I am so SICK of Dems saying Trump is a symptom, not a cause.

[crazytown]

Warren said it. Obama said it. They are wrong

Trump is an opportunist secondary infection that overwhelmed the American Body Politic. He is the pneumonia, the toxoplasmosis, the hepatitis, TB,
that has put the Republic at grave risk.

The GOP IS the vector that has entrenched the hatred and division, the bigotry, the racism, the carnivorous inequality that liberal Americas have struggled to contain ever since Nixon unleashed the Southern Strategy.

The GOP gave up being the Party of Lincoln years ago. When Trump came along - the party’s immune system, it’s principles, it’s ideology, it’s patriotism were vestigial. Trump sneezed, they caved.

Division and hatread have been with us forever, but don’t try to tell me that betraying our allies and selling out the Republic to Russia is merely a symptom of a wider malaise.

Trump is one of a kind. He is a disease.

[crazytown]

5. Yes.

I want voters to put the GOP out of it’s misery. Without them enabling this Filth, Trump would be out of business.

[TCJ70]

2. He's more of an outcome...n/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Agreed. When you build a country on racism and brutality, pretty soon this is what you get.

[guillaumeb]

4. Trump is one racist among many.

He is a symptom, or an outbreak, because the GOP is the Party of racism.

[crazytown]

6. Selling out to Russia is a symptom?

Trump owns it. He made it so.

[guillaumeb]

10. Trump needed money.

US banks would not lend to him. So he went to Russian oligarchs. That is merely a manifestation of Trump being crooked.

But Reagan was just as racist as Trump, but he could fake being normal better.

[Amaryllis]

18. GOP leadership is also swimming in Russian money and ties to oligarchs, among other things. .

That is whyTrump has been able to get away with what he does and why they refuse to hold him accountable. They are protecting their own asses. THey are enablers. In that sense, he is a symptom.

[shanny]

7. Trump is the Republican party writ large and loud

He is a symptom in the sense that our system has been corrupted for decades and now the festering sore has burst open.

[Geechie]

8. You could say he's both ...

The fact that Uncle Sam has ass cancer is largely due to poor diet and bad habits over a long period of time. You’ve gotta cut out the cancer, but it would help to get rid of the underlying causes — sure it’s fun to say DT is an anal tumor , but seriously we have to treat systemic racism and misogyny (not just within the GOP but our whole society) being the root cause.

[Voltaire2]

9. Trump is just an asshole rich boy.

Explain clearly how Cruz or Rubio or any of the other clowns would have been any different other than less crude.

[guillaumeb]

11. We agree.

Trump is the ugly face of the GOP. The racism, the venality, the constant lying. They all do it.

[DonViejo]

13. He surrounds himself with like minded assholes, too.

They may be of a different economic status than Trump, but they all have the same blowhard thug personality. Grifters, all of them. Using America as their mark.

[rufus dog]

12. I would be with you, but explain the 2008 election to me.

Eight straight years of Bush/Cheney fuck ups and rip offs

The worst act of Domestic terrorism ever, and ignored by Bush/Cheney.

The economy in a free fall.

McCain names Palin as a VP and the Repukes barely lose any votes, maybe 1 to 2% of their base.

Explain to me how an ignorant, hate filled pig of a woman can motivate Repukes to vote and then convince me that tRump isn't a symptom.

They would fucking vote for Satan against any Democrat.

I'm willing to listen, but need to let you know, I've seen enough evidence that absolutely nothing will stop them from supporting their candidate.

Not conspiring with Russia, not making kids orphans, not constant lies, not a candidate/pResident abusing 14 year old girls.

[betsuni]

14. George Packer on how the Republican Party got here:

Three insurgencies: Goldwater, Gingrich, Tea Party.

"His (Gingrich's) insurgency started the conservative movement on the path to nihilism. The party purged itself of most remaining moderates, growing ever more shallow as it grew ever more conservative -- from Goldwater (who, in 1996, joked that he had become a Republican liberal) to Ted Cruz, from Buckley to Dinesh D'Sousa. Jeff Flake ... describes this deterioration as 'a race to the bottom to see who can be meaner and madder and crazier. It is not enough to be a conservative anymore. You have to be vicious.' The viciousness doesn't necessarily reside in the individual souls of Republican leaders. It flows from the party's politics, which seeks to delegitimize opponents and institutions, purify the ranks through purges and coups, and agitate followers with visions of apocalypse -- all in the name of an ideological cause that every year loses integrity and becomes indistinguishable from power itself.

"The third insurgency came in reaction to the election of Barack Obama -- it was the Tea Party." This brought paranoia and conspiracy theories, racism and hostility toward entire groups, innuendos and acts of violence. "Eight years later, it culminated in Trump's victory, an insurgency within the party itself -- because revolutions tend to be self-devouring... ."

[jcgoldie]

15. Obama and Warren were right.

It would be great if this was all on Trump, unfortunately long after he's left the scene in disgrace, the 40% of the country that has overlooked his hatefulness and corruption because he speaks to their most vile fears and prejudices... they will still be here.

[Scruffy1]

16. I ain't buying it.

The GOP has long had no principles. Go back to Bob taft and Knowland. It has been "Whatever it is, I'm agains it," all my life. Medicare, voting rights, whatever. I remember the mfers saying "You can't legislate what is peoples hearts" as a justification for not recognizing the rights of citizens. As if this makes any sense unless you believe that if you dislike someone you can take away their rights as citzens. Of cousre the American press kissed their ass as they always do. Yeah, I'm calling out Barry fucking Goldwater, Ronald senile McDonald, Senator Knowland, Taft, McCain and a whole lot of other assholes who the press considers as someone with principles. They never had any. This whole bullshit needs to go away. Trumps problem is that he doesn't sugar coat it.

[Initech]

17. He's a genetic mutation.

40 years of unfiltered hate and propaganda from the GOP got us here. And the sad thing is it may get worse before it gets better.

[JHB]

19. You can be as sick of it as you like, but it is TRUE.

He may be a disease, but his growth medium was mass-produced by Movement Conservatives. Trump thumps drums to the tunes they played on dog whistles in order to get votes to gain power and enact law to support their overarching vision: Eliminating anything the government does to aid regular people and restoring their utopia, the Guilded Age.

They'll burn the country down to get it. It's part of why they continue to back him: to push through conservative operatives onto the Federal courts to strike down any program they don't like as "unconstitutional".

Sure, the disease causing the current fever needs to be broken, but if you treat it as one of a kind, the re-infection will be right around the corner.