What’s wrong with Trump Republican Party? It springs from the twin roots of political evil - Article

Carl Bernstein interviewed by Preet Bharar
[Reported by Alternet: https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/whats-wrong-with-trump-republican-party-it-springs-from-the-twin-roots-of-political-evil/]

Bernstein replied that, in his view, the divisions in the U.S. today are no longer simply a matter of ideological differences — disagreements about what constitutes a good society and how to achieve it. The whole country, he suggested, is already embroiled in a “cold civil war” that’s vividly reflected in Congress. If so, then it’s a complex war indeed, involving at least four allied but also diverging forces in today’s Republican Party:

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• Those motivated by white anxiety and resentment, some of whom also tend to be isolationists opposing U.S. military adventures abroad;
• Those dedicated to maintaining U.S. military expansion around the world, some of whom genuinely believe in the ultimate superiority of a white, Christian United States and some of whom care only about the projection of force;
• Right-wing evangelicals, many sharing white resentment and also ready to make common cause with the forces of imperial expansion, especially when it comes to support for Israel;
• Those dedicated to increasing the wealth of the wealthiest elites, who are quite willing to harness white fear of losing privilege, as well as nationalist military desires, to advance their own agenda of reducing taxes and rolling back regulatory constraints on corporate power.