This chant perfectly encapsulates the rot and unseriousness of the Republican party - like the smart-alec in the classroom who adds nothing but juvenile taunts and distractions. And let’s be honest, it isn’t just this chant. Go back to the t-shirts sold at Trump rallies in 2016 and what they said about Hillary Clinton, or for that matter the merchandise showcased at Trump rallies today.
The unseemliness of this is so grotesque that I think many in the Washington press seek to ignore it. Or they report on it as a special phenomenon to explain to their readers. But that is to fundamentally misjudge this moment in American history. Immature vulgarity, fueled by bigotry, misogyny, sanctimony, privilege, unseriousness, flippancy, and ignorance, is what is animating the former president, his base, and thus by extension the entire Republican party over which he rules.
It’s easy for the more “respectable” Washington Republican officials to wave away the crassness in the face of questions, just like they tried to distance themselves from Trump's tweets, back when he was still on Twitter. But this is more than just words. Hateful speech has a way of becoming violent action, Just remember how the insurrectionists on January 6 were riled up to storm the Capitol.
This is Donald Trump allowing the basest of human instincts to triumph over reason. It is a party that marches, in almost lockstep, under a banner of misplaced victimhood, of vilifying those who are different, of denying the truth, and having the chutzpah - fueled by privilege - to announce a hateful ignorance to the world with raw vulgarity, or the meekest fig leaf of innuendo. Let’s go Brandon? How about let’s go America?
https://steady.substack.com/p/a-party-embraces-vulgarity
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