The newly elected chair of Travis County Republican Party in Texas tweets:
Robert Morrow has written a book about Hillary Clinton with Roger Stone. The book is called The Clintons' War on Women, but based on those tweets it's probably an investigation into the weird pornographic dreams of two weird Republican extremists.
I was absolutely certain that this was a hoax, but if it is, then wiser minds have been taken by it. It's real! Can we be so lucky? Take out the popcorn and the nectar, put your feet up and prepare to watch the spectacle: Trump has already had some political coattails!
What on earth is happening to the Republican Party?*
Maybe it is like the story about the man who somehow ended up riding a tiger, wondering how to get off its back before the tiger got hungry. After many fruitless attempts to solve that dilemma the man finally fell off and -- lo and behold! -- the tiger indeed was a bit peckish by then.
A translation: A party with the real platform of cutting the taxes of the wealthy and of loosening the regulations for large firms doesn't have a very vast voter base, because most people are not wealthy or the owners of large firms. Rather, most people are going to be fleeced by those age-old Republican goals. So how can such a party get enough votes to rule?
The answer: Saddle a tiger! That tiger is the rest of the Republican platform: The appeal to fundamentalist theocracy-lovers, racists, sexists, xenophobes, homophobes and war-lovers. Or, to put more politely, the support of traditional social hierarchies both at home and abroad.
And that tiger, when expertly ridden by the Republican establishment, indeed brought the necessary votes for several decades, even though the Republicans never quite fed the tiger with the bloody meat it desired.
It was fed sparsely, to keep the votes coming in the next election and the one after it (abortion is always almost illegal), while the true goals of the Republican Party were mostly achieved. Hence the increasing incomes of the wealthiest, the loss of jobs to outsourcing, the collapse of the housing markets and the financial markets, the loosening of environmental and occupational safety regulations and the minimal taxes on non-labor sources of income.
Well, the tiger has managed to scrape off its rider, and the tiger is hunnnngggry for something, anything, to eat.
The Tea Party phenomenon should have told us that Feeding The Tiger had begun, the support of Donald Trump tells us that we are past the First Course. What will the Main Course be? It could even be some of those policies which favor the rich and well-heeled!
What a wild ride. A fierce battle for the heart-and-soul of the Republican Party must be taking place, but I can't predict its likely outcome, though I seriously doubt that we will see any moderation in the social conservatism of that party.
One Robert Morrow doesn't make a new morning in America (couldn't resist). He is a blip in the screen and most likely gone soon. But the Trump phenomenon will make bigger waves in both domestic and international politics. And even if I might feel some Schadenfreude while watching the Republican establishment get their comeuppance, the resulting politicaq chaos isn't healthy for anyone.
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* And to the Texas Republican Party, in particular.