THE PEN, DEC 8, 2015

OK, the story in the news is that a majority of people think Donald Trump is hurting the GOP’s brand because of his increasingly rabid and extreme statements. In just the last week, Trump has called for wholesale murder of the families of suspected terrorists, and a total ban on travel by people of one religion, extremist or not. Before that Trump had proposed among other things permanently seizing the
oil resources of Iraq for our own imperialist profit, in blatant violation of any semblance of international law.

And when Trump says such things, 46% of Republican voters without a college education make him their first choice for president of the United States, where it stands at the moment.

Trump can say any outlandish, monstrous thing he wants, within the
broad bounds of free speech in this country. But if nobody was
supporting him it would reflect on him alone. It would only reflect
on the GOP if the establishment party organization itself was
expressly standing behind him, when in fact it is doing everything it
can to try to stop him.

No, what this reflects on is the fact that we have very large numbers
of PEOPLE in this country who are the worst sort of ignorant,
hot-headed, mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bigots, who lap this stuff up
like it’s mother’s milk. The only remaining question is whether these
represent a majority of the American voting population. And Trump is
clearly banking on the belief that they do.

It has served the oligarchs running the Republican party well over
the years to have a fact deprived base that can be counted on to vote
against their own interests, that they can inflame on this or that
other irrational basis, election after election. Except that now
Trump is out-inflaming that base. He is such a better fascist
than any of his competitors for the Republican nomination. And that
is why he has left them all in the dust with the drop kick stupid
base they have so studiously cultivated and encouraged. And why
shouldn’t he be a better fascist? He’s a top-level oligarch himself.

So it is not the Republican party which has in image problem, it is
Republican VOTERS who have an image problem. And it gets worse with
every point Trump gains in the polls. And we have long predicted that
it will in fact get worse, and that Trump will be at least the
Republican presidential nominee.

What will the Republican party do then? Even the worst of the other
demagogues running for its nomination, even those who like Trump have
ALSO called for carpet-bombing the Middle East from one end to the
other, as if that is not what we are doing already, are condemning
Trump’s latest suggestion to essentially force all Muslims to wear a
yellow crescent, for the purposes of non-entry into America. And
based on what? ONE woman on a visa and a man BORN in this country?
What immigration embargo would have stopped him?

We could shut down all immigration cold, and we would still have a
rampantly out of control gun violence problem in America.