Maybe it began with the declaration by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in 2010 that the primary objective of his party was to make Obama fail, to make him "a one term President". Maybe it was the 50+ times that the Republicans in the House passed measures to repeal ObamaCare, obviously, as it became apparent in 2017, with no clue how to replace it. Maybe it was as more and more Party leaders swung support to candidate Trump. Maybe it was ignoring the Access Hollywood tape or backing off criticism of the Presidential candidate for rampant sexual harassment that he was very proud of. Maybe it was the first year of Trump's term when leading Republicans continued to back this President despite his obvious and constant lying, the clear ties to Russia, the support of white supremacists (at least 3 times with David Duke, Charlottesville and the "Muslim" video retweets), and the constant attacks on everyone who disagreed with him, from Obama to gold star families to the FBI to Stephen Curry. But regardless of where it began, the Republican Party has lost all moral ground.
It used to be the case that the Republicans had a very clear ideology based around 1)small government, 2)low taxes, 3)minimal spending on social programs, 4)strong national defense, 5)economic growth through free trade, 6)social conservatism. One could add lowering the national deficit, but that is clearly more opportunistic than ideological. Reagan massively increased the deficit by cutting taxes and increasing military spending.
I disagree with most of the tenets of traditional Republicans, but I would also like to see smaller government, less waste and lower taxes (more focused on the 90% rather than on the top 1%). But that is what is theoretically cool about democracy. Democrats can favor more social programs, environmental regulation and divorcing government from legislating social or religious values. And voters can decide what makes most sense to them.
But Republicans have by and large de-focused on large portions of their historical platform to simply become the party of corporate and elitist greed. In the process, they have consciously abandoned all moral standing.
We have a President that is clearly unfit for the office. He is angry and unpredictable. He is unstable and a habitual liar. He clearly colluded with Russia to win the election and then has continually attempted to halt or obstruct the investigation. He has attacked Constitutionally independent arms of the government (Judiciary, Justice Department, FBI, CIA) when they simply do their jobs rather than the President's bidding. And who has the best view of this behavior? Congress. And the strongest criticism of the President comes from 3-4 Republican Senators who will not run again and almost no Republican in the House. Those that criticize at all, quickly back off and fall in line, abandoning the higher ground and de facto endorsing whatever their President does and says.
The two clear indicators of the total loss of any sense of moral conviction have come in recent weeks: the ramming through of a tax give away to the richest of the rich and the endorsement of Roy Moore in Alabama.
John McCain killed the Senate health plan, not because it would strip millions of access to health care, but because he disapproved of the process. It was drafted through secret discussions which only included specified Republicans who then attempted to jam through a brutally flawed plan expecting 50/52 Republican senators to agree with the President, basically, "I don't care what is in the plan as long as it is not ObamaCare". (The President made this attitude obvious when it was clear he had absolutely no clue about the substance of the plan and endorsed it despite it violating multiple campaign pledges.) But when it came to the tax plan, which was probably even worse in regards to process, again drafted by a small group of Republicans and modified multiple times in the last hours, after the minimal 1 day of debate, and then again rammed through to a vote when absolutely no one voting knew exactly what was in the bill, as it was still being changed while the vote was taking place. (The bill was almost 500 pages and included last minute hand written changes in the margins.) Compare that to an obviously partisan, but, at least open process on ObamaCare, on which there were open debates and hearings for a year.
Why would the Republicans push through such a complex package touching everything from tax to health care to higher education with virtually no discussion of the bill either within Congress, or heaven forbid, the American people? 1)After the multiple, very public failures at replacing ObamaCare, they were desperate for some kind of "win" before the mid-terms. 2)Even with minimal knowledge the public was opposed to the bill as its prime focus is on making the wealthiest corporations and individuals richer. 3)They feared an explosion of public sentiment if the bill was openly debated and exposed.
The tax bill, both in Senate and House forms, is a massive Christmas gift to the upper 1%. Of the 1.5 trillion dollars in cuts, roughly $750,000,000,000 goes to the richest 1%. This is the same 1% that has absorbed 90% of increased wealth over the past four decades. And while they gift this money to the super rich, and know that they will trigger massive Medicare cuts, the Republican Congress lets expire and then says there is no money for the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides needed health care to 9 million children of the working poor. The program cost $13.6 billion in 2016. They couldn't shave 2% of the breaks to the top 1%, or less than 1% of the total cuts to provide often life saving care to 9 million kids? Is that morally bankrupt?
Much like on climate science, the Republican party continues to be the party of science deniers and deniers of expert opinions that make their policies look ridiculous. Every, I repeat every, analysis of the tax bill, including analysis by the most conservative, pro-Republican economists agree that the bill will increase the deficit. The disagreement is on how much of that will be made up by improvements in the economy spurred by the bill. The consensus is around one trillion dollars, as predicted by the independent, non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, worst case, 1.4 trillion dollars as predicted by Wharton School of Business models, and best case, $516 billion as predicted by the conservative Tax Foundation, previously praised and leaned on by Republicans. And yet, just because they want it to be so, Republicans continue to insist the plan is revenue neutral. Just fantasy. It's like me saying I will win the next three WSOP Main Events. Its irrational, nearly impossible, all evidence argues otherwise, but I would certainly like it to be so.
The Republicans show that they are willing to sacrifice anyone and anything for what is now a very clear policy focus: 1)Gain and stay in power. 2)Make the very rich, very much richer. That's it.
And for those who argue that this is the party of Christian morality, I suggest you look again at the new two faces endorsed by the Republican Party, Donald Trump and Roy Moore. Forget Ryan, Walker, Rubio. Even forget McConnell and Cruz (we wish we could). By their now overt complicity, the Republican Party is now the party the eschews Christian or any other moral values to support not only a man who admits to being a sexual predator (before he decided a year later that the tape must have been doctored, Trump admitted saying what he said about molesting women), but also a man who has attacked critical facets of US democracy, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct an investigation into minimally foreign collusion and likely, outright treason. This is a man who is unfit mentally, emotionally and morally to be in any office, let alone the Presidency. The Republicans know all this. And they don't care as long as they can decimate social programs to make the rich richer.
And now, not only Trump, but the RNC endorses Roy Moore. McConnell backs off his stance that child molesters do not belong in the Senate and now says its up to the people of Alabama. (71% of Alabama Republicans believe all 9 Roy Moore accusers are liars. Probably just like all 20+ Trump accusers are all liars and 99.9% of climate scientists are liars.) Trump pretty much outright says he prefers pediphiles to Democrats. And now, the Republicans fall in line. When Ivanka said there is a special place in hell for men who prey on children, we didn't know she was talking about the US Senate.
Roy Moore was a despicable character before the penchant for young girls was revealed. This is the guy who wants to run the country based on his interpretation of the bible. He wants homosexuality to be illegal and punishable. It is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Consenting same sex relations should be criminal but attempted rape of a 14 year old is qualification to be in the US Senate.
I am not saying the Democratic party is pure. But, it is clear, the Republican party has become totally Trumped. When you think Republican, you now must think Trump and Moore.