In the August 2016 issue of Harper's Magazine, Martin Amis wrote: 'In recent years the G.O.P. has more or less adopted the quasi-slogan "There is no downside to lying".' (Don the Realtor:The rise of Trump) https://harpers.org/archive/2016/08/don-the-realtor/
'Telling lies so that other people will spread the lie is propaganda, an act of violence , and a way to establish that all institutions that rely on truth cannot be trusted.' Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, 13 July 2021
POLITICO magazine cites the chaos of the Republican Party as being its failure to 'grow up ' as Senator Barry Goldwater had exhorted it to do 60 years ago.
'A grown-up Republican Party —
even a deeply conservative one — would accept the rule of law, the norms
of liberal democracy, and the legitimacy of the opposing party. It
would seek to represent all Americans and would prioritize winning
converts over destroying heretics. It would be a governing party,
understanding full well that governing is impossible without negotiation
and compromise. It would accept America’s responsibility to uphold the
post-World War II global order. Its leadership would seek to address the
real needs and problems of its working-class base while resisting the
conspiracy theories, demagoguery and temptations toward political
violence to which populism is all too susceptible.' By POLITICO MAGAZINE
10/06/2023
An earlier version of Peter Navarro, currently senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in the Trump administration, was a bike-riding youngster selling coconut and avocados in Florida where his musician father wintered with the band he played in. His parents divorced. He and his mother did not have much money; he went to Tufts University on a scholarship. He joined the Peace Corps. In an interview in February he said that the experience made him humble, realising that we are each just a small speck in a sea of humanity. He earned a PhD in economics at Harvard and believed in free trade. He became a tenured professor. As an environmentalist and social liberal, he ran for office repeatedly as a Democrat. Not driven by a desire for money or acclaim, but rather by a sense of mission, he is a man of modest means in an administration full of billionaires.
It was when China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 and Americans started losing their jobs, that his ideology changed. And he came under the influence of Trump, a dangerous figure who takes whatever he wants - power and might.
Trade reform is a dire necessity. But Trump is more interested in establishing an oligarchy than defending American workers. Trump is destroying all the structures that could sustain a return to manufacturing that is not as degrading to the environment and the welfare of workers as it is in China.
