On Thursday, Michael Gerson, President George W. Bush's ex-speechwriter, ridiculed the Republican party for standing aimlessly by President Donald Trump while he acts as a threat to democracy, in an column in The Washington Post.
Gerson explained that with each passing day Republicans seem to love Trump more and more no matter what he does.
"There is no measurable sense in which Trump has grown into the office he holds. He remains defiantly nativist, instinctually divisive, habitually offensive. A significant portion of the voting public has gone from ambivalence about Trump to alarm, hostility, and disdain," he wrote.
He explained that Trump's strategy is one sided and that while he may be able to rally up his base, that the rest of the world is worried about the impact of his presidency.
"So, in the 2018 midterm elections, Trump tried to nationalize the election on issues that motivate his party — appealing to those voters who are excited by exclusion. And GOP partisans responded by turning out in large numbers. But it was not nearly enough to counteract greater public fears," he said.
Gerson added, "In other words, the politics of partisan mobilization works only if you don’t scare the rest of America to death."
He then shredded Republicans for discarding their values to support Trump.
"Republicans have come to the defense of a man who is incapable of widening his appeal," he said. "And this has opened up a reality gap between the GOP and the rest of our political culture. The rift between Republican perceptions of the president and the view of the broader public has grown into a chasm. This is now the main political context of the 2020 campaign."
He then demanded the GOP answer a series of questions.
"Why have Republicans fallen in line with a politician who has sometimes targeted their own party and leaders for populist disdain? Why have conservatives come to the defense of a leader with decidedly unconservative views on trade and foreign policy? Why have religious conservatives embraced the living, breathing embodiment of defining deviancy down?" he wrote.
Read the entire column here.
