The New Fake GOP

From Kevin Baker, New Republic article, May, 17, 2018.
Illustrations by Christine Cornell.

"The right lies pervasively, and it lies well. Its lies have become deadly, living fantasies—as lies will, given enough political muscle." Kevin Baker, "Nothing is Hidden," New Republic, May 17, 2018

"If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power."  

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, March 6, 1956

"This is not your father's Republican Party. They are not who we are. They are not who America is. What they are doing is sending a vision of America around the world that is distorted. That is damaging. That is hurting us...this phony populism, this fake nationalism.... It's time to say 'no more.'" 
Joe Biden at NY convention renominating Cuomo for NY Governor, AP, May 24, 2018

America needs a new, wholly reconstituted Republican party.  It could be a revival of Abraham Lincoln's party that fought for freedom and a united America through a brutal Civil War, or the Eisenhower Republican Party that put country over party and honored the Rule of Law above all else. I can even see a return to George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism." 

I never thought I'd be writing these words. It's an indication of how the present revises  history over time. 

But America needs a two-party system afterall, maybe even more parties, and the corrupt, traitorous tRump regime, which thinks it's above the Rule of Law, forces some rethinking. 

We have a president who cannot tell the truth, assails the free press, rants about conspiracy theories and a "deep state," and lies to the American people every day.  We have a corrupt Cabinet that is dismantling the government agency by agency. We have a right wing extremist judge on the Supreme Court who favors eliminating every law that protects workers and ordinary Americans from the greed of corporate overkill. We have a Congress that is not fulfilling its Constitutional duty to provide oversight of the Executive Branch. In fact, the three branches of government, absolutely central to how our democracy works, have become frightfully unbalanced. 

The modern Republican Party has let the fox into the hen house.  "Alt-right extremists, a fundamentally anti-democratic  cabal funded by billionaires and "dark money" sources to enrich themselves, has taken over the GOP to the point that it no longer exists as a real party. McConnell and Ryan have encouraged and allowed it to happen.  

Eisenhower was right: The GOP today "is merely a conspiracy to seize power."   

Kevin Baker, in an important New Republic article, cited below, noted the dire consequences for America: 

"In less than a year and a half in office, Donald J. Trump and the squalling far-right movement he has dragged into the White House like a mischievous dog have already changed the parameters of the American presidency and the nation’s politics beyond recognition."

An alt-right extremist vision of America has swept across the land. Kevin Baker has a good handle on what this alt-right vision is, which he calls "a sort of anarcho-corporate state."  What is an "anarcho-corporate state"?  Baker's description is worth noting and remembering. 

"[It's a state] in which pretty much everyone will be armed and able to threaten each other into nonviolence; miraculously reconstituted extended families will eradicate the need for Social Security and Medicare; poor children will work as janitors to pay for their schooling; tax cuts will generate enough income to offset the need for subsidized health care; public property will be largely eliminated; and no regulations of any kind will apparently be required to keep our food, water, air, money, or medicine safe or to determine how the public will shape its own towns and cities."

"In everything from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s desire to turn the public school system over to the church, to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s tax plan with its backdoor assault on Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, the modern-day GOP moves determinedly toward turning these fantasies, no matter how putrid or dangerous or unpopular, into a reality."

I think that in time--maybe at the conclusion of the Mueller investigation or after the mid-term elections--these fake Republicans will be charged with dereliction of duty, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. This will include a failure to  protect and preserve the balance of powers and the institutions which ensure America's safety and domestic tranquility.  

“The GOP we knew pre-Trump began its death march the day Trump secured the nomination," said Tara Setmayer, a former communications director for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R, CA), now a CNN commentator.  "It has accelerated down the slippery slope ever since with party leaders who used to be the vanguards of basic Republican principles and decency now becoming enablers of the party’s own demise."

Sources
1) https://newrepublic.com/article/148270/nothing-creation-hiddenFrom the article: Eisenhower to his brother, when the GOP was an honest party in touch with reality."Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things ... an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." Interesting. Too bad the GOP didn't nip this "negligible" and "stupid" extremist group in the bud.  Today it now dominates and has destroyed the legitimate Republican party.

2)  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/01/23/what-does-the-republican-party-look-like-after-trump/?utm_term=.386f09e8e70e by Philip Bump.  "...the Trump era will end, and a Republican Party that has been subsumed to the president’s personality, temper and raucous base will need to figure out a path forward."  Quote from Tara Setmayaer:  “The GOP we knew pre-Trump began its death march the day Trump secured the nomination,” said Tara Setmayer, former communications director for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R,CA), now a CNN commentator. “It has accelerated down the slippery slope ever since with party leaders who used to be the vanguards of basic Republican principles and decency now becoming enablers of the party’s own long-term demise./....Trump’s brand of rabid economic populism fueled fear and isolationism rather than optimism and inclusion and is the antithesis of Reagan’s ‘shining city on a hill’ or Bush’s brand of ‘compassionate conservatism....Could the party of those eras be resurrected? “I’m not sure.”

3) Joe Biden at NY Democratic convention endorsing Cuomo for governor for a 3rd term, AP, May 24, 2018.