Perhaps it was my family upbringing where it was stressed that doing the right thing was more important that popularity or choosing the easy, non-confrontational course of action, but it is disgusting to watch as supposedly decent Republicans - admittedly a dying breed - keep their silence and refuse to confront the hate and misogyny embodied by Donald Trump and to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz. Years ago, I resigned from the GOP when it became clear to me that the party's conflation of religion and the civil laws was nothing short of unconstitutional. I stated this specifically in my resignation from the City Committee for the Republican Party of Virginia Beach. In perhaps her harshest attack on spineless Republicans, Kathleen Parker lays out the cost of gutlessness and maintaining silence. Most tellingly, she applies the word "fascist" to what Trump and the GOP apologists are doing. Here are highlights from her column in the Washington Post:
You know all the arguments pro and con by now. He [Trump]
speaks plainly. So did Archie Bunker. His message of walled-in
isolationism appeals to those tired of loose immigration policies. So was the case with
Sen. Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, the nativist demagogue in
Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 cautionary novel, “It Can’t Happen
Here.”
Windrip, like Trump, spoke of
national greatness, though Windrip was more explicit, saying that Americans
“must continue to be the greatest Race on the face of this old Earth.” Like
Trump’s, Windrip’s base consisted largely of working-class white males, whom he
called upon to help control dissent after he ascended to the Oval Office. Sound
familiar? Punch anybody in the nose lately?
It’s called fascism by any other name and, yes, it does
seem that it can happen here. That is, a demagogue can become president, as
Lewis was trying to warn. And, yes, we do have checks and balances in this
country, but does anyone really think that Trump should have the power to start
a nuclear war? He’s mighty quick to rile.
No one is more familiar with the
language of marginalization and authoritarianism than the Jewish community,
causing one to wonder why Trump, whose rise has been spiced with bigotry and
group-blaming rhetoric, was allowed in AIPAC’S door. The answer is that the
nonpartisan organization traditionally invites all presidential candidates,
among others, to speak to its annual policy conference. Well, that’s an explanation,
anyway.
The conundrum for Republicans is
that though Trump may be the devil, he’s their devil. How can they condemn the
guy that a
near-majority of their
own party prefers? If you’re, say, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), how do
you say you won’t support your party’s nominee? Then again, if you’re a good
man like Ryan, how do you
support him?
That is the question of the moment, isn’t it? This is
what we ask ourselves about the industrialists and “good Germans” who supported
Hitler. This is what we ask our Southern grandparents about the time when
blacks were being lynched. What we ask the World War II generation about
rounding up Japanese Americans. And while we’re at it, what was your vote on
Vietnam, Iraq? There’s a price to pay for silence.
That so few have shown the courage
to deny Trump tells us how difficult it is to be brave — and how rare character
is. But one can only pretend for so long not to hear the dog whistles of
history, a skill at which Republicans have become too well practiced over the
decades. Perhaps they’re no longer listening. Or they’re deluding themselves
that Trump’s words don’t really mean what, you know, they mean.
“He won’t be that bad.” No, he’s worse.
[I]f you go back and look at Hitler, somehow you elect
someone that you know is beyond the pale. But you do it because you’re afraid
of someone else. And then later, you look closely. And it’s too late.”
The tiny flame at the end of this
darkening tunnel is a contested convention, which depends on Ted Cruz and John
Kasich starving Trump of the necessary 1,237 delegates needed to secure the
nomination. It could happen . . . . if Kasich campaigns only in proportional
delegate states, leaving winner-take-all states to Cruz, Trump’s chances of
becoming the nominee are reduced from 90 percent to 50 percent,says Wang. It’s a big gamble, but it beats
losing your soul.
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