Until Trump, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in U.S. politics
Even if Donald Trump’s current wave of bungling results in a much-deserved loss to Hillary Clinton in November, his rise to the status of Republican presidential candidate will stand as a unique historic achievement.
It has to be regarded as an event like the one memorably described by a long-ago Toronto politician as “the most unheard-of thing I ever heard of.” It is so unheard-of that this week, Republicans tried to separate themselves from it. Even Mike Pence, named by Trump as his vice-presidential running mate just three weeks ago, made a point of endorsing the re-election of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, whom Trump shunned.
Another Republican, Newt Gingrich, a scourge of Democrats in the 1990s, said that Trump is helping Clinton to win by proving “he is more unacceptable than she is.” Meg Whitman, the billionaire Hewlett-Packard executive who ran as a Republican for governor of California, announced she will raise money for Clinton, as well as vote for her. She said Trump’s “unsteady hand would endanger our prosperity and national security. His authoritarian character could threaten much more.”
This election year has turned into a painful mess — for the Republicans, of course, but also for the future of the United States. By winning his party’s nomination, Trump has rewritten the rules. Until this year, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in American national politics. Trump has carelessly, perhaps jubilantly, maligned Mexicans and Muslims.
And no Republican since the election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 has set himself against internationalism. Trump has opposed free trade and NATO, two policies that made America “great” — the status Trump says he’s reclaiming. For politicians of tomorrow, he opens the possibilities of elevating racism and contempt for international treaties as vote-grabbers.
How did he get away with it? This is the most painful part of the story. His success results from sheer intuition. He realized, as others did not, that there are many thousands of people ready to vote for a candidate preaching anti-Mexican, anti-Muslin bigotry, while also blaming America’s failures on the Chinese and on free trade.
Robert Fulford: Until Trump, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in U.S. politics
Even if Donald Trump’s current wave of bungling results in a much-deserved loss to Hillary Clinton in November, his rise to the status of Republican presidential candidate will stand as a unique historic achievement.
It has to be regarded as an event like the one memorably described by a long-ago Toronto politician as “the most unheard-of thing I ever heard of.” It is so unheard-of that this week, Republicans tried to separate themselves from it. Even Mike Pence, named by Trump as his vice-presidential running mate just three weeks ago, made a point of endorsing the re-election of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, whom Trump shunned.
Another Republican, Newt Gingrich, a scourge of Democrats in the 1990s, said that Trump is helping Clinton to win by proving “he is more unacceptable than she is.” Meg Whitman, the billionaire Hewlett-Packard executive who ran as a Republican for governor of California, announced she will raise money for Clinton, as well as vote for her. She said Trump’s “unsteady hand would endanger our prosperity and national security. His authoritarian character could threaten much more.”
This election year has turned into a painful mess — for the Republicans, of course, but also for the future of the United States. By winning his party’s nomination, Trump has rewritten the rules. Until this year, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in American national politics. Trump has carelessly, perhaps jubilantly, maligned Mexicans and Muslims.
And no Republican since the election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 has set himself against internationalism. Trump has opposed free trade and NATO, two policies that made America “great” — the status Trump says he’s reclaiming. For politicians of tomorrow, he opens the possibilities of elevating racism and contempt for international treaties as vote-grabbers.
How did he get away with it? This is the most painful part of the story. His success results from sheer intuition. He realized, as others did not, that there are many thousands of people ready to vote for a candidate preaching anti-Mexican, anti-Muslin bigotry, while also blaming America’s failures on the Chinese and on free trade.
Robert Fulford: Until Trump, no openly racist candidate in modern times has reached such a height in U.S. politics