Post by pavel on Mar 7, 2016 12:37:29 GMT -6
Let’s lay this baby at the feet of its father: While Donald Trump may prove to be the one who administers the coup de grace, finishing off the Republican Party as we have known it, the individual most responsible for the GOP’s ongoing self-destruction is Georgia’s own Newton Leroy Gingrich.
He has always pined for a great historic legacy, and we are now witnessing it.
If you think that’s an exaggeration, make a list of the changes in the GOP that have been led or inspired by Gingrich over the last quarter-century. Then make a separate list of the problems that have undermined the party and brought it to a place in which Trump may be its next and last presidential candidate. You’ll find that the overlap between the two is significant:
— Start with the style and tenor of modern Republican politics. Ceaseless confrontation, bullying, appeals to anger, resentment and persecution, a capacity for shamelessness that allows you to say or do anything to win — these have long been the hallmarks of Gingrichian politics. As we’ve seen in this presidential cycle, the Gingrich style has become the house style of the Republican Party as well.
— The GOP world view, in which their political opponents are not merely wrong or mistaken but agents of pure evil out to betray all that is good and decent in America, is also a distinct Gingrichian legacy.
Read more: jaybookman.blog.myajc.com/2016/03/07/if-gop-wants-someone-to-blame-start-with-newt-gingrich/
He has always pined for a great historic legacy, and we are now witnessing it.
If you think that’s an exaggeration, make a list of the changes in the GOP that have been led or inspired by Gingrich over the last quarter-century. Then make a separate list of the problems that have undermined the party and brought it to a place in which Trump may be its next and last presidential candidate. You’ll find that the overlap between the two is significant:
— Start with the style and tenor of modern Republican politics. Ceaseless confrontation, bullying, appeals to anger, resentment and persecution, a capacity for shamelessness that allows you to say or do anything to win — these have long been the hallmarks of Gingrichian politics. As we’ve seen in this presidential cycle, the Gingrich style has become the house style of the Republican Party as well.
— The GOP world view, in which their political opponents are not merely wrong or mistaken but agents of pure evil out to betray all that is good and decent in America, is also a distinct Gingrichian legacy.
Read more: jaybookman.blog.myajc.com/2016/03/07/if-gop-wants-someone-to-blame-start-with-newt-gingrich/