Jennifer Rubin: “Most of the ‘culture war’ that consumes Trump and his base is about white Christians objecting to others calling out racist totems. It is their ‘history’ (including the fairy tale of the ‘Lost Cause’) that is being erased when Americans decide to remove statues of traitorous white nationalists from our streets and to take off the names of those who took up arms against the U.S. Army from our military bases. And it is their fragile white suburbs that Trump promises he will protect by keeping ‘low-income housing’ out of their neighborhoods.”
“When so intently focused on recapturing a mythical past to alleviate Republicans’ sense of loss, the party becomes a vehicle for self-therapy and for assuaging a sense of resentment. To justify this self-absorption, they must engage in a perpetual search for evidence that justifies racism and xenophobia. This is not a governing philosophy. This is not a problem-solving movement. The reason Republicans are forever screaming and whining and accusing others is simple: Victimhood and self-pity is becoming the core of what the GOP is about. This surely is not the manly party it pretends to be.”