Lloyd Russell: In groping for a coalition, Republicans fell into bed with a vulgarian

It’s been said that God looks after drunks, fools and the US of A: he better. In their efforts to serve their wealthy clients, the Republicans have given us as president an unrestrained vulgarian with the intellect of a goldfish. To get him elected, the party that once lived in a neighborhood of WASPs, wealth and Wall Street had to reach out to members it once kept-hidden in the basement. They moved into the “big tent” where wealthy socialites can rub shoulders with the troglodytes of the KKK and alternative right.

In 1930s Germany, parts of the old ruling classes – the Prussian aristocracy, industrialists, and conservative churchmen – fearing economic threats from communists and liberals, held their noses at the demonization of Jews and non-Germans and slithered into bed with Hitler. The Republicans have sought power by an arranged marriage between their traditional moneyed classes and a socially conservative assortment of white nationalists, xenophobes, science deniers and “Christian” mammonites.

While this may never become a “marriage made in heaven,” it should at least devolve into a debauched “group grope” in the darker corners of the big tent.

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Lloyd Russell: In groping for a coalition, Republicans fell into bed with a vulgarian."