On my way to the @realDonaldTrump rally. Let's make America great again!!!
— Richie Incognito (@68INCOGNITO) March 19, 2016
Here’s a much simpler explanation for Donald Trump. Republicans have fed the country ideas about decline, betrayal, and treason. They have encouraged the forces of anti-intellectualism, obstructionism and populism. They have flirted with bigotry and racism. Trump merely chose to unashamedly embrace all of it, saying plainly what they were hinting at for years. In doing so, he hit the jackpot. The problem is not that Republican leaders should have begun to condemn Trump last year. It is that they should have condemned the ideas and tactics that led to his rise when they began to flourish in the last century.
- Fareed Zakaria
Once upon a time I committed to not writing about Donald Trump. However well intentioned that promise may have been- and it most certainly was- it turns out that The Donald is the most compelling character of the story playing out before. Telling the story without its main protagonist would make for a very incomplete tale.
Of course, what’s happening these days isn’t really even about Trump; it’s about how Republicans have made their own bed…and are now being forced to lie in it. It’s about decisions having consequences. It’s about understanding that when you choose to lie down with dogs, you can’t claim to be surprised when you wake up with fleas.
Republicans are infested with fleas. They have only themselves to blame…and they have NO idea how exterminate the pests.
Don’tcha just LOVE watching Republicans eat their young?
A main cause of the rise of extremism in the world of Islam has been the cowardice of Muslim moderates who for decades chose not to condemn bad ideas and ugly rhetoric. Fearing that they’d be seen simply as ideological weaklings, they avoided confronting the cancer in plain sight. It is now clear that a similar dynamic has been at play in the world of conservatism.
Mitt Romney should be congratulated for making a speech calling Donald Trump a phony and a fraud. But where was he when, in 2012, casting Trump was pushing his nasty and utterly false campaign casting doubt on President Obama’s American citizenship?
Beginning with Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” in 1968, Republican have relied on tactics that have exploited and exacerbated racial tensions in the name of victory. By appealing to racist Whites, the GOP over time allied itself with the interests of those who use skin color to gauge the worthiness of human beings. It’s a strategy that’s been successful over the past half-century, but it’s become apparent that the old saying is true- play with fire long enough and you can expect to be burned.
What happens when you let loose the dogs of wars, only to discover that you forgot to train the dogs? What do you do when they no longer obey your commands and prove impossible to control as they tear through the neighborhood sowing fear and destruction? For more than half a century, Republicans have been concerned with one thing- political power. The means for securing and consolidating that power has been held to be of less consequence than the results.
Divide and conquer may provide a blueprint for seizing power…but it contributes nothing to ease the day to day realities of governing. Republicans have proven adept at winning elections and assuming power; the aptitude for governance has lagged far behind. They have nothing to offer, and I suppose Republicans at some level are honest enough to recognize that truth. Fomenting extremism was merely a tool party leaders felt would allow them to seize and consolidate power. Effective governance was of far lesser importance than the power needed to govern.
Zakaria blames Muslims moderates for not having the courage to condemn “bad ideas and ugly rhetoric,” which sounds an awful lot like Republican strategy since Goldwater. There was a time when the GOP could have chosen a different path. They could have chosen to sharpen and focus their ideas and committed to having better ideas than Democrats. They could have worked to sell them to the American Sheeple by using their periods in power to demonstrate the superiority of Republican programs and policies.
They could have…but they didn’t. Instead, Republicans built their house on the soft sand of divisiveness and smug arrogance. They did nothing to improve their ideas because they don’t care about ideas. What they care about- ALL they care about- is power.
Now the GOP finds itself hostage to forces it can neither influence nor control. Donald Trump may force Republicans into the same dilemma Democrats faced in 1968 when George Wallace won the party’s nomination. Will Republicans disavow and refuse to support Trump…or will they do the right and decent thing and walk away? This soap opera will play out over the coming weeks and months…but it will impact the future of America for years, perhaps generations, to come.
One path leads to despair and hopeless, the other to obliteration and utter destruction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose the right path (apologies to Woody Allen).
