Reflections on the Right Wing Political Landscape

By his election in 2016, Donald J. Trump exposed the false and misleading rhetoric of the Republic Party--the rhetoric of family values, of high morality, of small government and balancedbudgets, of law and order, and of ultra patriotism. Virtually every other declared candidate in the field thatyear adhered to some version of these allegedly core Republican principles, but Donald Trump would have none of it. His campaign was about name calling and defining Hillary Clinton as the devil incarnate. And he mopped the floor with all of his competitors.

         Hardly anyone on the debate stage with him escaped being called some derogatory name. Even some of their spouses and/or parents were called names and characterized in unflattering ways. Yet, many of these same targets of Trump's humiliating disses suck up to him today as if he knows some life-ending secret about them. Donald gets what Donald wants, even when it comes to overthrowing the government itself, because the other "leaders" of the party can't bring themselves to cross him, at least out of fear of a backlash from his MAGA base--the largest percentage of voters in GOP primaries.

          The party elected a non-ideological megalomaniac, and GOP office-holders and candidates have no     platform to offer the people of the country that will help solve problems and point the way to a meaningful future. They have only Trump. That's why they hold on to him despite knowing it is leading them to a dark place from which they are unlikely to recover. All in all, the GOP has been exposed as an empty pretension machine, only interested in grabbing power for th sake of having it.