30 August 2018

Graceless Vulgarity

The political magazine Role Call published an excellent opinion piece yesterday (link here) with the title "A Post-McCain Mystery: Why Does the GOP Put Up With Trump’s Graceless Vulgarity?" The writer is referring to the contemptuous way that Donald Trump has treated John McCain since his death over the weekend.

Hideous discourtesy about McCain has persisted in Trump World since the 2016 campaign when Trump denigrated McCain's extreme sacrifice in enduring years of torture as a prisoner of war. That's because McCain tactfully criticized some of Trump's political positions, and Trump thereby responded with thugish behavior.

That was quickly picked up by Trump's followers who have said and written the most disgraceful things about the Arizona Republican ever since. His death this weekend has been openly celebrated and quite visibly in Trump circles since then.

Trump has gone out of his way to be offensive to McCain's memory and his family. And most in the Republican Party leadership have looked the other way.

This may be politically convenient for them in the short term, but I think they will pay the price for this in the longer term. The rot within the Trumpian wing of the GOP will begin to fester and rot. And that will become a curse for all who facilitated it.

Nixon was a political millstone for his strongest supporters after he resigned. I expect will see the same when the Trump presidency ends, however soon or long that may be.

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