D. Trump and his Sleepover with the Republican Kids

In a recent article on HuffPost, reporter S. V. Date conjectured how members of the Republican core feel about how things are going.  Two members of the party had opposite views.  (If you want more Trump disasters to relish, read the article.)

White house staffers, Ms. Huckabee Sanders, and those close to Trump state that Trump is doing what his voters wanted from him, and they feel that "America is winning."  Obviously, we're all going to disagree about what sorts of things can be considered to be signs that America is winning; to us moderates and liberals, both America and the World seem to be losing fast.

Others, including senators Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain, are disgusted.  "Win what?" said someone; saying that the party is in such sad shape that they don't know how to proceed.

This brings us to a major issue about party politics.  In times past, each party needed to win in order to put through some legislation that was intended to point the country and the government in some direction.  But now, because of voter polarization, partisanship--the enthusiasm of a person for his or her party--has gone beyond any interest in the political principles or even the programmatic elements of the party's platform.  Many in both parties are more preoccupied with winning, rather than with what to do once they have won.  The only thing that Trump has succeeded, which is a major setback for liberals and for the nation, is appoint a supreme court judge who seems to be blindly loyal to conservative principles, and has little if any empathy for the concerns of common people.

National politics must stop being all about winning; this must be recognized by both parties.  The GOP, sad to say, despite their 8 years in power, has taken on a sort of victim mentality, focused on winning at all costs.  (In contrast, supporters of Bernie Sanders, to Bernie's own disappointment, have taken the view that it should be Bernie or bust, which led to this disaster.  What can we say?  They must have lots of people whom they can blame, and I hope that gives them comfort!  Any Democrat would have done infinitely better as President than Trump, and so would have a number of Republicans, but there's no point in crying over spilled candidates.)

[Added later:]
This post about Jeff Flake has some interesting follow-up questions for Jeff Flake and Bob Corker (the two Republican senators who announced that they will not run again with Trump in the presidency). Again, they articulate rather well many of the things I have been struggling to say.  A thought that stands out strongly about the obsession with winning is: "My reelection before America."

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