I had a revelation reading this post from Dan Rather. Much to my amazement, I understand the GOP now, especially its attachment to Donald Trump.
The entire Republican Party has become one massive con game.
As my wise wife has noted before, there are some young Republicans who have been immersed in the Right Wing Noise Machine for literally their entire lives, never having known any other world. Some of them are no doubt true believers, having been suckered by generations of lies.
However, for as long as I can remember, the GOP has stood against science, compromise, open-mindedness, peace, and just plain old kindness. When they still had the Soviet Union as a common enemy, it was possible for them to do some good. Possibly by accident. Now? It’s all about victimizing people they don’t like, supporting corporations that prey on people they don’t like, and promoting religions that hate people they don’t like.
And their ideas are zombies that will not stay dead. Trickle-down theory? Completely bankrupt (pun decidedly intended). “Strong borders”? They don’t want to keep out workers they can pay starvation wages, they just want the undocumented to stay terrified. “Back the blue?” Ask the Capitol Police still suffering from injuries they took during the insurrection. Even the military — once the shibboleth of the right — is no longer sacred. Hierophant Donald Trump covered up Putin’s bounties on American troops, and no one in the GOP cared.
This is why they cling to Donald Trump. It all makes sense now. He’s the ultimate con man to them. No matter how stupid, incurious, vile, corrupt, or treacherous he may be, Trump is the purest distillation of the modern Republican Party imaginable. He brings in suckers like no one before him, he demolishes every law and norm in his way, and he leaves everyone they hate (i.e. us) apoplectic at his obscene actions. Trump isn’t a symptom of GOP corruption. He is the living embodiment of everything they’ve spent the last 50 years becoming. Donald Trump is the Republican Party because the Republican Party is Donald Trump.
Robin
Robin Phoenix (formerly Roland X, they/them): A lifelong liberal/progressive, I’m proud to be part of the struggle for environmental, social, and economic justice. As a mixed race, non-binary neo-pagan, I’m also a living progressive Bingo card. *g*