In the early 90s (That seems like centuries ago although I guess it was just the last one) Republicans who were insufficiently enthusiastic in supporting the extreme right wing causes of the day were derided with the sobriquet “Republicans In Name Only”, a crass and simplistic slur that intimated that those lacking insufficient zeal didn’t even deserve to call themselves Republicans in the view of the right wing purists. No big tent for them, it’s a phone booth or nothing. Well it’s a new era and the predictable yet logical end of that caustic, xenophobic acronym has devolved into one we’ll christen TINO or Trumpist In Name Only.
For the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan is no longer guided by principle, morality, or discernable ethics, those were clearly jettisoned when the Republican Senate acquitted its emperor of public nudity after the laughable sham trial it conducted. It is now guided by a singular question: “Do you support Donald Trump without reservation, mild objection (save the ones you’ll express on your cynical and self-enriching book tour), and will you do so in a display of stunningly cowardly, and in many cases hypocritical, toadying that lays waste to whatever credibility and self respect you accumulated before the Age of Trump?”
If not, you don’t belong and will be punished accordingly by persons of amazingly lesser abilities who are shadows of the persons who proudly carried the banner of the Republican Party but now make claim to determining who is pure and who is corrupt by the simple answer to the aforementioned question. And that will be the sad and pathetic historical legacy the Club for Growth, and others who have spent decades hollowing out the Republican Party, will be remembered for: endlessly championing a vitrolic and narrow-minded orthodoxy that has resulted in the exchange of a broad-minded principled, competent political party for a cult of personality led by someone who has no principles, no ethics and is demonstrably, on a day to day, hour to hour basis, utterly immoral and stunningly incompetent. A man for which the hashtag #HeIsLyingAgain should be permanently affixed to his Twitter account.
A man who will brook no dissent, nor tolerate even one person questioning his power, Democracy and the Constitution be damned. For the fact is the Republican Party should consecrate in practice what is already true, it is the Trump Party and whatever remains of the noble principles, past glories and historical achievements that were part of Republican lore are now ashes, mere memories of the accomplishments of others who were more stout, patriotic and moral than those that pretend to carry the party’s standard today. It is really the Republican Party In Name Only (RPINO, sounds like Rapinoe).
Either you’re a feckless, sycophantic devotee of Trump or your a TINO. Choose wisely though, lest you get “primaried” for having the temerity to stand on the principles that once defined your party and its unswerving support for the foundations of American democracy. Maybe the next cynical step in this steady, unrelenting assault on American democracy will be AINO, American In Name Only. At this point, there doesn’t appear to be a bottom for the Republican Party so don’t be surprised.
Created: 1/13/2020
Modified: 1/8/2021