As Trumpism takes hold, Republicans face increasing pressure to embrace policies they once opposed

[DonViejo]

By Seung Min Kim
July 9 at 8:21 AM

President Trump’s transformation of the Republican Party is taking full root — with the president in recent days shunning traditional alliances and values that have long been core tenets of the GOP.

The leader of what was once the party of free and open commerce escalated a trade war with China this week as the world’s two largest economies put in place new tariffs. Trump signaled he plans to take a combative approach to the upcoming NATO summit, questioning the value of the alliance and warning Germany during a raucous political rally in Montana last week that “I don't know how much protection we get by protecting you.”

Even his signature hard-line immigration rhetoric is increasingly inflammatory — Trump accused Democrats last week of wanting “anarchy, amnesty and chaos” while insisting that migrants arriving at the border must be told “OUT . . . just as they would if they were standing on your front lawn.”

The hardening of Trump’s positions on key parts of his “America first” agenda comes just four months before November’s midterm elections. That is increasing the pressure on congressional Republicans to either embrace the most controversial tenets of his presidency or attempt to distance themselves from them in hopes of attracting the independent voters they will likely need to retain control of Congress.

“I think that’s the drama we’re going to see in the next few years — whether the beliefs that are being espoused by President Trump are going to firmly take root and take over the party, or are they going to be tested in real life,” said Tony Fratto, who served as a spokesman in the George W. Bush administration. “I think we’re going to see foreign policy failures and trade failures that will lead Republicans to say, that was a mistake. We need to go back to where we were on those issues.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-trumpism-takes-hold-republicans-face-increasing-pressure-to-embrace-policies-they-once-opposed/2018/07/09/d4e44274-8133-11e8-b851-5319c08f7cee_story.html

[Thomas Hurt]

1. There has been no "transformation".

The Pig's ideology is the same fascist laced far right ideology that has existed in this country since McCarthy. The same foundation of paranoid conspiracy, plot, racism, scapegoating, etc.

At best the Pig has mostly completed the evolution of the GoP to the fringe right that the baggers started, well actually that Reagan started when the counterculture choked on its own vomit.

He has pushed harder than any GOP President to install the mythical right wing ideological standards, smaller gov't, lower taxes, dereg, etc.

The more "moderate" conservatives are just standing on the sidelines waiting to see what the fallout is.

These whackjobs think utopia is within their reach again and they are mostly magical thinkers who think they are fighting a spiritual and social war to return us to a ideological fantasy of America that never existed.

They are all just aching for the Christian version of return to the caliphate.

[Loki Liesmith]

2. Lol principles