David Brooks understands what has happened to the Republican Party. He used to be a Republican cheerleader. Today he can find nothing and no one to cheer about -- because the Republican Party is now the Trumpian Party. Trump keeps asking his party to betray what they have long stood for. And they keep obliging him:
First, he asked the party to swallow the idea of a narcissistic sexual harasser and a routine liar as its party leader. Then he asked the party to accept his comprehensive ignorance and his politics of racial division. Now he asks the party to give up its reputation for fiscal conservatism. At the same time he asks the party to become the party of Roy Moore, the party of bigotry, alleged sexual harassment and child assault.
There is no end to what Trump will ask of his party. He is defined by shamelessness, and so there is no bottom. And apparently there is no end to what regular Republicans are willing to give him. Trump may soon ask them to accept his firing of Robert Mueller, and yes, after some sighing, they will accept that, too.
That’s the way these corrupt bargains always work. You think you’re only giving your tormentor a little piece of yourself, but he keeps asking and asking, and before long he owns your entire soul.
The Party stands for one thing and one thing only -- hypocrisy:
You don’t help your cause by wrapping your arms around an alleged sexual predator and a patriarchic bigot. You don’t help your cause by putting the pursuit of power above character, by worshiping at the feet of some loutish man or another, by claiming the ends justify any means. You don’t successfully rationalize your own tawdriness by claiming your opponents are satanic. You don’t save Christianity by betraying its message.
“What shall it profit a man,” Jesus asked, “if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?” The current Republican Party seems to not understand that question. Donald Trump seems to have made gaining the world at the cost of his soul his entire life’s motto.
Republicans rolled over for Donald Trump -- and sold their souls.
Image:rebelcircus.com
16 comments:
And the Democracts sold their souls to Intersection Feminism and will have to deal with the result when #Me too blows up in their face.
The Democrats are paying for Bill Clinton's sins, Gyor.
The Repugs know exactly what they are doing. They are keeping the donations flowing from America's kleptocracy. If it taked kissing the asses of perverts and thieves, so what; ass tasted good if it is covered with hundred dollar bills.
I agree, rumley. Their tax "reform" plan made it clear who they're working for.
Brooks "used to be a Republican cheerleader"? He still is. He spends the rest of his 800 words defending the party's addiction to supply-side economics, which has never worked as advertised.
He's also dead wrong in pinpointing the start of the rot with Palin, conveniently erasing the decades from Nixon's Southern Strategy and Lee Atwater, through Newt Gingrich and Denis Hastert, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, cheered on by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, Breitbart and Hannity, O'Keefe and Alex Jones, yes, David F. Brooks and all the rest of the orcs who own the GOP. Trump is just the latest in a long and clearly marked path taking the Party of Lincoln to the party of fascism.
Cap
I agree with you, Cap. Brooks' refusal to admit the failure of supply side economics is a signal that his recantation doesn't go far enough. Still I believe his picture of Republicans under Trump is pretty accurate.
Brooks knows his audience well. Members of the 0.1 percent living out their retirements on the Upper East Side enjoy his fictitious tales of Republican glory days and how the party is just about to turn the corner and return to them again. His audience has nothing but contempt for the bulk of their party's supporters and for the boorish parvenu from Queens who they voted into the White House. Brooks writes accordingly.
Cap
People would be less cynical about Brooks, Cap, if he did what George Will did -- walk away from the party.
.. out of curiosity.. what ks 'intersection feminism' ?
That aside.. not much wiggle room for the Trumph diehards.. GOP clingons.. when you've essentially evolved (if that's the appropriate word) as intestinal parasites.. in the gut of American politics & follies. They're so deep in their failed & corrupted situational 'ethics' .. Judge Roy Moore looks like 'winning' .. Now that's 'great again' eh ! !
Driftglass pointed out for decades that guy's like David Brooks ( and media) were actively hiding the monsters growing in the Republican Party.
http://driftglass.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-history-of-world.html?m=1
Now, for some 20-30% of Republican pundit's, the Party has supposedly gone too far. Not far enough to disavow the Rethugs, or call for impeachment, but far enough for a Tut-tut.
BTW,
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/fake-news-media-election-trump.php
Welcome back Owen.
Its all about overthrowing the Magna Carta, always has been. There is tremendous hypocrisy on both sides. IMHO since FDR, there were real leaders in office up until Johnson. The next was Carter and since then its been nothing but lets bullshit our way to wealth.
Republicans under Trump are just getting what they always wanted. They want the embassy in Jerusalem because a good portion of the party thinks this will bring the Apocalypse sooner.
Do people realize what Mexico is?(failed feudal narco state) Mulroney sold us out with NAFTA. Seems Trudeau is going to as well.
The link to the Columbia Journalism Review is particularly interesting, Jay. The epiphanies are rather late. But at least they are arriving. Unfortunately, the usual blowhards keep spouting the same old garbage.
As Shakespeare wrote -- and I'm paraphrasing -- salamander, the Trumpists are so deep in blood and corruption that getting out is now as hard as it was to get in. In fact, the entire country now faces the same dilemma.
Autocrats like to make rules, Steve. They don't like to follow them -- particularly if they've been made by someone else.
David Brooks understands what has happened to the Republican Party. He used to be a Republican cheerleader. Today he can find nothing and no one to cheer about -- because the Republican Party is now the Trumpian Party.
No it's not.
It's like the other party; the party of $$$$$$$$$$$.
Both sides of the same decrepit devious, dishonest and money loving coin!
Even the coin sucks.
The coin with in god we trust! on one side...
TB
BTW.
Trump is opening a golf course on Temple Mount!!
PPS.
I become tired of people making excuses for the politics of the USA.
You heard it here first...LOL
I used to believe that Churchill was correct, TB, when he said that Americans eventually do the right thing. I no longer believe that.
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