Water Cooler 7/17/2016 – OPEN THREAD – GOP Convention Starts Tomorrow

I’m taking a break from my usual international stories to bring you the impending disaster in Cleveland.

GOP Dissension in Cleveland

An article at the Free Beacon lays out the fractured state of the GOP and much of its history. I take exception to the No WMDs found in Iraq. Why do even otherwise respectful news sources continue to spread that misinformation? In any case, the majority of the article is good, even if I don’t agree with all of it. Their description of Trump is very accurate:

Their nominee opposes entitlement reform, is fond of nationalized health care, is a protectionist and nativist, calls himself the “most militarist person ever,” wants to broaden libel laws, and condones torture and the killing of civilians. “Prudence” and “consensus” are not exactly his favorite words.

This is a scary combination, but here we they are.

The Unrecognizable Party

There’s lots of bad in this article, but a few nuggets of truth worth highlighting. Then there are statements like this, that completely miss what’s really happening.

Trump has changed, at least for now, much of what everyone believed it meant to be a leader of the Republican Party. He is anti-trade in a party of free traders. He wants to keep Social Security and Medicare mostly as they are, while others in the party are committed to entitlement reform. He has questioned America’s role in the world in a party long dominated by internationalists and, more recently, interventionists. He has spoken about the LGBT community in ways many Republicans do not.

Based on moves by the leadership, and votes of many of the members, this is exactly what the Republican leadership wanted. To many of us deluded ourselves for way too long that it was otherwise. Now it’s all come home to roost, and those same leaders can’t understand why so many of us are leaving.

GOP Chair Warns #NeverTrump

Further proof that The GOP doesn’t get it, Reince Priebus warns the #NeverTrump coalition that their actions are only hurting the party. Instead of trying to come to some sort of comprimise (rumors of deals filled the weekend), the Chairman has now joined the rest of the GOP leadership in demanding that conservatives simply shut up and get in line, using the same tired argument that they have for months.

“It’s a binary choice,” Priebus said. “It’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.”

Warning us that the other candidate is bad doesn’t make theirs any better. They still don’t seem to get that for many of us, Hillary is still the better result between the two. I don’t use the word choice because I follow the old axiom, “When given the choice between two evils, choose neither.” That’s certainly my plan, unless it’s a close race, and then I may yet vote for Hillary to make sure we don’t end up with a fascist.

Priebus Apologists

Speaking of Reince Preibus, apologists are already lining up to excuse his actions as though he had nothing to do with the end state of this primary election.

…Priebus said Republicans who opposed Trump were sore losers, further inflaming the internecine animus Trump has wrought. Often times, Priebus has to go on national television and defend whatever preposterous statement Trump has made.

Reince had plenty of opportunities to help show what a terrible candidate Trump is, but he sat back and let them go by, and in many cases tried to make excuses for him. He bought the fascist, now he gets to keep the fascist.

John F. Kasich

If ever there was an example of what not to do during a primary election, it was John Kasich. Not only did his strategy never have a chance, but even to the very end he still couldn’t figure it out. He single-handedly gave the election to Trump in the end, yet walked away with absolutely nothing.

Even as the chasm between him and Trump has relegated Kasich to a backseat role at the GOP convention, the Ohio governor continues to spread his ideas.

The worst part, he still thinks he’s relevant, in no small part due to his worthless campaign strategist John Weaver: