To Defend Trump, the GOP Is Becoming a Party Bill Clinton Would Love

[EasyAce]

Donald Trump’s supporters create endless alibis for him, just as Bill Clinton’s did for him.
By David French
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448622/defend-trump-gop-becoming-party-bill-clinton-would-love

Before there was Donald Trump, there was another charismatic presidential candidate who led his party out of the White
House wilderness. A political miracle worker all his own, he resurrected himself from the political grave so many times that one
of his nicknames was “The Comeback Kid.” He toppled a political empire, ended the opposing party’s alleged vise grip on the
White House, and had a temperament and personality that drove his political opponents nuts. He inspired such fanatical devotion
(and gratitude for his key policy decisions) that men and women were willing to lie for him, sacrifice their principles for him,
and in one notorious case even go to jail to protect him. He was the movement. The movement was him.

I’m speaking, of course, about Bill Clinton. It’s easy to forget, these many years later, how thoroughly he co-opted the Democratic
party and the progressive movement and turned them into the shameless spinners and character assassins. He so convinced the
party and its people that its fortunes were his fortunes that virtually any means justified the ends of Bill Clinton’s political survival . . .

. . . What’s old is new again. Donald Trump and his core supporters aren’t just following the Clinton playbook, they should be
disciplined for plagiarism. It’s all there. Trump exploits the loyalty and gratitude of supporters shocked and relieved by his surprise
win. He persuades them to hold him to an entirely different standard (Lies and threats that we’d never tolerate from a Democrat?
That’s just Trump being Trump. You gotta understand, he’s an outer-borough kid who knows how to deliver a punch. He’s not a
sissy elitist!) and then demands that his critics be better than he is . . .

. . . Beware. What “worked” for Clinton is far less likely to work for the GOP, and what “worked” for Clinton rightly brought defeat
and shame for Democrats in years to come. Sure, Clinton survived impeachment, but his party lost the next two presidential
elections, and the stench of corruption clung to his wife and was instrumental in two humiliating Clinton presidential defeats.
The Clinton playbook left a party robbed of moral authority to confront Trump, and it indeed helped make his victory possible.

And that was with the mainstream media far more Clinton-sympathetic than it is Trump-friendly. Trump can’t win reelection with
just his base, and there are already signs that outside the conservative bubble, Trump’s act is wearing thin. In conservative-land,
it’s widely said that Comey “failed,” that he’s been completely discredited. Outside the bubble, Americans overwhelming believe
Comey and disbelieve Trump.

“But Gorsuch” is the new “but abortion.” Bob Mueller is the new Ken Starr. “Fake news” is the new “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Hypocrisy abounds, and but for the double standards, many of Trump’s most zealous defenders would have no standards at all.
Cultural decay? The loss of public trust? Credibility gaps? Let the pastors worry about all that. In the meantime, get on or under
the Trump Train, conservatives. There’s a news cycle to win.

[INVAR]

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