I read an online article by Derek Robertson about the changes in the Republican Party. He referenced the changes to Dave Portnoy, who created Barstool Sports. I’ll leave that up to you to check out Portnoy and Barstool Sports. Robertson was clearly looking for a way to define the changes in the Republican Party. In part, he succeeded. I think the recent changes in Republican Party have numerous minor causes with a few major causes. The most prominent cause revolve around President Trump and his most ardent supporters. It’s clear, at least to me, that President Trump has a narcissistic personality. I would label his personality as an extreme narcissistic personality to the point where it has become a personality disorder. The Mayo Clinic defines this disorder as “a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.” I know it sounds like most politicians. Back to President Trump, I am sure you can think of things he has done and plug them into the definition provided by the Mayo Clinic.
Growing up and even into middle-age, I thought of the Republicans as the party of “stuffy old fogies.” They didn’t like any form of government. They didn’t want to spend a penny on anything. They didn’t like change. They enjoyed listening to Benny Goodman’s and hated rock ‘n’ roll. Up until President Trump, not much changed except for the music they hated. Today it is Rap. Like the party of old, they don’t like the changes they see around them. They are threatened by things such as the headscarves of the Muslims and the foreign languages they hear spoken in the grocery store. A clear sign of that is Trump’s border wall – we will keep out the people who don’t speak English and wear odd clothing.
As I see it, some beliefs have changed within the Republican Party. On January 6 of this year, a major one is that nothing is wrong with preserving the status quo, even if it means breaking the law. That would’ve horrified the members of the old Republican Party. Liz Cheney was disturbed by the events of January 6, and said so. Her reward was to lose her position in the legislature. It was her own party who did that to her. The party has acquired a vindictive nature it never had before.
Blogs should be kept fairly short, so I’ll leave it up to you to think about the other crazy changes the party has made. We can only hope that the leadership wakes up and we don’t end up having a constitutional crisis with dead and injured.
