"A Pure Distillation" of Republicanism
by tristero
Paul Krugman, in the wrap up to today's column:
Assuming that Mr. Trump loses, many Republicans will try to pretend that he was a complete outlier, unrepresentative of the party. But he isn’t. He won the nomination fair and square, chosen by voters who had a pretty good idea of who he was. He had solid establishment support until very late in the game. And his vices are, dare we say, very much in line with his party’s recent tradition.
Mr. Trump, in other words, isn’t so much an anomaly as he is a pure distillation of his party’s modern essence.
[Emphasis added.]
Absolutely true. He is the ultimate standard bearer for modern Republican ideas. He is also the ultimate standard bearer for modern Republican behavior, behavior which is racist, sexist, paranoid, vindictive, greedy, and takes pride in its ignorance.
Yes, he is sickening to watch, but he is not the real problem. The modern Republican party is the problem. The short term solution is to deliver a resounding national defeat to the party - and not just at the presidential level. The party has begun to realize just how disastrous this election could be:
...senior party leaders privately acknowledged that they now feared losing control of both houses of Congress.
The long-term solution will require fundamental changes to the GOP. I'm not holding my breath.