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How One Man Radicalized A Party [1]
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Date: 2025-04-16
There is a widespread myth that Donald Trump has changed the Republican Party. I contend he has not changed it, but has organized the radicalization. Dating back to Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Republicans have fought hammer and tongs against programs that would benefit the man and woman on “Main Street,” which is now their populist talking point. When FDR proposed an insurance guarantee protecting the average Joe’s hard-earned bank deposits against bank failures, with the newly created FDIC and the SEC, the GOP called it socialism. FDR’s New Deal, the first attempt at the Great Society, popularized by another Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, was roundly jeered by conservative Democrats and as a boondoggle by Roosevelt’s Grand Old Party opposition.
President Harry Truman united the Southern Democrats and Republicans in opposition by desegregating the military. His later success in ending World War II by ordering the dropping of the nuclear bomb cooled the ire of both sides. When President Lyndon Johnson assumed the mantle of power following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Southern Democrats and Republicans cheered Johnson, a Texas Democrat, because they thought they had one of their own in office. Johnson, who lost the backing of liberal Democrats with his abysmal handling of the Vietnam War, lost the south—by his own admission—with the Civil Rights and Voter Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, respectively. ‘Well, I think we may have lost the south for your lifetime – and mine,’ said Johnson.
Proudly and falsely, the Republican party likes to lean on the legacy of Lincoln as bona fide(s) for their fairness to black Americans. When in reality, the GOP is rife with voices and now open legislation aimed at marginalizing black Americans out of the public square. The most significant difference between Reagan's Republicans and Trump's Republicans is Reagan's well-coiffed hair, as opposed to the chaos on Trump’s head. Reagan, after all, set the mantra for American politics that the GOP had waited years to hear. Reagan said in his 1981 Inaugural address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Reagan's plans are being mirrored by Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), except Reagan called it the Grace Commission. Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Reagan was unwilling to flaunt the courts, the Congress, and the objective truth to fit his own end. In the end, Reagan compromised, raised taxes, and was lambasted by more Republicans than history would let you believe.
Learning the lessons of the Reagan Revolution, President Trump has raised the new GOP to angry violence and open racism. When the TEA Party came to fore with racist birtherism and taunts of Obama's sexuality and heritage, the GOP lost any semblance of morality and embraced the escalating vitriol. Mocking signs and calls for Obama to bow to the calls by Trump to prove his citizenship were the rallying cry for radicalization. The GOP is willing to excuse criminality, ignore the rule of law, and remove black American accomplishment from discussion. Yesterday, Mr. Trump floated the idea of rendition for American criminals to the El Salvador prison system. “Homegrown criminals are next,” Trump said to El Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele. “I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've gotta build about five more places.”
Is there a question with Trump and the GOP efforts to delegitimize black Americans who would be first—certainly not Luigi Mangione—on the “Homegrown criminals” list?
Your Vote is Still Your Voice
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