February 26, 2018

Nice try, Mona Charen.

Charen is getting pats on the back this week for "standing up to sexual harassment" at CPAC. And it's true, it was brave of her to tell the gathered nutjobs what they did not want to hear, that Trump is a sexual harasser and that the Republican Party excuses sexual harassers if they have an R after their name.

That's all good.

But Charen gives herself away in the clip above by using the secret password.

That word is "Trumpism."

Watch that word to be uttered more and more as Never Trump Republicans, who goddamn built this party and goddamn know it, pretend that there is some imaginary honest and moral Republican super-structure out there (represented by whom? Jeb? Marco?) that will stand tall free from the damage Trump has done their brand. They forget what I wrote in August of 2016. There are actual Republican voters behind Trump, and you and your ilk, Mona Charen, built this party of voters. Trump voters are

registered Republican Primary voters.

They didn't just register to vote this year or fall off a truck into the Republican Party. They voted for Bush, twice. They voted for McCain/Palin. They voted for Romney. And they're tired of losing and being embarrassed by their votes, so embarrassed that they fell for a "Tea Party" rebranding just so they would not have to associate themselves with Bush.

And then the establishment had the nerve to suggest they vote for Bush's brother.

Donald Trump lies about a lot of things, but he is not lying when he says he received more Republican Primary votes than any other candidate in US history. That statistic is skewed by how many Republicans voted "Not Trump," but the fact that the race boiled down to Trump versus not-Trump is not helpful to the "Trumpism" argument. Republican voters selected Trump as their candidate, in state after state after state.

Charen briefly notes that some of this trend away from "decency" in the Republican Party started before Trump but that it rapidly "accelerated" since his ride on the Trump Tower escalator. Then she covers her bases:

"I've been soooo frustrated over the past two years," she says.

She seems to have completely forgotten about the times her party turned a blind eye and plugged nose to Newt Gingrich and his three wives and six-year mistress. Or a Congressman yelling "you lie!" during a presidential address after which he fundraised off of his "indecency." Birtherism. "Lock Her Up." Blocking Supreme Court Nominees and planning to do so for another four years.

Mona Charen like all the Never Trumpers is a lifeboat builder. She wants another "Tea Party" rebranding of her party that doesn't have the stench of Trump on it. We on the Left are engaged in a #BurnTheLifeboats movement against this kind of media dishonesty:

The Beltway media wants to call it "Trumpism" so that after the election, they can go back to having Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and the other Beltway GOP on their Sunday Shows, at their book signings, and to their Georgetown cocktail parties. The Village, as Digby coins it, can go on pretending it's not about right and wrong, it's about keeping their prestige and power.

And also cutting entitlements, food programs for the poor, and public education. Because that's what Republicans do.

Decency, Mona? Really?

And then there's the fact that Mona Charen has a book coming out in June. And does the new book also denounce "Trumpism" within the Republican Party? No, it's another "shame on you liberal feminists for destroying the American family" books.

Don't forget, never forget, that Mona Charen is one of those conservatives that argued in June of 2003 (yeah) that Saddam Hussein might be just hiding his tiny hideable Weapons of Mass Destruction so don't question George W. Bush's honesty!

She also thought the best outcome of the 2016 election would be for Hillary Clinton to win...so then the Republican Congress could impeach her.

Decency, Mona? You've got a lot to answer for.

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