I've been up to my usual tricks - corraling Walt with arguments reviling his precious GOP.
This article from a year ago, by a Chinese historian, makes exact parallels between Trump and Mao, and shows how the GOP is decaying from a Leninist party (Hastert Rule!) into a Maoist one.
The process of Leninist degeneration in both China and the GOP was completed through the apotheosis of the charismatic leader. There are many differences between Mao and Trump, but their similarities are uncanny. Both are sons of wealthy landlords. Both rely on ties to propaganda machines to stoke hatred of ostensible enemies. Both sabotage international alliances. The political rallies of both men are vermilion spectacles of adulation as the legions hold aloft their “Little Red Books” or adorn their crowns with red MAGA caps. Such populist extravaganzas manifest their unparalleled political advantages.
The Maoification of the GOP enables President Trump to do whatever he wants in the ostensible advancement of “conservatism,” a term which, like “communism” in China today, is rendered increasingly meaningless as it is equated with nothing more than party power and loyalty to the supreme leader. Such a party needs no electoral platform beyond supporting the president’s “agenda.” The GOP is the “party of Trump,” and Republicans who beg to differ have now “self-purged,” to paraphrase Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
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