Narratives, Donald Trump and the Cowardice of the GOP

America is on the precipice of a scary moment in its history. Not only is the ruzountry days away from a officially nominating Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, there are surfacing polls that support the possibility of Trump being elected as the leader of “the free world”. Enough has been written about what a racist, sexist, militant scumbag Donald Trump is and how dangerous he would be not only for the American people, but for the very fabric of the global political climate. However, Trumps rise was democratic. A party and it’s voters allowed him to rise to this point. Despite constant condemnation from Republican party leaders over the last year, the country is less than two weeks away from that condemned man getting the GOP’s nomination for president. Their response could have been fighting him with every tooth and nail, but instead they are bowing their heads, caving in and supporting him. The GOP is a party of cowards.

As outlined in a hard hitting Pro-Clinton Ad, major Republican figures including Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham have verbally demolished Trump to the media. They themselves described him as dangerous to America’s well being, stating his racist support, his sexist rhetoric and utter lack of tact as a human being. Frankly it’s the most honest I have ever seen politicians be. The entire theme of the Republican primaries was strategizing ways to debase Trump and somehow win over votes from him. However, the establishment of the party wilted at every chance they got. No matter the amount of verbal abuse they tried to hurl through the media, Trump’s personality dominated the meek voice of the establishment in the media cycle and during debates. They didn’t’ have a chance.

The moment of truth has finally come. After Cruz and Kasich both dropped out of the race, the narrative made a very quick shift. The party that had been screaming at the top of its lungs for Trump to be cast from the race was slowly starting to get behind him. “Never Trump” quickly turned into “Never Hillary”. Somehow, in the minds of the GOP, Hillary Clinton, who has been a staple in American politics for almost three decades, was a less appealing candidate than a violent, isolationist, bigoted Reality TV star whose monetary success can largely be attributed to his rich dad dying.

The funny (quite sad, actually) part of the GOP’s fear of Hillary is that almost none of that fear is based in discrepancy in policy. They want to talk about how untrustworthy Clinton is and how her scandals make her “unfit” to be president…
Really?

 

Of course, no one likes the idea of scandal, but let’s get real here. The GOP primarily brings up the “Email Scandal” and the unfortunate deaths at the attack on the Benghazi embassy as reasons that Clinton is somehow too untrustworthy. This reveals a lot of ignorance and hypocrisy in the GOP, not that anyone should be surprised. The “Email Scandal” is not much of a scandal, rather an unfortunate situation that occurred during a common practice among government officials. Clinton was using her personal email for classified information, which sounds worrying until you realize that having a high enough security clearance allows for such practices. Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice both used their personal emails for classified information while they served under the Bush administration. Neither got hacked, as Clinton did, so there wasn’t an audit. Obviously the use of personal emails for the use of government dialogue is bothersome at first glance, but it is far from being an irregular aspect of high-level government work.

Almost a nonstory.

As for Benghazi, as horrible as the deaths of embassy workers are, Clinton was cleared of any wrongdoing after months of investigation and days of standing trial.

Another nonstory.

What is most interesting is the Republicans’ sudden fixation, and selectivity with “scandals”. While harping on the deaths of Benghazi, Republicans seem to forget the nearly 5,000 soldiers that have died fighting in Iraq. Why the fighting in Iraq in the first place? Because the Bush administration lied to congress and lied to the country about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in order to codify going to war with Iraq. That is a scandal, bordering on a war crime, yet the GOP had supported W. Bush through his entire presidency. The death of Americans only matters to the GOP when they themselves can politicize it against a candidate. Ronald Reagan, who Republicans nearly deifies and recognizes as the face of the party, was far from having his hands clean. Few people can forget the arming and training the Mujahideen to fight the Russians. Of course that arming and training soon led to the formation and armament of Al-Qaeda… Few can forget the Reagan administration pumping money into South American revolutionary groups that slaughtered innocent people and kick started South American drug empires… Of course, Reagan didn’t fall for these scandals just as Bush didn’t fall for his. They both had fall guys: Oliver North and Colin Powell, respectively. The history is there, and yet Republicans conveniently forget and canonize these politicians.

Let’s forget about history for a second, just as the GOP has, and focus on the contemporary candidate for the party: Donald Trump. Talk about scandals! Trump has been accused of sexual assault by his ex wife, has been sued several times for racial discrimination, has members of his staff-assaulting reporters and has said publicly he would force American soldiers to commit war crimes if he is elected president.

Pretty cut and dry, huh?

Alas, the GOP does not care about scandals. They do not actually care about the American people. They care about narratives that secure the party the office. They do not care about hard policy, because if they did they would probably see that Clinton is closer to what they should want from a candidate than Trump is. The Republicans have manufactured a boogeyman in Hillary Clinton without recognizing the very monster they are suddenly getting behind. This move is ignorant, it is purely partisan, and it is cowardly.

Politics, in its very definition, should be defined through compromise and understanding. Politics must be approached with an open mind with the priority being the welfare of the American people. This is not going to an Eagles game. This is not screaming and shouting, hoping your favorite team wins. Politics isn’t a sport, it is about the people of this country and until the cowards at the GOP who are turning on their own opinion to support an authoritarian realize it, America is not safe.