2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWow. Washington Post editors: The Republican Party does the same pathetic dance with Trump
By Editorial Board October 8 at 12:02 PM
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan correctly described Donald Trumps 2005 taped sexually predatory conversation as sickening, but anyone interested in the health of the Republican Party should focus on the next part of Mr. Ryans statement. The sentence that counts the statement that reveals the amoral, abject corruption at the heart of the Republican Party in this sad season is this: I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.
Thus did the Republican Party once again initiate the same pathetic little dance it has performed with its partys nominee from the beginning. Claim the moral high ground; insist on improvement, as if improvement were a relevant concept in this situation; and then, when nothing improves, pronounce yourself satisfied nonetheless. Its true that this time some Republicans are jumping ship, including (finally) former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Sen. John Thune (S.D.), part of the GOP Senate leadership. But vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Republican Chairman Reince Priebus and most other office-holders continue to join Mr. Ryan in pretending that Mr. Trump is not what we all know him to be. Are they fooling themselves, or just fearful of offending the Trump supporters whose votes they need in other races? Either way, the effect is the same.
Lets ponder Mr. Ryans advice that Mr. Trump demonstrate a greater respect for women than this clip suggests. Certainly, that should not be difficult. What the clip shows is disgusting: an insecure braggart who, at the age of nearly 60, needs to boast of how he uses his celebrity to prey on women, and all the better if he can break his vows of marriage or theirs. Mr. Trump could be a caveman in one of those Mad Men-era cartoons dragging a woman back to his lair by her hair and still demonstrate a greater respect for women than this clip suggests. The idea that some pronouncement, any pronouncement, from Mr. Trump now could or should reassure voters is ludicrous. But then, Republicans long ago had sufficient data points about this candidate who labels women pigs and slobs and jokes about how he likes to see them on their knees; calls his female opponents ugly and suggests that a female reporter who asks him a tough question must be menstruating. There has been no mystery about a bully who mocks people with disabilities, threatens anyone perceived as an enemy, disparages Mexicans and Mexican Americans, trades in ugly stereotypes about Jews, defames Muslims, insists on the guilt of five young black men proven to be innocent of a rape in Central Park, constantly lies and oh, by the way shares none of what Mr. Ryan claims as his core political philosophy.
Mr. Priebus, one of Mr. Trumps earliest and most abject enablers, explained his rationale frankly in February. Winning is the antidote to a lot of things, Mr. Priebus said. At the time, we agreed that winning can quiet many complaints. But, we wrote, it cannot and will not be an antidote to the moral poison of Mr. Trumps campaign. For some Republicans Saturday, the moral poison or maybe the receding prospect of victory finally became too hard to ignore. But Mr. Trump answered Mr. Ryans plea with a grudging apology that segued, in his usual third-grade playground way, to an accusation that other people are worse than he is.
Will that be good enough for the sickened Mr. Ryan and the rest of his morally diminished party? Apparently so.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-republican-partys-same-pathetic-dance-with-trump/2016/10/08/390829ba-8d56-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?utm_term=.be5d88a98ebc
forgotmylogin
(7,530 posts)retrowire
(10,345 posts)They're like bad parents. They try to give a shit, notice it takes more effort than that, and just give in to the little shit.
calimary
(81,317 posts)greater respect for women than this clip suggests, they can start, as a party, getting the hell out of our gynecologists' offices and OUT of our vaginas.
Their POLICIES and their generally prehistoric attitudes toward women, as a party, indicated by their platform and their legislative pursuits against women's freedom, physical autonomy, reproductive rights, and EQUAL rights - THAT is the "greater respect for women" we need to see.
Maybe they need to be shamed, as a party, by a colossal defeat next month. Maybe they need to have their teeth kicked in, especially when it means the ironic and excruciatingly symbolic they've been beaten by a GIRL.
It will be an EPIC imposition of poetic justice! Something they've been deserving for decades!
Kablooie
(18,634 posts)They've forsaken the hard work of governance in favor of tricking voters into following them.
Now they are totally dependent on continuing the tricks and lies because that's all their base understands.
it's sad really.
jacksonian
(736 posts)not producing the governance that helps people, damn right.