A Counterfeit Candidate for a Counterfeit Party
The GOP is reaping what they have long sowed.
Many Republicans who are openly supporting Kamala Harris say that the former president is “not a real Republican.”
When you look at his 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns, you see why they make this statement.
Republicans claim to be a party of law and order, yet they stormed the Capitol that January 6th, smearing excrement on its walls while chanting “F--- the Blue.”
The GOP prides itself on being patriotic, but their presidential candidate disparaged American POW and hero John McCain’s military service by saying that he “liked people who weren’t captured.”
Other statements critical of the military and veterans have recently come to life.
John Kelly, the former president’s Chief of Staff has confirmed the rumored statements. He told CNN:
“What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”
Republicans love to say that they are the fiscally responsible party, but their candidate wants to issue tariffs that will dramatically increase the price of goods, continually demonstrating that he doesn’t understand how tariffs work.
No, the former president isn’t a traditional Republican candidate.
But amazingly, he’s still their candidate.
They nominated and voted for him in 2016.
They nominated and voted for him in 2020.
They nominated him a third time in 2024, and many are planning to vote for him.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault lies not only in the candidate, but in his party.
For too long, the Republican Party cozied up to racism and misogyny.
They moved so far to the right they fell off the edge of mainstream politics.
They won national and local elections by disenfranchising voters, gerrymandering, and taking advantage of the archaic electoral college.
They became the party of immigrant demonization.
The party of health care and personal choice obstruction.
The party of nativism and incestuous selfishness.
All of their ugliness has been made manifest in one person.
He is their candidate because he represents what many of them want.
He is the embodiment of what they have sowed, and the catalyst for what they will reap.
He is the Frankenstein monster of the Republican Party.
The party cobbled him together from the worst parts of their political platform.
They must take responsibility for the work of their sadistic hands.
And now, the country must reckon with him before a cataclysmic reckoning with fascism takes place.