martinimade

“The election of Obama in 2008 had felt like a cleansing moment for America, a proof point that our present was better than our past. People wanted so desperately to believe that we lived in a country that could elect an African American, and when that came to fruition, people wanted to believe that America had crossed the Rubicon and left our less than glorious past behind. There was some real truth in these hopes and dreams, but Obama’s historic election and successful presidency also roused some sleeping demons and brought them from the fringes into the mainstream of the Republican Party.

“It’s possible the Republican Party was headed down this path anyway as their voters got older and whiter while the rest of the country was getting younger and more diverse. But there is no question that the election of a young African American president with the middle name Hussein catalyzed the craziness.

“If you want to understand how and why the Republican Party stands by the daily moral and political outrages of Donald Trump, it begins with their response to the election of Barack Obama."

-- Dan Pfeiffer, Yes We (Still) Can.