Today's GOP: Fueled by Anger and Fear

Former Bush White House official Michael Gerson paints a dark - but in my view, an accurate - picture of today's Republican Party in a column in the Washington Post.  Principle s gone, greed is king, and hate and fear motivate a dangerous tribalism, all of which is stoked by the foul occupant of the White House.  Just as frightening, if Trump were to be forced from office, we face a prospect of Mike Pence, a religious extremist who would likely pursue those who did not adhere to his very scary religious beliefs with the passion of a torturer from the Spanish Inquisition.  Despite all of this, most Republican elected officials do not seem to care.  All that matters is retaining office and power, seemingly at any cost to their honor (if any of them still have any), morality and true loyalty to the U.S. Constitution which they swore to uphold and defend. Even Gerson implies that the sole hope for America is a Republican rout in the midterm elections.  Here are column highlights:

One of the unpleasant surprises of your 50s (among many) is seeing the heroes and mentors of your 20s pass away. . . . I worked for Jack Kemp, who inspired generations of conservatives with his passion for inclusion. I worked against John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries but came to admire his truculent commitment to principle.

Perhaps it is natural to attribute heroism to past generations and to find a sad smallness in your own. But we are seeing the largest test of political character in my lifetime. And where are the Republican leaders large enough to show the way?

President Trump’s recent remarks to evangelical Christians at the White House capture where Republican politics is heading. “This November 6 election,” Trump said, “is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion.” A direct, unadorned appeal to tribal hostilities. Fighting for Trump, the president [Trump] argued, is the only way to defend the Christian faith. None of these men and women of God, apparently, gagged on their hors d’oeuvres.

If religious get-out-the-vote efforts are insufficient, according to the president, “that will be the beginning of ending everything that you’ve gotten.” The gates of hell will not prevail against the church, but evidently Nancy Pelosi would.

“It’s not a question of like or dislike, it’s a question that [Democrats] will overturn everything that we’ve done, and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence.” Here Trump is preparing his audience for the possibility of bloodshed by predicting it from the other side. Christians, evidently, need to start taking “Onward, Christian Soldiers” more literally.

This is now what passes for GOP discourse — the cultivation of anger, fear, grievances, prejudices and hatreds. . . . principle is swiftly and effectively punished. In Florida’s recent primaries, significantly more Republican voters said they were loyal to Trump than to the GOP. In many places, the only way for an ordinary Republican senator or House member to maintain any political influence is to burn incense to the emperor.

Trump is not only making a challenge to the Republican establishment; he is also increasingly impatient with structures of democratic accountability. As Edward Luce argues in “The Retreat of Western Liberalism,” “the true populist loses patience with the rules of the democratic game.” He comes to view himself as the embodied voice of the people, and opponents as (in Trump’s words) “un-American” and “treasonous.”

As Robert S. Mueller III continues his inexorable investigation of Trump’s sleazy business and political world — and if Democrats gain the House and begin aggressive oversight — a cornered president may test the limits of executive power in the attempt to avoid justice.

If the GOP narrowly retains control of the House, Trump and others will take it as the vindication of his whole approach to politics.  He will doubtlessly attack the independence of the FBI and attempt to make it an instrument of his will. He will doubtlessly continue his vendetta against responsible journalism and increase his pressure on media companies that don’t please him. On a broad front, Trump’s lunacy will become operational.

The separation of powers does not work automatically, like a washing machine. Republicans must pick their own point of principled resistance to a corrosive populism, if they have one at all.

I have little hope for principled resistance or the performance of their constitutional duties from today's Congressional Republicans. They simply have no principles and care little for defending democracy.