The Republican Party has a pope. His name is Roger Ailes. He's the guy who gave us the "Ground Zero mosque" controversy. He's the guy who gave Donald Trump a regular platform to hold forth on politics starting in 2011, when Trump was fixated on President Obama's birth certificate and, implicitly, his true allegiance to Islam. He's the guy who allows rabid Islamophobe Pam Geller to make regular appearances on Fox. [snip]
Perhaps, according to the men [NY Times' Jonathan] Martin quotes, Roger Ailes is a "warlord" because he's not an elected officeholder, Cabinet member, or party official. But in that case, the GOP has been turning its leadership responsibilities over to "warlords" for a generation: Drudge, Coulter, Limbaugh, Breitbart and his heirs.
A simpler explanation: these people are the hierarchy of the GOP. They're the cardinals. Ailes is the pope. What we're seeing now isn't what the GOP has temporarily become in the absence of a leader -- it's what the GOP is today under the well-established, stable leadership of Pope Roger.As we watch in disgust at the continuing demonization by Republicans of Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, non-heterosexuals, liberals, government, Planned Parenthood, Pope Francis himself, etc., we agree with Steve's assessment that the media isn't going to recognize what has been trending for 40 years or more: that the un-American ugliness isn't an aberration, but an integral part of the Republican Party's DNA, encouraged and sanctified by "Pope Roger" and his "cardinals."
BONUS: More from Steve M. on the radicalism of the Republican base.
(Image: "Pope" Roger Ailes, a.k.a., Jabba the Nut.)
