Trump Presidency Reveals The GOP's Craven Opportunism

[JHB]

1. I'll contest that first paragraph. "Conservative principles" were themselves opportunism.

"Fiscal responsibility", "small government", "original intent" and other buzzwords of "conservative principles" were all cast aside whenever it was convenient.

"Fiscal responsibility" manifests as cutting programs and policies that work for most people, rather than for just the well-off. There's nothing fiscally responsible about the "tax cuts now, tax cuts tomorrow, tax cuts forever" stance that has ruled Republican politics since the 70s.

"Small government" manifests itself as deregulation, cutting anything that hampers a free hand to pollute our communities, air, water, and food, to swindle customers and squeeze employees, to dodge taxes, etc. But when it comes to controlling women and brown people? Or the military-industrial-intelligence complex? Then, of course, screw small -- supersizing is a virtue.

"Original intent" is abandoned whenever convenient. There was nothing "original intent" about the Citizens United or Bush v Gore decisions.

All that untethering to convictions and morals began decades ago. The Conservatives Movement has fostered bigotry, axe-grinding, and contempt for compromise and negotiation in order to gain enough power to enact their pet agenda items. Any Republican who couldn't get with the program was forced out.

Ratchet that up year after year for some 60 yrs, and voila! A party that's nothing but opportunism supported by carefully cultivated resentments and outrage.