"Trump didn't change the Republican Party...

[Septua]

..he revealed it." That was a comment by Stuart Stevens last night on MSNBC's 11th Hour. Which is what many of us have known for a while.

If you aren't familiar with Mr Stevens:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/19/interview-stuart-stevens-republican-case-against-trump-397918

[luv2fly]

1. Let's start the countdown...

... until someone who believes they know what all the "correct" media is feels compelled to tell you that Politico is trash.

5... 4... 3... 2...1...

[SmittyWerben]

2. I absolutely agree

Trump said the quiet stuff out loud and the elephant sighed and said "finally, a plain speaking politician." He said what they believed about brown/black people and all democrats in the quiet parts of their minds and opened the door to free expression of those thoughts. He turned on the lights in the overtly racist/crazy conspiracy room and the elephant said "hey, here's a room I did not know we could go into, it's lovely in this room...lets live here!"

[Mary in S. Carolina]

15. Many republicans jumped ship

and joined the Democratic Party after Bush and especially after Trump when it was clear that republicans were not family values, morally correct, fiscally responsible, blah, blah, blah. The Republican Party stands for absolutely nothing but white male supremacy. Period.

[musclecar6]

24. 100 percent

Accurate. To sum it up, just save time and label them the American Nazi Party. It’s who they’ve always been. The dark side of human nature camouflaged with proclamations of “ Family Values”. By all indications, TFG was trying to become a modern day version of Hitler backed by hell bent fascist republicans. Fortunately Joe supported by people with decent values, stopped them.

[Martin Eden]

3. Very True.

Trump came along and simply beat them at their own game, casting aside whatever pretense and inhibitions may have been holding the others to outmoded norms of behavior.

[Autumn]

4. He just made them comfortable enough to drop their masks.

Rec

[certainot]

5. trump revealed what's been blasting from 1500 radio stations for 30 fucking years is what he did

but the analysts still haven't figured it out because they read and write and watch and mostly live in cities where there are alternatives on the radio

it became the party of limbaugh 30 years ago and putin recognized it and made trump the dittohead president and fed and supplemented the alternate reality with social media and internet - but the difference was always that 1500 coordinated radio station megaphone for coordinated unchallenged repetition

trump was limbaugh with better hair and sex-on-the-wrong-brain stupid crazy full of himself enough to be able to deliver the same racist fascist bullshit in front of live crowds

[uponit7771]

6. K&R, KGQP was implementing voter suppression way before Putin's Whore came along.

[PatrickforB]

7. Well, I just looked up Stuart and looked at some of his quotes on Twitter.

I must say I like the cut of his jib!

[JHB]

8. He didn't reveal it, he made it undeniable.

The only people truly shocked were the people who had blinders on, the people whom for their own mental comfort, thought of the base grievance-filled conservatives had spent decades cultivating was merely the "fringe."

While I congratulate Stevens for figuring out "it was all a lie" and and saying so, I have trouble doing that with enthusiasm for the simple reason that I saw that was the case in my 20s, not my 60s.

[jaxexpat]

10. Intellectual integrity from public creatures is, these days, a situationally allocated commodity.

Thus always suspect.

[oldsoftie]

9. I partially disagree. He changed PEOPLE. Because i know some of them

And i know them very well; some for 50 yrs. I know how they've thought, what they have always wanted. And they were NEVER what they are now. Some others, yes, I could see what they were since day one too. They just became more open about it. But trump ruined people who just werent that way before. I know people who couldnt STAND Bill Clinton or Barak Obama. But it never caused them to break off with their families or post idiocy online. or other such nonsense. Trump did that; somehow. There's the GOP & there's the Trump Cult. If you've ever watched a documentary on cults you'll see people who say "I never thought I'd be one of those people". And here we are.

[Johonny]

14. The argument is that Trump did not change many people, but the Internet did

Targeted ads at people that were likely susceptible to conservative propaganda. However, Trump didn't do this Internet media campaign anymore than Trump did Hate radio or FOX news. Trump simply exploited an apparatus built by others. It's not even clear Trump understood how the apparatus would help him. All accounts are that Trump was in it for a quick media blitz and would then head back to reality TV. The propaganda that pushed him to the top was not of his doing. He was just the right man (bigoted amoral asshole) at the right time.

[oldsoftie]

31. But we had the internet, Fox, et all, during the whole Obama administration too.

And they didnt go crazy in EIGHT years. I saw all the obama memes over the years. Most of the time people laughed and thats it. Then all of a sudden they start LIVING the shit. Here's an interesting column about how many parts of Revelations in the Bible point to Trump being the AntiChrist. The more I see the more I wonder


https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/

[Johonny]

32. It's how they used social media

They used targeted social media propaganda campaigns. That was and is new. It's what Cambridge Analytica was all about. Do not discount Russia and other countries learning and using the power of social media. This is new and has been devastating (see the on going anti-Vax propaganda) That was not around 8 years ago during Obama to any near as there is now. It's different sharing an unfunny Obama meme and agencies seeing and knowing you like anti Obama memes and bombarding you with disinformation due to previous likes.

[oldsoftie]

33. I try to tell people most of the BS they see is Russian or Chinese

With a helping of Iran

[mountain grammy]

11. Some real truths here..

Will it do any good? who knows, but it's true.

What does the party stand for? Four years ago, 90 percent of Republicans would say personal responsibility, character counts, strong on Russia, fiscal sanity, legal immigration, free trade. But now the party’s 100 percent against all these things. We’re left of Bernie Sanders on trade. We’re way to his left on Russia; Bernie may have honeymooned in Russia, but he didn’t marry Putin. We’re for an imperial presidency. I guess when the next Democratic president does an executive order for a wealth tax, we’ll be OK with it.

GRUNWALD: But Republicans won’t be OK with it. They’re not OK with an imperial presidency in general; they’re OK with a Republican imperial presidency.

[traitorsgalore]

17. I remember when the GOP suddenly loved torture camps

For years, "Saddam tortures his own people" was a GOPuke selling point about hating Muslims. Then, Bush gets elected, sells torture as something great and the GOPukes suddenly loved it.

[mountain grammy]

22. Yeah, the "compassionate" conservative part..

[CaptainTruth]

12. IMHO that also happened when the GW Bush admin & GOP embraced the PNAC...

...& Bush filled his cabinet with PNAC members. The imperialist positions of the PNAC were pretty radical & they published them openly, but MSM never reported on them so 99.9% of Americans don't know about them.

Personally, I draw a straight line from the PNAC saying we should have an "imperialist president" where the Executive branch has more power than the Legislative & Judicial branches (which Bush/GOP embraced), to Trump, who ignored subpoenas from the Legislative branch & told everyone in the Executive branch to also ignore subpoenas from the Legislative branch, it's exactly the kind of thing the PNAC was advocating (& the GOP embraced) & we should have seen it coming a mile away.

[Johonny]

13. Trump exploited the GOP that was ripe for being exploited

[DFW]

18. I would call that the short version

When he was installed in the presidency, he made it suddenly acceptable for boorish people to act out their basest instincts. "Good enough for the President? Good enough for me!"

If the great majority of those people were/are Republicans, well, let the facts speak for themselves.

In 1983, when an ex-SS officer wanted to start a neo-Nazi party here in Germany, he was forbidden from using the Nazi name. He looked around for an appropriate name for his new party, and found it in the USA. He called his party "Die Republikaner."

I used to chide American Republicans about this, and they used get angry and ask me, "are you saying we're all Nazis?" I said, "not at all. I'm only saying I find it unfortunate that a bunch of Neo-Nazis find you so inspiring as to adopt your name." They didn't like that answer, but they didn't have a very good answer for it, either.

[Hortensis]

25. Oh, my. Great, very to-the-point anecdote. "Die Republikaner."

[Rebl2]

19. So very true

[patphil]

20. Trump gave permission for the right wing to openly show their hate.

It's like what Hitler did in Germany. Hitler exploited the fear, anger, hatred, and violence that lay hidden in the hearts of millions of Germans.

Trump has done the same thing here. He released the hounds of hell, and they feel empowered to express what they really are.

Evil is as evil does.

[LakeArenal]

21. Trump is like a snail. Just a vehicle to eat the Republican garlic butter.

[Hortensis]

27. Fwiw, I believe this is an enormous underestimation

and simplification. tRump's demonstrably already managed to kill probably a million people, I suspect in part because they didn't adore him to his satisfaction -- and also because sowing chaos and fear is a standard technique for overthrowing a government. He's had a steep learning curve since he was elected. When looking at the vicious dictators he admires and apparently identifies with, and presumably soaked up ideas from, don't forget to look at the whole dictator -- without their nations of follower-victims they're nothing.

[LakeArenal]

29. However, I don't think trump is that smart.

I do believe he’s a Russian asshat.

It’s also the Republicans that are keeping trump a “thing”. If every leader Rep and Dem would let him go, the rabid base would slowly lose faith.

Media also keeps up the “thing” as well.

[Hortensis]

30. I do. Demonstrably, it doesn't take brilliance, or mental stability.

The talent, and will, to draw crowds of cheering supporters and turn them into fanatic authoritarian followers, yes. It takes that, and it's rare.

When you look at those who've become nationally known in the last few years with that very notable talent, to excite crowds into passionate devotion to a leader, there aren't many -- tRump, Sanders, and Sarah Palin come to mind. Any others? Palin was a woman (authoritarians want strongMEN) running for VP, and she went down with McCaine.

Sanders' strongman charisma might well have been enough IF he'd lead a RW populist movement targeting the giant mass of RWers seeking an authoritarian leader. Unfortunately, antagonistic LW populists, authoritarians, and anti-establishment complainers, as well as genuine progressives and socialist dreamers, were what he drew, enough for Russia to use him to splinter critical support but not enough to win.

tRump was the man with both talent and will positioned to go after the nazi-type RWers (as well as a fair number of the most aggressively destructive LWers), who craved a strongman leader to lead them to destroy everyone else.

Being a Russian asshat doesn't contradict that -- it explains Russia's investment in him.

[ananda]

23. Totally agree. The GOP has been fascist and corrupt..

for quite awhile now.

[Hortensis]

26. tRump further further revealed what was already in plain sight.

As said, he gave permission to indulge their ugliest selves and has been developing them toward full realization.

Researchers have found it's an interactive relationship. tRump learned how to be a successful archconservative populist rabblerouser from those who gave him the cheers he craved, learned what they needed from him, and their Der Leader in turn has turned his determinedly loyal followers into what he wants of them.

[mrsadm]

28. Fascinating, thanks for posting!

It's good to know about this guy and his book. Glad to hear someone on the right says that Drump is truly a disaster and the other republicans know it; they're just protecting themselves.