Robert Kagan, a veteran of the Reagan administration, blames Trump on the GOP’s eight years of pandering and obstruction:
Let’s be clear: Trump is no fluke. Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker. Was it not the party’s wild obstructionism — the repeated threats to shut down the government over policy and legislative disagreements; the persistent call for nullification of Supreme Court decisions; the insistence that compromise was betrayal; the internal coups against party leaders who refused to join the general demolition — that taught Republican voters that government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves were things to be overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at? Was it not Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), among many others, who set this tone and thereby cleared the way for someone even more irreverent, so that now, in a most unenjoyable irony, Cruz, along with the rest of the party, must fall to the purer version of himself, a less ideologically encumbered anarcho-revolutionary? This would not be the first revolution that devoured itself.
Then there was the party’s accommodation to and exploitation of the bigotry in its ranks. No, the majority of Republicans are not bigots. But they have certainly been enablers. Who began the attack on immigrants — legal and illegal — long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue? Who was it who frightened Mitt Romney into selling his soul in 2012, talking of “self-deportation” to get himself right with the party’s anti-immigrant forces? Who was it who opposed any plausible means of dealing with the genuine problem of illegal immigration, forcing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to cower, abandon his principles — and his own immigration legislation — lest he be driven from the presidential race before it had even begun? It was not Trump. It was not even party yahoos. It was Republican Party pundits and intellectuals, trying to harness populist passions and perhaps deal a blow to any legislation for which President Obama might possibly claim even partial credit. What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed?
Then there was the Obama hatred, a racially tinged derangement syndrome that made any charge plausible and any opposition justified. Has the president done a poor job in many respects? Have his foreign policies, in particular, contributed to the fraying of the liberal world order that the United States created after World War II? Yes, and for these failures he has deserved criticism and principled opposition. But Republican and conservative criticism has taken an unusually dark and paranoid form. Instead of recommending plausible alternative strategies for the crisis in the Middle East, many Republicans have fallen back on a mindless Islamophobia, with suspicious intimations about the president’s personal allegiances.
Thus Obama is not only wrong but also anti-American, un-American, non-American, and his policies — though barely distinguishable from those of previous liberal Democrats such as Michael Dukakis or Mario Cuomo — are somehow representative of something subversive. How surprising was it that a man who began his recent political career by questioning Obama’s eligibility for office could leap to the front of the pack, willing and able to communicate with his followers by means of the dog-whistle disdain for “political correctness”?
We are supposed to believe that Trump’s legion of “angry” people are angry about wage stagnation. No, they are angry about all the things Republicans have told them to be angry about these past 7½ years, and it has been Trump’s good fortune to be the guy to sweep them up and become their standard-bearer. He is the Napoleon who has harvested the fruit of the Revolution.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 2, 2016.
“Then there was the party’s accommodation to and exploitation of the bigotry in its ranks. No, the majority of Republicans are not bigots. But they have certainly been enablers. Who began the attack on immigrants — legal and illegal — long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue?”
I will never understand how someone can label protecting your own interests, your family, your city, your state an your country’s interests as bigotry.
Your economic, educational, cultural and social interests should be based on how an action benefits you and your neighbor’s well being – and their descendants.
There are a limited number of jobs across the spectrum, and they are ever decreasing with the technological progress.
” What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed?”
I have seen this xenophobia word multiple times this new year as a negative label. Only ignorant, idealistic simpletons blindly give trust to strangers and foreigners. TRUST is EARNED.
If an illegal alien is willing to break the law to enter the United States, they have already broken the trust of law. How can I ever truly trust them? If a corporation can illegally import an H1B worker to replace me and my job, after training them, how can I ever trust my employer, the legal immigrant, and the process ever again?
Allowing foreigners into the country because of “diversity” or blind altruism does not fight bigotry or xenophobia. It makes us weaker as a country and degrades our citizens quality of life.
One of the single-most unanswered questions about World War II is how the German people could have been swayed by the evil ideology of the Nazis. Many possible answers have been postulated, including economics, racial and religious hatred and wounded national pride — sound familiar. Whatever the answer, history has taught us to be wary of megalomaniacs with bad hair, whether it is a fair-skinned guy with bad black bangs or a ruddy-skinned guy with a bad strawberry-blond comb-over; be afraid, be very afraid.
I could not have said it better myself sgsmith.
Chump is luring in the feeble minded, those who don’t know much about history or slimy politics. It’s good to know that there are more than enough of us out there who have common sense and some historical insight to keep Chump from being prez.
So Chump lovers, keep posting your dumb shit about how Chump will “Make America Greater” or “Build the Wall”. When you fall from the place which you have built yourself up to with your false pride, be ready to face reality. Get your tissues and half gallons of Rocky Road stocked up, you’re gonna need them…BAD.
Everybody is responsible for allowing Trump the room to fill a vacuum. Much like Bernie Sanders. The extremes are taking over and the moderates will be trampled.
Now you must figure out why. Moderation and lying in some forms is being rejected for impossible promises on both sides.
Sanders is a gun rights socialist, and Trump is a capitalist liberal. Fasten your seat belts because it’s going to get bumpy.
Trolls rule in the era of Trump politics, and let’s not forget the GOP’s mainstream media giant Fox News where Trump was a regular Monday guest on Fox and Friends. Nowadays you get labeled too PC if you try to be polite, yet quite appropriately PC if you blast any/all who dare disagree with you. Putting complete trust in a self-centered man like Trump who only speaks in broad populist “pie in the sky” language, who refuses to be specific about issues or solutions, who instead uses gutter attacks on scapegoats or dissenters, and who just might win the office will lead to many, many unintended consequences.
You are right, Rat. This is a bumpy ride already and one that more than likely will not turn out well. As much as institutional Democrats long to see Hillary nominated and presumably elected president, they are missing the angst in the electorate – especially among younger voters – that could easily see her lose to Trump in a general election. I will not vote for Clinton or for Trump which leaves me in the uncomfortable position of not voting in this election – a first since 1968. Sanders has, I believe, a better chance of defeating Trump than Clinton, a belief that is borne out in several crystal balls.
We hear a lot of “only angry, stupid people” would vote for Trump. Well there appears to be an awful lot of folks voting for him over the rest of the angry fools running for the Republican nomination. My take is there are a lot of really dumb folks on the other side who believe Clinton’s refusal to release the transcripts of her $775,000 “speeches” to Goldman Sachs and $11,000,000 to other Wall Streeters is of no consequence. That is not only dumb, that is delusional. It is also delusional to believe Clinton’s home brew email server will not result in serious damage during the campaign if she is nominated (even if she or her staff are not subpoenaed or indicted).
This is the era of Disruption. Yeah, it is time to fasten the seat belts, “bumpy” may be the best we can hope for.
Calling for reduced immigration rates isn’t attacking immigrants. The Democratic party needs to get over this and realize that they don’t need to support massively high immigration rates to prove they are not racist. Trump is just working the room on that issue.
Otherwise the article is spot on.
That’s just it bslap. They are racist because the only reason they want them here is for the votes. Electoral slaves.