A Lifelong Republican On Trump And The Troll Party October 3, 2015October 2, 2015 It’s not your father’s G.O.P. — or Rick Wilson’s. All my life [he writes], the Republican Party has been my political home. Helping it succeed has been my work for decades. It was never perfect, but families never are. Flawed, and given to wrong turns from time to time, we had good years and terrible years. We elected presidents, took back Congress after decades, lost it, and took it back again. Our leaders ranged from bad to extraordinary. But through it all, the GOP was the one party even vaguely amenable to limited-government conservatism, to at least some adherence to the Constitution over the social preferences of the moment, and to the constraints on government power that our Founding Fathers so cherished. It was nice while it lasted. Today the Republican Party has two choices before it: It can either reform itself, or fracture and surrender to the Troll Party. Let me explain what I mean. . . . Well worth the read. (Thanks, John Carroll.) Oh, okay. Here’s just a little more: . . . The contagion hasn’t infected the entire GOP, not by a long shot. But it’s spreading. The traditional elements of limited-government fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and defense hawks are still there. But the Troll Party screams louder, and its members have reached a point where they are more than content to watch the world burn around them if they don’t get their way, right this minute. Trump activated them. He found a ready audience for his magical cocktail of celebrity, wealth, television skills, press whoring, verbal incontinence, bully-boy affect, and xenophobia, all eager to embrace his vision of… something. They don’t really know or care what he stands for, only that he’s an extended middle finger at the hated political class and the national GOP. He FIGHTS! Whatever the Troll Party is, it’s no longer conservative. Trump has been unforgivably wrong on every single issue in the conservative portfolio, and his current road-to-Damascus conversions on abortion, guns, taxes, religion, and immigration all have the air of the man up for parole promising that he’s changed his ways. But his supporters simply don’t care. His appeal to them isn’t so much ideological as it is nihilistic. . . . . . . It’s pointless to try to explain to Troll Party members that they’re blind to the tensions and realities of how the world, humanity, and Washington actually function. It’s impossible to explain to them that politics is transactional. That’s not a defense of Washington as it is but a description of its dysfunction. They ascribe Washington’s nature not to their own contradictory desires (“Keep the Government’s Hands Off My Medicare!”) but to conspiracy and contempt. . . . Have a great weekend! If you liked Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelent, Nixon-minus-the-demons, Abe Lincoln, Mke Bloomberg, Nelson Rockefeller, and perhaps even Barry Goldwater, welcome — at least temporarily, until you get yours back — to the Democratic Party. We have lots of nice people and we shrink deficits and do better with the economy and the stock market.* You might even decide to stay. *During the 12 Bush years, net private-sector job creation totaled just 747,000 — versus 19.6 million during the Clinton years and 8.6 million so far under Obama — or 12.9 million if you don’t count the first few horrific months he inherited. So that’s: 747,000 jobs under the 12 most recent years of Republican leadership, as deficits ballooned; 30 million under the 14.7 most recent years of Democratic leadership, as deficits were brought back under control. Meanwile, invested in the S&P 500 only during Republican administrations since 1929, and excluding dividends, $10,000 would have grown to only about $12,000 — versus more than $500,000 if invested only during Democratic administrations.