2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumGOP hatred of Clinton will poison our politics for years to come
By Paul Waldman October 31 at 1:04 PM
While we may get another scandal later this week (and why not), it would be fitting if this was how the 2016 presidential election ended: with the media in an utter frenzy and Republicans carried aloft on a wave of joyous outrage over a story about Hillary Clinton that has literally zero substance to it, but consists only of speculation about hypothetical crimes that someone might have committed.
This is what happens when a party nominates Donald Trump to represent it. The Republican reaction to the James Comey mess highlights the moral and psychological compromises the GOP has made in order to justify its choice, and this will poison our politics for years to come.
Right now there are basically two kinds of Republicans, if we set aside that small number who have decided that they simply cannot support Trump. There are the enthusiastic Trump supporters, and then there are the reluctant ones, who find him repellent but nonetheless prefer him to the alternative. Both these groups have convinced themselves that Hillary Clinton is not merely wrong on the issues or even unethical, but positively evil, a figure of such transcendent malevolence that American politics has never seen anything like her before.
Consider this poll out today from Politico and Morning Consult, which asked whether respondents agreed with Donald Trumps assertion that, as the poll read, the issues around Clintons emails are worse than Watergate. Eighty-two percent of Republicans said they agreed. Eighty-two percent.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/10/31/gop-hatred-of-clinton-will-poison-our-politics-for-years-to-come/?utm_term=.7b6f3c264216&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
relayerbob
(6,559 posts)It's for Obama and everyone else who doesn't snap to and provide an appropriate stiff-armed salute
Pure hatred
Demsrule86
(68,715 posts)as the country lay in economic ruin...the GOP plotted to make Obama a one term president...They care for no one in this country...and will always try to cause as much damage as possible.