After Trump: first shots fired in battle for Republican party's future
Me thinks @GOP’s Step 1 must be the equivalent of l’Epuration in France or the Denazification process in Germany=exclusion of those who supported and enabled Trump. theguardian.com/us-news/2020/n…
Me thinks @GOP’s Step 1 must be the equivalent of l’Epuration in France or the Denazification process in Germany=exclusion of those who supported and enabled Trump. theguardian.com/us-news/2020/n…
“Trumpism will remain because he is such a wildly popular figure among their base. But, it’s always been pragmatic for many Republicans,” said Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University & author of the bestseller How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.
“There’s some portion of the Republican party supporting him mainly because he’s Trump, and he’s owning the libs and saying racist things. And then another group is supporting him because he’s pushing through the hardest-right policies.
“I expect the Republican party will prioritise whatever mechanism they need to dominate the courts, to keep suppressing the vote, to make sure that they can, as a minority party, remain in control of the levers of government.”
Stanley questioned the timing of those who appear to be breaking free from Trump by speaking out now.
“The Republican party has been doing this anti-democratic thing since well before Trump,” he said.
“The Republican party has been doing this anti-democratic thing since well before Trump,” he said.
“They’ve been acting like the Democrats are not legitimate, and they have no responsibility to co-govern with the Democrats and their sole purpose is to get the Democrats out and rule as a minority party.
“We’ve had four years of this. When people do what is minimally expected that doesn’t mean you should be filled with praise for them … Norms have been so broken that we’re asking whether we should praise people when the president is obviously trying to rig & steal the election.”
It remains to be seen if more moderate senior Republicans who have been critical of Trump, such as Mitt Romney, senator for Utah, will hold sway when the party plots its course for the Biden presidency.
Other Republican figures are still on board the Trump train, even as it jumps the rails, including the fiercely loyal DeSantis, Cruz, Cotton, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham & apologists such as Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, and even the ridiculed Rudy Giuliani.
All have backed the president’s false claims of malfeasance publicly, overlooking the fact they were made without evidence.
“Those are the most dangerous politicians we have. They have placed zero value on democracy,” Stanley, the Yale professor, said.
“Some of them, like Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, you know, might be more dangerous in various respects than Trump.”
“Some of them, like Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, you know, might be more dangerous in various respects than Trump.”
In other words, Stanley, while comparing these @GOP members to fascists, as I come to think of them too, doesn’t think the @GOP has nearly enough (none bar one?!) « clean » members to undertake vital Denazification-like processes. Grim. Absolutely grim. But, sadly likely right...
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