaves the White House.
Who will lead the GOP? The deep bench of candidates vanquished by a rank amateur. Trump destroyed the party. Making America great again begins with affirming and renewing the values that made us great in the first place. A repudiation of Trumpism.
2
This piece is a big stretch. One can cobble together disparate elements -- Trump wears socks, Reagan wore socks -- that have a superficial similarity, but this doesn't mean that one gets to some essential, illuminating point. Trump is entirely unlike the successful Republican administrations before him. He is the sly fool who stumbled on the baser elements in American society. They congealed in a victory for him. If they continue to stick, this will simply mean that America is morally bankrupt, not that Trump reclaimed some magic formula.
7
Never discount the greed, venality, meanness, entitlement, arrogance and privilege that were on display with Kavanaugh, the Republican Inquisitors, and Trump apologists. The Republican vision is a Supreme Court that validates a Congressional tax shift from the rich to the middle class and poor, assures women that they are chattel, unleashes gun ownership to all mentally deficient, and assures voting for whites only. It always has been a dictator's party, sometimes with a smiley-face like GHWBush
1
So True Mr. McCarthy
The GOP is the party of Caucasian male supremacy masquerading under the guise of white grievance.
Who knew all one had to do was lift the veil on the rabid racist, homophobic, misogynist "base" of the party in order to "reclaim" victory for the party?
3
The title of Eric Foner's classic history of the early Republican party is "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men." Mr. McCarthy not unexpectedly omits the Republican commitment to ending the moral horror of slavery. In his political universe there is no room for justice or morality. Lincoln would be appalled at what his party has become.
5
McCarthy seems to be ignoring the 5 alarm fire of a fact that the coalition that elected Trump has shrunk dramatically in two short years with 53% of the population now disapproving of him. This is a strange piece to be published a few days before Republicans get a shellacking at the polls.
2
McCarthy does remember how things turned out for Nixon, right?
With the Democrats poised to take back the House and the power to initiate investigations, he'd better.
Starting with tax returns and going from there. Obstruction of justice, conspiracy, perjury, collusion, using government positions for personal enrichment, the list is endless and gets longer by the day.
Maybe the Republicans can't go back, but the country can and will.
6
....and, don't forget the great Republican tradition of racism.
5
It must be comforting believing the modern GOP is the child of Nixon and Reagan. In reality the real paternity is Gingrich and Thurmond. But whatever lie floats the GOP boat.
7
I suspect the writer may be correct about the GOP now being Trump's party. But that is a party ruled by fear, lies, and intimidation wholly outside the American tradition. It has more in common with Mussolini's governing strategy than Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.
There is more than a whiff of fascism in the air. It's a full stench.
5
Trump has hardly made the Republicans a party for the nation again. He has made it a party for aggrieved, undereducated whites, especially white males, to the exclusion of everyone else. He is a toxic, malevolent figure who believes the country should be run by a mob boss.
The Republicans appeal to fear and hate. They offer nothing except policies that will redistribute wealth from the middle and lower classes to the already wealthy.
Please, vote out every Republican on the ballot this year, from senators and governors down to local functionaries. It is our only hope of cracking the wall of corruption and political protection that surrounds this dangerous, malicious president.
4
What a bunch of poppycock! The Republican party I admired was lead for the most part by principled individuals, not a vulgarian of Trump's stripe. What propelled Trump into electoral victory was in large part due to his celebrity status derived from his faux decisive image generated on The Apprentice. Just recall when he was in the line-up of potential Republican candidates in 2015-16. His mere presence, not his words,drew an ecstatic audience response.
4
You miss a vital point, as do most commentators on Trump. He lost the election, by a lot. So comparing him, and his party, to either Nixon or Reagan is just academic hogwash. I have a college education and know how to write papers and pass tests. Take a position and then stretch the facts to fit.
3
Mr. McCarthy, you confirm my greatest fear: my country is being destroyed. Its future will bring us the loss of health care and the programs we paid for that keep older people from poverty. It will bring us the restriction or complete elimination of rights for any citizens who are not like the old white men in Congress or like extremist right-wing, heterosexual, white, male Christians who keep Congress packed with old white men. Under Republican rule it will be a cruel place devoid of freedom. My country is lost. Our only hope is for the Republican Party to die, sooner rather than later, and let us get back to the values and freedoms that made this a great country, before Republicans decided they had a better idea.
1
Rock solid support from poor and middle class rural white folk won't keep this incarnation of Republican Party alive for more than a few years. The party elders are sliding into their dotage (see Grassley, Cronyn, and Gingrich, and Hatch. Trump has no protege to carry forward his old-fashioned crotchety white guy act. BTW, how did the Nixon years turn out?
This Trumpian slant of the GOP looks unsustainable. The real problem is that Trump won't go away soon enough.
3
The article is proof that voting for Republicans will make things much worse. The only hope for a brighter perspective for America is voting ALL remaining Republicans out of office.
5
"Mr. Trump has produced a very good environment for business."
Trump's economic strategy is three-pronged: cut taxes, cut regulation, cut international cooperation in trade. He pursues these indiscriminately. He believes government is only good for defense, law and order and closing borders. His electoral tactics are to promote division and paranoia.
What can possibly go wrong?
3
"Mr. Trump has produced a very good environment for business."
I'm not an economist, so maybe someone can explain why this isn't shockingly myopic. We're overdue for an ordinary business-cycle recession, not to mention a worse financial shock caused by the collapse of the latest ballooning and unregulated sector of financial derivatives. So Mr. McCarthy's analysis seems not to look even two or three years out.
But the really morally shocking thing here, and it's not special to Mr. McCarthy, is his failure to look 20 or 30 years out. I know that's an awful long time for economic predictions, but it's not a long time for predictions by climate scientists. Global civilization is looking at an unprecedented and catastrophic shock within the next one or two generations. The Daniel McCarthys of the world, following their leader Trump, step cheerily on, their eyes looking 3, or maybe 6 months out, as the end of the world bears down on them visibly, if only they were willing to look from their narrow, near-term self-interest, and recognize the truth.
4
So Mr. McCarthy admits that conservatism isn't about principles at all; it's just about winning.
And, as Republican's have realized for a long time, the easiest way to do so, the easiest way to bind your coalition, is to have an enemy--one that can be feared. For a long time it was the USSR; then it became minorities; then liberals; now it's apparently immigrants. From Red Coats, to "Indians," to Yankees, it didn't matter, so long as they have someone to hate.
And, because liberals don't believe in hate--particularly against their fellow citizens--they have a hard time competing in this sphere. At least in the short run.
4
"It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make American great again, by making the Republicans a party for the nation again."
What is wrong with the author? This PINO refers to around 60 percent of the country as "enemies" and "evil"; he routinely traffics in racism, antisemitism and pointless combativeness and abusiveness, not over issues, but over when he is even mildly criticized. He isn't trying to solve immigration whatsoever, he is only interested in demagoguing it. McCarthy of course doesn't mention any of this.
McCarthy is either being willfully disingenuous or is already part of the cult, albeit one who can describe it objectively with a degree of literacy that evades nearly all Trump supporters.
5
“That, no less than Mr. Trump’s loyalty to Christian conservatives on abortion...”
Just touching on this one issue, I, too, along with everybody I know on the left-leaning side of the issue, is in favor of minimizing abortions (and isn’t that the right way to look at the issue?). Which means, safe, legal abortions, along with all the necessary health care and education to teach people how NOT to get pregnant when they’re not ready, willing, and able. Simple, isn’t it?
But that doesn’t garner votes, so better to resort to inflammatory arguments along the lines of, “You didn’t vote for that baby-killer, did you?” Complex problems; simple solutions: GOP 2018!
3
The GOP was dying long before Trump arrived on the scene in 2012 and 2016 -- and hijacked what was left.
Trump successfully latched onto the alt-right fringe and "one issue" political topics (abortion, immigration, etc.) -- and promoted himself as the "only one" who could save America (MAG) from the invisible (non-existent) threats.
GOP moderate/liberals left the party years ago... and those holding out largely left in 2016 when the craziness with Trump and the GOP Platform made it clear that the party had lost it's way.
The solution is NOT to save the GOP-- but let it burn to the ground and severely penalize all GOP enablers.
Hopefully, out of the ashes will blossom 2-3 new parties - representing an range of values. Then, perhaps multi-partisan coalitions cab be formed to truly represent "We the People".
NOTE: Democrats will also need to go thru a burn down.... since it is obvious that a large segment of US voters aren't convinced the Dems of the right stuff!
1
In this tour de force of intellectual dishonesty, one omission is more glaring than all the half-truths and untruths. Where is the mention of the Southern Strategy?
74
@Winston An inconvenient truth of the Modern GOP they are primary the unreformed Dixiecrat of the 60's and the Americans who love them. All the Nixon and Reagan chatter disguises the taint of Gingrich and Thurmond the real paternity of the modern GOP.
14
@Winston I was struck by that omission as well. Also, no mention of Nixon's "War on Crime," a dog whistle if there ever was one.
6
McCarthy is fundamentally wrong in his characterization of the GOP past. The Republican Party from Lincoln to Hoover was not the party of "industry and jobs." Flat wrong: it was the Progressive Party of abolitionism and temperance and later, of trust- and political machine-busting.
There is a reason the period of 1890-1928 -- a period of Republican electoral dominance -- is called "The Progressive Era." Teddy Roosevelt and his allies were busting both monopolistic trusts and the Democratic political machines of Tammany Hall in NY and the Daley Machine in Chicago. Roosevelt was the opposite of a pro-industry president: he was "President Trust Buster."
Like virtually all contemporary Republicans (save the scant anomalies like David Brooks), McCarthy re-writes the past to make it conform to his particular opinion (not fact) of what the GOP should be. He has -- in the odious Orwellian fashion of Trump's GOP -- whitewashed the one era of American history from which contemporary Republicans might learn something positive about their past. The party of Lincoln and Roosevelt embraced rather than demonized immigrants and people of color, fought rather than actively promoted corruption, and protected Americans from monopolism rather than advancing it.
McCarthy is correct about one fact: virtually all Republicans today who might remember and value the Progressive past are either retiring or already dead.
63
Mr. McCarthy might have a point about Trump's vision for the country, if it weren't for one thing--Trump is a con man, and this whole vision is a con. Fear of immigration is stoked by images of a caravan of people small enough to disappear in a stadium. The tax cuts were a sugar rush that failed to deliver on wage gains. The judges that are supposed to protect the unborn will actually kill labor and voting protections. The struggilng middle and lower classes will go unaided, and our infrastructure will keep crumbling, while the billionaires pad their portfolios. Our drug/gun trade with latin america will never be discussed in relation to immigration. That's the real vision.
51
Mr. McCarthy is missing a huge point: racism, sexism, and xenophobia will not play in the midterms and will not play in 2020. By looking back, you cannot predict future success. Nixon and Reagan got away with racism and xenophobia because that is where America was then. Trump won in 2016 due to Russia, FBI fumbles, and the outdated electoral college. It was not a national victory. Clinton was poised for victory before Comey stepped in and killed it. The GOP is no more Trump's party than the Dems are Clintons.
30
Mr. McCarthy fails to note most polls show Americans think this president is doing a poor job. Many of those despise him for his blatant racism, ignorance, psychosis & self-enrichment at the expense of the Republic. Several of his highest-echelon flunkies have been convicted or pleaded guilty of felonies & more will surely follow. None of this seems to bother Mr. McCarthy, making him a true Republican. Let's see how successful this president is when Mr. Mueller brings forth a vast trove of evidence proving corruption & treason. Let's see the Republic Party hang its hat on that.
1
He can have it. They eminently deserve each other. It's time for however many Decent people still clinging to the wreckage to let go and start calling themselves something else, because the taint is never going to go away.
2
Mikhail Gorbachev is neither Mao nor Kim. Neither was Reagan Nixon or Trump. He was optimistic (perhaps to a fault), where they were/are cynical to the point of nihilism.
1
Why yes, the Republican Party's autopsy on the 2012 election did
conclude that more minority outreach was needed. This was because by 2012 the GOP leadership had already whipped up the rank and file into a bigoted mob, while not fully delivering on all the racist and xenophobic promises. The mob was incensed by this autopsy, and decided to ditch leaders who only promised villainy without fully delivering, They embraced Trump, and they still love him.
2
It is strange, as a liberal independent to be defensive on behalf of the vast majority of Trump supporters, but just who does McCarthy think he is?
What McCarthy says in a nutshell is that people like Nixon, not Lincoln, are the best path forward for conservatives. In doing so, he calls conservatives, as a voting bloc, inherently "deplorable" and best represented and motivated by deplorable leadership. I have no memories of Reagan, but I doubt he would associate his leadership with Trump's or Nixon's. And I always maintained that, even with the horrors of Iraq, that Bush never just reveled in maliciousness. He had some concept of morality.
Have a faith like many of Trump's supporters, but the reason I object so harshly and frequently to their voting decision in this case (I have never before protested anything or anyone) is because I am not buying into the idea that their moral compass points to Trump. I flat out do not believe them. The family members I hear that mouthing his words are acting out of character and I know this because I know THEM. I despise Trump the way someone might despise the dealer who sold a loved one that first bag of heroin.
And McCarthy's like a pharmaceutical pushing opioids like Nixon/Trump and not mentioning the deadly long term side effects of the short term high. McCarthy wants them at these nationalist rallies; Trump's rhetorical needle in their arm, abandoning even their lowest standards and degrading themselves for another hit.
1
No other President made me afraid to live in my own county because I'm a Jew and a woman. This is not the America I know and yes Republicans and Trump as responsible.
1
What gave Trump the edge in 2016 was:
Vladimir Putin
James Comey
2-3 billion dollars in free media that his opponent did not get.
This author fails to answer why Trump's economic regulations today have the taxpayer bailing out farmers to the tune of $12 billion.
1
I didn't waste time counting the number of words in this essay. But however many it is, the entire theme can be simplified down to two words:
Fear
Bigotry
2
Trump will partner with Israel for a war against Iran. Even Sunni Arab nations will stand by the Iranians. The US will lose, bigly. Israel will be left a charred cinder.
We haven't elected a decent, informed, thoughtful president since FDR. There were a couple of might-have-beens, but models for Trump to emulate are simply not there.
Trump cares only for 'big wins'. Catastrophic consequences aren't his fault.
Trump clearly wants to avoid the constant little wars and foreign entanglements both parties’ establishments love to get into. Rather than telling blue collar workers to “start a small business” as Romney did, or the Democrats’ “job-retraining” baby-talk, he’s at least talking about re-writing NAFTA and other agreements that gutted blue collar industries to begin with. Many voters’ ears perked up when he promised a $1 trillion dollar infrastructure investment. Americans overwhelmingly hate the dishonesty of political correctness, and they want serious control over our borders.
So imagine a decent, honest version of Trump who dropped the hate speech, jingoism and authoritarianism, one who actually pushed for his infrastructure plan rather than caved immediately to another GOP tax give-away to the rich, who put illegal immigration in its proper perspective rather than to rouse hatred. He’d be wiping the floor with all comers right now.
3
The victory of open trade was not squandered under Reagan or Clinton. Prior to our open trade with China we were in stagflation which was destroying the middle class. When China opened up we exported inflation and pollution and imported a booming service economy which allowed President Clinton to leave a budget surplus to George Bush Jr., along with high wages and buying power. That was squandered with tax cuts and two devastating wars which weren't funded.
President Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down that wall and negotiated the greatest reduction in nuclear weapons in world history.
President Trump has offered Kim personal security and wealth for nuclear security for the US.
What Trump has in common with Nixon is the full abandonment of morality in order to solidify the gains Nixon made when the Dixiecrats left the Democratic party in 1968.
Trump isn't offering protection for anyone. He's extorting for his and his families own personal gain. The cut he and his family takes is leaving a growing body count in our country.
1
It is, and we must all hope the GOP gets thrashed in the midterms as a message to him about all his lies and evil hatred. If is doesn't, America will once again have the government it deserves.
America seems to be falling into the hands of extremists.
During the last days of the Weimar Republic, Chancellor Heinrich Muller tried to rule from the center. But the center was failing. The Nazi's and Communists were fighting it out in the streets.
Now also we may have extremists on the right who blame the migrant caravan on George Soros, and make the leap to Jews in general. The idea is preposterous, but extremists sometimes believe in preposterous theories.
On the left is the group Pueblo sin Fronteras, a political action group that asks for donations to support open borders. This organization organized two previous migrant caravans, but is perhaps a bit more in the shadows on the last one.
Yes the migrant caravan is pushing the buttons of people afraid of illegal immigration. So a liberal group tries to force the issue by aiding a migrant caravan of perhaps 4000 to 6000 that will attempt to storm the gates?
The actions of Pueblo sin Fronteras is not discussed in NY Times stories so far as I can tell. It is a part of the news that the NY Times has seemingly forgotten.
But that is presumably the reason for a vague connection with George Soros.
Meanwhile, American politics is manipulated by the extremes.
We need to have a rational discussion of immigration. Unfortunately, that seems further in the distance than before Trump assumed the presidency.
1
Who do you think your kidding? The type of person 45 is, makes America abhorrent. To ask a President of this country to be a role model is a huge part of a leader's job. You leave out the name calling, the cruelty, his lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills. He is not a leader. He is a divider and he putting our country in grave danger! Have you no sense of shame?
3
Very strong argument and I would only add that if Americans want a white nationalist, racist, state, ruled by the .001 percent, where there is no science, no facts other than what dear leader tells us then Donald Trump is our man. The GOP has become the new national socialist party and the next election will tell us what the American public wants.
5
Trump is providing us with one valuable public service; Testing the limits of the right wing in America.
So far he has not found a limit.
There may be no limit.
Clearly there is a strong and by no means small minority of Americans who are just fine with the KKK and the Nazis, probably in the tens of millions.
We now approach the most dangerous period in the early Trump consolidation of power era; The post mid-term election period. It's dangerous no matter the outcome.
If he 'wins' the velvet glove will fall from the iron fist and bad things will accelerate.
I he 'loses', (Dems win House) we will see possibly two things; The most destructive 'lame
1
@Chris Morris
To finish my comment:
If he 'loses', (Dems win House) we will see possibly two things; The most destructive 'lame duck' session of congress in our history, or even perhaps Trump's declaring the election invalid and void.
The SCOTUS could uphold anything he or they try to do in the aftermath.
Frankly, Kavenaugh and Gorsuch = checkmate. A Dem victory at the polls next week may be too little too late.
1
I feel like I need to take a shower after reading this. If you like Fascism you'll love Donald Trump. Goodbye to all that was good about the United States, including their post-secondary educational system, which was considered the best in the world. Have a nice day!
5
The main question is: which advertiser or shareholder demanded that such a blatant work of false analysis and fact free propaganda should be an OPINION piece in the NYT? How does such a litany of FOX talking points contribute to an honest debate about politics? Who strong armed this onto these pages?
3
The only vision trump had was a pot of gold and a bunch of suckers to prop him up. his only plan is to leave behind an empty pot.
1
I continue to be stunned at seeing right-wingers try to repaint a radical greedhead who kisses up to literal Nazis as a conservative.
4
The Republican Party will always be the party that fascists pick. It's in their genes.
3
The assertion that Trump has done this to the GOP in a mere three years is absurd. The GOP has been the party of such venality, racism, corruption and greed at least since Nixon. Please stop trying to pretend otherwise.
4
The difference between Trump and Reagan (and even Nixon) is that Trump has been and is still a criminal. HIs business enterprises are currently being taken to court under the RICO law (that would be racketeering). So quite aside from the racism and the lies and the malignant narcissism, he's likely to go to jail. And that doesn't even get into the whole Russia investigation! If we are lucky as a country he'll be in jail before he can run again.
3
@EDP
I doubt we will be that lucky. The vested interests will see to that, holding their noses while they shovel money into their vaults.
Just look at Ryan Speaker of the House attacked by Trump for questioning him when he was clearly wrong. This was a message to all GOP politicians to agree with Trump on all issues or be thrown out of Trump's party. Trump is willing to use the military for a political ploy would he hesitate to order them to shoot dissidents on 5th avenue and not anyone in his cult. Trump is on the road to becoming our first dictator oppose him at your own risk is his message ,violence awaits critics like all other dictators and the free press will be silenced.
3
The Republican party is now the party of lies.
Traditional, religious lies like pretending to believe there was an Adam, an Eve, and a Serpent who started things off 6000 years ago. Religious lies that varied sexual orientations are somehow not part of the normal human condition (despite significant support for such variety in the bible). Science lies denying evolution. Science lies denying climate change and its threat to all of us. Political lies about medical care. Military lies about the need to counter the alleged threat of a few women and children walking barefoot and pushing strollers 1000 miles to the south of the border to escape rape and murder in their country of origin. Lies about the intent of these desperate marchers who seek only to surrender to a border patrol agent and request asylum.
Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan had their faults, but they did not abdicate problem solving, and sometimes, even acknowledging their mistakes. They were not utterly hostile to accurate information--or acting on it.
Having lost the power of rational thought, the Republicans have also lost the power of competent governance. When the phrase "fake news" can be used to describe any event or reporting that is factually accurate but contradicts the day's chosen narrative, the ability to identify problems and workable solutions is lost.
Republicans today are not fit to have an honest discussion, make rational decisions, or govern.
4
@Mark Johnson
I would in particular recommend the second to last paragraph on Mark Johnson's comment!!!!
1
Reagan cut my pension with the windfall elimination provision at the same time he cut taxes on the rich.Can we spare the baloney?
3
Mr. McCarthy may well be right. Fear-mongering, inward-looking nationalism, etc are indeed tried and true ideas of Reagan and Nixon, as McCarthy candidly reveals. Pro-business, at the cost of the regular middle-class individual, is another very Reagan/Nixon idea --- again, honestly affirmed by McCarthy. Propping up dictators and getting cozy with slimy governments is certainly not new.
If anything, Trump plays the same cards with less sugar-coating than Reagan, Bush and company.
We will soon find out what America truly is. Is American idealism --- equality, opportunity for all, civil liberties, etc --- just sugar-coating or a true idea for which Americans are willing to stand up and vote for? Is it all just a facade to make ourselves feel like we've got the higher ground when we're just as petty, selfish, territorial and self-interested as any other country in the world?
Let's see. At minimum, we will find out what we, as a collective country, are made of. That many of the mid-term House races are as close as they are, and the fact that the Senate is unlikely to swing, makes me think American exceptionalism is just false advertising and self-promotion. Ironically, Trump --- the conman of all conmen --- is the one to reveal the truth.
2
McCarthy has a point - in certain respects Trump is like the author's ideological heroes. But the author both neglects Trump's lying, overt racism, and corruption, as well as the fact that we don't need to go back to the party of Nixon and Reagan! Just because Trump shares some of their qualities does not mean those are good qualities. It's time to look forward, not backwards.
1
Mr. McCarthy apparently is infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome. So sad! (and yes, I am so tired of "winning", if that is what you call the last couple of years.
3
And let's not forget the national debt that is accelerating in indebtedness which the republicans now could care less about so long as the 1% and corporations get their tax cuts. And let's not forget their denial of climate change as the earth starts to simmer and heat up producing category 5 hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wild fires , rising sea levels,... And let's not forget their love of guns regardless of the carnage and suffering. And let's not forget the lies and threats to the constitution... And we can thank the party of Trump for making America much much worse.
2
I fixed that last sentence for you: "It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make himself great again, by making the Republicans a party for the white nation again.
Referring as well to Edsall's article, (where comments were not possible), the Snake poem so dear to Trump originated in Sparta (not that "bone-spurs" Trump even resembles a Spartan). While it is true that 300 Spartans kept the occidental world from being destroyed by invaders from the East, Athens is the one city-state which formed the basis for what came after.
Trump is pushing the country toward some sort of "apartheid" division and I do certain that nothing good will come of it.
The MAGA garbage of going back to the good old times shows the directions the contrarians, uneducated, and cowards are longing for. It will only bring fragmentation for all.
Many universities would have taught and armed the populace for the 21st century but, I guess, the consumer hyper-capitalistic society thought that would be too hard on the brain. Boozing, football, gun-playing, entertainment, and Kavanaugh style sex offered an easier option.
When you choose to go against the "Nothing in Excess" and "Know Thyself" (from Athens) doctrines and completely ignore the use of your cortex for good ends, be ready to reap the whirlwind.
1
Judging from this column, Daniel McCarthy thinks that Trump is greater than Lincoln. He must be relieved that Trump is sending 15,000 troops to Mexican border to save the U.S. from, probably, 3000 migrants most of whom are women and children-- just what you'd expect from the man who knows how to Make America Great Again!
1
" the party that President Trump has remade in his image"
How can a paper that usually portrays Trump as too stupid and incompetent to tie his own shoelaces suddenly try to pass him off as a political genius capable of manipulating an entire party and half the country?
Just like Reagan or Obama, Trump came along when the customer was ripe for what he was selling. Just as in 2008 when Obama was selling "Change", Trump was offering a change from the 2016 status quo which most Republicans (and not a few Democrats) were willing to listen to and for many he offered a vision of a prosperous America of the past. After gaining traction in a chaotic Republican field he was able to gain enough support from the disaffected to win.
But while he is riding the wave, that does not mean he controls it. That is certainly evidenced by the relatively few legislative victories he has won and the fact that two years later he is poised to lose his house majority, not unlike Obama when his wave also crested and broke.
1
@Whatalongstrangetrip
Trump has never convinced half the country of anything.
I have a dream today. I dream that those who voted for Trump have come to their senses and vote on November 6 to take the first step to restore dignity to the office that imposter holds. I dream that the Mueller investigation synthesizes into the kind of roadmap that was presented to the House Judiciary Committee and led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon. I dream that the lying, erratic, impulsive, vacant, misogynistic, corrupt and racist Trump is driven from office and that somehow, some way a political leadership emerges that can cleanse away the filth of the past two years. That cannot be the GOP. It left the building two years ago.
2
This is an appalling stew of short-sightedness on the economy, the environment and the effect of unbridled corruption on democracy combined with moral bankruptcy. Repugnant means (such as the current use of scare tactics) in the pursuit of truly dreadful ends - a racist kleptocracy. If Mr. McCarthy wishes to claim that what we are seeing today is consistent with the GOP's historic approach, well I guess he ought to know.
4
The Republican Party has passed its use-by date. Perhaps America needs a conservative party, but the current GOP is no longer conservative, since it has been going off the deep end in ways that are antithetical to the mainstream of American political tradition. If it cannot come back from the dark place where Trump has taken it, then needs to be binned and replaced with something better.
2
"...find something to like in an America that reaffirms its economic exceptionalism and sovereignty..."
One comparison, Chinese wages and standards of living have, for decades, outpaced that of America's. It's a remarkable statement from someone who knows how to write, ostensibly. If American economic exceptionalism and sovereignty is what "Grass-roots evangelical Christians and Rust Belt workers" think is what they no longer have and or aspire to reclaim, then articles like these and publications of similar ilk have negligently misinformed their readerships. But that's the plan, isn't it?
Buffoons like Trump, Brazil's Temer and now Bolsonaro, are symptoms of far greater systemic problems. When the power elite, i.e owners of the planet, respond irrationally to the needs of their wage slaves, voters run into the open arms of the three lunatics mentioned above, and any other candidate who promises to reduce the pain. A simple analysis of wages and production shows that since the early 1970's until the most recent date, the trajectories of both lines are staggeringly unfair.
With so many people left behind, disenfranchised and otherwise screwed, no one should express surprise at these outcomes.
1
Always remember that people like Daniel McCarthy represent that very small group of "elites" who will do anything to attain and retain power regardless of the price the rest of the country and its citizens pay in the process. Like Trump, he just doesn't care and to think otherwise why would anyone, other than those who think like him, consider this column and what is in it to bear any resemblance to reality?
Unfortunately, America seems to have more than their share of people like this who wallow in greed, self-interest and utter selfishness while actually believing what they are saying makes sense.
For the record, the last time a Republican President left office with a surplus was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan started the road to major budget deficits, massive and increasing income equality in America, the dismantling of government and making the "one-percenters" year by year, continually growing more wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
The formula that Mr McCarthy is so thrilled about it is the formula that will ultimately destroy America and Trump and his cronies are speeding up the process.
2
What you neglect to acknowledge is the majority of the current supporters of this Republican Party are dying off rapidly. As the gender gap shows most Republican women will not accept this version of the party. Young people have a wider vision of nationhood and governance and will not choose to be associated with this limited self-serving political movement.
Secondly, you demonstrate by your comparisons that this is not a nation view of the US that is sustainable but at best (well actually worst) cyclic. It will and should be voted out, the sooner the better.
2
Let's whitewash history! Left unmentioned are the racism and racist appeals of all the GOP leaders mentioned--Nixon, Reagan, and now Trump. And to claim that Nixon, under whom most of the US casualties occurred, wanted to get out of Vietnam conveniently avoids the fact that he and his aides tried to prolong the war to get elected--secretly sabotaging the 1968 peace conference.
Similarly, Reagan tried to delay the Iranian hostages' release and Trump was apparently willing to collude with Russia. So, the heroes of the essay have in common a willingness to sell out US interests in order to get themselves elected. Oh, and their administrations all had more indictments than any others since the 1920s. But at least they waved the flag a lot....
3
Donald Trump is the Republican Party finally saying what it has always been thinking. It's out in the open now.
1
Since the '80s, the GOP's sermons of fear, hate, and lies have only increased in ferocity and number. And they worked! They have led us to Trump.
It is not so much that the GOP is Trump's. It's more that the GOP created Trump. He is their's.
The GOP made Trump inevitable.
2
I all depends on if-when the Democrats retake the House of Representatives and the Dem.-led investigations that follow. Trump can't stonewall that because of the Freedom of Information act. Trump could try to order the federal agencies to defy requests for information. But that's a felony and no one in any of the agencies is willing to do to prison for Trump.
Ergo, the investigations go forward possibly looking at Trump's tax returns, coinciding with Mueller's investigations, and branching out on many fronts.
Trump could never survive that. At some point Trump would be compelled to testify under oath. His own attorneys have declared that that Trump is incapable of telling the truth (when they conducted practice, mock-depositions with Trump.)
Trump will resign when Dems. take over a house of congress. That will be the end of Trump Republicanism. The party will go back to being what it was before. Some future Republican politicians will try to duplicate the Trump effect, but the country will have moved passed that.
The next political cycle (whatever that means) will be shaped largely by the affects of the future economy whatever that looks like. We cannot predict that.
I will predict that if this Beto O'Rourke fellow deposes Ted Cruz, he will become the Democratic Party presidential candidate for 2020. He's at the age and in the mold of JFK, Clinton, and Obama where Democrats have had their best success.
In other words, Mr. McCarthy believes there is no going back. Human "civilization" will render Planet Earth uninhabitable much sooner than expected. Sea levels will rise, swamping major cities, deserts will expand inland, polar ice will melt, rain forests will burn, thousands more species will vanish. Millions of climate refugees will head north only to be met by armed resistance. But on the other hand, corporate profits will soar, share buybacks will keep Wall Street rising, taxes and regulations will not be a burden and the leaders of Trump's party and their patrons will enjoy the show from their well-guarded estates and penthouse suites while tweeting insults against anyone who tries to stop them. I pray he is wrong, but I fear he may be right.
So, if this can all be taken as an actual strategy, according to Mr. McCarthy, then there must be a demographic that conservatives have in mind to replace the thousands of workers lost by farming and many lower-paying industries through the crackdown on Mexican labor, and the tightening of our southern border. Jobs that a majority of Americans have shown little interest in doing.
What demographic does the Republican party have in mind?
1
The foreign leaders may be very different, but the strong Republican’s openness to negotiation is not.
A fair assessment yes, but the current administration is only interested in negotiating with certain foreign leaders and not others. The current hostility toward Iran comes to mind.
The landslides are coming back. Obvious signs include Trump losing the popular vote by a rather large amount in the only election he has won so far. They include the Republican's being forecast to lose the House popular vote by 8% or more. Another strong indicator is Trump's consistent -10 net approval rate.
...and the subtitle was the most plausible sentence in this fantasy.
Reagan received 489 and 525 electoral votes, respectively, and Trump received 304, so I don't think the comparison there is apt. Nixon would be closer, getting 301 and then 520, and if Trump is anything like Nixon (and he is), well, we know how that turned out.
1
This piece is an exercise in partisan ideology that obscures more than it reveals. The underlying reality masked by this screed is that the Republican Party is now a party of profound political reaction, but it has a serious internal class contradiction. Its corporate capitalist leadership is neoliberal, it's lower-middle class white base is nationalist, racist, and xenophobic. Trump must play to both crowds simultaneously, and that game is difficult under the best of circumstances. This dilemma also affects the Democrats in a somewhat different way. Its corporate capitalist leadership is also neoliberal, but its much more diverse class and racial coalition is mildly social democratic. Neoliberalism as both an ideology and as an economic project has never had much popular support, and now it is under attack from both ends of the political spectrum internationally. In the US both bourgeois parties' bases cannot be faithful politically represented by the parties' leaderships, and this fact gives rise to the explosion of populism on both the left and the right. The "center" has fractured everywhere and the established political order of international capitalism is being seriously destabilized. The future will be one of prolonged unrest until a new order is established. The social cost will be high.
Mr. McCarthy is right about what fuels support for Trump, but completely wrong that Republicans - or Trump - will ever actually satisfy the yearnings of those supporters. The Republican Party has only ever been concerned about one thing: enriching and growing the power of its wealthy benefactors. The only time they ever mention any concern for working people is around elections, and then their "prescription" for improving their lot can be boiled down to one remedy: "Trickle down". Allow the rich and Big Business to grow wealthy and unchecked and surely the "surplus" wealth they accrue will rain down upon everyone else. That has NEVER happened without government intervention. Which is why Republicans always demonize government.
So why does this anti-worker philosophy gain traction with the working and middle class? It's when the system stops working for them, as it has for almost 50 years, since unions and collective bargaining and job and wage protections have been erased by Republicans, but also "Third Way" Democrats like the Clintons. If the Democrats don't want to experience more decades in the wilderness as they did under Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes, and now Trump, they need to return to their New Deal roots and make the System work for the "little guy".
2
Daniel McCarthy’s essay seems to be a lengthy--and fundamentally dishonest--rationalization of his support for the new, Trumpublican Party. True conservatives have repudiated what it stands for: George Will, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Rubin, David Frum, Max Boot, Charlie Sykes, Nicole Wallace, Richard Painter, David French, Peter Wehner, to name a few.
Conservatism used to be a reasoned argument in favor of smaller government; preserving institutions and practices that humankind has found useful; a robust, idealistic foreign policy; support of human rights; firm alliances with other democracies; support of international treaties that promote trade, peace, prosperity and stability throughout the world. Not only does Trumblicanism no longer support these ends, it no longer relies on reasoned argument to advance the ends it does support.
The Trumpublican Party is now an alliance of interest groups who—for varying reasons--are rabidly anti-government. It has found that the best way to hold power is to promote fear, paranoia, distrust, greed, bigotry and resentment. It has found there is no penalty for lying. It has found there is no need, whatsoever, to offer proven solutions to our collective problems. It has found there is no need for its candidates to display any of the character traits once deemed necessary to get elected.
Daniel McCarthy should peddle his fictions to his readers at "Modern Age". He's not likely to find too many buyers for them at the Times.
5
That the GOP has morphed into Trump's party is not only indicative of how the GOP establishment failed to combat populism, but how conservatism as a political ideology morphed into it. No longer advocating limited government and laissez faire economics, conservatism today merely expresses animus toward the modern world. Trump's populism, furthermore, is equally a reaction against the Reagan Era, as it is the culmination of it.
The formula which created electoral landslides for Nixon in 1972 and Reagan in 1984 no longer applies to the present. Trump's political success depends less on what he does, than what the Democrats fail to do. Demographics aren't on the side of the GOP, something the author fails to ascertain.
2
Yep - it's all Trump now.
You and friends own it and you will regret it like California Republicans wish they had never gone down the racist road in 1994 with Proposition 187.
7
@Tim and who can forget Prop 209 to disable UC affirmative action?
1
A party for the nation? You mean a party for the 40 percent of the nation comprised of insular working class whites, self-satisfied suburbanites, evangelical hypocrites, billionaire corporatists, and white nationalist immigrant-haters. That may be a winning coalition for now but please don't trash America by suggesting it's representative of the entire nation..
12
Trump the Miracle worker
Trump offers nothing to his base, he does not offer free health care (in fact he openly campaigned to repeal Obamacare) , he does not offer free tuition for college, in fact Trump does not promise anything that will make life better for anyone in this country, but he will keep those Caravans full of desperate women and children out of America, that he will do, but isn't that very easy to do, really, all it takes is a lack of compassion, not much else. Trump cuts things, that's what he is good at. like he cut taxes. But any president could cut taxes but most don't because it turns out that taxes are very important because the United States has a lot of bills to pay, like social security, Medicare, building roads, keeping Airports running, federal Jails safe, and government workers don't forget them they have to get paid, and plenty more, and it all takes tax money to pay for it all, but no worries, Trump will borrow money to pay for all the tax cuts, he knows the people who vote for him are too ignorant to even care about such things.....till of course the welfare check, unemployment or social security check doesn't arrive, then they will care, your darn right, but Trump knows how to get out of that one too-when the crash comes just blame it on the democrats, or the news media, or the Fed...its always going to be someone else's fault, and his base will believe him...and that's the miracle.
11
"There’s No Going Back. The G.O.P. Is Trump’s Party."
And apparently, the writer doesn't have a problem with that. The entire article was a shrug of the shoulders and "Waddayagonnadoaboutit?" about the toxic nature of the modern Republican Party and how its coddling of Trump keeps that toxicity moving right alown. And the last paragraph borders on delusional: The only "vision" Trump has is how he can stay in the spotlight and continue to line the pockets of himself and his family. The idea that he has any "vision" to "make America great again" would be hilarious if it weren't so willfully obtuse.
13
Excuse me! Excuse me! An exploratory committee is now being formed to plan for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. Recommendations are welcomed regarding possible locations. At this point a converted garbage barge to be moored in the Gowanus Canal is in the lead closely followed by a secluded men's room in a corner of Grand Central Station. Some features under consideration: Liar's Corner: A tribute to DJT's 10,000 lies, distortions, and half truths while in office. An interactive "Gimmee Putt" feature to celebrate DJT's integrity as dsplayed on the golf course. Other recommendations are also welcomed....
3
Unfortunately I am finding it difficult to admire a president who is so divisive at a time when we require more unity. Controlling immigration is one thing, castigating people as animals and cop killers is quite another. Pro growth economic policies pursued via magnified national debt and environmental degradation also seems to me to be a very shortsighted way to govern. Maybe Mr Trump will be wildly successful politically, maybe not, but even if and especially if he is have republicans given any thought to what they will inherit from him in 2024? Are they prepared to drastically cut social security and Medicare to save our national finances or to pay for the construction necessary to ameliorate sea level rise?
1
Here’s just one example of how this column is tripe: If it weren’t for the evangelical VOTER base the Republicans are so desperate to pander to and hold onto, there would be Republican run abortion on-demand clinics on every corner of every major urban city. This is exposed by the disconnect between their “pro-life” position and abject disregard for any kind of social service support (economic, education, vocational, anything) of out-of-wedlock children, and in particular inner city minorities. As the percentage of Americans professing to be “religious” continues to decline, the evangelical base will become unimportant and irrelevant and discarded. The glaring admission in this piece is the acknowledgement of Republican support for freeing slaves so white southerners would not have to compete with “an inexpensive labor force”. There is nothing principled about any of the Republican “principles”. At its core, it is a corporation where the only thing that matters is the bottom line and enhancing profit.
1
America's economic exceptionalism and sovereignty at home did not seem to favor similar thoughts to other nations subjugated by this one, in conforming to rules foreign to them...and exceptionally favorable to the U.S. by imposing price and value, goods and service, 'over there'. Why do you think we thought it 'normal' in getting involved in the internal affairs of others to our benefit? That doesn't make us better. Certainly when solidarity, and the 'golden rule', are left wanting. And now, republicans have surrendered to Trump's awful whims, aimed to destroy any civility left between parties; if the G.O.P. was willing to give up responsibility and allow Trump to lead them to a pig-sty terrain in merely two years, what makes you think they will return to 'normality once the vulgar bully in office is dethroned in two years? Unless you thing the G.O.P. is a political weather wane, landing on it's feet after a shameful surrender of their duties, save this suffering democracy of ours...instead of serving the 'rich and powerful' so to stay in power?
The author focuses upon Trump as changing the GOP in the last three years. That is doubtful. Trump hasn’t changed the important fact of decades: control of the GOP by a handful of billionaires who have invented a massive brainwashing machine. It controls reality for 40% of the electorate, double that for Republicans, and enables them to almost guarantee re-election of their servile avatars in Congress. Their power in spreading disinformation and innuendo puts them in control of the GOP and who is in it.
Trump is a publicity hound rallying the troops with nonsense — a useful front man, but not the basic issue in the way of changing the GOP.
The most illogical aspect of this poorly thought out editorial is the writer’s assumption that Mr. Trump knows what he is doing I.e., ‘has a plan’. To have a plan requires knowledge and thoughtfulness. Can anyone think of one example in which Mr. Trump has been knowledgeable and thoughtful? Trump is an ignorant opportunist, he happened to ‘discover’ that Republican primary voters seemingly hate just about everybody who is not either exactly like them or wealthy or both. Is it any wonder that the Trump core voter cannot, just as Trump cannot, differentiate fact from fiction? Why does any intelligent person believe that there are simple solutions to complex problems? Politics is finding solutions to problems, articulating those potential solutions honestly and factually and making compromises to serve the greater good. The only focus of government and of politicians should be to improve the quality of life for as many people as possible in ones’ own country and around the world. Can anyone point to one single thing that Mr. Trump and the Republican Congress has done to do that? What is the endgame of Republican/Trumpian opportunism? A lily white country in which we all go to Protestant evangelical church every Sunday and happily accept the crumbs of prosperity that trickle down to the masses? Really - this is Trump and the Republican Party’s great plan - a dreary homogenized society of working poor and an elite that has amassed unimaginable wealth and power?
13
@Paul
Once and for all, let's be honest here. A country in which an unthinkable 40% of its citizens actually believe this kind of nonsense and despite all evidence to the contrary, think it is going to be to their benefit, is a country that is not long for this world.
4
Somehow McCarthy managed to complete forget about the other Republican strategy since Nixon: overt racism. Having made the party his own, Trump has mixed in mendacity, misogyny, colluding with foreign powers to win elections, stocking the executive branch with grifters, and a love affair with all brutal dictators as long as the praise Trump. The end result is a racist party the lies about everything all the time in order to win elections.
1
I'm not sure that reducing unemployment, creating jobs is such a bad idea. For decades we've been told how bad it is that African American unemployment was so high. That it was related to crime etc. But in less than two years with Trump, they have the lowest unemployment ever. Employment of the handicap had been dropping. But with Trump, it is up 7-22%. Overall unemployment is the lowest in decades and wages are increasing. There are over one million jobs waiting to be filled. North Korea is dismantling testing sights and the two Koreas are removing mines between their countries. Small business and consumer confidence is up I'm not sure countries, not keeping their pledge for NATO support, should be subsidized by us. I'm not sure that Feinstein and her pals have convinced people that the presumption of innocence until proven guilty should be abandoned. Maybe the name calling Trump haters have used will succeed next week. It will be interesting.
@Ron
Just wait till they start dismantling social security, medicare and medicaid, all done to pay for their wealthy friends tax cuts and then get back to us.
'Economic nationalism' is not a viable policy. In order to compete on the world stage, American companies need access to global markets, including global labor markets. That is a fact of life. It's good for investors and not so good for workers. It's going to be a challenge for both parties to deal with this. Putting some limited restrictions on trade and capital movements may be helpful, but neither political party 'owns' those policies. In fact, Democrats may be more 'nationalistic' than Republicans.
1
Regarding Reagan and Gorbachev, my memory is that so far from rushing to embrace him, Reagan only got around to thinking G. was someone he could deal with long after the rest of the world (and a good many Democrats) had recognized that the Soviet Union had been transformed. And by then it was too late.
I see next to no similarity between Nixon's treating with China and Trump's with North Korea. (And not to be a skunk at the wedding, but what exactly has North Korea concretely done, or failed to do, that is a positive contribution? Gestures are important, but North Korea has a very long history of pretended accommodations with the rest of the world which however basically fizzle out.)
The idea that Trump somehow appeals to a broad coalition of Americans can be easily challenged by demographics. He certainly embraces identity politics, but represents a declining demographic. Trump's political success derives from the inability of the Democrats to to energize and mobilize their larger demographic to vote, more than anything else.
Democrats will continually enable Trump's triumphs until they become more inclusive themselves, Going beyond endorsing identity politics, Democrats must broaden their appeal to social class as well. Consigning blue collar white voters to oblivion cost Hillary the presidential election two years ago, and it behooves the Democrats not to repeat this error in the future.
@Arcticwolf The Dems are doing everything they can to lose elections, precisely by avoiding appealing to class. They Dems get money from about the same corporate interests as the Repubs, and both parties are sworn to do nothing that would bite the hands of the plutocrats that feed them.
Unless the Trump "monster" accidentally unleashed by the Republicans threatens corporate profits, the Dems will be told to continue their irrelevant and losing appeal to identity politics. If the Plutocrats determine that Trump is a danger they will allow the Dems to include inclusive class based aspects to their platform. The corporate overlords will have to be very worried though, as all solutions to what ails the US are going to involve higher taxes on the wealthy, and less corporate welfare.
The ranks of anti-Trump Republicans grow thinner by the day. They’re retiring from Congress. But they hold out hope for the future. HA!
The Conservatives invited the fox into the henhouse and I hope he wipes out the entire population of the cowards therein.
5
"by making the Republicans a party for the nation again."? The nation doesn't want Trump, but McCarthy is willing to lie about it. No wonder he likes Trump, no morals.
Dear Mr. McCarthy: In short: things do not look good for the United States. Donald Trump is a scowling, narrow minded man. His vision, if he has one, is a nightmare. As we approach the midterm elections there is no evidence of harmony coming from Donald Trump. He merely doubles down on stoking fear, uncertainty, and hatred. There is, however, ample evidence of Donald Trump's insidious alignment with white supremacists. We can not ignore the recent acts of violence, nor can we pretend they are not extreme examples of the hatred Donald Trump espouses. Your Op Ed piece all but says it, so why don't you come out and admit that you are one of them too.
3
Hogwash. This is a crude rationalization of a crude and unfit president.
2
i take your points but contrasting Trump-Un with Reagan-Gorbachev with and Nixon-Mao really doesn't make sense on many levels.
I find most of what was written, objectionable based on logic. However, this in particular:
"What Mr. Trump has done is to rediscover the formula that made the landslide Republican Electoral College victories of the Nixon and Reagan years possible."
Yes, that is one formula for winning. However, it is predicated on having enough voters. Trump owes his victory because of the people who did not show up to vote, as the people who did vote for him. Put another way, if people had know the race was that close and had turned out, he would be in Queens NY today, making a fool of himself on twitter.
Trump's formula is unsustainable, based on the demographic shift of the country. His brand of Republicanism has an expiration date, and that cannot happen soon enough.
1
I'm sorry but this column in hogwash. The reason the Republican Party has morphed into the Trump Party is because the ugliness and bigotry animating Trumpism was bubbling under the surface of Republican politics all along. The racial animus, the xenophobia, the fear-mongering about gays, blacks, etc....it's been part of GOP political strategy for the entirety of my adult life.
Even when the candidates have been otherwise decent human beings, the party's strategy has often been gutter-level (Willie Horton anyone?). Trump just made the subtext text - and conservative voters, who've been fed this ugliness for decades, unsurprisingly ate it up.
This isn't an outlier. This is the culmination of GOP politics.
6
You have got a very strange, and scary, idea of what makes America great. Your vision sounds rather like a number of dictatorships around the world and in history. And you might want to keep in mind that dictators always wind up destroying their followers.
10
Mitch McConnell famously committee himself to the attempt to make Obama's presidency a failure. McCarthy seems to think it's okay for his party to make the American Experiment a failure. Unfortunately, there is not one drop of "exceptionalism" in racism and xenophobia.
2
It looks to me as if the Republican Party is toast and may as well go into the kitchen garbage now. Even if it survives the 2018 midterms, it won't be successful in 2020 given demographic and cultural shifts massively underway. There won't be any re-inventing it no matter how "conservatives" self-righteously whine it wasn't them. It isn't unthinkable that political parties die and go away: look at history.
Mr. McCarthy makes authoritarianism, racism and sexism sound so reasonable. Scary.
1
This attempt to whitewash the most incompetent and shameful US president of all history is in stark contradiction to historical reality.
Reagan, and more so Nixon, had extensive prior governing experience and wanted the US presidency. Trump was the opposite.
Reagan offset his limitations, or at least tried to, by appointing mostly top-caliber cabinet officials. Trump repeatedly elevates shady lawyers, unqualified family members and other inept loyalists.
Despite their mistakes, Reagan and Nixon at least had positive and plausible visions for how America could remain powerful, prosperous and at peace. Trump cares only about his own monstrous ego.
The fantasy of Trump riding some huge wave of personal popularity to the White House is an absurd fiction. His popular support has come overwhelmingly from voters fed up with the Democratic Party establishment's blindingly counterproductive identity politics and fecklessness, in general, and Hillary Clinton's arrogance and expediency in particular. If Democrats in Congress could ever manage to finally form any kind of coherent opposition to Trump, his supporters would start to shift, and Republican politicians would drift with them (in the sense of distancing from, if not abandoning, Trump).
The GOP is Trump's party?: True.
But the Democratic establishment is his door mat.
Few from anywhere care much for Trump, only for the potential personal opportunities within the chaotic wake of this erratic joke of an administration.
What rubbish this op-ed is, awash in false equivalencies and revisionist history. Nixon wasn’t finding a way out of Vietnam but finding a way to expand the war into Cambodia and Laos by invoking Kissinger’s miscreant domino theory and of course capitalizing on the splintered Democrats in the wake of assassination and the milquetoast Humphrey campaign. And how did that all end for Nixon and the Republicans? Reagan succeeded by ignoring the consequences of tax cuts for the rich, citing deficits as losses only on paper, and taking good advantage of Carter’s failed Iran mission in the face of double digit inflation. Trump bears no relationship to Reagan’s grandfather persona that in fact put him in the WH — he won an overwhelming victory among first time voters, half of whom came from families in divorce. Trump is an untutored one trick pony whose act is finished so that his screeching sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. And I would remind you that Reagan left the Presidency with very low approval. That the Electoral College is an undemocratic perversion of majority rule needs no argument; from its inception the case was wiser men than the average voter would prevent catastrophes like Trump from occurring, even though this was a fallacious argument to conceal the College’s true purpose of offering hope to slave states that they could prevail in national politics. Nixon succeeded until Kent State in a coalition; Reagan had Gorbachev as an ally, not Putin.
5
This opinion piece gives an unearned eloquence to trump. I am still surprised when conservatives 'harken back' to Reagan as if his policies were somehow well thought out programs. They were not...apart from bankrupting the government through bloated defense spending to then gut social programs - because defense spending can only go one way...up. Reagan got that, and abused it.
Trump? He is a 12 year old playing at king, with a small "k". The best way to sum up his presidency is visually: a fool driving a fire truck as in his 'photo op'. But we're the ones on fire.
Policy? No. Just mayhem with different conservative players trading for what they want and whatever this clown will sign willingly and unwittingly.
2
Trump won for many reasons, in part described by McCarthy, but principally because the Democrats, cheered on by the NY Times, nominated a simply atrocious candidate. A candidate so badly flawed than many voters on the left walked away. Its is worth noting that Trump received fewer votes than Romney....but Clinton received even less.
Let us hope that the Democrats --and the NYT-- do better in 2020. They can hardly do any worse.
3
Trump made the Republicans 'a party for the nation again?' Last time I checked, Trump's disapproval rating was at 55%. Most Americans appear to recognize that: 1. Trump is a morally repugnant human being and 2. He advocates policies that appear to work in the short-run, but promise long term calamity.
Lack of integrity. Indecency. Cowardly behavior. That is Trump and that is a Republican Party that supports him. If Trump is the future of the party then it is doomed. The American people are decent people and will not support such a party. If I am wrong, then we are doomed.
1
The interesting thing is that Mr. McCarthy agrees with Trump's biggest critics. The core of the appeal of the modern Republican Party is racism and xenophobia
1
"It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make American great again, by making the Republicans a party for the nation again."
At first I thought this was satire, but I realized that the author believes this sincerely. Laugh or cry not sure which is more appropriate. Let me just say that never in the history of U.S. politics has there been a man with less vision. Trump is the epitome of fly by the seat of his pants, run it up a pole and see which way the wind blows kneejerkism. Perhaps the author thinks a daily prevarication average of 8, breaking major treaties with allies, denying the existance of the most serious threats we have ever faced and embracing almost all of the world's worst dictators is visionary, I myself find it cynical, selfserving and repugnant.
3
Eisenhower became a strident critic of military spending, at the end of his presidency, or have you forgotten the powerful "beware the military, industrial complex" parting speech? The E.P.A. was created under Nixon's tenure. Nixon also ushered in diplomacy with China. Reagan was a stalwart for civility and common decency. H W Bush was man enough to realize he had to raise taxes for the good of the nation. And all were dedicated to being citizen of the world. While I can't say much for G W, he was a nice guy and makes wild paintings.
Trump is nothing like any of these presidents. The G.O.P. has embraced his uncivil, selfish, xenophobic, belligerent, dishonest, propaganda mongering ways.
Shame on you.
Alt-title: "There’s No Going Back. The G.O.P. Is (Emperor) Trump’s EMPIRE" --- and once Empire starts metastasizing there is generally "No Going Back".
1
Since the '80s, the GOP's sermons of fear, hate, and lies have only increased in ferocity and number. And they worked! They have led us to Trump.
It is not so much that the GOP is Trump's. It's more that the GOP created Trump. He is their's.
The GOP made Trump inevitable.
Steve Schmidt has some blistering things to say about his old party. Watch the interview:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/29/1808327/-Steve-Schmidt-does-not-hold-back-in-tonight-s-Commentary
1
This headline is worthy of David Pecker.
"No Going Back??" ... Maybe, not in the next 6 days, but SOMEBODY with a brain and/or money and/or something resembling a moral compass just might read a stinging vote-rebuke as noteworthy.
Of course, intelligent people will need to see poll numbers this year turning into elec. results [unlike '16, obviously] before they/we start writing or thinking "big picture" pieces.
But let's ... assume that things like the Midwest "flipping back" happen, along with the much more likely swing suburban districts doing the same.
Without knowing Donald, we KNOW Donald ... and he's more than likely "double down."
But "the party" is really not one man writ large. Angela Merkel ruled her roost ... until she didn't, and DJT is no different.
Put more simply, Mr. McCarthy appears to have lost sight of that ever so wise, "You can fool all [at least, enough] of the people, some of the time; and some of the people ALL of the time, ... BUT!!
And for all the commonalities with Nixon & Reagan, Trump IS something new - Nixon had to be skilful and lucky to deal with blowback from a coat his wife owned ... as I remember it.... Yes, Reagan's mental health was questioned, but nothing like Trump's is.
And for all that Trump has worked social media - obviously not there to be worked 30 years back - expertly, it's more changeable than weather. Now that the Dems are outspending the GOP, "Going Back" is a certainty. The only questions are WHEN and HOW.
This gives Trump way too much credit for vision, thinking and planning. He just does what he does, with no more thought than a scorpion stinging. His "followers" see it and think, hey, works for me. But the man is not loyal to any person, party, or or idea beyond whatever it takes to keep his bottomless ego pit filled up. As far as leadership, he's nothing more than an avatar for humanity's worst instincts.
1
Mr. Trump is a blatant manipulator who has always been for and about Trump. His blatant fear mongering and covert racism threaten the fabric of common decency that holds this country together. He has no policy positions. He cannot articulate anything except a jingoistic fervor for money and profit. He is the Gordon Gekko of politics.
2
What this writer forgets is the huge demographic shift since the 70's. The House will be difficult for Republicans to hold going forward no matter who is in the White House.
You are right - there is no going back. Remember that on November 7th.
3
Yes but "normal" in this case means attacking and undermining our government in secret instead of openly and in your face daring us to try to do something about it.
So is that really going to be an improvement?
The only honest solution to the problem that is the GOP is to utterly destroy it and ban all of its members from any participation in politics other than casting their vote in the future.
What the country really needs is a no party political system that does not allow anyone to contribute more than $5 dollars to any candidate one time in their entire life.
Trump won the primaries because his opponents were vastly less audacious, less charismatic; because, like him or hate him, he seems to be comfortable in his own skin. Too, his message of "America First," and all that it implies, resonated with primary voters.
Trump, of course, beat Clinton, but he had enormous help from Clinton herself. She didn't read the winds. Polls showed that a more savvy, charismatic, combative Dem––Sanders; Biden––would have defeated Trump.
As much as Donald Trump would like to believe otherwise, America is no longer a monarchy, which is the real reason why his taking over the G.O.P. is a threat to our Democracy.
And then there is the problem of just whom he's running this country for -- namely white, Christian, conservatives and the moneyed elite like himself.
One would hope this country had learned its lessons with the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but apparently the temptation of a booming economy has blinded many to the rampant hatred, racism and anti-Semitism that is part of this president's trajectory.
It may be too late for the G.O.P. to turn back, but it's not for the rest of us.
1
Only a conservative opinion writer with a selective memory could talk about Trump using strategies from Nixon to Reagan without mentioning the most important strategy that Trump has co-opted, the "southern strategy" of white racism. Ignoring it. will not make it go away, especially when recent studies have shown that Trump's appeal is more racism than economic nationalism.
Or, to summarize, Trump has managed to combine racism, sexism, homophobia, greed, and religious bigotry into a winning formula which now defines the Republican Party.
Evil as all this is, his promotion of CO2 emissions will likely be the most significant policy of his presidency if it succeeds. A tiny caravan of a few thousand desperate people will be as nothing compared to what we will see as a consequence of the disruption of the climate.
Sorry to disappoint Mr. McCarthy but there is no genuine agenda where the republican party or Trump is concerned. Your imagined perfect mix of idealism and love affair with the past is as phony as Trump and his complicit congress. There is no rightful validation for the type of divisive politics built on hatred of anything not them.
They despite their efforts to continuously throw wrenches into the economic gears under Obama, inherited a recovered very strong and still growing economy. The current economy is not because of them but more likely in spite of them.
As usual the rich have grown exponentially more so while the rest of us have inherited an exponentially higher deficit that we will be expected to cover by way of entitlement programs. We will also as usual be expected to cover the costs of the next great recession while those that caused it reap our losses at garage sale prices and sit on them until they can capitalize nicely. Robbing the poor by tearing them down in order to turn the losses into gains for them is not admirable, respectable or humane. It is as disingenuous and deceptive as it gets.
To top all that off the GOP is engaging in voter fraud at the state levels by making voting as difficult as possible in democratic districts across the nation wherever they can. It is safe to say that the only real voter fraud in this country exists at the political level, not personal.
1
Since the days of Nixon's cynical southern strategy, the rot in the Republican party has been racism. The only difference with Trump is his overt acknowledgement of and appeal to what previous candidates left unsaid. In a country fast becoming majority-minority, the continuation of Trump's party could shatter our society into a thousand pieces. If the Republican party wishes to persist and promote the values McCarthy espouses, then it must exorcise the ghost of racism. Given how few Republican leaders have spoken against Trump's racist language and policy (as in this essay), I have little hope of that happening.
Nixon and Reagan brought conviction to their lies and propaganda. Reagan was almost sunny about them. Trump is incoherent and buffoonish. His constant lies are apparent to anyone who is not a cultist. The author sees a continuing electoral machine through this medium. I see a malignancy that will be cut out and marginalized.
Trump doesn't even faintly resemble Nixon and Reagan at their peaks. Not for want of trying. Trump selectively parodies their rhetoric and positions in a way that suggests he doesn't know much about history. At times he seems confused about which character he's actually playing. We've known this since his nomination at the latest.
However, Trump is world's worst facsimile for a national consensus similar to Nixon and Reagan. Let me put it this way: Nixon won California in 1968; Reagan won California in 1984. There's not a raindrop's chance in the desert Trump is flipping California in 2020. He can't even win his own home state. A state, I might add, Reagan won in 1984.
Trump's coalition might hold together long enough to get him reelected. That mostly depends on Democrats and what happens in in-between. Trump's is a losing horse though. The nation is divided and his Congressional prospects are likely to get worse rather than better. The cow is already milked so to speak.
When the economy tanks, which all indicators suggests that day is coming soon, Trump's coalition will fracture. His penchant for picking winners and losers can't publicly survive a broad downturn. Harley-Davidson certainly isn't voting Trump in 2020.
Meanwhile, the nation rallied around Reagan after an attempted assassination. If somebody tired to shoot Trump, more than half the nation would feel ambiguous about a failure. Would Pence be better or worse? Hard to say.
Bottom line: Trump is no leader.
I fail to understand just what makes America great under the Republican Party. Divisiveness is not greatness, neither is bigotry. Abandoning your allies serves what purpose. Economically supporting only the 1% does what or the rest of us. Take off your rose colored glasses Mr. McCarthy, trump and the republicans have abandoned this nation.
1
The Republican Party embraced Trumpism long before Trump came along, Trump just brought it out into the open.
You forgot to mention gerrymandering, racism, and the overwhelming influence of corporate money--the real trifecta of Republican electoral "success."
The very first paragraph makes it completely clear how wrong this writer is going to be. He holds up Paul Ryan and his counter-factual - shown to be nonsense time and time again - economic "insight" (remember when the deficit was the most important issue of all ?), and the utterly disingenuous and content free "compassionate conservative" mantra of Bush - which fooled the Times for a while and was quickly shown to be the same old tax relief for the wealthy GOP political centerpiece - as shining examples of the good old days of the Republican party ? That disregard for reality and honestly in politics is where the whole phenomenon started - and now the GOP has Trump. They own him. They are responsible.
Ah, yes---American exceptionalism and sovereignity! That dual delusion, probably based on the equally delusional idea that some deity somewhere loves this nation more *anybody* else, is at the root of all the recent evils. No one wants to admit that this republic's heyday occurred when taxes were higher and more fairly levied; superior schools, sound infrastructure, a robust manufacturing sector, a thriving middle class---we went to the MOON, for crying out loud!
Oh, but that's not good enough for the Business Gods, the (Echo) Chamber of Commerce, the greed-is-good Gordon Gekkos of the country. Not only did they slash taxes (and convince the voters that you can get something for nothing if you'll just please privatize it---we promise we'll be good!), but they swaggered onto the world stage and proclaimed that America is exempt from just about every commonly accepted standard of international behavior. WE don't have to answer to the UN or the Hague Court, but YOU do. We can impose our will upon other sovereign nations, but YOU cannot. WE can treat our weakest citizens like dog vomit, but YOU better improve YOUR human-rights record.
The United States is a hypocritical, narcissistic sociopath among nations, so it is no shock that it sent one to the Oval Office. It's high time the republic got back on its medications.
1
Pro wrestling presidency, as he leads all of the people who want to punch somebody. The is how fascist movements start, and when he is out of office, the pro wrestlers will still be there, ready for a White Nationalist to punch somebody, or anybody who punches. For the Democrats, we need a bigger tent. We need campaigns and characters that fit the pro wrestling image. THEY DONT HAVE TO BE THE CANDIDATES, but they need to be on the Democrat's side. Trump is only pro-wrestler, that is why 40% stick with him; they are watching the pro-wrestling wring he is parading around in, in gold lama pro wrestling garb, and saying, well, Elizabeth Warren talks tough, but Trump would take her down (he would). We need an Elizabeth Warren Team, the same way Trump has FoxNews, Fox and Friends, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, but we also need personae that seem like goons, to play the role for the presidential candidate, who can take down 72 year old daddy's boys like Trump.
Economists expect a recession beginning in 2019 or 2020. Nothing to do with Trump, really -- just the inevitable cycling of the economy. How will this "economic nationalism" formula work then? McCarthy likes to pretend that $$$, not racism, is Trump's appeal. Take away the $$$ and what does that leave us with?
I read this piece by Mr. McCarthy and said to myself I really have to read more fiction these days. What right wing hogwash. Trump, followed Obama, and Obama clearly left a legacy of a loser, and completely capitulation to the Republicans. Where was he in the last four years of his Presidency? That picture of Trump say a lot, at least he's out there showing some enthusiasm for his policies. Hillary, was a terrible candidate, but she didn’t get any momentum going into the election from the then, right of center Obama. Trump, is the Republican party today, and Obama kicked him off being AWOL with any democratic message. The elephant in the room was always NAFTA, a Bill Clinton, (You know, Hillary’s husband.) initiative, which decimated the unions and manufacturing especially in the Mid-West. Why, did she expect popular support from them in 2016? Trump, is the Republican party today and it’s good for them. The middle class has been so beaten down in the economy they can’t afford a tax increase of any kind. Even if the tax increase was just on billionaires the Republicans would beat down the Dems as increasing taxes. Poverty, a winner for Republicans.
Interesting. And yet the Republicans are likely to have huge losses in those very Rust Belt states you mention.
2
Spare us the palaver about "compassionate conservatism." Liberal used to be a respected word but was demeaned under Reagan and senior Bush (the "L" word), "Trickle down" economics is the basis for the Ryan tax bill. The Republican Party is morally and intellectually bankrupt and has been for at least 100 years.
2
Does anyone else find that the timing of this central American caravan is just way too convenient for the right's "invasion" narrative just before the mid-term elections? It really fits their style of dirty politics right down to blaming George Soros for funding it. I have absolutely no proof, but I would not be at all surprised to find out that the right in fact covertly motivated, organized, and funds the caravan in order to use it as a prop. Then they can change the news cycle from voter suppression, destruction of health care, and tearing immigrant families apart to their own updated Willie Horton style fear mongering message just before the election.
Because, that's all they've got.
2
@Don I admit when I first heard about the caravan my reaction was one of ANGER from a timing perspective. Feeding right in to the narrative of the right.
What most Americans don't realize is these caravans have been a somewhat common phenomena. This isn't the "only one". It has gotten traction because of media coverage, trump...and that has probably 'fed it' and made it grow.
But rather than a once-in-a-blue-moon event, this is a frequent mechanism...if only for the sake of strength in numbers and security through dangerous areas.
3
I find the conservative opposition to Trump somewhat puzzling. The whole thrust of the Republican Party for five decades has been social conservatism, low taxes, and an assertive foreign policy. When they've tried something else, like the neoconservatism of the Bush years, it crashed and burned. Is Trump really that different from the other Republicans, or is he just doing it more effectively?
@Mike Livingston
How has anything the republicans have done since Nixon "opened" China not been anything but crashing and burning?! On purpose they utterly destroyed our government and our economy and turned us into a colony for "investors" to strip mine cash out of. They have destroyed everything they appeal to as if it were sacred to them and were laughing in your face as they did it!
1
The modern "conservative" mind is fascinating. Trump is the key to making the GOP, and by extension, America great again?
McCarthy apparently thinks that government by the wealthy and for the wealthy is a good thing.
He overlooks the cost: schools always scrambling for money, stagnant wages, students in debt for years, millions without health care, indifference to climate change and pollution, poverty, homelessness, but always plenty of money for tax cuts for the wealthy and subsidies for the oil producers.
Conservatism as practiced by the GOP in the US is a corrupt enterprise and it has been so for decades.
4
"If the Republican Party could undergo such a profound change in personality and policy thanks to just one man in a mere three years, who’s to say it can’t change back? "
This premise is incorrect. It took Fox News more than a decade to move the Republicans to where they are today. Trump is just the result.
8
I find a lot to like in Mr. McCarthy’s analysis … and perhaps some misdirection, as well. I won’t go into the things with which I agree, such as the vision and some of the values Trump has telegraphed (if not precisely articulated with full context) – that’s really Mr. McCarthy’s responsibility, in his op-ed and as part of his day job.
But we look at Trump and a lot of people, including conservatives, miss his essence and by doing so bury the lead.
Trump is a catalyst for change as a lever for the attainment and maintenance of personal power. But it’s really up to others to define the nature and intensity of the change – he’s just looking for generic change that he can claim credit for effecting. So, to the extent that compelling messages and agendas can make headway independent of Trump, so long as they represent change and Trump can take credit for them, they have the potential for gaining traction in America under him. That’s an intriguing proposition for both Republicans AND Democrats (but possibly not for extreme conservatives or extreme liberals). It’s intriguing because most politicians are capable of developing and articulating policies that they believe are wholesome, but few can SELL them to enough voters when those voters must change significantly to adopt the policies. Trump can.
Then, there’s this fascination with Trump’s political base, both their retrograde stances on some ideological issues as well as their potentially ephemeral impact on our politics. …
… Many misunderstand Trump on this, as well. This is a man who instinctively keeps his eyes on the prize, not on the tools he uses. The prize is personal power, and he will use what tools present themselves and are usefully manipulable in order to capture and keep it. Think Bismarck, not Obama. This means that if Hillary’s déplorables can no longer help him secure his objectives, he’s quite capable of fashioning a different coalition that IS.
1
@Richard Luettgen
Being morally and loyally labile is not something good honest people regard as a respectable personality trait in anyone.
2
@Richard Luettgen
Since almost all of his change is a function of executive action (the tax cut being the most notable exception) it can be undone with the stroke of a Democratic or Republican president's pen.
He is little more than a caretaker president clinging desperately to what ever racist rants will resonate with his white nationalist base.
Not a word in the article about deficits, risky and shaky exotic financial instruments looming, Fed expectations of under 2% GDP growth by 2020.
He knows without Article II powers or the cover of Article I powers to protect him, a jail cell awaits.
This time it is different. Trumps's predecessors never had his vitriol or coarseness. Are his supporters so desperate for a hero that they'll accept a Nero? The answer appears to be a rather chilling "Yes" particularly when their emotional response continuously undercuts an intellectual one. The price of that: we're all enrolled in Trump University. Can't say we're not getting an education.
18
There's a lot of political horse manure to unpack here, so let's get started:
"while Mr. Nixon was mired in Vietnam, he ran as a candidate eager to find an exit."
Actually, Tricky Dick Nixon told his campaign aide H. R. Haldeman to find a way to secretly “monkey wrench” peace talks in Vietnam during the 1968 election campaign for fear that progress toward ending the war would hurt his political chances.
Nixon deployed an Asian woman and Republican fundraiser Anna Chennault to ruin LBJ's peace talks and make Democrats look bad so he could win in 1968.
Treason, Republican-style.
Add in the 1980 Reagan campaign staff's back-channel to Iran in 1980 to magically delay the hostage release Reagan's inauguration on Jan 20 1881.
Add in the 2000 Supremely Corrupted Court theft of the Presidential Election for George W. Bush.
Add in unConstitutional gerrymandering-hijacking of the House of Representatives by the GOP.
Add in 10-plus years of voter suppression and voter purges that ensured many millions of citizens could not vote.
Add in the GOP Senate's refusal to staff the Supreme Court when a Democrat was President.
Add in Trump's 2016 rigged 'election' via massive voter suppression, Kremlin campaign assistance and FBI-mutiny high jinks.
It's not the Party of Trump as much as it's a party of criminals, thieves, hijackers and power-mad fascists that have rejected democracy.
The GOP is a criminal syndicate that deserves federal prison; not federal elected office.
Nov 6 2018
222
@Socrates....and this will be what your facts will be labeled as: "polarized hyperbole".
Never mind that they also happen to be largely accurate.
Remember, no matter what the actions of the right might be...it's up to progressives to meet them halfway in the spirit of 'working together'. And it doesn't matter a whit, if meeting them half-way is hard right of liberal values.
6
@Socrates: My friend, I’m sooooo glad that you brought up Nixon’s (and H. R. Haldeman’s) treason re: the Paris peace talks in ‘68. Lawrence O’Donnell covers this rancid ground splendidly in his “Playing With Fire.” LBJ, had he the moral authority (that the Vietnam War robbed him of) could have prosecuted Anna Chennault and her Republican generals back-channel right wing zealots. But LBJ was out on a limb and having, that January of 1968, made his (acid and resentful) announcement that he would not devote one more day of “my time” to an office in which he had increasingly become so inefficient, was essentially reduced to being a political eunuch. And Bobby Kennedy hadn’t declared and Eugene McCarthy was then the Democratic front-runner. The man whom LBJ damaged was Hubert Humphrey, his own VP! But Nixon could have been impeached and jailed had LBJ had the stuff within him to play some nasty hardball.
7
@Jack
Dear Jack,
I hope your note is tongue-in-cheek, but if not:
The way to meet a would-be ax murder is not "half-way" by suggesting he use a hatchet rather than an ax.
3
The economy is not humming, it's on a crash trajectory.
I mark January 1, 2018 as the official end of Obama's economy and the beginning of the next economic crash trajectory.
Few supporting reasons:
1) corporate taxes were reduced by one third
1.1) creates artificial step increase in corporate performance without an actual increase in performance. (if a company's tax decreased by 1 million, its profit increased by 1 million, with zero change in goods and services produced)
1.2) money was used for stock buybacks, not for investment or wage increases
1.3) huge government borrowing (from China?) to make up for lost tax revenues, injecting billions of borrowed money into the economy, running up a huge goverment debt.
2) revoke Volcker rule, allows for propriety trading (gambling) with FDIC insured depositors savings by a few rich guys with access. This (combined with buybacks) is inflating another market bubble.
3) raised taxes (aka tariffs) on the middle class, which caused frontloading, another temporary bump in the economy.
4) two thirds of GDP is consumer spending, raised taxes (tariffs) places a huge drag on this.
The market is not the economy of course. The run up in the market (approx 8% ?) is not correlated with the economy (4.2%). The recent 4.2% number in the economy is dismal given factors enumerated above. Since it is not possible to time the market or the economy, it is impossible to know when the next crash will occur, but we are certainly on the trajectory.
16
@oldBassGuy
Need the following update:
I have been posting this exact same comment since last summer after the economic numbers came out. Note the 4.2% number for example.
Now that the frontloading effect has passed, the most recent number is 3.5%.
It is not possible to time the stock market. One can only watch the bubble inflate, and know that is going to crash giving back all the gains. In September, the market was up roughly 10% from the beginning of the year. In the space of a few weeks it went negative. Obviously the market is not the economy, never has been.
HOWEVER, this is not the 'big one'. This is still in the future.
1
Since 1964 the Republican Party has been the partisan preferred political perch of the aging and shrinking white European Judeo-Christian American majority. From 2008-2016 the Republican Party Presidential candidate received 55%, 59% and 58 % of the white voting majority vote.
Donald Trump is Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan without any of the political governing and acting experience or talent for rhetorical misogynist racist xenophobic bigoted euphemism.
See "Dog-Whistle Politics : How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class " Ian Haney Lopez
6
You left out the blatant racism, the constant lying, the efforts to subvert the criminal justice system, the misogyny, the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the overt appeals to neo-Nazis, the corruption in Trump businesses, the threats to free speech and freedom of the press, the efforts at vote suppression (which Republicans are using to keep their minority rule in place), and a whole lot else that may hark back to the racism of previous Republican administrations like Nixon's and Reagan's, but that idoesn't include a whole lot of American citizens who don't happen to be old white conservative Protestants.
13
One thing is certain. Whatever wins power for Republicans--lying, racism, fascism, stonewalling, changing the rules--they will find a way to rationalize. This is inherent in their neo-liberal ideology that whatever sells is more important than what is right.
16
Mr. McCarthy has it half right.
The R's held power for most of the 70 years after the Civil War...until the Great Depression and the election of FDR in 1932. They held power under Reagan and Bush 41 for 12 years, until the Bush Recession of 1991 led to the election of Bill Clinton.
I attended a memorial service with a white non-college couple seated next to me last week. They agreed that Trump is a laughingstock and embarrassment, but hailed his apparent success with the economy. I asked if they owned any stock (they didn't; I do), and pointed out that the gains of 2018 have been erased this Fall. They said they would vote to re-elect Trump unless the economy tanks.
Carville was right in 1992: "It's (still) the economy, stupid!"
6
Daniel McCarthy: "... it was not that he was simply combative and rhetorically right-wing. It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make American great again, by making the Republicans a party for the nation again".
- holy smokes, McCarthy!
- and, black is white, up is down, green is blue, yellow is purple.
8
"There’s No Going Back. The G.O.P. Is Trump’s Party."
The wish of the Left to hang Donald Trump around every Republican is, of course, one more attempt by one side to smear, dehumanize and degrade the other. The Left blames all of society's ills on Trump, and if you support Trump, you are a supporter of those same ills.
As specious as the above reasoning is, it is curious how the Left fails to follow this same logic in say, Lebanon. The Israeli government and army have stated for years that the intermingling of Hezbollah with Lebanon's coalition government with that Islamic fascist terror group run by Iran makes all Lebanon a target in the inevitable next war.
Yet the Left will never accede the notion that when you permit rockets to be housed in your village homes,schools, clinics and mosques, you are "responsible" for the conduct of a group like Hezbollah, or that, to paraphrase this column, "all Lebanese are now Hezbollah."
Hurts the ears, doesn't it?
So does the premise of this column.
1
The author is a conservative, in case you didn't notice.
10
POTUS Trump is succeeding in his goal to Make America Worse for great swathes of citizenry, residents and the rest of the world. He is a bigot, misogynist, liar, sabre-rattling blowhard, and would be dictator. One can only hope people with cares for the environment, freedom of thought, equality of people, education and science can wrestle the US back from him and his enablers. We have a chance this week. Otherwise, it’s free fall.
3
Great photo. Anyone else notice that HE is wearing a black
“ uniform “, with touches of white and Red ? Reminds me of something historical and wicked. Coincidence, “ subtle “ pandering, or just HIS true nature ???
Just saying.
4
Just remaralbe dissembling here. Racism and bigotry are what won the white house for republicans after johnson. Oh and a lot of lying and conservative donors buying tax cuts too
11
if you want greater corporate profits, vote Republican. If you want fair wages, a better heath care system, and simple human decency, vote Democrat. It's that simple
23
In light of the overwhelming evidence that anyone could be an apologist for this ignorant slob. Just look at the virtual evacuation from his horrid administration. Record breaking territory, I agree.
Trump is so bad that new categories of mendacity and utter incompetence have to be created all the time just to keep up with this raging dumpster fire. Unreal.
11
So this ode to Trump, which ignores everything that needs saying about the most vile person to ever become president, is what passes for a serious conservative argument these days?
After the events of the last few weeks, all I can say to Daniel McCarthy is: shame on you and your Trumpixan fellow-travelers!
17
Take two aspirins and call your doctor in the morning, buddy. You are running a very high fever.
Trump does none of this. He doesn't even listen to his morning briefings, and it isn't that he has better ideas. He has no real ideas at all. What you are seeing is the result of the people in the WH working around him. They are carrying out the policies dictated by the Heritage Foundation, CATO, and the other radical right organizations. There is no one person at the switch, and the train is veering crazily from side-to-side depending on who most recently grabbed the wheel. It is impossible to see a clear design in all of this because there isn't one. It is ideology stripped clean of a cohesive vision. Greed alone can't save you.
You, sir, are delusional.
27
@nora m Thank you!!
1
Hmm. This sounds like a paean to Trump, trying to normalize his bigotry and demagoguery. Trump is a racist and a nativist. And he is an antisocial personality. Whenever he is asked to tone down his rhetoric in the interest of healing the nation, he does the exact opposite. I don't know what to say. I am not a columnist; I'm not knowledgeable enough to give you a point-by-point rebuttal. All I can say is that if this is the new Republican party and it is here to stay, America, as I have known it for my sixty-two years, is dead.
4
The GOP transformation from a Conservative party to the Trump Fascistic party is in full motion. The transformation of America from the leader of the free world to a dictatorship with an idolized Supreme Leader is being tested next week
9
Whenever one of these "conservatives" (really, reactionaries) crawls out from under his rock, the things he's been perfectly happy to say, and policies he's been happy to support within his tribe and his echo chamber, sound really jarring to people who have always lived in the real United States. Now he's out in the open, where the Constitution has been a guidepost, and not just a piece of paper to wave around while ranting. We out here really do believe that all people are created equal, and that no where in the constitution are corporations to be found, never mind corporations equal to citizens. Yes, black people and gay people and muslim people are all equal, really. Please go back with the other squirrels where you all stash your nuts, and do not trouble civil society with your tribal mumbling.
15
What Mr. McCarthy seems to be saying, unintentionally, is “They’re all racists.”
3
Everyone looks back on 2016 and acts like Trump's win was a sign of political genius on his part. It wasn't. He got lucky. Everyone, including Trump himself, expected him to lose. Why do you think he spent the closing days of the election talking about how it was going to be rigged? No one expected a come-from-behind electoral college win. But he still lost the popular vote by 3 millions AND Republicans lost seats in the House and Senate, which is how the got a 1 vote majority in the Senate. They had more once and lost them.
I don't think a Democratic win next week is a sure thing. If this hinges on the same college educated women who were supposed to turn on Trump in 2016, all bets are off. But that fact remains Trump's popular vote loss means he is president not because of what he did during his campaign but in spite of it. This truly is The Producers Presidency, where someone who did everything wrong still won.
11
We're all partisans these days, so I don't criticize McCarthy for being blatantly partisan. I criticize him for his naive drinking of the Kool-Aid.
Trump lies. He and his minions are corrupt. They make up things, for their political and economic gain (for themselves and the Republican party, only). They create hatreds, misinformation, and division -- good for their party's power in the short-term, perhaps, but terrible for the country in the long-term. They make enemies out of allies, and encourage bad acts of natural enemies. They are ignorant and incurious. Not only do they not care about economic inequality, their policies exacerbate the problem. They only "care" about the debt when they are out of office. And, on the critical, existential issue of climate change, they are silent cowards and enablers of polluters.
This all might help win elections among poorly-educated Americans with short attention spans and a love of low-hanging fruit (at the expense of committed, long-term progress). It is not "conservatism," however, and certainly is a nightmare for America.
407
@AM
You miss the point.
D. McCarty didn't say Donald Trump is a "good Republican" and that his behavior and administration will gain legitimacy over the years and maybe history will acknowledge that he was better than he seems to be today.
What D. McCarty said is debatable but he has a strong point : the Welfare State in American didn't last when it is now a standard or basic political consensus in all other Western Democracy.
I feel all democrats (I'm not referring to party affiliation) who feel a government and society should care about the neediest and those who are less lucky should think over this statement because discarding this issue will only pave the way for a more selfish business-first society.
7
What a cynical view of the world!
Your individual bottom line is all that matters, but it won't much help your grandchildren deal with climate disaster, for example.
2
Everyone should pray the GOP's willing surrender to the hatred, division, racism, xenonphobia, disregard for others, anti-semitism, love of lies, criminality, corruption and collusion ends soon.
If I had remained a republican, I would be fighting the current GOP with everything I had. I left when Rove and Gingrich began their unholy Crusade to win at any cost. The cost is too great.
This article is slimy. Making believe that the things Trump is doing are good is just wrong. Creative diplomacy with Kim Jong Un? I was for him talking with the guy, not falling in love with him. When Nixon talked with China and the Soviet Union it wasn't because Nixon got the idea while tweeting on the john. They took time to set it up and discuss world events. Trump did it for a photo op.
Reject the GOP and its ways now. It's going to implode. Or its going to drag us into the era of pre-WWII Nazism. Everyone letting one ego maniac do whatever he wants because he isn't picking on them is institutional cowardice.
312
@TrumpLiesMatter
Hear, hear!
1
Is this a parody? In 1984 Regan won 49 states. In 2016 Trump lost by 3 million votes. There is no turning back to the 70s and 80s. And not even Nixon is a debased as the crude, billious Trump. For conservatives to embrace this man, who embodies everything I DON'T want my children to emulate and who is about as conservative as Hugh Hefner, is a sign of desperation and dementia.
10
Which is why the GOP is heading for the dustbin of history.
5
Mr. McCarthy is right to compare the Republican party of Trump to that of Nixon, Reagan, G.W. Bush, etc., but he is so obviously blind to, or simply ignores the most glaring similarities:
Treason: Nixon and his pre-election efforts to stall the Paris peace talks to influence the '68 election :: Trump and Russian interference in '16 election
Racism: Nixon's Southern Strategy :: Trump's daily dog whistles
Moral corruption and inactivity in the face of progressive calamity: Reagan and the AIDs crisis, GWB and climate change:: Trump and climate change
Incompetence/racism in response natural disaster: GWB and Katrina :: Trump and Maria
Lying to the American people: GWB and Saddam's weapons of mass destruction :: Trump's every utterance.
Mr. McCarthy gets A- for his conclusion, C- for his reasoning.
169
@Anthony
I don't understand your point.
All McCarthy piece was precisely on similarities between then and now within the Republican party.
It changed in form it didn't change on the bottom line : free entrepreneurial-winner-takes-poor-get-lost philosophy…
2
I have a shirt that i wore on a wet bike ride. It's stained with road mud. No amount of washing or treatment can get the stains out.
The Republican party is forever tainted by Trump.
10
Fear.
White Supremacy.
I'll do in your enemies if you do in mine.
"Strong Leadership" so you don't have to think about ruling.
I give you someone to hate.
Someone wrote that Patriotism is a love of your nation and its people.
Nationalism is a hatred for anyone different than your "tribe" and promoting that hate.
Dictators flourish when people are afraid. FDR told us we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Trump, like other dictators, tells "us" (being Jewish I'm not really one of "us") we have EVERYTHING to fear, and only HE can protect us if only we give him the power to do so.
It's a cruel and deadly lie, and tens of millions have died (roughly 60 million in WWII alone), and hundreds of millions more will die because of, and fighting against such dictators and would-be dictators.
2
>
As a Dem, I can assure everyone as long as there is an unorganized and weak party known as the Dem Party, the GOP will always be in the game
The GOP plays fast pitch. The GOP understands the Hobbesian idea as to the darkness & brutishness of the human animal
The Dems play T-ball & everybody gets a trophy. The Dems are lost in the humanistic idea that people will become more reasonable
The GOP isn't in danger of annihilation, rather, it's the Dems that worked their way into this position, regardless of the results Nov 6.
In fact, it's the Titan's belief that McConnell wants the Dems to take the House, whereby, he can roundup enough moderate-right Dems to make it "bipartisan" and go after SS, Medicare....with the long awaited "Grand Bargain".
This is why McConnell before an election spoke about cutting entitlements. Now he'll be able to say on TV that he told people he was going to do it, and we had an election which blessed it
Remember the GOP's dream is to cut entitlements, so even more $$ can go to their donors, but they aren't foolish enough to do it themselves, they need a 5-10% of Dems to side with them to thread that needle
The GOP has rolled the Dems at every opportunity. This shall continue
After entitlements, the GOP's next target is a constitutional convention, which we're 5 states way to opening up the book and re-writing the constitution and rolling the Dems one last time
We've done this to ourselves in a good economy, image if things go belly up
1
We are long past the time for reciting the litany of Trump's actions. There is but one answer. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
2
This article on the upcoming durable Trump GOP coalition won’t age well, starting on Tuesday, November 6.
Vote!
1
Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
-Doris Lessing
Thank you, Mr. McCarthy
"On matters of style, swim with the current; on matters of principle, stand like a rock." Thomas Jefferson
Unfortunately the Republican quarry has been mined and there's only gravel remaining.
1
Mr. McCarthy writes a whole apology/rationalization for Donald Trump and cannot state the obvious.
Trump is a lifelong white collar criminal and ,like Nixon, will leave a scar and stain that will take years to remove.
Your next article Mr. McCarthy is to analyze how a lifelong white collar criminal hijacked your party.
4
The GOP is Trump's party whether it wants to be or not. There was a time when GOP leadership could have made a stand and saved their party, but no more. History will portray the last days of the Republican Party as what they were...a sad, pitiful display of cowardice by greedy old men interested not in the good of the country, only in their own preservation.
1
Funny, I don't remember lying, alienating and insulting allies, giving aid and comfort to bigots, fiscal madness, and rampant and open attacks on science and its findings, to be traditional Republican values.
2
You cannot analyse the 2016 election just looking at Pres Trump. Do not talk about the Midwest States without understanding the level of distaste for Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton in the White House. It also hurt Jeb in the primary.
There is also was a huge amount of Hillary Hate in the suburbs.
And if the midterms go the way they probably will...your entire thesis is toast. Trump in the same sentence and equated with Reagan and Esienshower? Wow. Those leaders had actual policy and vision. Your equating Trump with them is comparing apples to oranges.
1
This is all so much blather. A much more succinct analysis is the Republicans looked at the Electoral College map of 1968, saw the states that the racist George Wallace won, and determined to turn them Red.
And that has been the core of the strategy ever since.
1
Nixon was eager to end the Viet Nam war? Not sure what planet the author is from but Nixon did all he could to delay the end of that war. He sabotaged the 1968 peace initiative and then pushed the end of the war to his second term on the advice of Henry Kissinger as Kissinger thought it would be politically wise for Nixon's 2nd term reelection. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/nixons-vietnam-treachery.html
Mr McCarthy, here's what we all see that you conceal: Trump's, Ryan's and McConnell's Republicans are a party for the 1%, which keeps getting elected by undermining voting rights.
Go preach MAGA nonsense somewhere else.
1
Wow. A scion of the Island of Saints and Scholars can write this stuff? We get, inter alia, a potted history of the main parties, and not a word about the pivot of the GOP to the Southern Strategy? No word of Reagan's "A Time for Choosing?" No word of the hunting of the RINOs? The Koch Bros? And what of Trump's edge in 2016? Firstly, the voters do not give the White House to two Democrats in immediate succession unless one has died in office: FDR and JFK for example. Secondly: Putin! Thirdly: Comey--although his intervention would not have happened were it not for the Russians and their manipulation of Clinton's emails.
2
This writer is quite a clever advocate. What a smooth and carefully curated history lesson he offers here. Pretty slick, or, considering his objective of portraying Trump as being in a continuum with past Republican presidencies, should I say slimy?
Mr. McCarthy, your essay would have been more intellectually honest if you had substituted the real truth —racism—rather than your fraudulent “economic nationalism.” You know very well that Donald Trump’s only reason for running for president—and his term in office is defined by it—is an aversion to people who are either not white or not wealthy.
In Richard Nixon’s case, it was not economic prosperity that fueled his victory over Hubert Humphrey. He was a scavenger; he ate up the votes that George Wallace could not digest—the regurgitated white Northern Democrats in the very Rust Belt that would deliver Donald Trump the White House 48 years later. But once in office, Nixon used racial resentment as a bait-and-switch as he warned white America that their economic and prosperity were in grave peril because LBJ’s Great Society threatened white hegemony.
Ronald Reagan, a dozen years after Nixon, was even bolder with his racist appeals to white America. He was right out in front with it and the foreground was his “trickle-down” nonsense that continues to widen the economic/income gap between CEO’s and labor wage. And, let it not be forgotten, under Reagan, the decline in labor unions and collective bargaining began. But so strong and enduring in America is racism that Reagan was able to cannily fool his supporters into voting against their best interests.
Trump is the zenith of the Nixon-Reagan racial polarization dynamic—and economic prosperity is the foil for their fools.
135
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, ‘18
Your observation that voters often will "vote against their best interests" is so cannily accurate that it should be emphasized and repeated. Imagine a campaign with the slogan , "Do NOT vote against your best interests." If we could convince--hard to do against a professional demagogue--that health care , fairer taxes that do not favor the wealthy, stopping climate destruction, stronger labor unions, an easy way to vote--are much more important to us than worrying about smallpox and leprosy coming over the borders---maybe we could get rid of Trump and his group.
19
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, ‘18
Spoken like a true progressive ideologue, impervious to facts and rational analysis.
Your immediate leap to racism is both predictable and pathetic, and emblematic of the inability of the progressives to accept that their rejection by the voters is due to their agenda.
No, it has to be the other guys. It has to be racism. It has to be nationalism.
It has to be anything, but, the voters don't want us.
The loss of the House, then the Senate, and then the Presidency, have still not brought about any introspection.
Just the usual excuses.
2
@Objectivist Soxared included facts and rational analysis in his comment. You merely stated an unsubstantiated opinion. It's well established that one can use the stoking of fears of the other and repetitive lying to shift opinions and beliefs. It may be that the voters don't want us, but if they were acting rationally on good information, not from subliminally activated tribalism, they might feel differently.
18
Daniel McCarthy:
"The Republican Party began in the 19th century as a free-labor party, built on the interest of workers who did not want to compete with the cheaper labor of an expanding slave economy."
Strange how the author leaves out that Abolitionists were in the forefront of creating the Republican Party, and that Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil.
But maybe not so strange: The Trump-Republican Party that McCarthy is so rhapsodic over is fundamentally racist.
There is much room to criticize Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes. However, all of them despite their faults did contribute something to the country. What has Trump contributed?
Nixon was a champion of reforming environmental policy and supported the Clean Air Act of 1970. He also pushed Congress to expand civil rights. Trump is rolling back key environmental protections and doesn't believe in civil rights for anyone of color or those whose sexual orientation he finds fault with.
Reagan played a key role in bringing an end to the Cold War. Trump is threatening to bring the Cold War with Russia back by pulling the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty.
George H. W. Bush stood up to China after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 and suspended weapons sales to that country. Trump considers it unfortunate the world found out about how Saudi Arabia tortured and murdered a journalist, and wouldn't jeopardize weapons sales to the country over something so "trivial."
In 2006 George W. Bush stood up to Republican-dominated Congress that favored mass deportation of illegal immigrants, and supported the creation of path to citizenship for them. Trump would like to throw every immigrant out of the country, not to mention birthers who have a constitutional right to be citizens.
Yes, we can name many things these four did wrong, but at least they did something right. Who can name one thing Trump has done right so far for the country? NOTHING!!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!
1
Hmm, what did the Nixon and Reagan strategies have in common? Was it something about strapping young bucks and a southern strategy? The author seems to have selective memory when it comes to this. They ran by exploiting fear and anger, much like our current president. That is why he remains competitive and could do more lasting damage to this country than Iran-Contra and Watergate ever did.
1
Some policy parallels exist between Trump and Reagan, most obvious in Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. But the American electorate today is considerably different from the one of the early 80s, so it's a mistake to assume that warmed over Reaganomics will succeed for several more elections. Trump's victory had far more to do with Hilary's miscalculations and historical unpopularity. If Dems nominate a charismatic candidate, Trump's GOP is toast.
1
Our democracy is up for grabs on Tuesday. If the House remains Republican, we may never be able to return to a country that is based on lofty ideals and is respected around the world. At the moment, members of the GOP are talking seriously about changing the constitution to better align with Trump's current whims. Flipping the House on Tuesday will put the brakes on this absurdity.
2
Daniel,
Thank you for helping us think about President Trump in a new way. He really is the modern incarnation of Republican party greatness, as historically exemplified by everyone's favorite president (Nixon) and our first dementia president (Reagan)(talk about a cover-up!). It's all about finding the winning formula to get and hold power, not about governing in the public interest.
I hope the photographer didn't intend to send a message and just took the picture for its visual qualities… but this looks so much like a "Hail Trump" photo.
PS. I just want to make a parallel with the mind frame between yesterday and today as well as the repetition of the forms of propaganda.
That's all.
There is not such thing as history repeats itself and Mr. you know who is the replica of Mr. you know who from the 30's.
Times are hard enough and the what the country is turning into under this presidency are hard enough to avoid extremist and quite debatable arguments.
Sure, Trump is all about serious policy, economic and foreign insights and charting a new direction for the 21st century. That's what distinguishes his presidency, not the endless outright lies, not the hateful, spiteful, petty effusions that come at us every day, not the self-indulgent, self-pitying, selfish personality behind this lifelong crook, not the xenophobic, misogynistic, bigoted ignorance that inspires hatred in word and deed. It's really all about the policies and the high-minded vision behind them.
The parallels to earlier Republican triumphs are obvious all right, but not primarily in the ways described. The parallels to earlier racism, phony economics, and transparent deceptions stand out.
The main point that there is a lasting coalition behind Trump and his new party is sadly true. Let's just hope it's a small enough coalition of the willfully ignorant (did I forget to mention - it's weather!) that the writer's predictions of successive victories prove wrong.
1
These particular parallels are a stretch. But there are common features that Trump shares with Nixon and Reagan and other Republicans -- racism (the "Southern Strategy"), anger (at anti-War groups, students, hippies, an imagined enemies list including a vocal minority oppressing the "silent majority"), scapegoating (blacks and immigrants made me poor), criminal activities (Watergate), support for covert illegal groups (Iran-Contra).
Meanwhile they enriched the already rich, impoverished the middle class, turned us against each other, demonized Democrats, and oh yes, under Bush #2 they nearly destroyed the world economy (now its the environment they are willing to destroy if it benefits them) and sent soldiers where they weren't needed (Iraq, the Mexican border).
So why then are they as popular as they are? First, they are until they're not. Second, they have learned how to manipulate the message, lie, deceive, conceal, misinform, manipulate. Yes, they are good at these things.
1
Wow, David McCarthy so perfectly captures the way Trump has rediscovered the ways of Nixon. What a terrific role model! Of course he conveniently leaves out the fact that while Trump indeed has the lying, paranoia, and fear-mongering down pat, he also brings in his own style of far more out-in-the-open racist, white nationalist speech and actions. Why, it’s the best of all worlds! For a blindly obedient conservative like McCarthy, that is.
1
Well, that was remarkably ugly. All the destruction that Trump has caused and continues to cause is fine as long as it wins elections for Republicans.
The subtitle of the “Landslide victories of Nixon and Reagan” is telling in its own way - the author doesn’t care that Nixon was corrupt, it’s the victories that counted. Trump is, of course, far more visibly corrupt than even Nixon.
The article doesn’t spell out how Trump has created a “good environment for business.” Presumably because going into details would have to reveal it’s only tax cuts for the rich and rolling back curbs against pollution that qualify.
The author neglects to mention that when “Trump talks about crime the way Nixon did,” Trump is outright lying about crime.
The capper, though, is that McCarthy harkens back to anti-communistic fervor during the Cold War as some sort of golden age. Effectively it’s admiriation for his namesake Joseph McCarthy, if not in so many words.
Which is awfully weird given that Trump is a Putin apologist, but that’s another can of worms.
It's not just Donald Trump and the Republican party that we have to worry about, but a world in which a man like him can become president of the greatest country on earth. We are forced to ask ourselves, "What is wrong with us?" In the near future, we will be able to answer that question.
Soon we're going to program the human mind in the computer, which will provide irrefutable proof that the mind's operation is based on a "survival" algorithm that we have tricked with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. When we com to understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
DJT represents the Oligarchs. He won the election, on a cryptic, unattainable economic message, getting jobs back from Bad China, Mexico. (What we got was Tax breaks for the oligarchs and deregulation stimulus in a recovery, and budget busting, just like Reagan) Republicans, the oligarch's party, have used the Southern Strategy and subtle race bating to overcome the fewer oligarchs and their Ayn Rand accolytes. (got the dorks to vote with Biff's) DJT won on a blatant race strategy that further divides our country, making our biggest problem bigger. It is a sure tactic to make America Less Great Again. If we stand divided, we will lose the next round of expansion of Europe and Asia, while China is now insulated from failure. Our allies and competitors will not forgive us for taking advantage of them while they were weaker. Giving up on human rights issues for the sake of profits is an Oligarch theme, not shared by most Americans. Once he won he could have returned to practical policy like Nixon, but he either believed his lies or is such a Narcissist that he loves the attention more than his job. Sorry, you can't excuse this and even Nixon and Reagan had some sense of honor.
1
Wow. Mr. McCarthy struggling to justify the Republican Party's current dysfunctional state. No mention of the deficit run up to serve the wealthy, use of the Southern Strategy to agitate and capture the Southern vote nor the wholesale abdication of Congressional Republicans to this dangerous, disruptive President. This piece is right out of the Fox News playbook.
1
What a principled conservative Mr. McCarthy is. When Trumpism is swept away, he'll move on to the next shiny penny. How 'conservative'.
1
The Republican voter base was lucky to have someone like Trump come along - irritating or not - to facilitate sending a message to the Republican statist and corporatist elitists that they have strayed from the party's roots, and that they are not wanted.
The convention made it clear - the party's elites were all cast aside in favor of Trump.
Unfortunately, the Democrats will never be able to get their party back.
The radical progressives have ruthlessly cleansed the party's structure of all moderates. There are no more classic liberals in the party's elite.
And there is no hope of displacing them, short of a revolution in the party - whichjust isn't going to happen.
There is no Trump-equivalent on the left.
Instead, what is happening, is Democrats are voting Republican.
Democratic voters are fed up with the Clintons, Obamas, Pelosis, and other demagogic ideologues who promise the world and instead deliver intrusive government, continued poverty, and ghost towns where there used to be vibrant economies.
If you are going to claim the mantle of intellectual authority on political history you should at least get your facts straight. The republican party was formed as a response to the Know Nothing party which enjoyed a very brief moment in the mid 1850's and the divide within the Democrats - the 'Chivalry' or southern wing which fought with all their might to maintain slavery and the 'free soil' wing which was adamantly opposed to slavery. And to set another record straight, the 'know nothings' were a virulently anti-immigrant party and they were called 'know nothing' because they claimed to 'know nothing' about what their party stood for.
Let me draw a more direct parallel for you. From Nivon"s Southern Strategy and Reagan in Philadelphia, MS to Willie Horton and birtherism, the modern GOP is one continuous downward arc of fear, racism and intolerance. Dress it up as "economic populism" and "nationalism" if you like. We see what it is.
3
Huh? Nixon and Reagan were both reelected with large popular vote majorities. Nixon, in particular, had a HUGE popular vote majority in 1972. In other words, Nixon and Reagan were POPULAR! The majority of American voters liked them. How does the author square his analysis with the fact that Trump is NOT popular? Trump is, and has always been, disfavored by the majority of American voters. Even many of his supporters can't stand him and only support him begrudgingly.
If the claims of this author were correct, Trump's approval rating would exceed 50%. In fact, under today's conditions, anything less than 55+% should be considered a sign of Trump's weakness.
1
@JMGDC
He's speaking of how he got elected, and could do so again. He's correct.
Gingrich knew then and everyone knows now that if the GOP doesn't continue to appeal to the old racist south voters that the GOP will be relegated to a permanent minority party status. The actual policies of the GOP are to help the wealthy and enslave the poor and middle class. If they speak on the issues they will always lose because their policies are just garbage. Thus, hate of the other will have to continue. I doubt that will appeal to the vast majority of Americans. Additionally, Trump will preside over the next great depression, coming soon to a location near you. The current economy has little to do with Trump's policies or GOP policy. On economics the GOP's trickle down theories have been shown to be a hoax.
Deficit spending to give a tax break to corporations who pay their employees poverty wages is not job creation. The infrastructure of the country is crumbling and the GOP spends profusely on military hardware to protect oil company interests overseas. Deregulation allows companies to pollute at levels that threaten the health of the people. The health industry under the GOP charges twice the price with worse outcomes than nations who provide national coverage.
I am not sure how you will blame what is coming on the democrats, but I am sure you will try. I am not a great democrat supporter, but I know who is the cause of the problems in this country and it is not them.
159
@Chris
With respect, then, perhaps you should become a more ardent supporter of Democrats. As you note, they are not the cause of the majority of problems we face as Americans, but do, in fact, seek solutions to issues in this country more readily than their counterparts in Congress.
9
So, Mr. McCarthy, where is the beef? Where is the infrastructure plan? Where is the Middle East Peace plan? Where is the growing middle-class pay check? Where is the comprehensive immigration plan? Where is the better/cheaper health care coverage? Where is the exit from Afghanistan from the Commander-in-Chief who declared he knew more than the generals?
These were all promises of this president. Granted, we have two new Supreme Court justices but how much of that is due to Trump's picks versus McConnell changing the Senate rules? Yes, the economy has been humming along but so far that seems to be the result of blowing up the nation's debt and deficit rather than anything else.
This all seems like smoke and mirrors and wildly reckless charge account spending to me. Enjoy the party while you can, Mr. McCarthy, but sooner or later the bill is going to show up in your mailbox (and of everyone else).
17
A good article but there are two debatable points. I don't believe that protectionism is good for business. Professional economists accept the Law of Comparative Advantage--that global free trade is good for all nations ; international trade is not a zero-sum gain; all nations , specializing in what they do best, gain. The new tariff policy has already seriously harmed major parts (e.g. soybean farmers) of our economy. Also, tearing apart international trade agreements interferes with economic growth. (Trump's NAFTA change was simply ripping the group apart then sewing it back together again with insignificant changes----but with a lot of self-praise .)
Another point: True that Trump has his die-hard supporters , mainly the Evangelicals who have made their bargain with the Devil in order to stop abortion and produce the ultra-right Supreme Court ( no longer the Judicial Branch but rather a political extension of Trump's party ) and the support of the disaffected, ill-educated whites who are struggling to pay their bills. The Evangelicals will probably remain with Trump , unless they become truly religious and start taking the humane elements in Christianity seriously--helping the stranger and the needy. But more importantly , demographic changes are coming: the ethnic groups that detest Trump are gaining power. They are both growing in number and learning to erase the unfair systems of gerrymandering and voter suppression, which deny them the vote.
9
And how is the weather in your parallel universe?
38
trump has clearly accomplished his most important objective!
One might argue that no administration has met a single goal more completely.
That objective is forcing the entire worlds population to think and talk about trump as often as possible. Seven plus billions of people think and talk about trump almost unrelentingly.
Mission accomplished!!
The next objective: the deification of trump, apparently by force if necessary.
So I agree, Mr. McCarthy -- trump has transformed the Republican Party. And the rest of the world, too.
trump 24/7 for all!!
20
Given that Trump's party continually declines to use the Democratic Party's correct name and rather refers to it as the "Democrat Party," let us no longer honor the Trump party with the name of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
These Republicans - and so many others - would be repulsed by Donald Trump and what he has done to their party. From now on call it what it is: the Trump Party.
29
@RMP Or the Ghastly Old Patriarchy.
4
The author is right about the GOP having become the party of Trump. It lost its ability to be critical and therefore has become just a rubber stamp machinery. However, the differences with the Nixon and Reagan years is that now much more than then the GOP and Trump JUST appeal to the lower and darker sides of people without something positive to point to. Just "against" not "for" anything. Sure "for" negative thing like "for" against-immigrants, but no consistent positive message that points to a way of the problems of society and people.
9
The paragraph beginning with "The Republican Party began in the 19th century..." is a masterpiece of misleading propaganda.
After the civil war, there was not only the Great Depression of 1929, there were depressions in 1873 and 1893, Note that there were no depressions during the period of Democratic dominance after WWII. These 3 depressions were the direct result of Republican policies of austerity and inequality. They each were preceded by periods of high inequity and reduced federal spending that resulted in paying down the national debt by more than 10%.
While Trump has not fulfilled his promise to pay down the federal debt, he and his party have implemented policies that have increased both inequality and private debt. Remember that it was an explosion of private debt that brought about the Great Recession of 2008.
Anyone who thinks Republican economic policies have brought about prosperity clearly has never head of the dictum:
"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."
46
@Len Charlap:
Thank you for this!
3
"And it’s why Mr. Trump won states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that had eluded other Republican presidential nominees since 1988."
Mr. McCarthy,
I'm not 100% certain that the above statement is accurate. As I recall it, in Michigan we had 70,000 blank ballots. Even if there was a logical explanation for those blank ballots, it still doesn't negate the gerrymandering for the past 10 years in the State of Michigan. The corruption and lack of credibility in the Party of Trump is more than disgusting, for it is destroying our democracy and anything remaining of our moral compass. No, Sir, he did not win that election by a majority. To this day I still cannot recognize him as the leader of the free world. Integrity matters and the Party of Trump has none.
33
"Few Republicans running this year seem to understand what gave Mr. Trump his edge in 2016 — it was not that he was simply combative and rhetorically right-wing. It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make American great again, by making the Republicans a party for the nation again."
And the author concludes that Trump vision had been fulfilled. He and Trump certainly share a belief that if they lie again, and again, and again, people would believe them. It works for some people, Mr, McCarthy, but not all. There are some people left in the US who thankfully exercise their critical thinking skills. Let us hope that next Tuesday there is enough of them to restore America to its "pre-Trump greatness."
39
@Dorota
Yes and if Trump's ultimate goal is to "make the Republicans a party for the nation again" then why does he continue to demonize Democrats and call them an angry mob and even call them out by name: Hilary Clinton, George Soros, Obama, etc. Is it a coincidence that there people were critics who were sent pipe bombs?
He has no vision for America. He never thought he'd win the presidency in the first place, and now he's just winging it. He tests the weather at his pep rallies and tells the people what they want to hear. Does he ever appear in a city that doesn't have a solid red majority? Constantly preaching to the choir and working them up into a froth is not political dialogue. And over half of the population have no representation in congress and are called an angry mob when they protest or disagree with his policies.
7
"The Democrats became the party of industry and jobs until inflation and stagnation created an opening for a new Republican business strategy."
You mean until the Arab oil embargo increase gas prices 400% overnight, right? And the Republican strategy was to destroy all unions and send as many jobs to countries with no free press, no unions, and no religious freedom, right?
"Mr. Trump has produced a very good environment for business, no matter what the businesspeople think about his tariffs."
You mean by gutting environmental protections, coming within one vote of destroying the ACA, increasing the deficit by 700 billion dollars and watching interest rates rise almost 20% for home-owners, right?
Perhaps you should write about the need for enlightened self-interest instead of explaining why a white supremacist could be a permanent fixture in the US. That's something the Republicans, as well as the rest of the body politic, could use.
81
You won, you should be enjoying your victory. Are you?
I've been laughing a lot lately because leaders and pundits from Northern European nations like Denmark and Sweden are making videos and writing articles telling Americans that they're not 'socialist' countries the way Americans think they are. They point out that all their industry is private, their education is private, their health care is private. They're actually more capitalistic than us!
I'm laughing because at the same time they're telling us this, they're also telling us how strong their labor unions are. They are proud, indeed, that labor and management work together so harmoniously. It makes no sense to be at each other's throats--management and labor are partners in enterprise--one can't exist without the other. Why would business want to suppress wages? What sense does that make?
I'm laughing because at the same time they're telling us this, they're also telling us how all their private industry plus a healthy VAT pays for education, health care, and retirement for all their citizens. Of course citizens should have those things in an advanced country. Why would a nation want to bankrupt its own citizens with those expenses?
So, I read about all your Republican themes and memes, and I just laugh some more. A cancer has gripped us here--business is only about profit, not about creating a great society. Good luck to your Rust Belt Steves and your Evangelical Daves. They'll need it.
160
This op-ed's headline may be the truest thing I've ever read. The GOP is Trump's party, top to bottom.
Don't imagine you can vote for your friendly Republican "moderate" Congressman, or smiling Bob Hugin in New Jersey, or your Republican county legislator, and not strengthen Trump and Trumpism.
You can't. Trump has forced you to take sides.
45
This op-ed makes reference to U.S. "national distinctiveness" and an "American way of life." This is part of the problem. This parrots what is commonly known as American exceptionalism. It implies that the United States is somehow better than other countries. In fact, the United States is not better than other countries, and until we recognize and accept that fact, we will continue to be vulnerable to the kind of society-destroying hate and divisiveness that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are spewing about the social and political landscape.
22
I'm sorry, but this piece is pure nonsense, from start to finish.
Let's just consider the closing lines: "...it was not that he was simply combative and rhetorically right-wing. It was that he had a vision of what it meant to make American great again, by making the Republicans a party for the nation again." The assumption that Trump has a vision of anything--aside from keeping himself in the spotlight and making mountains of cash for himself and his family--is simply laughable.
The author is attempting to elevate Trump, to turn him into some kind of grand strategist who has put the GOP back on the right track. Of course, he conveniently fails to mention that Trump has actually accomplished nothing positive for his base over the past two years--aside from appointing right-wing judges. His tax cuts benefited the wealthy and corporations. His "deregulation" is harming the environment, which will harm everybody. His tariffs have been randomly imposed and will harm U.S. companies and workers. His attacks on NATO, the EU and even our neighbor, Canada, have diminished our standing the world. And with his lies, his never-ending stream of lies, he is making a mockery of the presidency and the country.
The author seems to think this is a winning strategy. I personally hope that voters will turn out on Tuesday and give the Republicans the thumping they so truly deserve.
149
@Expat Annie The only thing most of those right wingers cared about initially were getting abortion and even many methods of contraception outlawed, making sure we're not overrun with scary gay people, and allowing them to continue to stockpile their arsenals of deadly weapons because underneath it all, they're terrified of angry black people.
They suddenly have these things, but I think they are discovering the real price of that stuff that is nobody else's business or reeks of racism.
8
So, in other words, Trump is just the latest incarnation of Republican conservative Calvinist, Social Darwinist, libertarian capitalist I me mine.
With a health dosing of racism, xenophobia, and sexism thrown in for good measure--though I'll agree that may be a difference from earlier Republicans more in intensity than in kind.
Where I think the comparison fails, though, is in the sheer self-interested hucksterism Trump engages in, and his preternatural ability to play the media. Previous Republican presidents at least had to give some sort of lip service to the national interest; for Trump there is no national interest, only self-interest. When that happens to coincide with theoretical conservative views of the national interest, great; when it doesn't--who cares, because the fearful voting base loves a strongman. And Trump knows how to appeal to that fear better than anybody.
27
No, I don't think so. The author strains to make Trump a legatee of past Republican presidents, but the tale he stitches together won't bear scrutiny. Republicans haven't been economic nationalists for quite some time, nor have they been hiding a passion for America First behind a multilateral foreign policy.
Still, our author might be right when he announces that the Republican party is now the party of Trump. What that means, of course, is that the party has changed its stripes, with seasoned politicians willing to abandon principle in order to chase votes. That's why we've seen no small number of high profile defections from the party, both within the political class and among conservative intellectuals.
Our author is also right to spotlight Trump's nationalism, which is as close as Trump gets to having a coherent ideology. What our author misses is that Trump's nationalism lacks positive content. Trump has no national agenda. He no longer speaks of rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. He doesn't talk about building anything at all. Trump's "nationalism" appeals to his supporters' fear of the stranger in our midst, their fear of the racial "other," their anger over lost jobs, their resentment of coastal elites, and so on. Trump is a master when it comes to mobilizing and manipulating negative emotions. Yes, this ability could win him re-election, provided enough people remain fearful and angry enough to vote for him again. But it will yield no policy.
20
@Stephen N
As to Trump being a "Nationalist" how many businesses does he own and operate in foreign countries? Where is his manufacturing done? How many governments that are now his best buddies are investing in his and the Kushner family businesses? How many of his employees in the US are US citizens? He has even shopped abroad for two of his three wives!
2
It seems obvious that people like Mr. McCarthy must be out there, but it's still jarring to read a piece like this. It's bad enough to see someone try to tease out any sense of order from Trump's chaotic first two years. It is far worse to argue that the lurching jumble of missteps are moving the country in a positive direction.
Contemplating the extreme ideological blinders necessary to pen a column like this reminds me that it isn't opposable thumbs or language that sets humans apart from other life on earth, it's our ability to hold wrong ideas despite mountains of contrary evidence.
70
"This was the party of George W. Bush and compassionate conservatism. "
Surely the writer knows that "compassionate conservatism" was a campaign slogan and not a description of the party under Bush, which was a party of a war of aggression under false pretenses, imprisonment of innocent men without due process, and torture, including torturing numerous men to death.
79
@HC, your description of the GOP under Bush is woefully incomplete. It should include running up the debt with tax cuts for the wealthy, terrible national defense, two horrendous and unnecessary wars, that "response" to Hurricane Katrina, and the crowning finale of the Great Recession.
Trump has a ways to go to catch up. I'm afraid it will require his destroying the United States of America. Putin may never have to fire a single shot.
14
The author is correct, except he didn't use accurate language. Trump is doing all the things listed and he is doing them under the banner of racism, xenophobia, white male nationalism, tyrannical authoritarianism, and yes, wait for it, fascism. And yes, now that these motivations are out in front, there is no going back to the old Republican party where they were unspoken undercurrents. Trump has created a tsunami that has washed the old Republican party away and his people love him for it.
228
@Bruce Rozenblit
I wish that such was the case. But I'm sure you're old enough to know that politicians EASILY re-imagine themselves for public consumption when it proves useful.
In other words...there is no future debt they will have to pay for their current support of Trump...should the wins change.
Doubt it? Guess what Kentucky politician was a strong supporter of average american wage earners in the 1980's...talking not about job creators but the rights of the working man....Mitch McTurtle that's who. It wasn't because he was principled then...and not now. It was politically expedient then, just as his current agenda is in vogue now.
No, these guys won't pay for their positions. They never do.
12
You left out something. The Republican party is now the party that thinks sexual assault is all right, genital grabbing is all right, it's all right to attempt rape at a party if you're a rich, entitled private school boy, adultery is fine, duct taping your mistress to an exercise machine so you can take photos to blackmail her is okay, and preaching against abortion but expecting a pregnant mistress to get one is okay.
Remember when Republicans claimed to be the family values party? Now it's almost a requirement to be a sexist groper to run as a Republican. I don't know how evangelicals can stand them, much less vote for them.
137
The article tacitly admits that Nixon founded, and Reagan furthered, the contemporary Republican party on a platform of nativism and racial resentment. Given that, the bits McCarthy adds about economic policy really shouldn't be of much interest. Racism can't be justified by a successful stock market. (And even if it could, every Republican administration since Eisenhower's has laid the foundation for a recession that began near the end of its run--Nixon/Ford; Reagan/Bush; Bush II.)
52
It is clear now that the Republican talking points have never been the thrust of their real agenda. I think McConnell tipped his hand years ago when he began his discussion of money being speech and speech, money. As years passed, the GOP was solidly behind the de-regulation of Wall Street, the continuing growth of huge corporations that were already too big to fail and of course the slow packing of the Supreme Court to make further inroads for corporate power and campaign contributions. Simultainiously they have allowed health costs, education costs and pay stagnation to impoverish the middle class. Trump has pushed this effort into high gear with tax cuts for the wealthy and the sabotage of Obamacare. Mitch may lose the House, but the GOP fully controls the Administrative and Judicial branches of government and wields vast power to further disenfranchise citizens in favor of "corporate" citizens. This is all that the GOP really cares about. They use guns and abortion and immigration to get votes, but their over-arching goal is to scrap the Constitution and implement a corporate aristocracy to rule over us as a plutocratic royalty of stolen wealth. While this sounds crazy, we have been watching it happen for decades. Trump has shown that he is fully on board.
131
Yes, some of the parallels between Trump and past Republican presidents are obvious: cutting taxes and regulations, for example. Imagine, a GOP president pursuing tax cuts and deregulation. It’s as surprising as the sun coming up each morning.
But other of Mr. McCarthy’s so-called parallels are ridiculous: the comparison between Kim Jong-un and Mikhail Gorbachev, for example. Gorbachev opened up and reformed Soviet society in ways that led to productive negotiations with the US and, ultimately, the end of the Cold War. Under Kim, North Korea is as closed off and repressive as it ever was. And his nuclear “negotiations” with Trump amount to making the same assurances North Korean leaders have made to past presidents without following through. (It’s telling that Mr. McCarthy didn’t compare Reagan’s meetings with his Russian counterpart to Trump’s. I wonder why.)
As to “landslides,” Donald Trump has made absolutely no attempt to reach beyond his narrow base of support. If anything, he’s alienated a number of key constituencies over the past twenty months. So imagining a Republican sweep in 2020 akin to 1972 or 1984 seems far-fetched to the point of fantasy.
57
Since the space allowed for comments is not nearly what's required for a line-by-line refutation of this glossy little item, we just have one question for the author:
" So if the vaunted 2016 victories of Pres. Un-indicted Co-conspirator (another successful Nixonian duplication) in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are reversed next Tuesday, you would agree Trumpism is being renounced ? "
73