Posted on 08/04/2018 12:25:35 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Part I of this series, with the subtitle Terrible, Yes. But Compared to What?, argued that the disaster of Trump’s being elected should be compared with the alternative, i.e. Hillary’s having won. And that alternative was dark and troubling in its own way– not because Hillary wouldn’t have worked in competent and constructive ways, but because the signs were already clear that today’s destructive Republican Party would likely have continued its long-standing record of acting like a wrecking ball upon America. And Hillary was likely not going to be equipped to take that Party on and defeat it. All of which leads to this culminating point:
While Hillary’s victory would likely not have solved the deep and chronic problem in the American power system – i.e. a Republican Party that has been hijacked by a destructive force – Trump’s presidency might be handing us the opportunity America needs to sink that destructive force that has been gaining power in America over the past generation.
*****************
Part II: Getting the Rats to Go Down With the Sinking Ship Or,
Democrats! Seize the Opportunity to Drive this GOP into Oblivion
Lately, the signs have been increasingly favorable: more and more, it looks like Trump is going to go down.
A growing majority of Americans see Trump in very unfavorable terms. The Mueller investigation — which seems lately to be regaining public respect — is closing in on Trump and his gang on multiple fronts.
Meanwhile, the prospects for a Blue Wave have also reclaimed ground: the generic preference for the Democrats to control Congress has widened, the recent shifts in professional predictions of specific races have been in a Blue direction, and the futures market’s estimate of the probability of the Democrats controlling the House has climbed from percentages in the high 50s to the mid 60s.
It is a hopeful moment. We might well be able to discredit and defeat Trump (though, given his character, we can count on him to wreak as much destruction as he can on the nation on his way down).
But, getting rid of Trump is not enough. Even if Hillary had won, as I argued in Part I, today’s Republican Party would presumably have continued to wreak destruction on the American political system. And even if Trump is soon removed, it will still be necessary to obliterate the Republican Party in its current morally bankrupt — corrupt, dishonest, greedy, cruel — form.
Shortly after Obama first won the presidency, I wrote that turning back the destructive force that has taken over the Republican Party in our times was “Job One.” That job did not get done.
Although now the most urgent task is to check Trump’s power, bringing down this Republican Party altogether — compelling it to change fundamentally into a constructive conservative party or be driven into oblivion — remains the most fundamentally important task.
It is a task essential for safeguarding the destiny of America.
***************
How the Republicans Handed Us the Means to Destroy Them
What makes this moment especially promising is that the Republicans have handed us — Democrats, Liberal America — a major opportunity to accomplish that task of bringing down this morally bankrupt Republican Party.
The Republicans have handed us the means to destroy their nefarious Party through the choice they have lately made: in what looks like an enforced error, the Republicans chose to become accomplices in Trump’s crimes rather than stand aside and leave Trump to his fate.
The GOP would inevitably have had to pay some price for Trump’s terrible performance as President, and for a downfall that will likely be more ignominious than that of Nixon—just by virtue of the fact that it was the Republican Party that gave us Trump.
But the Republican establishment didn’t want Trump to win their Party’s nomination: it was the Republican base that forced Trump onto the powers of the Party.
So while the Republican Party was culpable for creating a base so crazy that it could fall for a lying bully, few Americans saw that connection. And the GOP could have protected itself from any deep or permanent wounds by staying a safe distance from a President under a dark cloud.
A “safe distance” could mean working with Trump when it advanced their own goals, while standing aside as Trump’s many scandalous chickens come to roost. Trump’s coming ignominy then would only exert a minor downward pull on their public image, entailing a temporary loss of power.
(Nixon’s fall in Watergate did no lasting damage to the GOP– and that was despite Nixon’s having been elevated by the Party’s establishment.)
But today’s Republican Party did not choose to protect itself by maintaining such distance from Trump. Instead, the Republicans in Congress chose to tie themselves inextricably to this disgraceful — and likely doomed — President by making themselves into Trump’s accomplices in his assault on the rule of law.
In the most blatant ways, with their lies and distractions, the Republicans have violated their oath of office to protect the Constitution, choosing instead to protect this lawless President.
By tying themselves so tightly to this President, by becoming the “Trump Party,” these Republicans have handed the Democrats with the means to destroy the GOP in its present form.
The Task for Democrats
But that will not be accomplished on its own.
What we have here is not a given, but an opportunity— and the Democrats have to seize it.
The task facing the Democrats — in order to make the most of this opportunity in the crucial 2018 mid-term battle — is to get as big a proportion of the American electorate as possible to see what a threat the Trump Party poses to much that they value.
What’s special about this moment is that — with this combination of the Trump presidency and the Congressional complicity — never before has the moral bankruptcy and destructiveness been so blatantly displayed.
Never a President like this—so dishonest, so reckless, so contemptuous of our constitutional order and the rule of law. Never a President who appears aligned with a hostile power and against the interests of the United States.
Never a Party in Congress so openly violating its oath of office and complicit in the betrayal of the nation.
The moral bankruptcy of this Republican Party is not, of course, limited to its collusion with a President who has apparently colluded with a hostile power. The sins of the GOP include widening the gap between the richest and the rest, and adding to the stress for millions by increasing their health care insecurity.
On some such issues there are political disagreements. But there are some sins that go beyond politics. Like Betrayal of the nation (including leaving the United States almost defenseless against an ongoing attack on our election system from a hostile power, which threatens also our nation’s infrastructure).
Everyone hates treason.
So the task for the 2018 campaign is maximizing the number of Americans who can see that the Trump Party must be repudiated, and power must be handed to the Democratic Party as the one instrument available to protect America’s vital interests and basic values.
Maximizing the Blue Wave requires getting the support not only of those who see this Republican ugliness for themselves. It requires also gaining the support of all who can be led to see it when it’s shown to them powerfully enough.
The utter moral collapse of the Republican Party is the central reality of this extraordinary moment– the root of an ongoing national crisis of great historical importance.
For one of America’s two major political parties to so fully embraced brokenness and destructiveness is extraordinary. It should be the BANNER HEADLINE in the 2018 campaign.
No campaign that ignores the central political reality of the times can be powerful. A campaign that ignores that reality — ignores our profound national crisis — would be a recipe for weakness. And it is the kind of weakness Democrats have displayed in one political battle after another.
If the Democrats can present the truth about this moment clearly and powerfully enough, then, when Trump is plunged into the depths, the Republicans — prevented from untying themselves from this disgraced President– can be drowned along with him.
Are the Democrats Up to the Job?
But, unfortunately, there are good reasons to be skeptical about the ability – or willingness – of the Democratic Party of our times to wage the kind of campaign that will accomplish this.
That will be the topic of Part III: The Urgent and Obvious Question Democrats/Liberals Are Failing to Ask.
Can you say Delusional?
Sheesh. Brevity is a sign of strength.
The Republicans have handed us the means to destroy their nefarious Party through the choice they have lately made: in what looks like an enforced error, the Republicans chose to become accomplices in Trump’s crimes rather than stand aside and leave Trump to his fate.
Seriously, this is too funny! This idiot knows full well President Trump not only saved the Republican Party but breathed new life into it. Had we chosen another Republican to have been our presidential nominee two years ago the scenario Mr. Schmookler so much desires would have happened. That’s why he and the rest of the left are angry as hell at us! Deep down they know the president is in a strong political position. Love the utter delusional state these morons have put themselves into!
Who is this idiot?
Precisely
This is like reading The Screwtape Letters.
His name is fitting.
funny. I was thinkin' the same thing about Democrats.
Shortly after Obama first won the presidency, I wrote that turning back the destructive force that has taken over the Republican Party in our times was “Job One.” That job did not get done.
Anyone who obsesses over destroying a political party for 11 years really should be under doctor's care, especially someone fixated on the phrase, "morally bankrupt".
On a more serious note, the red diaper commies and critical-thinking challenged are sure coming out of the closet in droves lately. Globalism cannot progress into the utopian endgoal of have-a-lots and have-nothings as long as the American independence of spirit persists. We cannot be defeated by the tons of drugs pouring in our borders, we cannot be defeated by draining our military strength with wars of intervention, so it's down to psyops, the oldest game of setting brother against brother over what can only be called in retrospect, emotions of whole cloth. Wisps of wind. Delusions of the psychologically weak. One wonders who the author has been hanging with lately.
I think that can happen, if we offshore our industry and pay other countries for our imports.
Actually.
They unsuccessfully appropriate the euphemistic term “rat”, just like they tried to steal “fake news” back in 2016. A conservative would read that as “(Democ)rat”, and thus a “GOP rat” would be taken to be a RINO.
I wonder how he and/or his father survived tauntings and/or worse in school?
Ask yourself how this screed might have been different if the GOP had elected another Bush? Or Cruz?
Answer: none.
The rhetoric would be exactly the same from the Left. The only difference is that the screaming might be less because their effectiveness would be less. They hate Trump more because he’s actually making fundamental changes and not backing down from any criticism but what the Left says about Trump is no worse than they’d say about any Republican president. Once you become shrill and extreme, how much more shrill and extreme can you get of someone you disapprove of?
RED Commie cognitive dissonance to its rotten, evil core.
He is projecting onto his enemy what he, himself, is responsible for doing.
JoMa
With a name like Schmookler, you know it’s gotta be. . . .oh well, something. In this case, guano.
He goes a long way to say nothing.
“...a President who has apparently colluded with a hostile power...”
Note that the CPUSA supported H->! in 2016.
Shouldn't that be unforced error?
Also, as someone in the comments pointed out, the saying is that rats flee a sinking ship, while it's captains that go down with it.
Like Betrayal of the nation (including leaving the United States almost defenseless against an ongoing attack on our election system from a hostile power, which threatens also our nation’s infrastructure). Everyone hates treason.
Those attacks happened under Obama.
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