GOP bets its future on Trump’s scorched-earth megalomania
WASHINGTON >> Everything you need to know about today’s Republican Party is summed up by a photo from President Trump’s political rally in Ohio on Saturday. Two men proudly display the slogan on their matching T-shirts: “I’d Rather Be A Russian Than A Democrat.”
This is the state of derangement to which Trump has brought a once-great political party. An astounding 89 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s performance as president, according to Gallup.
The Republican Party once believed in fiscal discipline and worried about the national debt; Trump has blown a trillion-dollar hole in the budget. The party used to believe in free trade; Trump is imposing tariffs left and right. The party used to believe in free markets; Trump hectors the independent Federal Reserve board and attacks companies for political reasons.
The GOP once championed freedom and justice throughout the world. Trump slams the post-war alliance of Western democracies, and has nothing but praise for autocratic rulers who abuse human rights in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Philippines — and, of course, Russia.
Trump calls the news media “the Enemy of the People,” a phrase that blood-soaked totalitarian regimes have used to justify assassinations and purges. Don’t be comforted by GOP apologists who say Trump doesn’t really mean it. Sunday he tweeted “The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People because they know it’s TRUE.” He called the media “very dangerous and sick!”
On Friday, a C-SPAN caller threatened that “I’m going to shoot” CNN hosts Brian Stelter and Don Lemon. Words have consequences: Trump’s unhinged rhetoric is going to get somebody killed.
House Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pretend this is a normal presidency.
Brace yourselves, because it’s all going to get worse.
Trump is increasingly frantic about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. On Sunday, Trump also tweeted:
“Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics — and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!”
How much lying can you pack into one tweet? It was a meeting to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from emissaries of the Russian government. It’s not at all clear it was legal. It’s not the sort of thing ever done in politics. We don’t know whether it “went anywhere.” And it’s unlikely Trump’s son, son-inlaw and campaign chairman would have such a meeting without mentioning it to Trump — who, when the meeting was revealed, personally dictated a false statement designed to obscure its real purpose.
It’s safe to surmise that Trump feels the walls closing in. And if Democrats seize control of the House in November, he will face a lineup of committee chairmen, armed with subpoena power, who are determined to do their constitutional duty of holding the administration accountable.
So Trump reportedly plans to spend as much time as possible on the campaign trail, desperately trying to stoke enough fear, resentment and anger among the GOP base to produce a big turnout that saves the House majority.
The Republican Party has betrayed all of its history, all of its hallowed ideals, and bet its future on Trump’s scorched-earth megalomania. GOP candidates richly deserve to lose.