Neo- con writer Jennifer Rubin has some thoughts about her Republican Party and the Trump crime family. (Nice of her to notice at long last.)
Let me suggest the real problem is not the Trump family, but the GOP. To paraphrase [fellow neo- con David] Brooks, “It takes generations to hammer ethical considerations out of a [party’s] mind and to replace them entirely with the ruthless logic of winning and losing.” Again, to borrow from Brooks, beyond partisanship the GOP evidences “no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code.” [snip]
... If the GOP had not become unhinged about the Clintons, would it have rationalized Trump as the lesser of two evils? Only in the crazed bubble of right-wing hysteria does an ethically challenged, moderate Democrat become a threat to Western civilization and Trump the salvation of America.
Indeed, for decades now, demonization — of gays, immigrants, Democrats, the media, feminists, etc. — has been the animating spirit behind much of the right. It has distorted its assessment of reality, giving us anti-immigrant hysteria, promulgating disrespect for the law (how many “respectable” conservatives suggested disregarding the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage?), elevating Fox News hosts’ blatantly false propaganda as the counterweight to liberal media bias and preventing serious policy debate. For seven years, the party vilified Obamacare without an accurate assessment of its faults and feasible alternative plans. “Obama bad” or “Clinton bad” became the only credo — leaving the party, as Brooks said of the Trump clan, with “no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code” — and no coherent policies for governing.
We have always had in our political culture narcissists, ideologues and flimflammers, but it took the 21st-century GOP to put one in the White House. It took elected leaders such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the Republican National Committee (not to mention its donors and activists) to wave off Trump’s racist attacks on a federal judge, blatant lies about everything from 9/11 to his own involvement in birtherism, replete evidence of disloyalty to America (i.e. Trump’s “Russia first” policies), misogyny, Islamophobia, ongoing potential violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause (along with a mass of conflicts of interests), firing of an FBI director, and now, evidence that the campaign was willing to enlist a foreign power to defeat Clinton in the presidential election.We haven't lifted all the good parts, so please read the entire cri de coeur.
Not to be uncharitable, but we don't recall reading any critiques of her party during the "generations" in which the groundwork for Trumpism was being laid. Our suspicion is that, as long as this collection of nihilistic sociopaths was being fronted by a "respectable" Republican (like her crush, Millionaire Mitt Romney), Rubin's shields were up at full strength, and the party's "ruthless logic of winning and losing" with "no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code" passed right under her now- delicate nose. Now that the stench from the rot has become unavoidable courtesy of the Trump crime family, Rubin and some of her fellow formerly loyal Republicans have emigrated to the reality- based community, at least until another "respectable" Republican makes their hearts flutter and they once again find it possible to ignore the underlying stench.
But anyway, welcome to the real world for now, Ms. Rubin. We'll see how long it lasts.
