For more than a generation, conventional wisdom has portrayed Republicans as the sole defenders of the American flag, the great stewards of patriotism, the gun-toting, tough-talking party of law and order. This myth has been pushed relentlessly on talk radio, on Fox News, and through every facet of rightwing media. It has long been presented as fact by the traditional media, putting Democrats on the defensive as they have struggled to shake ingrained perceptions that they are meek and unpatriotic.
The pervasive narrative of “strong” Republicans and “weak” Democrats helped place George W Bush in office. It painted John Kerry, a decorated veteran, as a coward. It is a narrative that has had an iron grip on political discourse since the Vietnam war. In the words of a Bush administration official, for Democrats “it’s never stopped being 1968”.
Former Obama adviser Samantha Power explains the history: “President Reagan of course did more than any other person to entrench the Republican reputation for toughness on national security. He ran his election campaign against Carter’s apparent softness, brought the Iran hostages home upon taking over the White House, nearly doubled the US military budget, invaded tiny Grenada, and staged covert operations throughout Latin America and beyond.”
Power writes that “national security is the one matter about which Republicans have maintained what political scientists call ‘issue ownership’.”
That is, until Donald Trump came along. With his unshakable fealty to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the GOP’s wholesale surrender to Russia’s 2016 cyber-invasion, Trump and his enablers are single-handedly shattering the myth that Republicans have a monopoly on patriotism. If anything, Republican politicians are showing a traitorous streak that has shocked even the most level-headed of political observers.
Reacting to Trump’s stupefying defense of Putin at the Helsinki summit, former presidential adviser David Gergen tweeted: “The fact that Trump chose a thug over the American people and his own officials captures just how unpresidential and unpatriotic he is. Never have I seen a president so badly betray his own country on the world stage.”
Columnist Ruth Marcus laid down the gauntlet: “Everyone who works for Trump: quit now. Save your souls. Save your honor. Save your reputation. Russia attacked our democracy. He doesn’t care, won’t defend our country.”
Former CIA director John Brennan was the bluntest of all: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors’. It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”
Brennan’s question has no good answers. The Republican party’s cravenness appears to be bottomless. Republicans have decided to follow Trump off a cliff of treachery. Aside from the tepid protestations of a few GOP lawmakers – none of which will be backed up with actual votes or actions – Trump has been given free rein to trash the FBI and US intelligence agencies while staunchly defending a dictator who ordered a brazen assault on America’s free elections.
There are no defections, no resignations, no principled stands from White House officials. The “MAGA” crowd deflects all criticism by assailing Hillary Clinton (“But Hillary …” is their reflexive argument for every Trump transgression). Republicans are willingly pushing Russia’s line, and if that means smearing America’s law enforcement and intel community in the process, so be it. It doesn’t get more unpatriotic.
This is a watershed moment, a chilling one. A Republican president and his sycophantic congressional enablers are selling out their nation to a hostile foreign power and convincing GOP voters to slander those who put their lives on the line to defend it. “America First” has morphed into “Russia First”. Putin’s approval rating is rising among Republicans, Robert Mueller’s is falling. The Russian dictator is favored over the heroic marine. People who have the nerve to call themselves patriots, to wrap themselves in the flag and claim that liberals hate America, are embracing the foe that launched a cyber-assault on American democracy.
The treasonous and unpatriotic behavior of the Republican party is an ugly stain on the US and a dangerous realignment of the world order. It is a conscious and direct insult to every American who has served and sacrificed for their country. A profoundly shameful betrayal.
- Peter Daou is a former digital media adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry