The Party's Over

Over the weekend, I got a furious note from a friend that was pretty much scorch-earth against Trump and the Republican Party.  And in the middle of it, he wrote -- "Yes, of course, he is a psycho, nothing is beyond him, he's mentally ill, but how does the entire Republican Party morph into an active fascist agency tolerating a maniac and determined to throw out ballots?" 

About 2-1/2 years ago, I was very hesitant about writing my article here where I called Trump fascist and went into detail explaining why I meant that literally, not just as a euphemism.  That hesitancy seems quaint now.  The only answer I had for my friend about how the entire GOP, beyond just Trump, morphed into being actively fascist is that I think they’ve been moving in that direction for 20 years (if not more) since 9/11 and electing W. Bush. 

The racism of the Republican Party and its efforts to demean Democrats, not on policy but as "commies," going back to the 1950s until today's cries of "Socialism!!" were the foundation for fascism.  It dates back, too, to Reagan’s “Republican 11th Commandment” that “Thou shalt not criticize another Republican,” forsaking individual thought for lockstep agreement of party unity rather than what’s best for the country.  I’ve also long thought – and even wrote about long ago when I did articles for the Huffington Post – that the GOP religious base plays into their fascism, where you blindly accept direction from an infallible leader.  And where everyone who disagrees with your religious views is an agent of the devil who is going to hell. 

Further, long ago in my Huffington Days, I also wrote an article, probably about 10 years ago, far before Trump, about how the Republican Party has had a war on education since Eisenhower – running against Adlai Stevenson as him being an “egghead,” slamming President Kennedy’s cabinet as being Harvard elite, Nixon making college students his enemies, George Bush (41) specifically making a campaign issue that it wasn’t necessary to go to college (no, it isn't necessary -- but making that a campaign issue for a president is the loud, anti-education point), the party ridiculing Al Gore for pushing science, Republicans nominating Sarah Palin -- who looked at being asked what newspapers informed her as being a a "Gotcha" question -- as VP candidate and lionizing her, Trump trying to undercut public education, and much more, all to the point where the Republican Party base is now non-college whites.

So, I don’t think it’s just sprung from Trump, but is something that has been percolating in the Republican Party for 70 years, and began bubbling 20 years ago, and Trump just found the right key to open the door wide.

To be clear, I'm not saying the fascism isn’t worse under Trump.  It’s overwhelmingly worse, not just in policy but in being out in the open and proud for it.  It's just that it's it’s been there for decades hibernating under the surface, which set the stage for a Trump – who found a way to bring it to the surface and give it full voice.  And no one should think it's "just Trump" leading the Republican Party this way.  He's leading them, because the core of the GOP has been waiting to be lead.  Not every Republican, but that's been its foundation.

Which is why I say -- relentlessly -- that this is not about Trump, we know who he is.  It's about the elected members of the Republican Party in Congress, who enable him and are complicit.  Because it's who they are.  And have been for almost 70 years.

The Republican Party doesn't have to be "cleaned out" and revitalized after Trump -- it has to be shredded, and people with conservative views who want a party need to start over with something else entirely.