Democrats must hammer home the message that the rise of Trump (and the enabling of Trump) or someone like him was the inevitable result of 50 years of Republican rhetoric and policy. With an immense amount of help from an irresponsible infotainment industry that chases ratings, promotes false equivalencies, denies responsibility for fact-checking, and often implies that every statement is an equally valid opinion (there are no facts, there are no lies; there are only opinions), all in the name of boosting profits and not upsetting advertisers. It's not enough for a few pundits on MSNBC or CNN to state the obvious.
And the help, of course, of explicitly right wing media (Fox, hate radio, etc.).
When Trump is gone, I guarantee you that the dominant narrative will be that everything is hunky-dory, that Trump was merely a bump in the road (the NYT op-ed is laying the groundwork for this argument). Unless Democrats preemptively establish a different, more honest narrative.
The Republican Party has fomented and exploited racism (including xenophobia), sexism, religious bigotry, jingoism and extreme selfishness for decades. The pre-Trump Republican Party is directly responsible for Trump. They need to own that, which the anti-Trump Republicans who appear on TV or who are retiring from Congress aren't doing--they're all pushing this idea that the pre-Trump Republican Party was just fine. When in reality they need to make drastic changes or close shop and let a new party fill the void.
If Democrats don't start hammering home that message (which, yes, involves taking the media to task via the media...something Republicans started doing decades ago to great success) and take control of the narrative, the post-Trump Republican Party and the media will claim all is well because we've returned to normalcy. As if that's acceptable. As if everything was just fine pre-Trump. As if the Republican Party hasn't long been built upon a foundation of bigotry, greed and lies. As if the Republican Party hasn't long been morally and ethically bankrupt. As if the Republican Party hasn't relied heavily upon race-based gerrymandering and voter suppression. As if the "liberal media" lie of the last 30+ years wasn't bullshit from day one.
It would be a mistake to think the Mueller investigation and removal of Trump and convictions for other Republicans will be enough to destroy the Republican Party as we know it. Memories and attention spans are short. Democrats must establish the dominant narrative, or Republicans will. And repetition is utilized for a reason. It works, and it's necessary. Make Republicans own the monster they've created. The monster isn't Trump but the environment that gave rise to the Republican Party of Trump.
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It was good to hear Obama speak to this yesterday. And as he said in October of 2016, the Republican Party has been "feeding the base all kinds of crazy for years."
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