It’s Donald Trump’s Party Now [View all]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/its-donald-trumps-party-now.html
This is a moment of reckoning for the Republican Party. Its incumbent on its leadership to account for the failures and betrayals that led to this, and find a better way to address them than the demagogy on offer.
Republicans havent yet begun to grapple with this. Instead theyre falling into line.
Republican leaders have for years failed to think about much of anything beyond winning the next election. Year after year, the partys candidates promised help for middle-class people who lost their homes, jobs and savings to recession, who lost limbs and well-being to war, and then did next to nothing. That Mr. Trump was able to enthrall voters by promising simply to Make America Great Again but offering only xenophobic, isolationist or fantastical ideas is testimony to how thoroughly they reject the politicians who betrayed them.
Now, myopic as ever, Republican leaders are talking themselves into supporting Mr. Trump. At a party retreat in Florida last month, Mr. Trumps adviser Paul Manafort, brought in to make the candidate seem safer to the old guard, assured them that Mr. Trump will better prepare himself for the presidency. That was all most of these guys needed to hear, said an operative in the room. Maybe hes trainable. But within a day, Mr. Trump was back to making vile comments at his rallies. In his confused foreign policy address, he demonstrated nothing but a willful refusal to learn.