Why Republicans Let Trump Take Over Their Party - By Andrew Sullivan

[DonViejo]

July 7, 2017
8:41 am

One of the more remarkable political developments of the last six months — the culmination in some ways of the last 18 months — is the transformation of the Republican Party into the Party of Trump.

Think back to early last year. Close to every major Republican politician regarded Trump as an excrescence that would eventually go away. Today, the GOP owns Trump completely and Trump owns the GOP. In Gallup, he receives around 85 percent support of Republicans, with only some minor softness around the edges. At his inauguration, he had 86 percent support. That’s the key reason why his general approval ratings have leveled off at around 40 percent. That seems to be the floor.

Think back over what we have learned these past six months, and let that sink in. This solid 85 percent is despite a deeply unpopular Obamacare replacement, which clearly targets Trump’s core voters, and would wreak real havoc in their lives. It’s despite fading prospects for any kind of tax cut. It’s despite a failure to make tangible progress in building the border wall, boosting economic growth, or bringing back any manufacturing jobs. This is despite almost complete legislative failure — while controlling both House and Senate. Neil Gorsuch is his only solid victory. And that came only because Republicans trashed the judicial filibuster for the Supreme Court and, prior to that, Senate tradition by denying Merrick Garland a hearing.

But the loyalty endures — even deepens. “For now, there’s no way out, only through, and through it together,” writes Rich Lowry, explaining why he, and his magazine, National Review, are now in favor of party over country. Lowry was, you may recall, a prominent Never Trumper, throwing the entire Buckley legacy against the parvenu narcissist during the Republican primaries. This was not just because, as Bret Stephens notes, Trump represented the death rattle of anything that might be called a conservative intelligentsia, although he did. It was because it was hard for any Republican to back a candidate — and now a president — who equivocated on NATO, morally equated Russia with the U.S., preferred autocracies to democratic allies, embraced “America First” as a rallying cry, and was threatening to slap a crude tariff on all steel imports. Can you imagine if Clinton ran on that? And yet Trump’s chief propagandist, Sean Hannity, is now being honored with the William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence.

How did Trump manage this takeover? First, he demagogued the base, simply deploying the anti-establishment lines that had been honed and tuned to perfection in the GOP for years, against the party itself. Second, in an amazing stroke of luck, the Democrats gave him an opponent only slightly less despised than he was, and infinitely less talented. Now, in his latest twist, Trump is using the mainstream media as his foil to cement party loyalty behind him. In other words, he picked three things every Republican hates — the D.C. Establishment, Hillary Clinton, and the MSM — and made himself the only alternative to each. Brilliant when you think about it.

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/why-republicans-let-trump-take-over-their-party.html

[cilla4progress]

1. Soulless

and craven.

Also, as former President Carter said in a 2016 interview, Trump "tapped a waiting reservoir ... of inherent racism" to succeed.

[BigmanPigman]

3. Racism in this country is no longer hidden. It's worn like a badge of honor.

The alt-right is proud and loud while many are silent racists. Look at the 8 years of racism Obama had to endure while his agenda was blocked by congress and protesters had effigies with nooses. We all knew/know it but too many people stood silent therefore allowing it to continue. The same applies to misogyny(in govenrment, media, business, etc). We have made very little progress in 25 years. It is an American disgrace.

[tblue37]

2. THIS!:

". . . the 'willingness to say black is white when party discipline requires this,' as Orwell noted, is key to authoritarian success."

[Doug the Dem]

4. NihilismToday's "Republicanism"

And Newt Gingrich started the party on its lurch toward Trump upon taking the Speaker's Chair in January, 1995.