Journalist Jim Sleeper recalls the moderate brand of Republicanism that he grew up with in Massachusetts.
He is shocked to see how the national party has been captured by fringe extremists who are no longer on the fringe, nor are they “extreme” in the context of a Trump-captured party.
It’s not enough to observe, however rightly, that Republicans have been deranged by the much-ballyhooed sins of what a concerted conservative campaign derides as “Social Justice Warriors,” what Rush Limbaugh calls “feminazis,” what Trump and his minions call invading Mexican rapists and terrorists, and other such bogeymen. Only a few of those are carriers or casualties of what’s generating Trumpism itself: the disease of turbo-marketing that’s reducing American education, entertainment, social media, politics and the dignity of work itself to levels determined by a mania to maximize profits and shareholder dividends, no matter the social costs.
The few conservatives who still hope to advance the ordered, principled republican liberty that my Massachusetts exemplars upheld can no longer convincingly reconcile that hope with their movement’s and the Republican Party’s obeisance to every whim and riptide of corporate, global capitalism that’s destroying the liberty they claim to cherish and that’s generating a lot of what’s wrong in the bogeymen they vow to defeat.
The Republican party of Eisenhower and Rockefeller is dead. It has been replaced by the ideology of Donald Trump, an ideology that does not hesitate to play with racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and every other intolerant idea in the lexicon. Just in the past few days, Trump has made a point of belittling black female members of the press, as part of his war on the press. The Republican leadership doesn’t care.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In case most people haven’t noticed, the “country club” Republicanism of men like Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney, died a long time ago. When Reagan, and other southern/western Repubs started moving up, the old liberal Repubs were through. Gone.
This was partly a result of Nixon’s “southern strategy” to get southern whites to vote Republican.
Everett Dirksen is spinning in his grave.
Yes the country club Republicans avoided open racism. Those days are gone.
True. There were liberal Repubs. Many Repubs pushed quietly for civil rights legislation, like Everett Dirksen.
Charles
We finally agree:
“In fact, Smith reveals, it was Rockefeller’s representative who secretly provided a suitcase of cash to King’s attorney Clarence Jones in the basement of the Chase Manhattan Bank as bail money for those arrested in the Children’s March in Birmingham, Ala., in May 1963. “If we had one or two governors in the Deep South like Nelson Rockefeller,” King observed, “many of our problems could be readily solved” ”
However, Rockefeller Republicans were becoming a rare breed in 1964 when Goldwater was chosen to run. Nixons Southern Strategy meshing somewhat of a natural fit between the old Dixiecrats and the Republican Party.
Reagan’s other southern strategy strategy was aligning the Republican party with Evangelical Christianity. In the early 1980’s a young college aged Ralph Reed was Pat Robertson’s spokesperson for the Christian Coalition. Robertson blamed feminists for hurricanes, the Aids epidemic as a curse from God for the country accepting homosexuality & denounced evolution. If Christians ever hoped to reach paradise they voted Republican. A vote for Reagan was God’s will.
Republican operatives dispersed Christian voting ballots to churches across the country claiming a vote for a Democrat meant eternal damnation. White Southern segregationists felt quite comfortable inside the party that demonized the women’s movement, gays, foreigners, and non-Christians. Reagan’s legacy, when not whitewashed by conservative media, is where today’s Republican party formed its deepest roots.
Please that the Massachusetts “civic-republican” Republicans whom I remember in the piece antedated Nixon, Reagan, and the conservative movement that supported them. Note also that I characterize them as mired in the racist and sexist conventions of their time. To dismiss what they were and did because they weren’t ahead of their time, you ‘d have to dismiss an awful lot of Democrats, “liberals,” and others.
What I have noticed since living in Florida is that the campaign advertisements from the Republicans are largely negative. Other than supporting Trump’s wall, I did not hear anything that could be considered a platform from the conservative candidates’ television ads. They get a lot of mileage from fear mongering, scapegoating and belittling the opposition.
At Long Last, Donald Trump Knows True Fear
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout
November 10, 2018
…Because before Tuesday, Trump only suspected someone might come along with a big enough stick to do him actual damage. Now, he knows they’re coming for sure, and if Wednesday’s presser was any indication, he is not taking the new order of things in stride. Matters did not improve as the weekend, and Trump’s trip to Paris, came crashing together in yet another presidential fit of temper…
I could be wrong, but I believe we are about to bear witness to a scorched-earth retreat the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Boer War. I strongly suspect Donald Trump is going to try to burn everything, and everyone, to save himself from the awful grace of consequences. He can’t stop all of it, but between now and the first week of January, he’s going to try with all his might.
Sessions was only the beginning. Anyone who was hoping for a bit of quiet time after the midterms has not, frankly, been paying enough attention. Worse, what is happening now will seem tame by the new year. It definitely gets weirder from here.
Check out this article: https://truthout.org/articles/at-long-last-donald-trump-knows-true-fear/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=mashshare&utm_campaign=mashshare
Wishful thinking. Pitt is doing the fear mongering.
Harlan, how do you feel about Trump skipping the WWI memorial services because of rain. All the other national leaders showed. Not our prez. Couldn’t get his hair wet.
I thought he was afraid his “tan” would wash down his face.
Thanks for the laugh, Diane. Wish I could draw cartoons.
I think google paint would do it, Yvonne. How about photo-shopping him into a somber pic of world leaders at memorial, but cut&paste on a dark-visored motorcycle helmet 😀
I think I reported before on the TV spot run by Our new Republican Senator here in Tennessee. It featured a dangerous mob of migrating Latinos, a fighter dressed like ISIS, and he suggestion that a vote for her opponent was a vote for the enemy.
While this sort of fear mongering is reprehensible, it is not new to the GOP. Willie Horton, Swift Boat, the list of dirty tricks goes back farther and farther. Roger Ailes created a network of dirty tricks and got good folks to think of it as news.
Speaking of cartoons, that ad sounds like it should have been for the Dem candidate, poking fun at her. Amazing the Rep could successfully use one of Trump’s over-the-top tweets to influence voters. Illustrates many do take his guff literally.
Satire is lost on the true believer
Good grief. How can any person with a brain have ever voted for someone like Rep. Dana Rohrabacher…Russian supporter, defender of invasion of Ukraine and backer of Trump? I didn’t know that people like this were in our Congress.
……………………….
The Washington Post
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Politics Alert Nov 10, 8:56 PM
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a pro-Russia Republican, narrowly loses long-held House seat, AP projects
The California congressman, who was elected in 1988, has been outspoken in his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also is one of President Trump’s strongest backers. Democrat Harley Rouda defeated Rohrabacher in the Orange County congressional district.
Flashback to 1978: In an address to College Republicans before he was elected to the House, Newt Gingrich says, “I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words.”
Total BS, who was more nasty than Nixon at that time.
The GOP certainly mastered nasty and then raised it to a new and even more vicious level than McCarthyism, i.e., Trumpism.
in a nutshell: they “certainly mastered nasty…”
Just heard Max Boot.THIS IS AMUST SEE VIDEO trust me… it is illuminating on so many levels… not CNN or like any main street media assessment of what just happened.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/max-boot-xvvtkt
He a spoke of the lofty vision hindsight allows! ”Looking back” he wonders at his “blindness!”
He explains how, finally, his prior experience with this kind of historical shift made him aware that something drastic had changed. He sincerely tries to explain how that happened — as a result of his loyalty to the principles of constitutional conservatism* that he had admired in Reaganism. He regrets how he looked away from what was happening — but must speak out NOW, because no one saying what he is saying! He left the party when he realized that the no moderates come TO the fore
as Boot points out — the whole world heard what Trump actually said— thatHE IS A NATIONALIST!
He says that we have been lucky with our ‘constitutional conditioning and history– because it has helped us avoid the kind of demolition of democracy, as dictators arise in weaker democracies across the world… look at Brazil!
He also talks about, what next in Congress — how Pelosi is right not to rush things, and not to be Trump’s foil, and thus , blunder into impeachment, before they have set the stage for the repudiation of him, by using their subpoena power.
Susan Lee Schwartz: Thank you for the link. Max Boot understands what is happening.
Susan Lee Schwartz
The principled conservatism of Reagan and his Welfare Queens stealing your hard earned dollars while driving a Cadillac or two.
I don’t need Boot, Rubin or Stephens to tell the resistance to fascism how to carry on. Some of us saw this coming for decades. Saw the alliance between the Christian Right and the Republican party for what it was; a rejection of integration.
Yesterday we had Stephens caution with the same warning. Emphasizing how the Tea Party captured far more votes than this massive wave.
Neglecting to mention that 36 +- seats had been captured by the Dems in 06 and then 22 more in 2008 when the World Economy fell off a cliff. The 60 seats just wiped out those gains when the Black President was not able to turn water into wine by 2010.
Something Trump has been very effective at. The day he won the election the terrible Obama economy became the Trump miracle. In the 21 months prior to the inauguration the Obama economy; or more correctly the Yellen economy as Obama’s fiscal power was limited by the Republicans; created more jobs than Trump has since. Is there anyone who can demonstrate how this slow steady job creation would have ended on Feb1 2017 had Clinton been elected. Was Trump in Germany creating their 3.4% unemployment rate.
You can not compare the loss of 60 seats in the deepest recession since the great depression; to the loss of 35-40 seats in the greatest economy(?) since the invention of sliced bread. This wave was not built on Democratic policy for there was none. Individual congressman ran on vague promises about healthcare or inequality but no unified agenda legislation was expressed. This was a repudiation of Trump and Trumpism and the numbers would be even greater if not for gerrymandering and voter suppression. A Black woman would be the Governor of Georgia (repeat Georgia); if 400 thousand voters 77% of whom were minority were not thrown off the voting rolls. Pennsylvania alone flipped 5 seats when a state court did what the Supremes refused to do; ending gerrymandering.
Start the hearing to publicly expose the Treason and Corruption and if Mueller is stopped impeach the SOB. And let the Republican Senate defend him.
The Republicans turned Deplorable s into a badge of honor. Democrats ran from the Angry Mob. No sexism intended but an angry mob is not a group of women shouting at their Representatives in the halls of Congress. An Angry Mob is a group of women who show up on Mitch’s street; exercising their First and Second Amendment rights. And speaking of Second Amendment Rights if the Angry mob of parents who lost children to Mass shooters showed up with them we would see how quickly that Amendment became a State not an individual Right again.
Great summary, thanks. Third para from end especially heartening w/solid facts no hype.
Thank you, Susan Lee Schwartz, for this video of Max Boot. In one small way, it amuses me by reminding me that when he was a Wall St Journal op ed page editor, he turned down a couple of my columns for what seemed to me conformist conservative-ideological, reasons, even as he assured me in an e-mail message (I’m paraphrasing, but this is close) that “there’s no micro-chip in my brain” forcing him into an ideological lockstep on the WSJ opinion page. He now acknowledges that was lying to himself more than to remonstrants like me, bowing to “the powerful pressure to conform when you’re in a movement.”
A word about my Salon post, which Diane has kindly linked: I’m not “shocked,” as she puts it, by what’s become of Republicans, but I’m indeed offended and saddened. Although I’ve never been a Republican or voted for one on more than two occasions, I’ve long written that liberals and leftists need honorable conservatives to challenge their excesses. But the conservative movement has spent so much time and energy dining out on the follies of feckless left-liberals, ditzy post-modernists, etc., that it has forgotten how to cook for itself and for others and has abandoned its kitchen to Trump.
Maybe there’s a hole in the soul of American conservatism, as there is in the classical liberalism that binds most “market” conservatives. If some left-leaning liberals and “world is flat” neoliberals behave fecklessly in consequence of their denial of the spiritual and “national’ dimensions of life, too many conservatives resort to extreme religious and nationalist strategies that open into the world’s abysses. Here’s my civic-republican understanding of how Americans got into this in the first place:
http://www.democracyjournal.org/37/our-puritan-heritage.php?page=all
I read this a lot and I hear this a lot from Republicans, but it isn’t borne out in elections.
The vast majority of them continue to elect politicians who are further and further Right, more and more insulting and poorly behaved. It isn’t just “elect” them either- they celebrate it- turn them into celebrities.
Before I believe there’s some meaningful “good government” group in the Republican Party I’ll need to see some proof in an election. The will of their voters seems to be “elect more and more people who behave like Donald Trump”. We haven’t seen any pushback or oversight of Trump in the GOP Congress because they are (accurately) following the will of their voters, who seem to just eat this stuff up.
I’m not so pessimistic. As Joel points out, Reps have lost est 36 cong seats in Trump’s ‘great’ economy, plus GA gub & FL gub/sen races in recount. That cannot have been accomplished solely by more Dem turnout. Gotta be, in that mix, some reasonable, old-fashioned conservatives turning their back on the TP-evang/ rapacious-freemarketer fringe their party has become.
Most of today’s Republicans would consider Eisenhower a “socialist.” The party took a turn for the worse by aligning with the Christian right, libertarians and the Tea Party and/or Freedom Caucus. They have little interest in serving the common good or common man.
If you want a perfect example of a politician dodging accountability by reciting the ed reform line, look no further than John Kasich:
“Still, the state isn’t keeping up when it comes to training the workforce, he said.
“If you really want to know where the problem is, it’s K-12 education,” Kasich said. “It’s still an institution that hasn’t even reached the 20th century yet. We need to get kids to understand what their talents are, what their futures are and what the jobs opportunities are, and match them.”
This is why they all love ed reform- public schools are a convenient dumping ground for all societal problems. John Kasich did absolutely nothing for public schools other than cut their funding, yet when he’s asked about failures in his administration he points to public schools as “the problem”. Convenient, huh? Ed reform handed them this excuse wrapped up with a bow and urged them to take it, and they ALL happily accepted.
Have nothing to offer? Bash public schools! That ends the discussion.
Public schools are “the problem” and so ed reform came up with “a solution”- eradicate them. Like magic all of these structural problems will disappear and no one in power has to change anything or give up anything.
i agree with your judgment about Kasich. He intended to capture public schools for workforce training, with higher ed viewed as a luxury unless graduates contribute to the economy of Ohio. Start early on those “career pathways,” and keep kids “on track” grade by grade. The real farce is Ohio’s strategic blue print for the future…all skill sets (hard and soft) with a “exposure” to content in academic subjects–sustained and coherent studies are no longer envisioned as necessary or desirable. Ignorance is bliss.
I was about to post something snarky about Kasich, based on longtime anger at his gub ed policies. I’d always assumed from that he must be a rwnj posing as kinder gentler Rep. But read thro his career summary at wiki first. He’s a lot more centrist than I realized. Almost sounds like an old-time fiscal conservative, plus “F” from NRA, & lots of bipartisan consensus-bldg. Why such a sucker for the worst of ed-reform policies I wonder?
He had to throw a bone to the Trumpers
Ah, yes. & we get to be the bone.
Good grief. The Orange One blasts California, proving that he has to trash states who don’t support him. Trump is such a great leader. [Oh dear. This is coming from CNN.]
…………………………….
President Trump’s tweet on California wildfires angers firefighters, celebrities By Amir Vera, CNN
…His tweet drew the ire of the leaders of firefighters’ organizations, who accused the President of bringing politics into a devastating disaster.
“His comments are reckless and insulting to the firefighters and people being affected,” said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
The president of the California Professional Firefighters said the message is an attack on some of the people fighting the devastating fires.
“The President’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,” Brian K. Rice said. “In my view, this shameful attack on California is an attack on all our courageous men and women on the front lines.”
Rice also added that Trump’s assertion that California’s forest management policies are to blame “is dangerously wrong.”
“Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography,” he said.
Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/11/politics/california-wildfires-trump-tweets/index.html
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
111K
2:08 AM – Nov 10, 2018
T
121K people are talking about this
Another display of Trump’s lack of empathy and only concern–the cost of forest management, as if these fires had nothing to do with larger weather patterns or even the possibility of climate change. The remark strikes me as a perfect setup for privatizatizing forest management.
This emergency of invading criminals, rapists, Middle Easterners and drug dealers who brought horrible diseases was a crisis manufactured by Trump and restated by Republicans. The soldiers on duty have nothing to do. What a great usage of taxpayer money!! Where is the outcry?
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Notice that the caravan totally disappeared as an issue as soon as the votes were cast — not just Fox News, but mainstream media too. Guys, you really need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask why you’re so easily played 2/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 9, 2018
Dem wins leave behind a more conservative GOP conference…The Hill
Tuesday’s blue wave in the House is set to leave behind a GOP conference that is far more conservative — and more loyal to President Trump.
A large chunk of centrist Republicans were either wiped out at the polls on Tuesday or are planning to retire at the end of this Congress, while the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus is actually expected to expand its ranks next year.
That means that when Republicans assume their new role in the minority, the GOP will largely be unified as they rally against the Democratic agenda and defend Trump from an onslaught of investigations and hearings.
But GOP will be minority in House. No matter how nasty, they are not in charge.
No rational person can defend this idiot in good conscience. And that’s a strain.
He does know Whitaker, but not Shinola.
Donald Trump blew off honoring the Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines who gave their lives during World War One, at Belleau Wood because some intermittent rain might have mussed up his hair. [Hope the picture comes through. It shows a fat Trump lying in bed eating.]
View image on Twitter
Bammac
@mylastsoberduck
While other world leaders honor the fallen today, regardless of weather, this is Trump right now: pic.twitter.com/wKRAPOHfOC
200
12:42 PM – Nov 10, 2018
Oh well. It was a great picture that came out on email but not this blog. The photo shows Trump in his PJ’s eating a McDonald’s hamburger and the room is littered with Diet Coke cans & paper containers from hamburgers and french fries.
I am so bummed out. How could so many voters support the Trump agenda? What are they thinking when they listen to his lies and watch his antics? What am I missing?
I shudder to think that being a Great America is a synonym for racism, sexism, and anti-semitism (to name a few). And if they are Christians how can they justify his abhorrent rhetoric of hatred?
I’m confused.
We ARE evolving, intellectually and socially. But it’s uneven.
Dear flos 56 (aka, “bummed out”): This might help sort out some of what you’re rightly worried and confused about. I wrote it in March, 2016, when Trump was soaring through the Republican primaries, astonishing me and everyone else.
http://WWW.ALTERNET.ORG/ELECTION-2016/HOW-BOTH-PARTIES-HAVE-NEARLY-ABANDONED-US-CLINTON-VS-TRUMP
Some of us are in the 21st century and others are back in the mid 1800s.
Trump is a test of our democracy, the American experiment, that it doesn’t completely implode or break apart due to constitutional (read two ways, or more) crisis. And that this IS recognized as a constitutional (you know) crisis.
Republicans don’t want all the votes be counted. [Haven’t we heard this game before?] Guess gerrymandering and voter suppression wasn’t enough to get them elected.
……..
Midterm elections
Recounting has begun down in Florida, sparked by narrowed enough margins in the races for governor, senator and agriculture commissioner. All this is supposed to be done by Thursday, but Palm Beach County’s elections supervisor says it’ll be “impossible” for her county to meet that deadline. If a county doesn’t meet the deadline, the initial vote totals will stand as is. That’s good news for the GOP — their candidates are ahead — but it would probably trigger lawsuits from the Democrats. (Gov. Rick Scott, the GOP Senate candidate, has already filed three election-related lawsuits.)
Meanwhile:
In Georgia, the state Democratic Party and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ campaign filed a lawsuit asking for rejected absentee ballots and provisional ballots to be counted. They’re still hoping to force a runoff in the governor’s race.
And in Arizona’s Senate race, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema’s lead over Republican Martha McSally continues to grow as the vote counting continues. Arizona’s process of counting votes moves slowly because about 75% of the state’s electorate votes by mail, and every ballot goes through a verification process.
Oh dear. CNN is on the warpath again. Guess CNN isn’t supposed to report that Macron thinks poorly of Trump. What was Fox’s spin on this speech?
…………………..
Macron rebukes nationalism as Trump observes Armistice Day…CNN
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 5:10 AM ET, Mon November 12, 2018
…In his address, French President Emmanuel Macron — who has emerged as Europe’s most vocal sentry against a global tide of nationalism — repeated his warnings.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” he said through a translator. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.”
“I know there are old demons which are coming back to the surface. They are ready to wreak chaos and death,” he said. “History sometimes threatens to take its sinister course once again.”
It was impossible to view his remarks as anything less than a rebuke of Trump, who has proudly espoused an “America First” foreign policy…
Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/11/politics/donald-trump-armistice-day-paris/index.html
Maybe there is some glimmer of hope for this country. Still 44% think he’s doing fine. Unbelievable.
………………
NBC News Exit Poll: Nearly half of U.S. voters strongly disapprove of Trump
By a substantial margin, voters nationwide in today’s midterm election say they do not approve of President Donald Trump’s performance, with the share who strongly disapprove of his presidency representing nearly half of the electorate, according to early NBC News Exit Poll results.
Trump’s approval rating — 44 percent — is roughly in line with findings in recent national polls of likely voters, including the final national election survey conducted by NBC News a few days ago. But the intensity of voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump is notable: the 47 percent of voters expressing strong disapproval of the president surpasses the share of the electorate saying the same about President Barack Obama in the midterm elections in 2014 (42 percent) and in 2010 (41 percent).
https://www.nbcnews.com/card/nbc-news-exit-poll-nearly-half-u-s-voters-strongly-n932431?cid=eml_onsite
What’s scary about this support for Trump is that 44% of the voters think that “make America great again” means it is okay to be racist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic. Hate is great, they think.
Notice that BBC is reporting that Tump has people critically speaking out against him. Can Trump now call BBC fake news? How thoughtful of Trump to be concerned about Paris traffic. [sarcasm]
…….
The White House has defended US President Donald Trump’s decision to miss a memorial event on Saturday after he faced a critical backlash…BBC
Mr Trump, who was in France to mark the centenary of World War One’s end, cancelled a visit to a US military cemetery amid heavy rain.
Bad weather and “near-zero visibility” grounded the presidential helicopter.
Mr Trump did not want to cause extra Paris traffic for a last-minute motorcade, officials said.
“President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said, noting the trip was 60 miles (96km) north-east of Paris….
Notable criticism came from British Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, who took an apparent swipe at the president on Twitter, saying “rain did not prevent our brave heroes from doing their job”.
His comments followed a scathing rebuke from Sir Nicholas Soames, a grandson of the wartime British leader Sir Winston Churchill.
The MP tweeted that Mr Trump was not fit to represent the US and said that he was a “pathetic inadequate” for not defying the weather “to pay his respects to the fallen”…
John Kerry
✔
@JohnKerry
President @realDonaldTrump a no-show because of raindrops? Those veterans the president didn’t bother to honor fought in the rain, in the mud, in the snow – & many died in trenches for the cause of freedom. Rain didn’t stop them & it shouldn’t have stopped an American president.
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9:02 PM – Nov 10, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy
52.8K people are talking about this
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46179291
Trump is looking for someone who is meaner than Nielsen. She didn’t work hard enough to implement his racism. Good grief. I can’t imagine the depth of hatred the next pick will demonstrate.
Wikipedia: The New York Times reported in May 2018 that Nielsen considered resigning after President Trump berated her in front of the Cabinet for the purported failure to secure U.S. borders. The Times reported that there was tension between Nielsen and Trump after she and other DHS officials resisted Trump’s call to separate undocumented immigrant parents from their children while in custody. The Times’ reporting was confirmed to Politico and Reuters by a source at the DHS.
……………………..
The Washington Post
Democracy Dies in Darkness
News Alert Nov 12, 10:38 PM
Trump is preparing to remove Kirstjen Nielsen as Homeland Security secretary, aides say
The president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen’s lackluster performance on immigration enforcement and is believed to be looking for a replacement who will implement his policy ideas with more alacrity.
Nielsen’s departure is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials. Trump canceled a planned trip with her this week to visit U.S. troops at the border in South Texas and told aides over the weekend he wants her out as soon as possible, these officials said.