We have several articles this morning with a common theme: wig-stand blowhard Donald "Rump" Trump is the Republican Party; he merely voices their id in an inconvenient manner that the party has now told him to tone down. (See Update below.) However, no one with a pulse could doubt that the Republican "brand" isn't already associated with reactionary prejudice and fear.
Jeb Lund:
The party has run so long on nativist anxiety about foreigners plundering lady liberty, stealing jobs and slowly strangling the republic to death that the next step is just calling immigrants rapists, thieves and murderers. And thanks to years of purity testing in Republican primaries, after trying to ignore the issue for weeks, the remaining candidates have only two options left: try to join or outflank Trump to the right or try to non-ignore ignore him by writing him off as “inappropriate.”
The rest of the world can just call Trump an idiot, a man with few ambitions outside of being Trumpy, whose remaining strands of what one might call policy are wisps of spun sugar extruded by hot air, reminding everyone of the tacky coif that sits atop his blanched Smithfield Ham of a face. The Republican Party can’t even luxuriate in ad hominem. Yeah, they could call him an empty suit and a bozo, but that stops working the moment anyone notices that he sounds like a slightly loaded version of themselves.Dana Milbank:
But Trump has merely held up a mirror to the GOP. The man, long experience has shown, believes in nothing other than himself. He has, conveniently, selected the precise basket of issues that Republicans want to hear about — or at least a significant proportion of Republican primary voters. He may be saying things more colorfully than others when he talks about Mexico sending rapists across the border, but his views show that, far from being an outlier, he is hitting all the erogenous zones of the GOP electorate.
Anti-immigrant? Against Common Core education standards? For repealing Obamacare? Against same-sex marriage? Antiabortion? Anti-tax? Anti-China? Virulent in questioning President Obama’s legitimacy? Check, check, check, check, check, check, check and check. [snip]
Now Trump is the one talking about Mexico sending us drugs, crime and rapists. His shift is hardly surprising given his audience — and his competitors. Scott Walker talks about self-deportation, Graham talks about ending birthright citizenship, Ben Carson blames illegal immigrants in part for the measles outbreak, Rand Paul describes as lawbreakers those who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and even relatively moderate candidates such as Bush and Marco Rubio have hardened their immigration positions. Ted Cruz actually praised Trump.Meanwhile, as far as the Family Rump is concerned, any business's attempt to distance themselves from the toxic brand is met with threats to sue.
That hole? Please keep digging.
BONUS: Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog asks how Republican candidates will stand up to terrorists when they won't stand up to a blowhard. Hee-hee.
UPDATE: Rump doesn't seem to recall the conversation with Priebus the way Priebus is reporting it:
Totally false reporting on my call with @Reince Priebus. He called me, ten minutes, said I hit a “nerve", doing well, end!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2015
This is getting better all the time.
(Photo: RNC's Priebus would like a word with Rump - "Shhh. You're messing up my genius re-branding strategery!"/ via Raw Story)
