Donald Trump has introduced a rot into the heart of our national morality. What's striking about this is how sadly predictable it is. Partisanship - or rather partisan loyalty - is so high that Republicans rush to embrace whatever Trump's latest verbal emetic might be. Republicans say that Trump is a good moral role model. Let that sink in.
Whatever Trump winds up doing - firing Bob Mueller, enacting nakedly racist policies, shooting a person in the face on Fifth Avenue - that will become the default position of the GOP. For all the people saying that "This isn't conservatism," my counterargument is: prove it. Prove that the modern GOP is not simply a vehicle to support Trump, because right now, I can't see it.
It strikes me that two things are increasingly defining the GOP: racial and cultural anxiety and authoritarianism. The two are linked, in that racial panic is leading aggrieved whites to rally around a Strong Man personality. Fear soaked trembling before the idea that you have to press 1 for English leads to genuflecting on the altar of The Donald.
I don't see how the GOP fully divests itself of this part of its identity. Democrats have always been a fractious, squabbling lot. They spend more time attacking each other than the Republicans. But the GOP works, the GOP wins elections, because they are so unified.
Our only hope as a country is that the GOP splits between the ethno-nationalist authoritarianism and the classical libertarianism of a small government party. Our only hope is that people stop being "Republicans" because being a "Republican" means being a Trump supporter and a supporter of all Trump stands for. That people become Libertarians or Conservatives or what the hell ever.
Our political system cannot survive if one of tha parties has lost its freaking mind.
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