“I mean, let’s be honest. Who wants to hang out with
guys like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich, when you can be with Rush Limbaugh!”
Mitch McConnell, CPAC Speech, February 2009
That was the minority leader of the United States Senate arguably
embracing a conspiracy-theory-brewing, hate-spewing right-wing entertainment
radio jockey during a speech he gave at one of the most important gatherings of
conservatives. A few months prior to the 2010 midterm election, and barely two
years into Obama’s first-term he also declared open war
when he told the National Journal’s Major Garrett that “The single most important thing
we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." (Source: Washington Post article).
There has
been much consternation among political pundits, outrage from the so-called establishment
and heated discussion on Fox News about how Donald Trump has managed to become
the front runner in the Republican presidential primary contest. Nobody seems
able to understand or explain why he was able to best the Koch brothers and
many other powerful and well-funded candidates backed by the party
intelligentsia, brain trust and even billionaire donors; Trump even managed to
end the run of a powerful dynastic candidate.
That
party says he does not represent true conservative values and that they do not
support his blatant xenophobia and unabashedly racist comments. They say the
that Republicans are not racist and have unequivocally disavowed the Ku Klux
Klan and other white supremacist groups that have flocked to their party’s front-runner. Yet, nobody has asked that Trump be
ex-communicated from the Republican Party. Sure Mitt Romney made a speech
lambasting Trump but suggested they try to get to a brokered convention (rather
than oust Trump) , and Lindsey Graham has also been launching into Trump, but
nobody in the party has come out and said that he has crossed a line and that
the party should disown him and let him run as an independent candidate because
something bigger than winning an election is at stake. In fact, at the end of
the last debate all the candidates on the stage pledged to support Trump if he
became the party nominee.
It is not secret that there has long been a vocal
minority within the Republican ranks that believes this country has been on an
unimpeded road to liberal hell and damnation; dominated by feckless Democrats
and lily-livered RINO’s (Republicans in Name Only). This group is blamed for
enacting welfare policies and creating a culture of dependency through handouts,
slowly destroying the once strong moral and God-fearing social fabric of
America.
In the mind of this group, the attacks on 9/11 presented the perfect
opportunity, and George W. Bush the perfect patsy, to implement an
ultra-conservative agenda. One driven by a strike first and ask questions later
foreign policy, and one that was to be followed by an audacious reversal and
re-drawing of society and domestic policy to lead us towards the conservative
promised land. However, as we all know this dream of a conservative utopia did
not quite pan out, or come close to reversing sixty plus years of American
policy in Bush’s two terms.
Reeling from the botched and hugely unpopular Iraq war, Bush started to
distance himself from Cheney and the Neocons. He began to soften his rhetoric,
seeking diplomacy in both North Korea and Iran, and seeking council from
Condoleezza Rice over Dick. By the end of his tenure, the Bush presidency not
only looked and felt like an unmitigated foreign policy disaster, but Bush had
also presided over an unprecedented growth in the size of government, never
before seen deficits (financed by borrowing from China), he had championed
immigration reform, that would allow current illegals to stay, provided
government handouts, the largest corporate bailout in history and even extended
unemployment assistance. And there was no more tough talk or threats of war
with Iran or any other axis of evil powers.
This betrayal of almost every dearly held conservative principle by Bush
led to further disenchantment within the Republican ranks and gave birth to the
Tea Party. The Tea Party called itself a grassroots movement and was founded on
the promise of being anti-establishment, which was a good thing. However, it
quickly became about grandstanding and portraying themselves as
anti-government, anti-spending/bailouts/stimulus, anti-immigration and
anti-compromise on every major issue, offering an ideological way or the
highway.
Initially, the GOP establishment was happy to bring them on board, as it
helped them win back the House. Party elders also likely believed they would be
able to strong arm the Tea party into submission if they could not find middle
ground with them. But on every issue – from reducing size of government,
bringing down deficit spending, simplifying the tax code, to reducing personal
and corporate tax rates and repealing Obamacare, the Tea party refused to
compromise or discuss a jointly agreed path forward. It was clear that their
only agenda was to block any hint of compromise with ‘liberals’ and in doing so
also hijack the GOP by yanking them much further to the right.
Politics is about compromise; ideology is not. By holding a gun to the
establishment GOP, the Tea party really only succeeded in making it the party
of ‘NO’ and providing Obama a free pass; even though he has done little to
reach out and seek compromise himself. This growing rebellion within the party also forced every GOP
presidential candidate to lean further and further to the right in an attempt
to appeal to the evangelical and extreme base
of the party.
We saw how John McCain’s VP pick, intended to placate this
vociferous and growingly powerful base, turned out. We also saw a once
moderately conservative and imminently electable Massachusetts Governor forced
to expend considerable time and energy trying to prove that he was conservative
enough to his base. Romney even embraced the ridiculous and racist birther
controversy, born in conservative talk show land and pushed by Trump at that
time.
The GOP welcomed this ideologically driven group into their fold,
expecting to tame it, but should have known they were opening Pandora’s Box.
There is a reason why not ONE Republican Senator or Congressman endorsed or
lent support to Ted Cruz’s candidacy, prior to Donald Trump leading the primary
race. Most members of his own party openly show disdain for Cruz’s views, his
histrionics and zero-compromise political tactics.
Certainly, the level of vitriol today cannot be blamed entirely on the
GOP. The democrats have done nothing to change the tenor of the conversation or
offer olive branches; they too resorted to personally attacking Bush and each
other in 2008. The result of all this has been eight years of vitriol, no
compromises, government shutdowns, a mainstream embracing of conspiracy theories
and open attacks on elected leaders character’s, and not their policies. But
right now the Democrats do not have a potentially authoritarian demagogue as
their leading candidate.
Night after night on Fox News, I have watched the likes of Sean Hannity
and Lou Dobbs show open disdain for Obama, the man. This while the network has
also been routinely whipping up frenzy about terrorism and Muslims; many times
with half-truths and even pure falsehoods - like their reporting that many
cities in Europe had become Muslim ‘no go zones’ (Source: Washington Post article). Bobby Jindal, the Governor of
Louisiana, even mentioned the same blatant lie during his brief and ill-fated
run in the GOP primary (Source: Guardian article). A report
by 2015 PundiFact found that on Fox and Fox News an alarming “60 percent of the claims checked
have been rated Mostly False or worse.”(Source: PolitiFact
article).
Republicans have long been playing a dangerous game, while the plight of
most working class Americans has continued to worsen in this hi-tech digital
economy and world. The party has spent much time and energy trying to block
everything Obama did, almost always unsuccessfully, while their base has
continued to grow angrier about the loss of jobs, stagnating wages and has
continued to become more and more disillusioned with their seeming inaction.
Consider that during six of Bush’s eight years, the GOP controlled the House
and the Senate (also for the last six years of Clinton’s term). They won back
the House after Obama’s first two years in office, and have controlled it for
three quarters of his presidency; and they won back the Senate in 2014.
It does not matter that GOP leaders have never used Trump’s blunt
language or xenophobic vitriol, but the fact that they have never distanced
themselves from the extreme voices within the party and media surrogates like
Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and most of the shows on Fox News makes a
difference. Even Rubio has consistently and angrily decried that Obama is
willfully and consciously destroying the principles and values that America was
built on – and this has the same effect of making the man an enemy, not a political
opponent.
So, I for one do not understand why the GOP is now behaving like they
are surprised and shocked by the rise of Donald Trump and the immense
popularity of Ted Cruz (who is right of Trump on a number of issues). Both men
are attracting and energizing the anger within the base, one that the party has
quietly and dangerously coddled, ignored and
nurtured of extremely conservative, evangelical, angry, non-college educated and
predominantly white men.
Trump is merely a manifestation of the cancer the GOP created and then
failed to treat. Instead of scratching their heads and feigning ignorance or
deluding themselves into believing that they can somehow ‘control’ or work with
Trump - they need to disavow him. Even if that means breaking up the party
(which is more likely to happen if he wins) and losing the election.
This is a moment in history when a party needs to put country before self. This is not just about another election; Trump has made it about the
kind of country America wants to be in the future and the belief and values it
holds most dear.
