The G.O.P. Is Rotting.

[elleng]

'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.

That’s the way these corrupt bargains always work. You think you’re only giving your tormentor a little piece of yourself, but he keeps asking and asking, and before long he owns your entire soul.

The Republican Party is doing harm to every cause it purports to serve. . .

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 reason, I guess, is that the rot that has brought us to the brink of Senator Roy Moore began long ago. Starting with Sarah Palin and the spread of Fox News, the G.O.P. traded an ethos of excellence for an ethos of hucksterism.'>>>

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

HOPING this is the beginning of a 'movement' among them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. From David Brooks, no less, whom I have usually regarded as

an out-of-touch apologist for the GOP. Evidently he's just fucking had it with them. I have to wonder, though, whether any of the GOPers in Congress have ever read any of the lately-scathing op-eds that have been turning up in the major print media. Maybe, as Brooks posits, they are past caring because Trump has eaten their souls.

[elleng]

2. Yes, he's had occasional moments of sanity and now this,

moving along.

[Gothmog]

3. The GOP is past rotting and is fully rotten

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Yup. So now it's time to take out the garbage

because it's stinking up the whole country.

[shanny]

5. "Starting with Sarah Palin and the spread of Fox News...."

hah. That's at least 30 years late.

Oh, and "an ethos of excellence"? LMFAO

[volstork]

6. Small correction:

The GOP is rotten. Has been since Ike left. Traitors all.

[yurbud]

7. If Republicans strip out all the demagoguery, they are left with take care of the rich

and fuck the rest, which won't appeal to many beyond the rich and their senior employees.

[Scruffy1]

8. Screw him.

it was always rotten and he was their shill for many years. You can't help design it and then deny culpability. Asshole has been putting the lipstick on the pig for yaers

[BannonsLiver]

9. And yet they remain in control.

That, and how we will counter and eventually gain control again is what keeps me up at night.