Boehner: 'There is no Republican party. There's a Trump party'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JOHN BOWDEN - 05/31/18 11:13 AM EDT

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ill.) said Thursday that the Republican Party has been completely co-opted by President Trump.

In an interview following his address at the Makinac Policy Conference 2018 in Michigan, the former House Speaker accused his fellow Republicans of abandoning their political ideals for those professed by Trump.

"There is no Republican party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kinda taking a nap somewhere," Boehner said. In the interview, Boehner added that Trump was clearly the "most unusual" president the country had ever seen.

"It's too divided," Boehner said of the Trump administration, explaining why he did not want to return to Congress.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/390051-boehner-there-is-no-republican-party-theres-a-trump-party

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Well, John, you helped make it all possible.

You and your minions in the GOP house, by obstructing everything Obama and the Dems wanted just because, contributed enormously to the division that exists now. So fuck you very much for that.

[potone]

5. Indeed.

He is their creation. Decades of government bashing, racist baiting, poor despising, union busting, wealth worshipping, truth denying only-Republicans-are-real-Americans claiming, misogyny-masked-as-Christianity promoting, paranoia inducing poisonous cocktail have led us to this to our present deplorable state. Every single day I wake up shuddering with fear at what Trump and his gutless minions in Congress will do next.

[RKP5637]

2. It's quite true, RIP GOP. The hangers-on just don't get it ... or they are hungry for $$$$$'s and

what they think is fame.

[Eliot Rosewater]

30. I wish it was as simple as a dying party, but this is a dying group of vicious assholes

ultimately.

I know most say not, but I say they are.

Capable of mass violence.

[Zorro]

3. Boehner was (R-Oh)

For the past 40 years the Republican Party has promoted the policies Trump is now implementing. They are Republican Party policies, and now they're all running away from them.

[Plucketeer]

8. That's it exactly!

ALL the GOP wet dreams of decades past have cum to reality with Trump 'n Comp.. And now these genius' are drowning in the mire of their own making. Poor things.

[Zorro]

9. They're drowning the entire country

For years they've been blaring that their shit sandwich was good for you.

[machoneman]

4. Ah, but the smokin' Boner didn't quite state that Trumpism...

is a very bad, corrosive, anti-everything that is good and great about America, blood-thirsty cult thrust upon all of us, now did he?

[Soxfan58]

6. You helped build Frankenstein

Don't get pissed when he terrorizes the villagers

[FakeNoose]

14. Love your analogy!

[blueseas]

23. True!

They need to take responsibility - whatever happened to the grown-up party?

[Bengus81]

7. When he made that statement he was either in the tan booth or crying........

[muntrv]

10. Started by Repukes in 1968 with Nixon's "law & order" campaign.

[PoorMonger]

11. Nope

You turds don’t get to cop out like that. Republicans and their shit policies and tactics led directly to this. If you are upset at how fast it escalated that’s on you too.

I say this often when I talk about the problem to people here in Nebraska because it’s so Republican. Only Republicans or self identified conservatives can start fixing their party. It’s past the point where they would ever listen to someone like me, a proud liberal. But I know that there have to some principled conservatives out there who could at least try and make the case that the party needs to dump Trump.

[relogic]

16. "Principled conservatives"?

What’s that? Like principled cops rallying their union to protect the murderous, thuggery of their colleagues? My take on “principled conservatives“ - they wouldn’t be selfIsh conservatives if they were principled.

[PoorMonger]

19. No need to condescend to me

Of course the people you describe aren’t the principled conservative thinker that I’m referring to. But take some of the never Trump R’s you see in the media sphere. They were smart enough to never back Trump.

But why aren’t they trying to lead their party back from the darkness? I’m thinking of folks like Richard Painter who has consistently been a voice against Trump. But when it comes time to move into the fray for real he’s out in MN trying to run as a Democrat when he isn’t one.

Or think about strategists like Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt , and Nicole Wallace. I enjoy their little barbs at Trump and their seeming outrage but it’s not enough. These are professionals who identify with conservative views but they aren’t actually choosing to use their experience to try and take their party back. Not saying each of them needs to run, but they used to work at getting R’s elected. They could either work to help moderate D’s in red states or help find Republicans who aren’t batshit crazy.


What I’m saying is I want these people to take responsibiliy and move people back toward something reasonable. The conservatives in this country won’t listen to reason when it comes from me or you... but they might if Republicans

[relogic]

22. Don't fight your...

team. I’m a true-blue progressive that doesn’t “moderate” my positions when the opposing team amputates my legs when I move in their unfriendly direction.

Condescension is subjective.

[PoorMonger]

25. Again you aren't listening to me or trying

I don’t want Dems to move anywhere closer to Republican positions. I want R’s who aren’t under Trump’s thumb to move back toward reason and help voters in my state do the same

You are ascribing a false position to me simply because I say that Republicans are the only ones who can effectively talk Republicans into change.

[relogic]

33. Wrong repubs

Perhaps you know a substantial number of repubs that are still agreeably persuaded toward normal facts. I don’t. What I see are too many traitors and criminals of that label for whom reason and compromise are dirty words. It simply defies my reason to think after 50 years of post Goldwater extremism reasonableness from a accountable core of them is not to be expected.

[PoorMonger]

34. Well,

I can’t say I’m the most optimistic person. But I do live in a heavily Republican state. And again, I agree that they won’t listen to me — an unabashed liberal and proud Democrat. But there may be those who are conservative who could have success speaking to them. The never Trump R’s are the best example I have for a group that might have a chance.

Even shitty Boehner might do good work if he came to terms with what his party is now, and admitted that Trumpism is the brand of Republicans. It’s what They did to themselves. But for a party that says they are all about personal responsibility the seemingly sane ones that still exist would rather just say shit about how their party is gone or it left them, or it’s ‘taking a nap’. That is bullshit and a cop out.

[relogic]

35. Agreed...

Sad that such a once caring element of our population could be so silent in the face of such treason and corruption.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. HE became the leader of the 2010 teabagger-infestation of the House.

HE was the architect of the dysfunction of the GOP and only left after the monster he helped to create, nearly ate him alive. THIS is your baby Cheeto.

[FakeNoose]

17. As I recall, the teabaggers chased Boner out

...because he wasn't RW enough, or confrontational enough. Boner actually made some compromises with Obama (early on) that enraged the teabaggers. So Boner was out and Paul Ryan got his arm twisted, he really didn't want to be Speaker either.

The demolition of the Republican Party has been going on for the last 30 years, since Reagan essentially.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. But that was only after almost 5 years as "Speaker" (of only their party)

when he chose to continue to enforce the "Hastert Rule", where they generally only attempted to move legislation if it meets the test of "the majority of the majority" (with only GOP votes) and they could easily do that by automatically having way more than 218 GOP members (teabaggers or not). Any "compromising" was only because the Senate was still under Democratic control until after the 2014 election, and then that was the end of that. Their own shit sandwich that they hastily made initiated a civil war from within, but they still managed to unite against Democrats in most cases (outside of a few vulnerable members in swing states).

Nixon started the fall of the GOP when the dixicrats switched parties and voted for him en masse.... and that bubbled through Raygun, Poppy, & Shrub. But after the Citizen's United decision in 2010, that is when the bottom fell out and Cheeto Boner lorded over the atrocity that resulted when they courted the astroturf teabaggers to regain the chamber (and the chairs of committees, and of course the Speakership).

[dajoki]

13. "most unusual"?

if he was still there he would be right alongside them.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Oh bullshit! You goat fuckers made this. Now fucking own it, you punk ass buffoons. nt

[niyad]

18. says the pot dealer who helped make el bloato possible. shut up, original orange man!

[duforsure]

20. Its the party of Putin

The GOP were conned or blackmailed by trump to put putin above our country. He's putins puppet.

[47of74]

21. Go fuck yourself John

You enabled all this shit and you want our forgiveness over this?

I hope you checked the fucking temperature in HELL first.

[BeyondGeography]

26. And the maltreatment of President Obama never happened

Shut up, John.

[Javaman]

27. Fuck you, snowflake. you helped foster this mess. nt

[gibraltar72]

28. Small enough to drown in a bathtub.

[Freethinker65]

29. Yikes. Quite an admission from Boehner.

Honestly I think many of the old GOP ran on the now Trump-like platform just to get votes from idiot racist sexist non critical thinking voters. All they had to do was convince them their opposition would take away everything near and dear to them (guns, bibles, etc.). They never intended to actually implement the assanine policies, just wanted to stay in power, keep getting elected, and skim $$$ for themselves, family, friends, and donors.

Now we are all fucked, but at least they got their tax payer funded pensions and permanent tax cuts.

[TryLogic]

31. Good luck with that. Tump is the Republican/Putin guy.

[Dave Starsky]

32. Ha ha. Not so fast, Boner. Trump is YOURS.

The orange fathead is the natural endgame of 50 years of Republican policies and shenanigans. He is the reductio ad absurdum of everything that party stands for.

[YOHABLO]

36. The Republican Party, is the Trump Party. It's evolved

[Orsino]

37. Trump is just one more rich white guy coopting the party.

There's nothing new here; just a different branding.