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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump shreds the facade
We all know that the Republicans hate Trump because he is shouting out GOP positions that are always sold with a "dog whistle."
You can just hear their private conversations: "How dare Trump broadcast our hatreds in plain english?" "Who is he to shriek 'the truth' about immigrants?" "Next thing you know, he'll be talking about 'uppity people.'"
Trump is really scaring the shit out of the Republican "establishment," (whatever the hell that means today). But, in truth, the Republican "establishment" has been a disease on democracy ever since Nixon, (and for the past couple of centuries). Over the past 200 some odd years their different factions have gone under various names from "Democrats," to "Know Nothings," to "Republicans," to "wingnuts," to KKK, to Citizens Councils. But don't be fooled. They're always the same people. They are the haters/bigots/morons/fools/ignorant/frightened. Today, they are calling themselves "conservatives/Republicans/patriots/'real Americans.'"
Some believe in "white supremacy." Some believe in a version of Jesus that makes them superior to the rest of humanity, some of them need to see people further down the ladder than they are. And some of them don't or can't think.
All of this is what today's Republican Party is. And that is why they are so pissed off at Trump. He's showing (sane) Americans who and what the Republican Party really is.
Maybe Trump needs some kind of "thanks" for blowing the Republican Party cover.
Or maybe we Dems need to get our act together, and somehow find a cure for the disease of ignorance that currently infects our society.
underpants
(182,271 posts)They've worked long and hard to craft their message to appeal away from their base while still remaining in touch with the base because they KNOW what is meant by it.
Cyrano
(15,020 posts)Is it possible he's the (political) meteorite that will wipe out today's Republican Party?
Nah. Meteorites destroy life and then it all starts over again.
Ideology is a different animal.
Kber
(5,043 posts)polichick
(37,152 posts)From high schools to pulpits to board rooms to Washington, Americans mistake this disease for leadership - it's almost as if the universe is saying, "Look people, this is what you've been elevating for generations. Do you see it now?!"
ibegurpard
(16,685 posts)I wonder if he's not just running interference for the others so they look sane by comparison.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,153 posts)Trump is a jackass, but he's not THAT stupid as to think some of the things he is saying out loud will ever allow him to win the Whitehouse. The old-boy GOP establishment have commisioned the Don to act like an idiot (at least a bigger idiot than usual). Its already working. I don't usually watch The View, but I caught a couple of minutes today where they were basically having a pity party for some of the other "honorable" candidates that were being besmirched. So even the more liberal shows now are falling for it.
After Trump takes himself out of the running, followed by the next rung of slightly less crazy sounding clowns, candidates will be whittled away until they finally have someone to run against Bernie (or Hillary) who will look downright stable, Jeb or Mitt or someone else. Its a way that the majority of Republicans can go "whew for a minute there I though they were going to put up someone too extreme" Not realizing of course that whoever they elect will work from day one against their interests.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)1. Wall-to-Wall NSA Spying on Liberals and Whoever asks about this crapola.
2. Lying America into war on Iraq.
3. Letting the Banksters walk away with the Loot.
4. Giving the Banksters all the money they stole and a bonus.
If the Party had stood up against the corrupt Elections in Florida in 2000, we wouldn't be talking about all that now.
ETA most important part: Great OP, Cyrano. Every word.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)...and bloviate how that pendejo was going to attract droves of Hispanic voters to the GOP.
As effin if.
Pretending Hispanic voters were unaware of/unoffended by the overwhelming racist sentiment of the GOP and that all it would take was a Cuban-American candidate to send them stampeding headlong into the welcoming arms of the Republican party.
Thanks Trump for blowing that up.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)by creating a noise-machine capturing 90% of the TV 'news' airtime with his
incendary buffoonery & inflammatory sound-bites; that way the GOP gets
a pass on discussing real issues, like income disparity, cops killing Black
citizens, the disappearing middle class, social security, race relations, medicare,
TPP, you name it.
He's actually doing a great job for them, and the M$M is only to happy to
please their owners by giving this blowhard saturation airtime, so we can
all pretend there are really no public policies in play that GOP candidates
need to tell voters their views on.
This is all political theater folks, in the most toxic and anti-democratic sense
imaginable.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)Well said!
Trump supporters have no shame--they're proud bigots and proudly ignorant.