America First is now Russia First; the GOP favors a dictator over a heroic US marine. We are through the looking glass
For more than a generation, conventional wisdom has portrayed Republicans as the sole defenders of the American flag, the great stewards of patriotism, the gun-toting, tough-talking party of law and order. This myth has been pushed relentlessly on talk radio, on Fox News, and through every facet of rightwing media. It has long been presented as fact by the traditional media, putting Democrats on the defensive as they have struggled to shake ingrained perceptions that they are meek and unpatriotic.
The pervasive narrative of “strong” Republicans and “weak” Democrat helped place George W Bush in office. It painted John Kerry, a decorated veteran, as a coward. It is a narrative that has had an iron grip on political discourse since the Vietnam war. In the words of a Bush administration official, for Democrats” it's never stopped being 1968″.
Former Obama adviser Samantha Power explains the history:” President Reagan of course did more than any other person to entrench the Republican reputation for toughness on national security. He ran his election campaign against Carter's apparent softness, brought the Iran hostages home upon taking over the White House, nearly doubled the US military budget, invaded tiny Grenada, and staged covert operations throughout Latin America and beyond .”
Power writes that” national security is the one matter about which Republicans have maintained what political scientists call' issue ownership ‘.”
That is, until Donald Trump came along. With his unshakable fealty to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the GOP's wholesale surrender to Russia's 2016 cyber-invasion, Trump and his enablers are single-handedly shattering the myth that Republican have a monopoly on patriotism. If anything, Republican legislators are showing a traitorous streak that has shocked even the most level-headed of political observers.
Reacting to Trump's stupefying defense of Putin at the Helsinki summit, former presidential consultant David Gergen tweeted:” The fact that Trump chose a thug over the American people and his own officials captures just how unpresidential and unpatriotic he is. Never have I ensure a chairman so badly betray his own country on the world stage .”
Columnist Ruth Marcus laid down the gauntlet:” Everyone who works for Trump: quit now. Save your spirits. Save your honor. Save your reputation. Russia attacked our democracy. He doesn't care, won't defend our country .”
