What has happened to the Republican Party?

As I look at our Republican President I’m really rather gobsmacked at his (alleged) behavior and our reactions to it.

First, let us take his congratulations to Putin regarding his re-election. Can you imagine Eisenhower doing this? Especially with all of the questions regarding (alleged) election tampering? And using nerve gas to assassinate people in England?

How about either Eisenhower or Reagan thinking that it is a good idea to have a President-for-Life in the US?

Or, perhaps, we should replace Mr. Trump’s name with that of Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or Bush in one of the stories revolving around sex life?

From today’s LA Times:

President (Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or Bush) faced new legal and political jeopardy Tuesday as a former Playboy Playmate and alleged paramour sued to break a confidentially agreement and a judge rejected his move to quash a lawsuit stemming from a charge of sexual assault.

or

In three separate lawsuits, he (Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or Bush) is accused of sexually mauling a former contestant on . . .  his show set in a corporate boardroom, and paying money to hush two alleged lovers, the former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, 46, and pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, 39.

Can you imagine Mr. Reagan — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” saying: “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, . . .”

No, just no, no, NO!

None of these men, nor the Democrat Presidents during my lifetime, were, or are perfect. Some of them were good presidents and some of them not so good. Some were/are good human beings, some not. Some I admired and others not.

But, I believe that each of these men, even Mr. Nixon, put service to his country above personal considerations. I do not believe that this is true of Mr. Trump.

Plutocracy

I believe that like Marcus Licinius Crassus, Donald John Trump is an opportunistic billionaire plutocrat intent only on aggrandizing himself and his fortune. He is not interested in what is good for America or Americans. He is not concerned with the welfare of others only himself. He treats those not of his social, economic or ethnic class as lesser beings.

Crassus and Trump
Crassus and Trump

This also seems to be true of much of the current Republican leadership.

Here in California the Republican Party is rapidly becoming an irrelevancy. If things continue as they are, this will continue to its logical conclusion in both California and the rest of the nation . . . and the Republican Party will go the way of the Whig Party — which last elected a president in 1848, Zachary Taylor.

. . . and we’ll end up with a super-majority Democratic Party and a number of minor parties unable to mount any sort of credible opposition to the Democrats in Congress, much less, elect a President.


Note: If the above seem unduly pessimistic, Zachary Taylor was elected President in 1848 and the Whig Party was dissolved in 1854 — just six years later.

Note 2: No, I didn’t forget Mr. Ford; he was not elected to the Presidency and succeeded to the Presidency with the resignation of Mr. Nixon.