Jackie Calmes: Rational Republican leaders could keep quiet instead of endorsing Trump. Why won't they?
by Jackie Calmes, Los Angeles Times
Mar 01, 2024
3 minutes
The Republican Party's transformation into an anti-government populist movement has been a bottom-up phenomenon: Conservative voters, radicalized by right-wing radio, Fox News, social media and opportunistic demagogues, rose up for their tea party takeover. Then the biggest demagogue of all, Donald Trump, harnessed those voters to make the party his own.
That merger of man and movement has been Trump's superpower for nearly a decade. Party leaders, fearful of his sway over voters, turned invertebrate, groveled at his bidding and let Trump indulge his worst impulses unchecked.
The party's "boneless wonders" made
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