Can the moral disarray of the Republican Party be such that it is now controlled by the pestilence unleashed by Trump?

 

Megyn Kelly showed her true “colors” again in a recent interview with the BBC, claiming that the left-wing media (meaning all media that isn’t Trumpist) was as much if not more to blame for the January 6 coup attempt because of all the “hate” they piled on Trump—not because of the 30,000+ lies, endless insults and dehumanizing language, and instigating the violence by his supporters. The absurdity of Kelly’s claims should be manifest by the observation that all of these right wing-nuts don’t even watch CNN or MSNBC, but Fox News and other extremist “news” sources, as well as Trump’s (now defunct) twitter feed.  If we were all just mindless drones who watched Fox News for all of our “facts,” this country would be going down the moral and ethical drain pipe and no one would be any wiser about it.

Kelly is currently out of the spotlight because she just couldn’t keep her small-minded bigotry to herself, she had to tell us all about it; her long history of racially-incendiary commentary at Fox News indicated that this was just another blonde, privileged fashion model white woman who was extremely self-conscious about her “privilege” and “entitlements” working for a network whose non-white on-air “help” could be counted on one hand.  An accompanying photo of Kelly was taken from a “Fortune’s Most Powerful Women” summit; I find this interesting in that even a known racist like Kelly is “worthy” of applause from the women-only audience while the moderator fails to question her about her insensitive commentary on a number of issues--which shows that the “women’s movement” doesn’t really have any moral or ethical guidelines, but is just a back-slapping “sisterhood” fan club.

Kelly also sought “relevance” by lambasting Joe Biden, admonishing his call for national unity as “nonsense” on Glenn Beck’s show (who like Kelly is currently banished to the fringes for saying stupid things). Kelly claimed the “left” had awoken a “sleeping giant” with “political overreach.” This is another absurdly hypocritical statement; the “sleeping giant” of white nationalism was a Pandora’s Box that was kicked open by Trump from the very moment he first announced his candidacy in 2015, calling Mexican immigrants “violent criminals” and “rapists.”

The far-right pestilence unleashed by Trump is unlike anything else we have seen. In Europe, far-right political parties have remained largely on fringes, since unlike this country it has endured fascist, nationalist political movements. We saw the forces unleashed by unchecked fascist mob action earlier this month, which is why European leaders roundly condemned the coup attempt, because they had seen it all before. The brief hand-wringing by those in the media and in politics who have fed fascism was predictably insincere; if it was “sincere,” then Fox News wouldn’t have added Maria Bartiromo to “prime time,” adding an extra hour of extremist lunacy to recapture the lunatic fringe that escaped to Newsmax.

We should always remember the stark difference in ideology between the “left” and the “right”: John F. Kennedy’s definition of “liberalism” still holds today: “someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties.” Today, the prevailing “right” has very little in common with traditional “conservatism”; most still pretend to respect “fiscal restraint,” but that cow has long left the barn. Even “conservative” economists think that deficit spending is better for the economy than budget surpluses, and since deficits are “OK” during Republican administrations, then why are they complaining about Biden’s current stimulus package? Because of their tax cut law in 2017, the federal deficit in even Trump’s first three years was higher than that in Obama’s last three.

The right also likes to call themselves “Christians,” and thus possessing higher moral and ethical standards, which of course is a crock; most of these people would go straight to the devil if their moral and ethical “values” were examined too closely—especially since many of them don’t know that lying is a sin, especially when it is done every day and incites people to acts of violence. Their god probably wouldn’t approve of their treatment of the “others” or those of less means either.

We are also discovering what “modern day conservatism” looks like in Arizona. The party of Barry Goldwater, whose extremism was just too much for the country after the assassination of JFK, has swung even further to the right under Trump’s “leadership”—it is just that white nationalist beliefs have all come together in one nice little package called Trumpism; he might be gone for now, but his “movement” continues. Trump is the “messiah,” “prophet” or cult figure that they now coalesce around. Those who do not fall in line, they are censured: Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain have all decried the election lies perpetrated by Trump and his sycophants, and thus they must be damned by the party. McCain was quick to point out, of course, that the Trumpist Arizona Republican leader, Kelli Ward, had overseen both the loss of the state to Biden as well as both U.S. Senate seats. Lessons learned? Doubtful.

The moral disarray of the right continues apace a Rand Paul whined that Biden’s inaugural speech “implied” that Republican endorsed racism. “If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly-veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists,” he told Fox News. “calling us racists, calling us every name in the book, calling us people who don’t tell the truth.” Well if the shoe fits, wear it.

Paul and Marco Rubio are also attempting to put the impeachment ball in Biden’s court, complaining that he is the one responsible for the impeachment proceedings that will “divide” the country. It is in fact the House Democrats who are bringing forward the impeachment proceedings, and why shouldn’t they be allowed to do so? It was their “house” that was sacked by Trump’s thugs, not Biden’s. Justice and accountability is what is called for here; most of the Republicans who are chiding Democrats for sowing “division” are the one’s almost exclusively responsible for causing division, and they are now hoping that everyone “forgets” about they’ve done so that they won’t be held “accountable” either. Every Republican who voted to support Trump’s election lies after the coup attempt should be censured at the very least. They just don’t know which way to turn; no matter where they turn, their hypocrisy stares them right in the face, and all they can do is lie and deny.

An Associated Press story today quoted a terrorism expert and advisor for the Rand Corporation named Brian Michael Jenkins, who warned that right-wing extremism that once appeared in isolation, had on January 6 struck at “the very heart of government” and provides an example for other extremists to violent action on a large scale. “The events themselves, and participation in them, has a radicalizing effect. And they also have an inspirational effect. The Battle of Capitol Hill is now part of the mythology…January 6 was the Woodstock of the angry right. The mere fact that those groups were coming together (white nationalist, white supremacist, QAnon conspirators), mingling, sharing this anger, displaying this passion—it is going to have effects.”

But since Trump has gone into hiding, the AP story goes on to report that “some are clearly angry that Trump disassociated himself with the very insurrection that he stoked. They’re upset that he failed to come to the rescue of rioters who were arrested while he was still president and are still being detained and charged.” Not only that, but some are now calling for the Republican Party to dissolve, and “out of its ashes, a true nationalist movement will arise.” Jenkins noted that the “next phase” for these extremist elements is to “transform” into a “broader national movement,” with Trump as their symbolic leader at least.

The Republican Party, and the “right” in general, has a serious problem. The right-wing “mainstream” media is already kowtowing to the extremist elements because it gets them higher ratings—so much for their “ethical” standards—and riling them up, and Republicans simply do not know which ideological direction to turn. It is of course their fault entirely. Everyone knew Trump was dangerous for the party and they said so in 2016. Yet once Trump started pulling the levers they all fell into line in the most egregiously pathetic of fashions. If they had tried to coral Trump from the beginning, none of this would be happening now. They allowed it to happen, and Trumpism now controls the party. Trumpism is a fascist ideology that is criminal, immoral and unethical, and the right appears to have tied itself to that ideology, and they are so entangled in a web of their own making they have chosen to be the prey of the mob they have unleashed on the country.