Thread by @RobuLuxe

When I hear former GOPers lament, correctly, about the moral and ethical rot at the center of Trumpism, and wail “what happened to the GOP??”, I shake my Gen X head.

1/

Trumpism is the natural, predictable, inevitable endpoint of what was always at the center of your beloved GOP, at least since ‘68:

2/

— let’s start with Nixon’s secret sabotage of the peace negotiations in Paris just to win the election; how many more lives were lost senselessly in Vietnam as a result? Was his victory worth all the flag draped coffins and ruined lives?
3/

— did you ask yourself the same questions when you knew “trickledown economics” was a fraud, or was lining your pockets at the expense of those poor blue-collar saps hilarious comfort? I mean, let’s face it, those BMWs and shoulder padded jackets weren’t gonna buy themselves, 4/

and status is everything, right?
— how about Iran Contra, any queasiness for you in that complete collapse of constitutional principles, law, morals, and ethical standards?
5/

— what about when AIDS was not only ignored as a major health crisis, but used as a crass political cudgel, with bible-thumping hypocrites wagging fingers from the pulpit while fleecing (and other “f” words) their flocks, all in cozy furtherance of the GOP’s lust for power?
6/

— and speaking of hypocritical rot, what about the coinage and subsequent embrace of the fallacy of the “Moral Majority” which was/is neither moral nor a majority; you had no problem with convincing decent people that caring for the poor, the sick, the elderly 7/

has no place in the gospels, and leveraging that for political gain?
— as to further indecency, where were you when Lee Atwater grabbed the third rail of politics, and ran blatant race-baiting “Willie Horton” boogeymen ads? Did the ends justify those means?

8/

— two words: Newt Gingrich. Seriously. He was ok?
— how about when W and co. knowingly and intentionally mislead (i.e., lied) the country into war? Encouraged torture as official policy? Any hand-wringing there? 9/

Dick Cheney and Halliburton; that blatant self-dealing wasn’t problematic? The breathtaking incompetence of the Provisional Authority? The budgetary sleight-of-hand as a lame fig leaf over the cost; all of this in direct violation of what had been touted as core principles?
10/

— When you railroaded, then excused Scooter Libby, all in service of protecting Cheney?
— the ballooning deficits?
11/

— and, courageously, you’ve owned this @SteveSchmidtSES, but bringing gangrenous boob Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Oval Office absolutely rolled out the red carpet for every basic galling feature of Trumpism: 12/

celebrated ignorance, casual lying, self-dealing, moral void, self over country.

This is only a partial list cobbled in a very fuzzy, cold-wracked morning; there’s a ton more.

So don’t cry to me; I haven’t forgotten, nor will I allow anyone within earshot to forget.

13/

The GOP in my lifetime has always been oozing with moral rot under cheap theatrical paint; what you’re experiencing is your various ills coalescing into a malevolent force out of your control, a terrible bill coming due. 14/

And, as always, the rest of us, those marginalized and maligned in your flag-pin-deep “patriotism”, are left paying for your half century of airbrushed racism, base greed, and arch, network-ready perfidy. /end