There is a segment of the American public — goodness knows if they are Republicans, ideological conservatives or even registered voters — that revels in raucous rhetoric, anti-government conspiracies and just plain nastiness in the name of anti-establishment politics.
For a time they organised themselves into what became known as the tea party movement. They formed the audience for the most vicious and xenophobic talk radio hosts. They built microblogs and proclaimed themselves leaders of the “conservative movement.” They gave birth to groups such as Heritage Action, whose mission (aside from raising gobs of money) is to promote the idea that compromise and good governance are antithetical to conservatism. They aimed their fire on insufficiently pure conservatives and declared congressional leadership to be a threat to the party.
They are populists on steroids for whom “conservatism” amounts to a reactionary strain of political entertainment. Their ideas — which include protectionism, opposition to free trade, defiance of the courts, isolationism and a return to pre-New Deal America — bear little resemblance to the modern conservative movement of Russell Kirk and Ronald Reagan. It is dark, pessimistic, angry and radical.
It’s this faction that brought us to the era of Donald Trump, the utter debasement of politics and the celebration of impulsive, aggressive sentiments in place of reasoned political debate. It’s not much of a leap from Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” to Trump’s misogynistic tirades.
While the subject matter may be different, the sophomoric escapade to shut down the government or calls to defy the Supreme Court’s rulings are just one step away from Trump’s stupid scheme to charge Mexico for each illegal immigrant. It’s all of a piece — high-testosterone rhetoric percolating in a toxic brew of xenophobia and wilful ignorance. It’s not surprising that the predecessors of Trumpism in the GOP presidential race — eg, Senator Ted Cruz — are not only afraid to take him on but also have been eclipsed by him.
The MSM would like us to believe that Trumpism is the essence of the GOP and of conservatism more generally. But the phalanx of thoughtful and accomplished 2016 presidential contestants, people who have actually accomplished conservative goals, refutes that. The class of freshman Senate grown-ups including Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Cory Gardner (Colorado) and the across-the-board defeat of wacky right-wing primary competitors in 2014 tells us that admirers of Trump are not the majority of the GOP.
Karma for Tea Party movement
Trump now threatens to gobble up Trumpism’s antecedents. The beast has turned on them. RedState founder Erick Erickson, who for years peddled in nasty rhetoric and defamed the “establishment,” discovers, “Listen, if having common decency to other people makes you part of the establishment, I guess I am. I mean, if you can’t be nice to someone who asks you a tough question, then OK, I guess I am. If being a member of the establishment is recognising that there are bounds you shouldn’t cross, and if you do you should apologise, then I guess I am.”
Well, isn’t that rich? Erickson would like to blame the Republican Party for Trump, but the responsibility lies with him and others who promoted this style of politics and discourse for years.
Serious conservatives who dabbled in Trumpism now see its full flowering. Less serious conservative racketeers (eg, the groups who cheered the shutdown) see the limitations of its appeal and its embarrassing attributes. And GOP primary voters may have been roused from their slumber, aware there is, as former Texas Governor Rick Perry put it, a “cancer” growing on conservatism.
The presidential debates in this regard are a godsend. Trump and Trumpism are on full display. If one believes sunlight is an antiseptic to scurrilous characters, then Trump and his brand of politics will burn up and shrivel.
There are at least a handful of accomplished, serious and conservative candidates who are capable of winning the nomination, leading the party and steering the right away from Trumpism. We will see who, in the weeks and months ahead, rises to the occasion.
— Washington Post
