The NC GOP is now of, by and for Donald Trump
I am disproportionate about Bruce Springsteen. I know he’s not actually the greatest American after Lincoln. But still, I can’t slip the sentiment. As President Obama said while giving him the Medal of Freedom, Springsteen “writes anthems of America, the reality of who we are and the reverie of who we want to be.” He also noted, “I am the President, but he is The Boss.”
In 2007, Springsteen released the plaintive, mournful ballad, “Long Walk Home.” It contains, for me, hallowed lines:
My father said “Son, we’re lucky in this town,
It’s a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you,
Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone
You know the flag flyin’ over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t”
An election nears. Donald Trump has announced that he is “on the ballot everywhere.” A vote “for a Republican is a vote for me,” he declares. He seems to suggest this is true not only for congressional races, but for statehouses and gubernatorial elections as well. The Republican Party is now precisely the party of Trump – his acolytes, disciples and enablers.
Think on that.
Donald Trump is a constant, pervasive and defining liar. The Washington Post documented over 5,000 lies in his first 600 days. Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain’s presidential campaign, has written: “Donald Trump is not the first president to lie, but he is, by a very, very wide margin, the most prolific liar, the first pathological liar ever to be president.” Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, said he is simply “not capable of telling the truth.” It is impossible to function as a democracy with a president who lies about everything that matters and everything that doesn’t. And if we trust the reports of a compulsive liar about his secret meetings with foreign tyrants, we’re idiots.
Trump is also a practicing, professing and reliant racist. Mexicans are rapists. They’re incapable of being judges. There were “very fine people” among the white supremacists in Charlottesville. Maxine Waters is “extraordinarily low IQ”. Omarosa Manigault is a “crazed, low life dog.’ Don Lemon is the “dumbest man on television.” LeBron James is a close second. Kneeling NFL football players are “sons of b------.” African countries are “s---holes.” Georgia’s black gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is “totally unqualified” despite her Yale law degree and service as minority leader of the statehouse.
Trump trades in cruelty. He separated parents from their babies and lied about it. He ended DACA and lied about it. He turned his back on Puerto Rico and lied about it. He taunts the disabled, makes fun of sexual assault victims, and brags about molesting women. He calls others pigs and “horseface.” He pays another cadre to keep mum about his cascade of affairs. He sided with Roy Moore and Brett Kavanaugh and laughed about it. He praised Rep. Greg Gianforte for beating up a reporter and urged his followers to do likewise. He’s a thug and bully who demands other people do his fighting and his firing. He’s the antithesis of Gary Cooper.
He squirms before dictators in submission. He repeatedly humiliates us on the world stage, leading UN delegates to laugh in his face. He wages war on essential institutions — the FBI and intelligence agencies — to cover up his own crimes. He’s massively corrupt, deploying government power to increase his personal wealth. He’s the lackey of Wall Street. He adores the swamp.
N.C. Republicans are now enrolled as official Trump abettors and compatriots. They’ve rejected “things set in stone, who we are, what we’ll do, and what we won’t.” The Grand Old Party mocks our national calling.
This story was originally published October 23, 2018 at 9:17 AM.