A diary today by Teacherken directed me to yesterday’s (8-4-16) column by Eugene www.washingtonpost.com/... Robinson. Teacherken concludes his take on Eugene’s column thusly:
That is a serious challenge to Republicans trying desperately to thread the needle even as they must know that Trump is temperamentally unsuited to hold any government office, much less one with the power and authority that rests upon the occupant of the President office.
The premise accepted by both Eugene and teacherken is that Trump has put the Party in a tough spot, trying to thread a needle, but that “Trump will leave a stain on the Republican Party.” In my view that is the message Republican leaders want to spread. But it is not the truth.
The truth is that Trump personifies and exposes that which has existed within the Republican Party for a very long time. Trump is no stain, he is the surface of the cancer that lives in the heart of the Republican Party. Trump’s political visibility shot up when he became the defacto leader of the birther movement. Trump espoused the illegitimacy of Obama, claimed Obama was not really American and that Obama was a Muslim. Trump made statements about his investigators, the material they had discovered, and that he was speaking the truths to America that the liberal media would not tell.
Trump was pulling every lever in the Republican play book: appealing to racial resentment, religious bigotry, xenophobia, manipulation of ignorance, and tribal partisanship. Where was the concern of the Republican Leadership then? They were all on-board with his messaging and they have been using it in one form or another for Obama’s entire presidency. I am sure Eugene recalls that at one point 70% of Republicans believed Obama was not born in this country and a Muslim. Trump’s birtherism efforts fit within a deliberate strategy of the conservative media machine, paid talkers and elected officials to undermine everything that Obama would try to do. The absence of any push back against Trump’s lies was the party’s leaders aquiescence, if not embrace, of them.
In his column, Eugene Robinson says this, also highlighted by Teacherken:
Republican officials and party leaders, you got into politics because you believed in certain principles. I may disagree with many of your views on policy, but I do not question your sincerity.
I sure as hell question the sincerity of Republican officials and party leaders. They have been lying to the American public for decades. Eugene should know that. They have been using racism, religious bigotry, homophobia, and a plethora of hate as their platform to political power for at least 2 generations. They have cultivated ignorance among their party faithful and conditioned them to dismiss facts that contradict what Republican Party leaders want them to believe. And Eugene “does not question their sincerity”! . Is the man a fool? No.
I think Eugene is guilty of what every one of his stature and income source are guilty of: being overly deferential to those he needs to return his calls or invite him to their parties.
In his column Eugene also asks this of the Republican leaders:
If you tell us such a man should be president, why should the nation ever believe anything else you say?
Isn’t that a question that this country should have been asking for a long time? And isn’t Eugene already well aware of that?
At his campaign events Trump was fond of reciting the lyrics to the song “The Snake”. (go to utube if you have not seen it.) When I saw this live Trump made several references to how he thought this was great poetry, profound words of a very intelligent man. And the moral of that poem/song, as the woman lays dying from snake bite, as said by the snake: “You knew I was a snake before you took me in.”
That is the crux of the Republican Party. They have been taking in and feeding snakes for generations. It was only a matter of time before they got bit. Sincerity? Not a chance.
Eugene should know better.