The Crazies Are Now Fully In Control Of The Republican Party

When I was a young man, the Republican Party was a mainstream party. It had some views I didn't agree with, but they were mainly reasonable people with whom one could negotiate for the good of the country.

Sadly, that is no longer true. The right-wing crazies have taken over the party now -- the white supremacists, the religious bigots, and the conspiracy theory nuts. The GOP invited them in, because it wanted their votes and they thought they could control them. But they couldn't. The now control the party, and it is doubtful whether the party can right itself again, or even survive.

The following is from a New York Times column by Paul Krugman:

Here’s what we know about American politics: The Republican Party is stuck, probably irreversibly, in a doom loop of bizarro. If the Trump-incited Capitol insurrection didn’t snap the party back to sanity — and it didn’t — nothing will. 

What isn’t clear yet is who, exactly, will end up facing doom. Will it be the G.O.P. as a significant political force? Or will it be America as we know it? Unfortunately, we don’t know the answer. It depends a lot on how successful Republicans will be in suppressing votes.

About the bizarro: Even I had some lingering hope that the Republican establishment might try to end Trumpism. But such hopes died this week.

On Tuesday Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who has said that Donald Trump’s role in fomenting the insurrection was impeachable, voted for a measure that would have declared a Trump trial unconstitutional because he’s no longer in office. (Most constitutional scholars disagree.)

On Thursday Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader — who still hasn’t conceded that Joe Biden legitimately won the presidency, but did declare that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack on Congress — visited Mar-a-Lago, presumably to make amends.

In other words, the G.O.P.’s national leadership, after briefly flirting with sense, has surrendered to the fantasies of the fringe. Cowardice rules. . . .

How did this happen to what was once the party of Dwight Eisenhower? Political scientists argue that traditional forces of moderation have been weakened by factors like the nationalization of politics and the rise of partisan media, notably Fox News.

This opens the door to a process of self-reinforcing extremism (something, by the way, that I’ve seen happen in a minor fashion within some academic subfields). As hard-liners gain power within a group, they drive out moderates; what remains of the group is even more extreme, which drives out even more moderates; and so on. A party starts out complaining that taxes are too high; after a while it begins claiming that climate change is a giant hoax; it ends up believing that all Democrats are Satanist pedophiles.

This process of radicalization began long before Donald Trump; it goes back at least to Newt Gingrich’s takeover of Congress in 1994. But Trump’s reign of corruption and lies, followed by his refusal to concede and his attempt to overturn the election results, brought it to a head. And the cowardice of the Republican establishment has sealed the deal. One of America’s two major political parties has parted ways with facts, logic and democracy, and it’s not coming back. . . .

The bottom line is that we don’t know whether we’ve earned more than a temporary reprieve. A president who tried to retain power despite losing an election has been foiled. But a party that buys into bizarre conspiracy theories and denies the legitimacy of its opposition isn’t getting saner, and still has a good chance of taking complete power in four years.

It's Undeniable That Donald Trump Is A Racist

(Cartoon image is by Chris Britt in the Illinois Times.)

Trump supporters will deny that he is a racist. But they are ignoring an avalanche of facts to believe that. Trump was a racist as a young man, when he violated federal law by discriminating against minorities by barring them from his properties. The statements during his campaign, and the statements and actions while president, have made his racism undeniable. Here is an op-ed by Michael A Cohen in the Boston Globe on this subject:

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said the following: “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — we’re stopping a lot of them. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals.”

Trump’s comments came during a White House meeting about sanctuary city laws, and since then there have been several days of controversy as to whether Trump was referring to all immigrants or speaking specifically about the MS-13 gang, which has become a regular punching bag of the president. To be sure, calling any group of people “animals,” even criminals and gang members, is dehumanizing and gross and worthy of condemnation. . . .

Here’s some context on the president’s words.

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, he called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.

He complained that a judge hearing a case related to Trump University was of Mexican heritage and thus could not be expected to treat him fairly.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump regularly highlighted crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to make the case for restrictive immigration laws, mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and building a wall along the country’s southern border.

After a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., by a husband and wife who had pledged fealty to ISIS, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” — not just ones that had been accused of or suspected of having ties to terrorist organizations. Since then Trump regularly highlights incidents of terrorism committed by Muslims on Twitter while often ignoring violent acts by non-Muslims.

As president, Trump tried to enact a ban on Muslims entering the country from a host of predominately Muslim countries and has drastically reduced the number of Syrian refugees entering the country. In both cases, Trump’s justification was the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Trum used crude words to describe sub-Saharan African and Caribbean nations and said that he’d prefer higher rates of immigration from countries like Norway.

He said that immigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS” and that those from Nigeria should “go back to their huts.”

The president’s chief of staff was recently quoted as saying that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are “not people that would easily assimilate into the United States.” He said they are “overwhelmingly rural,” have poor education, don’t speak English, don’t have useful skills and “don’t integrate well.”

The Trump administration has taken away temporary protection status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Haiti.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, boasted of a policy – strongly pushed for by President Trump – that would forcibly separate parents from their children if they try to enter the country illegally. 

In addition to all this, Trump has referred to white supremacists as “very fine people.” He’s questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. He pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been held in criminal contempt by a federal court for unlawfully targeting and racially profiling Hispanics.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The context for Trump’s comments is actually quite clear: The president is a vile bigot. He regularly demonizes and scapegoats immigrants and persons of color. He uses isolated examples of crime committed by immigrants and Muslims to justify racist policies that seek to limit nonwhite Americans from entering the country – and deport those who are already here. He’s done this repeatedly since he announced his candidacy for president, in June 2015.

His most adamant supporters will complain that the president, who struggles to speak in complete and coherent sentences and regularly uses out-of-context statements from his rivals to demonize and attack them, is being unfairly criticized for his “animals” comment. But these supporters are enablers and sycophants, who put tribal loyalty and partisanship ahead of truth and should not be taken seriously. 

We know exactly who this president is and what he believes. Let’s not waste any more time trying to parse his words or give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s a racist. Period.

Donald Trump Is A Liar (And A Racist And Bigot)

(These images are from The Washington Post.)

If you had any doubt about the reckless stupidity of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, this should settle that doubt. The top image is a tweet by Trump. In it, he claims that 81% of Whites that are murdered, are murdered by Blacks. Trump didn't create the image he tweeted. It was created by a white supremacist. Trump just tweeted it without bothering to check whether it was true or not.

Trump, or one of his assistants, could have easily checked on the truth of the meme. All it would have taken is a quick trip to the website of the FBI. The second chart shows the FBI statistics on the race of murderers and their victims. Note that the percentage of White victims killed by Blacks is actually only 14.8% -- nowhere near the 81% tweeted by Trump. The fact is that most victims are killed by someone of their own race (and 82.4% of White victims are killed by other Whites).

Trump didn't bother to check the facts, because he doesn't care about facts. He says what he wants to say, whether it is true or not, because he knows what the racist and bigoted base of the Republican Party wants to hear. Facts and truth are just a nuisance to Trump. He knows that his supporters won't bother to check on the truth of his remarks, because they don't care about truth either (if it goes against their preconceived beliefs). They are just happy to hear a candidate that is as racist and bigoted as they are.

This is not the only example of Trump disregarding the truth for political gain. He jumped into the lead in the GOP presidential race by demonizing Mexican immigrants -- calling the rapists and criminals (even though the crime rate among undocumented Mexican immigrants is far lower than among the general population in this country).

Now he is trying to demonize the muslims in the United States. A few days ago, he said that right after the 9/11 tragedy he saw video of thousands of New Jersey muslims cheering the tragedy. The problem is that it never happened. There is NO video of American muslims cheering the devastation in New York (even though another GOP candidate, Ben Carson, says he also saw the non-existent video).

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of muslims in New Jersey (and throughout this country) are decent people and good citizens -- and they were just as horrified as other Americans over the 9/11 tragedy.

Trump lied about Mexican immigrants, about Black on White crime, and about the reaction of American muslims to 9/11. He lied because he is a racist and a bigot -- just as racist and bigoted as his Republican supporters.

Petition Submitted For Vote On Anti-Immigrant Ordinance

A few weeks ago, the city of Farmers Branch passed an anti-immigrant ordinance targeted at the Hispanics living in the city. The ordinance has come under fire from Hispanic and civil rights groups, and at least one lawsuit has been filed to overturn the ordinance.

Residents of Farmers Branch have also been trying another way to get rid of the ordinance. They have been collecting signatures on a petition calling for a vote by the citizens on whether to overturn the ordinance or not.

The anti-ordinance citizens needed 700 signatures to force the city council to call the election. The group has now turned in the petition to the city council. The petition has over 1400 signatures. Now the city has 15 days to verify that at least 700 of the signatues are from registered voters living in the city.

Of course some of the ordinance supporters are claiming that many illegal immigrants may have signed the petition. But William Brewer, a petition organizer, answered that charge saying, "That was all a bunch of silliness. The petition was signed by registered voters."

According to City Attorney Matthew Boyle, if the petition is found to have 700 valid signatures, the city council will have to choose between repealing the ordinance or scheduling a city-wide vote for May 12th.

I seriously doubt the city council will repeal the ordinance, so it looks like the voters will get their chance to speak on the matter next May. I hope the decent citizens of Farmers Branch will overturn this bigoted ordinance. The city council has given their city a lot of bad publicity by passing it, and set them up to spend thousands of dollars trying to defend this obnoxious ordinance.

It's up to the voters now. The election next May will tell the nation just what kind of city Farmers Branch is -- bigoted or progressive and accepting. It will be interesting to see what choice they make.