GOP strategist Steve Schmidt: Trumps defense of Roy Moore exposes a profound moral rot...

You'd think the semi-sane of the bunch would want to avoid that particular tag, but they're more like a brainwashed cult.

.........and there aren't that many 'semi-sane' members of the party left!!!!

rolls off the tongue for me.

He is 100% correct as well.

Ever heard of Atwater? Ever heard of Rove?

You(!) own this, Mr. Strategist. Now that it's blown up in your face, you want to criticize? No! Way too late for that Stevie.

love to see someone on MSNBC put your points to him, not in a nasty way but curious as to how he views all that now ? And specifically does he accept that this has been coming since the time of hatred towards bill Clinton, for beating Bush at least, if not back to 1964 ?

about where the republic party is now and I also trace it back to 1964, barry goldwater.

I think his positions look worse and worse with every passing year, but I can respect the intellectual honesty of his views and I don't really look at him as malicious and evil for its own sake. I'd feel better pointing the finger of blame at the "Southern Strategy" and "Moral Majority" pandering as where things really started to go wrong for them, which really brings us to Nixon and then Reagan.

let's be honest.

Until Johnson got his run of civil rights legislation passed, the Democratic Party was a comfy home to southern white folks.

That left them vulnerable and Nixon was more than happy to poach them into the GOP.

The consolidation of racism/bigotry/homophobia, "moral" authoritarianism and business interests got us the monster we have today with 45 and an endless number of deranged repubican's in congress, state houses and local government.

The frank truth is that in '64 you could very nearly have run Stalin against George Washington and the only important question would have been which one of them had the (D) after his name and JFK's ghost on his side. In much the same way that Bush was on the 2008 GOP ticket in a negative way, the sheer emotional "JFK would want it" element is hard to undervalue as a positive for Johnson. A part of the reason Goldwater got clobbered so spectacularly is due to that fluke of running against a popular President's ghost, rather than anything genuinely systemic in the parties or inherent in the actual candidates. The GOP ignored that unique situation and after their analysis decided a complete re-invention of its brand was in order after that slaughter, and the result worked...for a while...before becoming progressively more disgusting until it became completely unacceptable to any reasonable person.

Wackiness during their attempts to impeach Clinton .... It drove them round the bend that he kept getting the better of them, and then onto Hillary, where they threw out any last vestige of honor and decency out the window. They have so many rwnjs dominating the GOP, I don't see how it can he saved in its current form.

He was a little lapdog for that crowd back in the day.

But, he started as an Atwater acolyte. But somehow there is amnesia in the rest of the media about that.

Headwaters of denial.

But yeah, words are cheap

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

Emphasis added by me.

Read full document at:

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15&page=transcript

One appropriate phrase for us that caught my eye: "sharpened by the spirit of revenge".

Or a keenly observant nature.

I am amazed at their unbelievably thoughtful insight, eloquence, and clarity of thought.

We now have a pResident that can’t put a sentence together.

In the GOP ...

It is bizarre that people on our side are holding him up as some sort of moral voice of clarity.

He is the man who pushed for Alito and Roberts on the Supreme Court.

He is part of the Rove/Cheney/Bush horror show.

You are correct.
His words now, while appreciated, ring pretty hollow at this point considering what he's done.

Of Trump, and the Republicans still tried to bring in the Repeal of the ACA and the tax gift to the rich, what would you say then ?

Who are these otherwise normal, decent people in the leadership of that god awful party? The only tragic day for the Republican party will be when they don't control all three branches of the federal government, the majority of governorships and state legislatures.

Peace

The RNC and tRump collude with Russia to steal an election and your surprised when they support a pedophile to maintain power!!??

The republican party is so f*cking low at this point they have to pull their socks down to see daylight.

...as least for Steve.

The rot was there long ago, and the Republicans actively fostered it because it provided their margin of victory.

He isn't claiming to be a liberal but can agree to the vileness of trump and speaks out against it.

Maybe it was a “come to Jesus” moment when he realized that a moral degenerate like tRump was going to be the Republican nominee last year. Maybe it was after tRump’s nomination and he saw otherwise decent people flocking to his rallies and declaring their allegiance to such a despicable man/child. But something in him recognized we were headed for a cliff in terms of morality. He looked into that abyss and recoiled in terror.

I recall very well Schmidt’s role in the 2008 debacle with McCain/Palin. And I think Schmidt probably got a morality wake up call with the mental gymnastics he had to deal with as Palin revealed her thinking or maybe it was the LACK of it that started his turn. Dealing with that ticket up close and personal probably gave him insight that we will never know about.

Whatever the reason or reasons, I will take his words today at face value. He is putting the moral dilemma out on the table and maybe forcing a few dyed in the wool Republicans to confront their own moral values. All the conflicts that tRump brought with him are today being revisited in Alabama. The people of Alabama had a chance to reject tRump in 2016 and didn’t. Maybe Schmidt’s goal is to try to stop the degradation of our country by taking a hard look at what the election of tRump brought and saying forcefully that we can pull back. We can determine that we have gone far enough and we don’t like where we are headed.

I am willing to give the man a moment of redemption. He, at least, is willing to confront his party and painfully try to lance the boil growing from within its body. I hope he is successful in causing enough people to take a cold, hard look at what they have become and to be willing to say enough. No MOORE!

She is pretty much the female Trump, as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad Schmidt is speaking out against the Rs now, but I'm not sure it's sufficient penance.

Eventually, it was going to get so bad that one can't help but notice it, including those who willfully ignored it, such as yourself. Actually, Mr. Schmidt, you are a bit of the mold that helped cause that rot. I'm glad you are finally seeing the light, but I hope you'll eventually realize that you were part of the problem. Granted, not nearly as bad as many others in your party.

Because if you're willing to OWN that as part of the problem as t exists today, then fine, I'll forgive you.

Otherwise, you've found a very good way to pad your own nest (by screeching about how bad things are, without even acknowledging your role in making them this bad).

And if it's the latter, you can fuck right off and go die.