The Republican Party That is Dead and Gone

From time to time throughout history nations have faced a point where they have to determine who they are and what they stand for.  An obvious example is 1930's Germany when everyday Germans failed the test and chose evil and depravity.  Now, America stands at a point where a similar decision must be made.  As it now exists, the Republican Party is the enemy of decency, morality and Americans must decide if they will go the way of the 1930's Germans or defeat the GOP and disavow its agenda.  Sadly, the Republican Party was not always a toxic threat.  A piece by Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress. reminisces about the days when the GOP was responsible and had not become a force that at best shrugs its shoulders at inhumanity towards others.  Scarborough, myself, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Rubin, and many other former Republicans supported the Republican Party of yesteryear. Now, its defeat is an existential test for Americans as Scarborough notes.  Here are column excerpts:

There was a time when conservatives supported limited government, balanced budgets and less debt. Not so long ago, conservatives also championed free trade, lower tariffs and the spread of democratic institutions across Europe and the world. And yes, conservatives spent the past generation championing an American exceptionalism with values casting our great country as a city shining brightly on a hill for all the world to see. 

Ronald Reagan launched his historic 1980 presidential campaign with the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop . He framed America’s relationship with immigration in 1981 this way: “Our nation is a nation of immigrants. More than any other country, our strength comes from our immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands.” Reagan took a position on immigration that most Republicans today would consider heresy, yet voters rewarded him with a decisive victory and a landslide reelection a few years later. Far less popular has been President Trump’s politically toxic policy of ripping children from their mothers’ arms. That depraved stance, adopted as a bargaining chip to use against Democrats, garnered support from only 17 percent of Americans . But it did earn him the antipathy of our closest allies, Pope Francis and every living former first lady . With the incarceration of more than 2,300 infants, toddlers and children unresolved, Trump’s policy of breaking up families remains an open wound on America’s character and a political crisis for the few Republicans who still believe they can salvage November’s midterm elections. A conservative former intelligence operative grimly recounted to me on Thursday how much the handling of these displaced children reminded him of the CIA facilities where terrorists were secretly held and interrogated after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: “This reminds me of our black sites, except we were holding 100 or so adult terrorists for the killing of American citizens. Now 2,300 kids are held in unknown locations with unknown individuals inside and absolutely no outside observation.” [Trump’s] personal cruelty and political ignorance have created a crisis that will kill conservative immigration reform and lead to future Democratic majorities. More troubling is the harsh reality now staring Americans in the face: Their president is a brutish political boss who has cheapened conservatism, sullied the office of the presidency and called into question the very character of a country once seen as the envy of the world. That so many Republicans still support this depraved man and his malignant movement could be the most damning element of this tragic American tale. 

 When Christian religious extremists and white supremacists are the base of a major political party it underscores that something is seriously wrong with America/Americans.  Each of us has an obligation to reclaim our nation and oppose Trump, Pence, Sessions, Ryan, McConnell and others who are destroying America's soul.  Sitting on the sidelines is not an option.  Inaction equals complicity in evil. 

Veteran GOP Strategist Quits GOP Over Trump and "Cowardly" Republicans

It seems that as Donald Trump and his racist followers double down, more thinking Republicans are abandoning the GOP which has become something ugly and hideous and filled with spineless wonders who prostitute themselves to any lengths to avoid a primary contest against challengers who not that many years ago would not even have been allowed on a county or city committee much less be allowed to be a candidate backed by the GOP.  Once Trump claimed the GOP nomination in 2016 it became clear that the GOP no longer has any standards unless those standards are comprised of narcissism, perpetual lying, rank racism, and objective fact free delusions.  The latest exodus from the GOP involves long time GOP strategist and former George W. Bush White House staffer and John McCain campaign staffer Steven Schmidt.   Schmidt even went to state that in its current form, the Republican Party is a threat to American democracy.  Huffington Post looks at Schmidt's exodus from the GOP:

Veteran GOP strategist Steve Schmidt renounced his Republican Party membership on Wednesday and pledged to vote for Democrats in an effort to preserve “what is right and decent” in the United States.

In a series of scathing tweets, Schmidt blasted the GOP as “corrupt, indecent and immoral” and “fully the party of Trump.”

“It is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders,” tweeted Schmidt, an MSNBC political analyst who has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. “Today the GOP has become a danger to our democracy and our values.”

Schmidt, who served as an adviser in the George W. Bush White House, strongly condemned the Trump administration’s policy of separating families caught illegally crossing the border into the U.S.

“This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history,” he tweeted. “It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families. It is immoral and must be repudiated.”

Schmidt, who said in July that Trump had the “impulse control of a little child,” joins a growing chorus of political pundits and lawmakers to rebuke the administration’s practice of separating children from parents facing prosecution for illegally crossing the border.
 

Schmidt also lashed out at Republicans who either are apologists and or his enablers saying "With the exception of a few Governors like Baker, Hogan and Kasich it is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders."  Another former Republican taking aim at Trump enablers within the GOP is columnist Jennifer Rubin. In a column in the Washington Post, she lambasted Paul Ryan and others:

This is moral madness, a betrayal of universal human values that marks the lowest point in the Trump presidency — or any presidency since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

There is no point, ever, at which Fox News executives stop raking in money and sending their hosts out to pander to ignorant anti-immigrant audiences. (A patch of Fox TV and film talent is up in arms, some threatening to leave for another studio.) There is never a time when House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) says, “You know, my church and my conscience don’t allow me to participate in such evil,” or when anyone in the White House has the decency to quit rather than lie and help perpetuate the policy.

There surely is never a moment [Trump] the president stops lying, . . . . He is, unbelievably, getting worse, and there is no one in the administration willing to resist.

There are plenty of signs that the public has finally had enough of Trump’s lying and the GOP’s inhumanity. A massive protest is planned for June 30 near the White House and in 132 cities across the country. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a blistering attack on Trump’s policies.  At least eight governors(including two Republicans) are now recalling National Guard troops assigned to help with the border crackdown.

There is far more that can be done — from voters calling and showing up at lawmakers’ offices and appearances, to cutting off donations flowing to GOP candidates and PACs.

[T]he Republican Party has disgraced itself and lost the moral authority to govern. Anyone and everyone with an “R” after his or her name who did not condemn the policy and take meaningful action to eliminate it will be attacked for this disgraceful chapter. Really, should they be reelected for anything — ever?

This from a former Republican.  Schmidt and Rubin have belatedly reached a point I reached many years ago. Yes, Trump is an outright evil, but I remain insistent that the evil began to overtake the GOP with the rise of the evangelical Christians - the most selfish, hate-filled, cruel people one can encounter - began their takeover of the GOP base. Moderate Republicans of old and the so-called country club Republicans never countenanced such evil.  That began with with Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and has now metastasized in the form of Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Jr., and, of course Trump, who made a pact with the devil with them.  

Ken Cuccinelli - GOP AG Candidate is a Fanatic

Most of the attention during the run up to the November elections in Virginia has been focused on the race for governor and Bob McDonnell's Christianist road map laid out in his CBN University thesis. Unfortunately, McDonnell looks like the moderate he is pretending to be when compared to GOP candidate for Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli holds a mind set that's like a throw back to the Spanish Inquisition or the evil Catholics in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The guy is in short a flaming lunatic. Yet other than a recent Washington Post story, too little seems to have come out as to just what an extremist Cuccinelli is in terms of many of his views. Here are some highlights:

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Attention, Virginia voters: If the polls are correct and nothing big changes in the next 12 days, you're going to elect a state attorney general who's so ardently conservative he makes gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell sound like a mealy-mouthed moderate.

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State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II of Fairfax County, the Republican candidate to be the state's top lawyer, portrays the environmental movement as a socialist ploy and said in 2003 that homosexuality is just plain wrong. . . . His idea of a compelling issue was championing a measure last year to make it easier to deny unemployment benefits to immigrant workers fired for not speaking English. . . . Last year, he proposed to deny citizenship to children born in the United States if their parents weren't here legally.

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In short, rational voters ought to be running screaming from Cuccinelli. Sadly, too few seem to be paying attention to the AG race. Fortunately, the Virginia Democrats have made a video set out below which allows Cuccinelli himself to demonstrate just out side the mainstream he is and that the concerns of average Virginians are not his priority.

McCain Strategist: Palin in 2012 Would Be 'Catastrophic' for GOP

Highlighting the growing disconnect between objective reality and the GOP base is commentary by a McCain strategist on the possibility of Sarah "Bible Spice" Palin running on the GOP ticket in 2012 for president. While Palin remains popular among the birther and teabagger set, I believe most rational, thinking people view her as down right frightening and had McCain made a different VP pick, it is certainly possible that the election result might have been different. Among many GOP leaning people that I know, the prospect of Palin a heart beat from the presidency clinched the deal for Obama. Here are some highlights from a Newsweek piece that reviews the thinking of rational strategists within the GOP:

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Looks like there’s at least one high-profile Republican who won’t be voting for Sarah Palin should she run in 2012. Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s top political strategist in 2008, told a forum in Washington today that nominating Palin as the party’s next presidential nominee would be “catastrophic” for Republicans. “I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate,” Schmidt said. “In fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result.” The comments aren’t necessarily surprising—many prominent Republicans privately share Schmidt’s views.

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"In the year since the election has ended, [Palin] has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond the base,” Schmidt said today. “The independent vote is going to be up for grabs in 2012. That middle of the electorate is going to be determinative of the outcome of the elections. I just don't see that if you look at the things she has done over the year . . . that she is going to expand that base in the middle.” It’s not “inconceivable” that she could win the nomination, Schmidt acknowledged. “I do think it's fairly inconceivable that she could be elected president of the United States.”

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The most dangerous people in positions of power are those who do not recognize their own limitations. Bible Spice is one such individual. She may think she's a genius and God's gift to the USA, but in fact she's a mental midget who is a menace. That the GOP base continues to embrace her speaks volumes of what has happened to a once respectable political party.

GOP Urged to Rethink Gay Marriage

The political strategist who handled John McCain's campaign is saying that the GOP risks becoming a 'sectarian' party. It's refreshing that someone within the GOP is demonstrating that there is still some intelligent life in the party, not that I foresee the lunatic base of the party going along with such smart advice. With the changing views of the younger generations of voters towards gays, time is not on the side of the Kool-Aid drinkers who in a matter of time will simply die off in sufficient numbers to allow pro-gay measures to pass. Meanwhile, the GOP will have turned itself into a religious dominated relic of a political party. How the small rational element in the party rescues the GOP from the Christianist is a huge question since much f the party grass roots consists of church directed extremists who live in an alternate reality from the rest of us. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post on Steve Schmidt's heretical views on gay marriage (Note: the article quotes the Traditional Values Coalition which is an identified anti-gay hate group):

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Adding a prominent Republican voice to the ranks of those supporting same-sex marriage, the man who managed Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign yesterday warned members of his party that continued opposition on the issue could turn the GOP into a "sectarian" party. Steve Schmidt, a California political strategist, has long held more moderate views on social issues than do many top GOP officials. Yesterday, he used a speech in front of the gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans to urge the party to shift its views on same-sex marriage. Otherwise, he said, it will continue losing voters who are younger than 35 or who live outside the South. "For the party to be seen as anti-gay, that is injurious to its candidates in places like California and Washington," Schmidt said.

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Pushing the party to reconsider the issue are a handful of GOP figures, including Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of last November's Republican standard-bearer. She will speak tonight at a dinner for the Log Cabin Republicans, whose name reflects the birthplace of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. McCain and her mother, Cindy, attended a Log Cabin reception last night at the home of former congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) who was one of the few openly gay members of Congress during his tenure.

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Other Republicans disagreed strongly with Schmidt, noting that an initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman passed in California, a state President Obama easily won. "We've seen over and over people come out and support marriage between a man and woman," said Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, a District-based conservative activist group. "It absolutely doesn't threaten the election of Republicans. The campaign [on gay marriage in California] won the support of Republicans, independents and some Democrats."

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Schmidt added that his lesbian sister's relationship with another woman helped change his views on the matter. . . . People under 40, they don't care," said Martin Sokoll, a trustee of the group [Log Cabin Republicans] who lives in Iowa. "It's absolutely age-related. It's going to change as those folks who are older die off."

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As I have said before, it would be nice if the mainstream media would challenge statements like those of Ms. Lafferty who makes a comfortable living peddling hatred.