By james art It’s been 41 years since Ronald Reagan gave his famous “Evil Empire” speech. It was 1983, at the height of the Cold War, and President Reagan spoke passionately about the “focus of evil in the modern world” that was the Soviet Union. He rejected arguments of a false equivalence between the US and the Soviets and instead stated that the conflict was nothing less than a battle between good and evil.
This framing of Russia and America would become fundamental to the Republican Party and conservatism in this country. And it cemented Reagan as a transformative president and darling of the right.
Just a few decades later, however, Donald Trump has convinced a tiny fraction of the party to abandon its disdain for dictators and autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and instead either excuse their undemocratic actions, or to praise them.
For a child of the 1980s, a longtime conservative, and former Republican like myself, this recasting of the party as no longer opposed to Russia or the dictatorships it used to be is disorienting, to say the least.
But like so many other longstanding principles that Republicans have willingly abandoned over the past eight years, it’s a reminder that the conservative movement today is tied to nothing but Trump himself. And because of this, he can convince them of practically anything.
Or maybe? The limits of this thought experiment are about to be tested.
That’s because a stunning report from The Atlantic revealed that while he was president, Trump expressed frustration that his generals weren’t loyal enough, allegedly adding: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had “.
Hours after The Atlantic’s publication, the New York Times released an audio recording of Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, claiming that Trump had “commented more than once that Hitler did some good things.”
Now, to anyone else, these revelations would be disqualifying. And there are plenty of people who still think it should be. Trump’s magic, thankfully, hasn’t worked on everyone.
But the problem is that his own party has continually given Trump cover for the most despicable and egregious crimes, allowing him to survive round after round of previously heretical behavior.
But if ever there was a line that was too horrible to cross, surely it was Hitler’s defense, right?
Republican Sen. Bill Haggerty was questioned about the comments on CNN and began promisingly: “Well, I wouldn’t say that Hitler did good things.” But he quickly avoided retracting the praise by implying that Trump didn’t say it or believed, and accused the media of bringing it up “to divert and divert.”
Things got worse on Fox & Friends.
Host Brian Kilmeade tried to offer “context” — in other words, cover — for Trump’s comments, inexplicably saying:
“I could absolutely see him going ‘Now, you know what? It’s going to be great to have German generals actually doing what we asked them to do, knowing that it’s kind of — maybe not entirely under — the full awareness of the third rail of the German generals who were Nazis or whatever .”
Yeah, maybe Trump just doesn’t know that “Nazis or whatever” were bad guys.
So what’s the next iteration? It’s not hard to imagine Trump’s supporters — just as Republicans have over time noticed January 6 and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — gradually getting to a place where they actually agree that “Hitler did some good things.”
After all, to placate Trump, Republicans have repeatedly excused his immorality, lies, ignorance, bullying, bigotry, and incompetence. They ignored his many broken promises and failed policies.
The Republicans, once the party of law and order, nominated a convicted felon for president.
The Republicans, once the party of patriotism, nominated a man who incited a violent uprising in the Capitol.
Republicans, once a pro-military party, have nominated a draft dodger who dismisses our servicemen as weak and awake, wretched and losers.
Republicans, once the party of Christian values, nominated a man who admitted to grabbing women by the genitalia, pleaded guilty to rape, paid a porn star he allegedly slept with four months after his wife gave birth, mocks the disabled, denigrates immigrants and minorities, and takes money from his own supporters to pay his legal bills.
All of these things should have been a bridge too far for people of principle, but Republicans crossed the Rubicon long ago.
I hope my former party doesn’t follow him off that cliff either. But nothing shocks me anymore.
SE Cupp hosts “SE Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.