It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
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As we did with Muskie we should continue to champion the cause of the Blacks within the Democratic Party; elevate their complaint of
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“being taken for granted.”
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So many Republicans embraced Trump’s view that they were victims, as was he, because they had actually believed this all along. Theirs was a white birthright, and the rise of nonwhites was an unjust usurping of their rights.
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With Trump’s victory in 2016, the party seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that no longer did it need to pretend that it must reach out more to nonwhite voters.
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there was no call for Trump to reverse his position or attempt to mobilize support against
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unconstitutional religious bigotry. Why? The Republican Party was—and
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still is—afraid of Don...
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Early in the primary season, his threats to run as an independent neutralized any hint of courage the Republican Party establish...
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In the end, the Republican Party rallied behind Donald Trump because if that was
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the deal needed to regain power, what was the problem? Because it had always been about power. The rest? The principles? The values? It was all a lie.
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“family values” was useful in attacking and defining Democrats.
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It was an “otherness” tool, as in those who didn’t loudly proclaim their strict adherence to its code were “other” than normal. Like not being white is “other.” Like not being Christian is “other.” Like not being heterosexual is “other.” The entire modern Republican
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Compare photographs of Jimmy Swaggart and Donald Trump, and they look like brothers from some strange union of Mardi Gras floats: huge heads, strange colors, balloon bodies, mouths disconnected from brains.
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Their entire artifice is to appear abnormal and thus escape judgment. These men are “different” and should be judged
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her vision of strong men fighting against the burdensome yoke of collectivism and government oppression.
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A belief in the power of tax cuts is about as close as it can be to a definitional core belief that exists in the Republican Party.
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the National Review began as basically a well-educated-racist publication.
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Trump’s racism is a direct descendant of William Buckley’s early racism.
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As it was in Mao’s China with the Red Guard, it is a political crime in today’s Republican Party to appear well educated.
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The entire purpose of this ever-increasing brand of conservative journalism—and it does great violence to the profession to call most of it by that term—is to confirm not just your opinion but also your feelings.
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The purpose of much of conservative media is to lie to their audience.
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The vast majority of Republican elected officials know Donald Trump is unfit to be president and pretend otherwise.
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To willingly follow a coward against your own values and to put your own power above the good of the nation is to become a coward.
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The American political process with its deep dependence on the need to raise money is a system designed not for the best governance but for the selection of the person who can put up with being humiliated the longest.
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No single political figure better illustrates the predicate for Donald Trump than Newt Gingrich.
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Money and the necessity of its craven pursuit have polluted and twisted our elections in destructive ways that all reduce the power of the individual, distorting the essence of democracy in ways
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didn’t particularly like Trump but couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton, there was the denial that Trump would be, as president, the same man he had been his entire life.
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the palace of lies is a comfortable mansion with many rooms.
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Donald Trump did not change the Republican Party as much as he gave the party permission to reveal its true self.
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there is an urgent need for a center-right party to argue for a different vision and governing philosophy. But how can the party that gave us Donald Trump be a legitimate voice for conservatism as a positive force?
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So it is with today’s Republican Party. It is a cartel that exists to elect Republicans. There is no organized, coherent purpose other than the acquisition and maintenance of power.