Unfit Trump And His Unfit Party

We didn't have to stray from the op/ ed page of our hometown paper, the Washington Post, for reactions from left, right and middle to destructive moron Donald "Rump" Trump's attempt to put on his presidential pants (h/t Steven Colbert) following the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the core appeal of the Republican Party that suits him so well, and how to effect real change.

Catherine Rampell writes about fear as the core appeal of Republicans:

Trump and allies urge us to cower in trepidation from helpless parents and children seeking asylum, a threat so grave they needed to be separated from one another and caged. We must also fear the supposed Muslim and Latino hordes, who threaten to wipe out Anglo-European culture and displace white babies with their own.

These are hardly the only foreigners who should inspire existential dread, according to right-wing fever dreams. Rogue nations should, too, thus justifying enormous increases in our defense budget. Of course, all the nukes and jets in the world won’t protect us from the assault our enemies abroad are currently waging against us, and that Republicans resist confronting: the one on our electoral system. [snip]

The best effort Republicans make to address American fears of gun massacres involves appeals to mental health improvements. Or, as Trump put it in his speech Monday morning: “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.”

But even this suggestion rings hollow, given that Republican officials across federal and state governments are actively working to reduce access to mental health care. A federal suit brought by 20 red states and supported by the Trump administration seeks to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, which extended behavioral health coverage to millions through Medicaid and the essential health benefits required in individual market plans.

Republicans thrive on imagined menaces. Yet when a real-life menace demands action, they dismiss it. What, pray tell, is the party so afraid of?

(Spoiler alert:  losing power.]

 Former Dumbya speechwriter Michael Gerson on Trump's lack of moral standing:

Never in my political lifetime has an American president had less moral standing to address a national threat. Nearly every phrase of President Trump’s televised response to the El Paso and Dayton shootings could be matched with some discrediting contrast in his own voice.  [snip]

Throughout his career, Trump has given permission for prejudice and, in extreme political need, permission for hatred. Faced with electoral headwinds near the end of the 2018 midterms, Trump did not turn to economic populism, or even anti-elitism. He warned that a group of brown people was invading the country and entertained the prospect of shooting them at the border. This is what Trump views as his secret weapon, his political ace in the hole. “People hate the word ‘invasion,’ ” he once said, “but that’s what it is. It’s an invasion of drugs and criminals and people. . . . And in many cases, and in some cases, you have killers coming in and murderers coming in, and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Gerson also notes the complicity of evangelical "Christians" and the corporate world:

That is exactly what many in the corporate world, and many conservative Christian leaders, are doing in their devotion to Trump: honoring swagger, bluster and force, and excusing a leader who constructs his political success on the cultivation of contempt and slanders against the weak. By their nearly blind support, such leaders are complicit in Trump’s rule by resentment.

Paleo- conservative George Will says Trump doesn't just pollute the environment, he is the environment;  he also critiques the pharisees who support Trump:

It is one thing to have a president who, drawing upon his repertoire of playground insults, calls his alleged porn-star mistress “Horseface .” Polls indicate that approximately a third of Americans, disproportionately including religiously devout worriers about the coarsening of America’s culture, are more than merely content with this. It is quite another thing to have a president who does not merely pollute the social atmosphere with invectives directed at various disfavored minorities; he uses his inflated office not just to shape this atmosphere but to be this atmosphere.

When Gerald Ford became president after Richard M. Nixon’s resignation, he told the nation: “Our long national nightmare is over.” Today’s long — and perhaps occasionally lethal — national embarrassment will continue at least until Jan. 20, 2021. If it continues longer, this will be more than an embarrassment to the nation, this will be an indictment of it.

Karen Tumulty on why Trump could never pull the nation together:

Given what a narcissist our president is, you wouldn’t think he would find it so hard to look in a mirror.

It tells you how low our expectations have sunk for Donald Trump that when he addressed the nation Monday in the wake of the horrors that occurred over the weekend in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, it was considered commendable that he could bring himself to actually utter the words “white supremacy” and “domestic terrorism.”

But in calling upon “our nation” to condemn these poisonous forces “in one voice,” he only underscored how unwilling he has been to do that on his own.  [snip]

... Trump has brought racism into the mainstream. He has glorified intolerance, even made it sound like a form of patriotism.

Whether this kind of toxicity is what exists in the president’s heart, or is merely a cynical play to gin up his base, is irrelevant. What is important is that Trump has proved himself incapable of changing. He is not the person to pull a shattered, bewildered country together and unite it behind a renewed sense of purpose.

Eugene Robinson says Democrats need to retake the Senate and sweep the malignant obstruction of Moscow Mitch/ Massacre Mitch aside:

Even when Trump’s presidency is reduced to a nightmarish memory, nothing will change as long as McConnell and the Republicans control the Senate. Even as minority leader, McConnell would have considerable power — but much less than he has now. The Senate’s arcane rules would allow him to delay and obstruct. But the Republican senators who are crying crocodile tears over El Paso and Dayton could at least be forced to go on the record as opposing common-sense gun laws that the American people, including those senators’ constituents, overwhelmingly support.

Now for the hard part. It will not be easy for Democrats to win the Senate in 2020, given which seats are being contested. But for the party to have a fighting chance, it needs to run its very best Senate candidates — several of whom are instead running for president. They need to reconsider.

He names names;  the same names we'd name.

Dana Milbank runs through the "thoughts and prayers" mantra that cowardly Republicans offer after every mass murder, then concludes:

Trump, who previously said white nationalism is not a growing threat, announced that “our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”

Trump, who said nonwhite lawmakers should “go back” to other countries, asserted that “hatred warps the mind.”

Trump, who last week shared the sentiment that “DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE ENEMIES OF AMERICA,” said “now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside.”

Eventually, disgusted Americans will force Republicans to act. Until then, here’s a thought: We don’t have a prayer.

Correction:  "Eventually, disgusted Americans will force Republicans out of office..."  Fixed it.