In the 45-minute “festival of narcissism” that was Donald Trump’s rambling presidential announcement, one particularly nasty passage proved him to be a menace to the Republican Party. It was the one about Mexican immigrants. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. [Applause] Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
That plays well with many far-right Republican primary voters desperately clinging to an America that no longer exists. But such rhetoric is the death knell for the GOP — and the party knows it. The Republican autopsy of its thumping in the 2012 presidential elections was blunt in its self- assessment. “Asked to describe Republicans,” the report notes on page 8, “[focus group attendees] said that the Party is scary,’ ‘narrow minded,’ and ‘out of touch’ and that we were a Party of ‘stuffy old men.’ Sounds like Trump.
