Salon (Blog)
By Elias Isquith
November 4, 2015
Although
we are still a full year removed from the 2016 presidential election,
the Republican Party primary long ago reached such depths of Know
Nothing absurdity that
the 2012 contest, which was widely understood to have been an
extravaganza of embarrassment , is starting to look relatively
dignified. Even quaint.
Yes,
2012 inspired more than a few moments when it was hard to tell if the
campaign was real or an especially broad piece of satire. There was
“Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan,”
and “severe” conservatism, and warnings of the “dangerous consequences”
of a simple vaccine. But for all the things he is, Newt Gingrich is not
Donald Trump; when he attacks a debate moderator, he prefers to aim
above the belt.
Literally
and figuratively, Trump chooses a different approach. He’s been
officially campaigning for president for only about four months — but
what a four months! Because
of him, the GOP primary has devoted significant time to discussing:
whether Mexicans are rapists, whether Jeb Bush is impotent, whether
Syrian refugees are ISIS, and whether there’s something wrong with Carly
Fiorina’s face. He’s also questioned Ben Carson’s
religion. No taboo is safe.
Yet
as spectacular and unfortunate as Trump’s influence on 2016 has been
already, recent developments suggest that it’s about to get a whole lot
worse. Because while
Trump’s campaign has already heavily relied on barely-coded racism, its
targets have mainly been ill-defined groups like “illegals” or “the
media.” With the notable exception of Jorge Ramos, Trump hasn’t directed
his politicized and weaponized bigotry toward
any one individual — certainly not one of his fellow candidates.
But
now Trump is attacking Sen. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American who may be
the GOP establishment’s new favorite. And if his recent volleys are any
indication of what’s
to come, there may be no limit to how ugly the Republican presidential
primary — which was already hideous — is about to get.
On
Tuesday, it was Trump’s mockery of Rubio’s sweating that got the most
notice. But as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent pointed out, it’s
something Trump tweeted that,
in retrospect, may look like an omen. Along with a note saying that the
senator “[c]annot be [p]resident,” Trump tweeted a link to a Breitbart
article in which a reporter from the virulently anti-immigrant site
criticized Rubio for opposing the immediate deportation
of DREAMers (undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country at
a young age).
As
Sargent noted, by going after Rubio on immigration, Trump is focusing
on “an issue where the Florida senator’s evasions and gyrations are
already angering conservatives.”
Rubio was once a major supporter of comprehensive immigration reform,
and many hardcore conservatives suspect that a President Rubio would
support the policy once again. But although that’s important, it doesn’t
give us the full sense of the demagoguery that
Trump is now flirting with.
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