Excerpts from R.I.P. GOP, by Matt Taibbi in the 6/2/16 issue of Rolling Stone. Taibbi is one of the best political journalists working today -- provocative, perceptive and funny. He's a favorite, and always an entertaining read!
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If this isn't the end for the Republican Party, it'll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised their children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word "American" by insisting they were the only real ones. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Mitt Romney to Paul Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut -- the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terry Schiavo's feeding tube.
All those conservative intellectuals like George Will and David Brooks ever did for Middle America was cook up a sales pitch designed to get them to vote for politicians who would instantly betray them to business interests eager to ship their jobs off to China and India. Their most successful trick was linking the corporate mantra of profit without responsibility to the concept of individual liberty.
Wave after wave of heartland politicians went off to Washington, each more strident and freedom-y than the last. They arrived draped in the flag, spewing patriotic bromides about god, guns and small-town values. But once in D.C., they did absolutely squat for their constituents. They were excellent at securing corporate tax holidays and tax cuts for the rich, but did virtually nothing for their own voters. Instead, these Republicans railed against an ever-increasing list of villains to blame: communists, feminists, black "race hustlers," climate-change activists, Muslims, Hollywood, horned owls . . .
In recent years, the Koch brothers/Tea Party wing of the GOP had purged all moderates from the party. Their expected endgame was to be the ascension of some far-right, anti-tax, anti-govenment radical like Scott Walker or Ted Cruz. But their carefully cultivated "throw the bums out" vibe was gluttonously appropriated by Trump, who turned the anger against the entire Republican Party.
Trump has turned the new Republican Party into high school -- call it "Nationalist High." It will be cruel and clique-y and ruled by insult kings like himself and Ann Coulter.
With his 10 million tweets, Trump's GOP is now mainly defined by whatever is going through his head at any given moment. The new GOP seems doomed to swing back and forth between its nationalist message and its leader's tubercular psyche. It isn't a party, it's a mood.
So in August, Trump the Triumphant will head to Cleveland for what's sure to be the yuugest, most obscene, most joyfully tacky tribute to a single person ever seen in the television age. Trump will bask in voluble self-admiration as his heavily-made-up, Robert Palmer-chicks collection of wives and daughters twist faintly in a deadpan chorus behind him.
If the convention isn't Liberace meets Stalin meets Vince McMahon, it'll be a massive disappointment!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/r-i-p-gop-how-trump-is-killing-the-republican-party-20160518
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