Salon recently published an article questioning whether or not Trump is behaving like a dictator. Cliffnotes: He is. What I found more disturbing about that situation is how readily we are willing to accept his behavior and moreover to excuse it. There are of course a number of factors involved in why that is happening. I will start with how the GoP works.
The Republican party is not so much a party of consensus as they are a party of hierarchy. They accept top down leadership and follow the will of their chosen leadership. This is best characterized by the way the party constantly shifts ideology and behavior based on whomever is the Republican president. Bush I congress was different by leagues to Bush II or Reagan or Trump. However, all four groups bent to the will of leadership. In fact it took an extraordinary act of what was then called betrayal for the Nixon administration to get impeached and forced to leave office. I argue that had Nixon had as equal a ‘don’t give a fuck–I’m doing me’ attitude as Trump then the man would have been able to blow off the situation and double down as Trump did.
Another reason we excuse it is because we don’t see everything. So much happens that much of the dirty stuff going on is basically ignored. We have a record deficit that is only getting worse and not one of these anti-deficit republicans are trying to stop it.
I could go on for more than 10 minutes about this, and I intend to do a follow up to the blog. I believe Sanders will be the nominee and that will be a polarizing moment for our nation that could lead us down a very violent and public national split. I hope not, but the rhetoric is so highly charged now that it feels inevitable.