Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, July 10, 2015

You Are Your Party

As Republicans line up to defend the Confederate flag in Congress and Donald Trump continues to make racist, asinine statements about Mexicans, the GOP further cements its brand, notes Josh Marshall.

Trump is currently - unbelievably - the front runner in polls of the GOP electorate. Given that the GOP is more or less a sustain tantrum against the 21st century, it's fitting that Trump has become a standard bearer of the 27%.  And it's fitting that the House GOP could move to defend the CSA battle flag even as Southern governors and legislatures are moving away from it.

The removal of the flag from state grounds is a direct result of the Dylann Roof shootings and the grace that the families of the slain showed.  It is a moment of healing for the South, as modern conservatives rethink the symbol of secession and Jim Crow.  But the reflexive opposition of the GOP - Cleek's Law - means that even GOOD ideas from the Democrats are opposed by Republicans.
And before anyone says, "Both sides do it" just note that Obamacare was proposed as a Republican alternative to single payer and was signed into law by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.

It's early and it's doubtful Trump wins the nomination.

But hooooooboy, if he did....

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