“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?”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
Gostei!
