Trump and the Republicans

aaaaaDonald Trump is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party in this year, 2016.  This is so beyond belief that I’m sure years later as I read this entry, I will feel an enormous sense of relief that this nonsense is over.

What has it meant, really, that a dimwit like Trump has a shot at being the leader of the most consequential country on Earth?

Essentially, Donald Trump is the embodiment of Republican rhetoric over the past 16 years, minus the religiosity.  Stripped down, the entire Republican effort to thwart President Obama — to put forth their dogma of hatred — was perfectly stated by Joe Wilson in September of 2009: “You lie!” he shouted at the legally elected President of the United States of America.

It is exclamatory.  It is hyperbolic.  It is shouted.  It is irreverent.  It is unprecedented.  It is impolite.  It is also a lie.  But Joe Wilson became a veritable hero to the Republican Party in opposition.

The party has been on an uninterrupted anger spree since then.  The anger was amplified by Fox News and online trash sites like Breitbart, RedState, InfoWars, and others.  The thing is, the party thought the response they got from certain voters was in response to their total message, which included cutting spending on social programs, cutting taxes on the rich and raising taxes on the middle class, gutting environmental laws, you know, the usual Republican menu.  But they were wrong: all the electorate wanted to hear, all they took away from this enormous anger spree, has been anger.  Unreasoning, unforgiving, misdirected anger.

Who better represents this truncated ideology than Donald Trump?

 

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