'This is the new Republican Party'

[workinclasszero]

The final GOP holdouts to Donald Trump whimper into oblivion.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 06/13/2018 06:12 PM EDT

Put a blond combover on the elephant. Take down the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.

It’s over. It’s Donald Trump’s GOP.

The anti-Trump candidates are fleeing, and the ones who stick around are getting trampled. The chill has gone out among whoever’s left: there’s no more speaking up, and if there is, it’s just for the sake of a speech, a protest quote that quickly disappears.

They chalk it up to party loyalty, or staying unified for the midterms. They say they still believe in the principles, but they don’t tend to do more than say the words. Then, when the microphones are off, they confide. They complain. They nurse fantasies that there’s a reckoning coming, that maybe this will all end with the Republican Party nominating someone like Eisenhower. Or at least like Paul Ryan.

And each time they watch another of their own go down, they wince, try to move on. Don’t look back. Try to forget.

Deal with it, said Corey Stewart, the anti-immigrant, pro-Confederate symbols, new Republican nominee for Senate in Virginia: “This is the new Republican Party.”

As for the people resisting, Stewart said, “They’re dinosaurs. They need to wake up and understand that President Trump has fundamentally remade the Republican Party.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/13/trump-republicans-sanford-resistance-644721

[Snarkoleptic]

1. OK, I'm a weirdo, but it seems to me that the GOP is Teddy from this Steely Dan song...

Teddy's rolling now most every night
Skatin' backwards at the speed of light
He's changed - in a thousand little ways
He's changed - yes indeed
You know he's movin' on metal, yes he's
Hanging tight with the Jack of Speed

Sheena's party - there's a case in point
That right-wing hooey sure stunk up the joint
He's gone - he walks through the old routines
But he's gone - guaranteed
He may be sittin' in the kitchen, but he's
Steppin' out with the Jack of Speed

You maybe got lucky for a few good years
But there's no way back from there to here
He's a one way rider
On the shriek express
And his new best friend is at the throttle more or less

He can't hear you honey - that's alright
Pack some things and head up into the light
Don't stop - he'll be callin' out your name
But don't stop when you hear him plead
You better move now little darlin' or you'll be
Trading fours with the Jack of Speed

[thbobby]

2. I agree with what he wrote except

the last sentence. trump has not remade the Republican Party, he has exposed it for what it is.

[onetexan]

3. Exactly

It's the party that embraces nativism, racism, ignorance, misogyny, denial of science, and devoid of conscience.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Yep.

All Trump did was turn the light on, so everyone could see just how bad the cockroach infestation is.

[workinclasszero]

6. Yup

Gotta agree with you on that.

Trump and his cult ripped the mask off of the GOP and exposed the real evil lurking underneath.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. Stewart has done the nation a favor.

He drew the lines of distinction between conservative politics and Trumpy's fascism. I hope he continues to do so. It's also worth noting that the national dialog can now include the narration of Trumpy's fascism as a cult of personality that paints its followers as submissive and obedient lemmings. It's a good counter-thesis of the macho Republican mystique. There is no more Ronald Reagan swagger. There's Trumpy's sadistic hammer. If the US public must choose, let it be the more accurate dystopian option that's on display.