Many people on DailyKos have pointed out the consistent failure of Republican leaders to repudiate the racist, sexist or otherwise hateful rhetoric of their presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Yesterday, Hunter’s front page article captured the essence of the modern Republican Party perfectly:
“There is no party ideology left, other than the one that demands they be put in charge of things.”
After reading that line, I was quickly reminded of Orwell’s 1984 and the climactic scene in the Ministry of Love where Winston Smith is being subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the Thought Police Officer O’Brien. Winston states his belief that the Party seized power and wields it with an iron fist because the Party alone knows what is right and it dominates the citizens in this fashion for their own good. O’Brien chastises him and explains:
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power… Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
The modern Republican Party has reached this point. They have fallen behind a standard bearer whose entire campaign has been based around domination and the seizure of power for its own sake. Look at Donald Trump’s own words:
“We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with the winning. Believe me, I agree, you’ll never get bored with winning. We never get bored. We are going to turn this country around. We are going to start winning big on trade. Militarily, we’re going to build up our military. We’re going to have such a strong military that nobody, nobody is going to mess with us. We’re not going to have to use it.”
Trump own speeches show that he doesn’t care about actual policy or governance. He only cares about winning. He only cares about power. He hasn’t even thought about how the U.S. is going to win. This is the scary part. Donald Trump has already stated that he wants to kill the families of terrorists. He has spoken out in favor of the torture of enemy combatants. Donald Trump wants to close our borders and stamp out dissent. In addressing those who criticized him at the DNC, Trump said this:
“I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard. I would have hit them — no, no — I was gonna hit them. I was all set. And then I got a call from a highly respected governor. ‘How’s it going, Donald?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s going good, but they’re really saying bad things about me. I’m gonna hit them so hard.’ I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard, his head would spin. He wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”
That wasn’t the first time Trump advocated violence against dissenters. At one of his rallies during the primary campaign he made the following statement:
“So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of ‘em, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.”
At another rally while a protester was being escorted out by security, Trump said “I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell ya.” At yet another rally Trump complained about protesters, saying that “in the good old days this didn’t used to happen, because they used to treat them very rough.”
I find it terrifying that Donald Trump laments “the good old days” when protesters were met with violent reprisal. It speaks ill of his understanding of the Constitution and the principles on which this nation was founded that his response to disagreement is to endorse physical assault upon the dissenters. It makes me think that this is what Trump has in mind when he says he wants to “make America great again.”
And the Republican Party just follows right along behind its Dear Leader.