From Paul Ryan to Little Marco, Republicans are suddenly convulsed with outrage over Donald Trump’s racism, xenophobia and bad manners. He threatens conservative “principles”, they whine. Oh, how rich. They say they can’t allow their Party of Lincoln to be tarnished this way. They say this with a straight face! Actually, The Donald is a moderate compared to most of them. That’s the real reason they hate him.
Trump is undressing the GOP for the rest of the world to see. They have built a political machine based on racism, bigotry and xenophobia, while pretending to be polite company and hoping the dogs would never get loose. Well, now the dogs are loose, and the GOP may have to look in the mirror. If only. All we hear right now is denial, as though they had nothing to do with hate radio, voter suppression, militarized policing… No, there will be no looking in the mirror.
Stop painting Trump as some kind of extremist. In his worst moments, he is simply voicing the beliefs of the Republican base. In parts of the country, he is completely mainstream. Don’t let them pretend anything else.