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5 Ways Republicans Reaffirmed Their Awfulness This Week
The GOP is terrible from top to bottom.Donald Trump (or more accurately, Steve Bannon) is obviously horrifying. But so is the entire Republican Party. Yes, the Democrats are a long way from ideal and politics is a dirty game on all sides. That said, who except for the very worst among us right now doesn’t wish we were fighting to make a Democratic White House and Congress move forward? Instead, we’re in a struggle to minimize the distance we get dragged backward. The reality is, that’s not just an executive branch issue. The GOP has been an absolute nightmare since about 1964, and this administration is just the least polished turd of the modern era. Trump (again, I mean Bannon) couldn’t fulfill his vision without the party onboard. Good thing they don’t have any actual decency or ethics to stop them from going with the program.
So how is the GOP doing its part to screw over anyone who isn’t lining its pockets or furthering its death cult intentions? Here’s a list of six ways Republicans reaffirmed their awfulness this week.
1. CPAC tried, and failed, to pretend it had morals.
Every year, the Conservative Political Action Conference offers a safe space for right wingers to strategize about how to make America white again. Recognizing that their methodologies differ, but their end goals are the same, white nationalists have increasingly appeared at CPAC as both attendees and speakers, scaremongering about nonexistent “global jihad,” bemoaning multiculturalism as a “modern political disease,” and wondering aloud why African-American slaves weren’t more grateful to their masters. It’s no surprise 2017 conference organizers invited Milo Yiannopoulos, a professional provocateur who peddles hatred under the guise of free speech, to bring his brand of racism, Islamophobia and misogyny to the stage. The invite was rescinded when footage of Yiannopoulos advocating for “cross-generational” relationships between “younger boys and older men” was unearthed—if that’s what you can call video that’s been available on YouTube for years. On the heels of the controversy, the alt-right troll also lost a six-figure book deal and his job at Breitbart. The good news to come out of the incident is that a right-wing—and media industry—that seemingly has no morals or standards does indeed have a low to which it will not sink. The bad news is, that low is child molestation.
A few days later, Richard Spencer, who’s been a guest of CPAC before, was tossed out of the conference as organizers continued their too-little, too-late effort to wrest their movement from the so-called alt-right they were complicit in elevating. One organizer reportedly described the alt-right as "horrible,” "venomous" and "repulsive." Proof of their insincerity is that Dan Schneider, executive director of the organization that stages the summit, attempted to paint the alt-right as a beautiful gathering that has recently been "hijacked [by a] hate-filled, left-wing fascist group." Exhibit B lies in the fact that Steve Bannon, who bragged about turning Breitbart into “the platform of the alt-right,” remained on the speakers' program.
So how is the GOP doing its part to screw over anyone who isn’t lining its pockets or furthering its death cult intentions? Here’s a list of six ways Republicans reaffirmed their awfulness this week.
1. CPAC tried, and failed, to pretend it had morals.
Every year, the Conservative Political Action Conference offers a safe space for right wingers to strategize about how to make America white again. Recognizing that their methodologies differ, but their end goals are the same, white nationalists have increasingly appeared at CPAC as both attendees and speakers, scaremongering about nonexistent “global jihad,” bemoaning multiculturalism as a “modern political disease,” and wondering aloud why African-American slaves weren’t more grateful to their masters. It’s no surprise 2017 conference organizers invited Milo Yiannopoulos, a professional provocateur who peddles hatred under the guise of free speech, to bring his brand of racism, Islamophobia and misogyny to the stage. The invite was rescinded when footage of Yiannopoulos advocating for “cross-generational” relationships between “younger boys and older men” was unearthed—if that’s what you can call video that’s been available on YouTube for years. On the heels of the controversy, the alt-right troll also lost a six-figure book deal and his job at Breitbart. The good news to come out of the incident is that a right-wing—and media industry—that seemingly has no morals or standards does indeed have a low to which it will not sink. The bad news is, that low is child molestation.
A few days later, Richard Spencer, who’s been a guest of CPAC before, was tossed out of the conference as organizers continued their too-little, too-late effort to wrest their movement from the so-called alt-right they were complicit in elevating. One organizer reportedly described the alt-right as "horrible,” "venomous" and "repulsive." Proof of their insincerity is that Dan Schneider, executive director of the organization that stages the summit, attempted to paint the alt-right as a beautiful gathering that has recently been "hijacked [by a] hate-filled, left-wing fascist group." Exhibit B lies in the fact that Steve Bannon, who bragged about turning Breitbart into “the platform of the alt-right,” remained on the speakers' program.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/5-ways-republicans-reaffirmed-their-awfulness-week
