Max Boot on the end of conservatism: “The Republican Party needs to be burned down”

[homersapien 11,812]

Good read.

https://www.salon.com/2018/10/16/max-boot-on-the-end-of-conservatism-the-republican-party-needs-to-be-burned-down/

 

[AUDub 11,424]

Rep. Steve King endorses a Nazi in the Toronto mayoral race. Rep.

Rep. Duncan Hunter is accusing his opponent, a Christian, of being a Muslim terrorist and, running a blatantly anti-muslim campaign.

No comment from the GOP. 

There is truth to Boot's article, but he doesn't get let off the hook for saying it now. Trump just revealed what was there all along. Only the willfully ignorant couldn't see it. 

[homersapien 11,812]

3 hours ago, AUDub said:

Rep. Steve King endorses a Nazi in the Toronto mayoral race. Rep.

Rep. Duncan Hunter is accusing his opponent, a Christian, of being a Muslim terrorist and, running a blatantly anti-muslim campaign.

No comment from the GOP. 

There is truth to Boot's article, but he doesn't get let off the hook for saying it now. Trump just revealed what was there all along. Only the willfully ignorant couldn't see it. 

Well, at least he is speaking out now, which is more than you can say for a lot of Republicans.

It's never too late to do the right thing.

[homersapien 11,812]

You mentioned the dark history of the Republican Party. As someone from within the tribe, that Republican conservative community, why was there so much denial about the obvious racism as the Southern Strategy, or Reagan's support of "states' rights"? Reagan also used thinly veiled racist language about black people, such as "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks." There was "birtherism" and its obvious racism. There is a direct line from Sarah Palin and the Tea Party to Donald Trump. Why did it take so long to accept the obvious truths about the Republican Party?

I asked that about myself. I really grapple with that. The real reason is this tribal instinct, which I feel is probably the most powerful impulse in politics. A desire to be in union with other people that you identify as your confederates, your fellow ideologues, however you define it -- and you're not going to be part of a movement if you focus a bright light on some of the dark, ugly parts of that movement. I might add, this is not a universal problem just on the right. It's a huge problem on the right. I think there are some issues on the left as well. There have been examples of anti-Semitism on the left, for example. If you think about the misbehavior of Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton towards women, which a lot of Democrats made excuses for, again because they didn't want to break with their tribe.

The Republican Party today has a lot more to answer for, but it's the same kind of tribal impulse that caused people like me and many others to refuse to see it. If you start to ask these hard questions then you have to say to yourself, "Well, can I really be a Republican anymore?" This is very difficult because for someone like me. Being a conservative or a Republican was my entire identity. That was how I largely defined myself.

Of course it wasn't the only identity I had. I also think of myself as a historian and a writer and so forth. But being a conservative and a Republican was certainly an important part of my identity. Therefore, I took a "go along to get along" attitude. I was certainly not somebody who was out there scripting racist campaign ads. I wasn't connected with the Willie Horton ad which came out when I was in high school, or Jesse Helms' racist attacks on Harvey Gantt in North Carolina. I had no connection to that, except very distantly, because I went along with the Republican Party and stayed in my lane, focusing on national security issues.

I did not worry about what was happening to the left and right of me. I realized that a lifetime of willful blindness helped to get us into this position where these dark forces have taken over the Republican Party. I can't stomach being part of that anymore. But a lot of Republicans are totally fine with it and they're totally in denial. When I point these things out they think there's something wrong with me.