We Lost the Battle for the Republican Party's Soul Long Ago

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/opinion/trump-republican-party-racism.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Only fear will motivate the party to change — the cold fear only defeat can bring.

By Stuart Stevens
Mr. Stevens is a Republican political consultant.
July 29, 2020


...

Racism is the original sin of the modern Republican Party. While many Republicans today like to mourn the absence of an intellectual voice like William Buckley, it is often overlooked that Mr. Buckley began his career as a racist defending segregation.

In the Richard Nixon White House, Pat Buchanan and Kevin Phillips wrote a re-election campaign memo headed “Dividing the Democrats” in which they outlined what would come to be known as the Southern Strategy. It assumes there is little Republicans can do to attract Black Americans and details a two-pronged strategy: Utilize Black support of Democrats to alienate white voters while trying to decrease that support by sowing dissension within the Democratic Party.

That strategy has worked so well that it was copied by the Russians in their 2016 efforts to help elect Mr. Trump.

...

How did this happen? How do you abandon deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, foreign policy and the national debt in a matter of months? You don’t. The obvious answer is those beliefs weren’t deeply held. What others and I thought were bedrock values turned out to be mere marketing slogans easily replaced. I feel like the guy working for Bernie Madoff who thought they were actually beating the market.

[sop]

1. Excellent essay. The readers' comments at the end in the NYT site are also excellent.

[CrispyQ]

2. Worth reading.

snip...

I saw the warning signs but ignored them and chose to believe what I wanted to believe: The party wasn’t just a white grievance party; there was still a big tent; the others guys were worse. Many of us in the party saw this dark side and told ourselves it was a recessive gene. We were wrong. It turned out to be the dominant gene.

What is most telling is that the Republican Party actively embraced, supported, defended and now enthusiastically identifies with a man who eagerly exploits the nation’s racial tensions. In our system, political parties should serve a circuit breaker function. The Republican Party never pulled the switch.

I've lost my respect for those I know who still support the Republican Party, even if they no long support the Con. I'm not rude to them, but I avoid them. And Con supporters? I don't even talk to them. They are cult-zombies. A lost cause.