In the first 200 days of his administration, Trump has failed in his legislative agenda, but has succeeded in tearing apart many of the recent programs designed to protest Americans and the environment. (See Phillip Bump summary in Washington Post, What Trump has Undone.) He has also effectively torn the country apart and weakened our bonds with long-standing international partners. Trump may be crazy or “crazy like a fox”, but whichever – his presidency with his strident base are natural consequences of the Republican Party’s evolution over decades. We at Social Policy Research wrote about the Republican Party as the problem in February 2017. We repost the article here with minor edits to remove references to Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and other anachronisms.
Donald Trump is not the problem. Trump voters and the Republican Party are the problems that threaten American values and is on the verge of dismantling U.S. democracy.
GOP leaders are so intent on the promise of enacting their legislative agenda, they are willing to support a President who is neither fit in terms of temperament nor ability. Despite his ignorance of government, his narcistic needs for adoration, and his devotion to conspiracy theories, the Republican Party and its voters selected Trump as their candidate to run against Hillary Clinton. If, as the GOP claimed, Hillary was too corrupt to be President of the United States, it makes little sense that they would nominate Trump whose own record was certainly as dodgy as hers – especially when they had other prospects who more closely represented the values that they told us were theirs.
GOP leaders are so intent on the promise of enacting their legislative agenda, they are willing to support a President who is neither fit in terms of temperament nor ability. Despite his ignorance of government, his narcistic needs for adoration, and his devotion to conspiracy theories, the Republican Party and its voters selected Trump as their candidate to run against Hillary Clinton. If, as the GOP claimed, Hillary was too corrupt to be President of the United States, it makes little sense that they would nominate Trump whose own record was certainly as dodgy as hers – especially when they had other prospects who more closely represented the values that they told us were theirs.
No matter if the media was biased, lazy, inept, or an “enemy of the people” as Trump and others have claimed. The press did not keep Republicans from stopping Donald Trump. Republicans supported him in the election and support him now because he is doing what they want.
If Trump did not represent Republican values, then why did they support him? Clearly, Republicans have long lied about what their values were. For years, Republicans have claimed to be the big tent Party of Lincoln. Yet, as TV cameras panned Republican conventions, we all saw that the Republican Party was a white party. Now, as Trump makes racist pronouncements, we act surprised and refuse to attribute racism to Republicans. Just as we just refused to acknowledge what our eyes saw at the conventions, we refuse to acknowledge how closely Trump is hewing to Republican values.
Now, Republicans -- along with Trump – have shown their hand. They are meeting the two big criteria for fascism – authoritarianism and racism. The GOP doesn’t resist Trump and his cronies because they share the same goals. The GOP is a white person’s party. As one example, Republicans have reinstated throughout the country the voter suppression methods first developed in the Jim Crow South. As in the Jim Crow South, the purpose of voter suppression is to restrict the vote. Democracies can only exist when all its citizens can vote. Republicans are willing to undermine our democracy by suppressing Black, Latino, and Asian voters because they tend to vote for Democrat. To hide their crass and dishonest white supremacist seizure of power, they pretend to believe that widespread voter fraud is being perpetrated. But, everyone, including the GOP, knows this is yet another lie. They are suppressing the vote by race and ethnicity to seize power.
Like fascism under Mussolini, the GOP notion of fascism is that business should run government. One reason why Trump was so acclaimed by GOP voters was because he was a businessman. Why is it that the two major things that the GOP stands for is fewer taxes that benefits the rich and business and deregulation that benefits the extractive industries? The almost maniacal animosity to the Affordable Care Act is due to increase in taxes on the rich for the first time since 1992. Coal and oil industries have bought off the Republican Party. The demand for deregulation is focused on the regulation of these extractive industries. The Republican Party does not mind the expected death of 45,000 people if the Affordable Care Act is repealed or that over 70% of the pollution to US waterways comes from toxic debris from coal mines. The GOP is willing to jeopardize the health of Americans to help the financial interests of the coal industry.
The only effective counter to the money and power of business is government. Because the Republican Party is seeking to turn our government over to business, we are being left at the mercy of business. Donald Trump intends hasten this trend and speed the arrival of fascism. The only benefit that Donald Trump has brought to us all is that he has made this trend as clear as can be. Hopefully, a Progressive Movement can help turn this trend back and bring democracy back to the U.S.
If Trump did not represent Republican values, then why did they support him? Clearly, Republicans have long lied about what their values were. For years, Republicans have claimed to be the big tent Party of Lincoln. Yet, as TV cameras panned Republican conventions, we all saw that the Republican Party was a white party. Now, as Trump makes racist pronouncements, we act surprised and refuse to attribute racism to Republicans. Just as we just refused to acknowledge what our eyes saw at the conventions, we refuse to acknowledge how closely Trump is hewing to Republican values.
Now, Republicans -- along with Trump – have shown their hand. They are meeting the two big criteria for fascism – authoritarianism and racism. The GOP doesn’t resist Trump and his cronies because they share the same goals. The GOP is a white person’s party. As one example, Republicans have reinstated throughout the country the voter suppression methods first developed in the Jim Crow South. As in the Jim Crow South, the purpose of voter suppression is to restrict the vote. Democracies can only exist when all its citizens can vote. Republicans are willing to undermine our democracy by suppressing Black, Latino, and Asian voters because they tend to vote for Democrat. To hide their crass and dishonest white supremacist seizure of power, they pretend to believe that widespread voter fraud is being perpetrated. But, everyone, including the GOP, knows this is yet another lie. They are suppressing the vote by race and ethnicity to seize power.
Like fascism under Mussolini, the GOP notion of fascism is that business should run government. One reason why Trump was so acclaimed by GOP voters was because he was a businessman. Why is it that the two major things that the GOP stands for is fewer taxes that benefits the rich and business and deregulation that benefits the extractive industries? The almost maniacal animosity to the Affordable Care Act is due to increase in taxes on the rich for the first time since 1992. Coal and oil industries have bought off the Republican Party. The demand for deregulation is focused on the regulation of these extractive industries. The Republican Party does not mind the expected death of 45,000 people if the Affordable Care Act is repealed or that over 70% of the pollution to US waterways comes from toxic debris from coal mines. The GOP is willing to jeopardize the health of Americans to help the financial interests of the coal industry.
The only effective counter to the money and power of business is government. Because the Republican Party is seeking to turn our government over to business, we are being left at the mercy of business. Donald Trump intends hasten this trend and speed the arrival of fascism. The only benefit that Donald Trump has brought to us all is that he has made this trend as clear as can be. Hopefully, a Progressive Movement can help turn this trend back and bring democracy back to the U.S.