NYTimes op-ed, "The G.O.P. Is Rotting"

"The G.O.P. Is Rotting", By David Brooks

A lot of good, honorable Republicans used to believe there was a safe middle ground. You didn’t have to tie yourself hip to hip with Donald Trump, but you didn’t have to go all the way to the other extreme and commit political suicide like the dissident Jeff Flake, either. You could sort of float along in the middle, and keep your head down until this whole Trump thing passed.

Now it’s clear that middle ground doesn’t exist. That’s because Donald Trump never stops asking.

• First, he asked the party to swallow the idea of a narcissistic sexual harasser and a routine liar as its party leader. Then he asked the party to accept his comprehensive ignorance and his politics of racial division.
• Now he asks the party to give up its reputation for fiscal conservatism. At the same time he asks the party to become the party of Roy Moore, the party of bigotry, alleged sexual harassment and child assault.

There is no end to what Trump will ask of his party. He is defined by shamelessness, and so there is no bottom. And apparently there is no end to what regular Republicans are willing to give him. Trump may soon ask them to accept his firing of Robert Mueller, and yes, after some sighing, they will accept that, too.

You don’t help your cause by wrapping your arms around an alleged sexual predator and a patriarchic bigot. You don’t help your cause by putting the pursuit of power above character, by worshiping at the feet of some loutish man or another, by claiming the ends justify any means. You don’t successfully rationalize your own tawdriness by claiming your opponents are satanic. You don’t save Christianity by betraying its message.

It’s amazing that there haven’t been more Republicans like Mitt Romney who have said: “Enough is enough! I can go no further!”

The Republican Party I grew up with admired excellence. It admired intellectual excellence (Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley), moral excellence (John Paul II, Natan Sharansky) and excellent leaders (James Baker, Jeane Kirkpatrick). Populism abandoned all that —
and had to by its very nature.

Excellence is hierarchical. Excellence requires work, time, experience and talent. Populism doesn’t believe in hierarchy. Populism doesn’t demand the effort required to understand the best that has been thought and said. Populism celebrates the quick slogan,
the impulsive slash, the easy ignorant assertion. Populism is blind to mastery and embraces mediocrity.
​

The rot afflicting the G.O.P. is comprehensive — moral, intellectual, political and reputational. More and more former Republicans wake up every day and realize: “I’m homeless. I’m politically homeless.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/opinion/the-gop-is-rotting.html

 

To that end, Trump's propaganda machine, the Fixed News Network, is laying down the tracks. FNN talking heads are are using unseemly personal attacks to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller, the FBI, the Justice Department and the investigation into the dirty deeds of the Trump gang. http://observer.com/2017/12/msnbc-fights-back-against-fox-news-propaganda-factory/

HANNITY: “This entire witch hunt needs to be shut down and shut down immediately… Robert Mueller has assembled the most partisan special counsel in history. They are an utter disgrace.”

JARRETT: “The FBI has become America’s secret police. Secret surveillance. Wire-tapping, intimidation, lawlessness and threats. It’s like the old KGB comes for you in the dark of the night.”​

Steve Schmidt, who headed the McCain presidential campaign, offers this observation:

Prosecutors in this country have tremendous power. And they should not be beyond criticism. But this isn't criticism. This is
a premeditated, deliberate, dishonest smear of Robert Mueller, a man who has spent his entire life in public service,
who is known, if for nothing else, his probity and his rectitude.....
.................................................................................................................

What you're seeing on Fox News is indistinct from the type of propaganda that you would be subjected to if you lived in Belarus or if you lived in Russia. It is dishonest. It is purposeful. It is misleading.

And to see Republicans tie themselves to the mast on this to bring such disrepute to the conservative movement, to the Republican party, the assault on the rule of law on our institutions. This will get worse before it gets better and there's a moment coming where these important institutions and who we are, what we stand for, what we believe in, the defense of the inheritance that was given to us by generations who have sacrificed so much is coming to the line. And what you saw Sean Hannity and Jarrett doing, it's wrong in the most profound way. It's very, very wrong.


https://www.mediamatters.org/video/...r-law-enforcement-agents-investigating/218773​