Now it's the Trump party vs. the Anti-Trump party
"There is no Republican Party," the former Ohio congressman said with a Bloody Mary in his hand, handed to him by his interviewer in a Q&A onstage at a policy conference in Mackinac Island, Mich. "There's a Trump party. The Republican Party is kinda taking a nap somewhere."
Boehner, who stepped down as speaker in 2015 and recently joined the board of a cannabis company, called Trump one of the "most unusual" people to be elected as U.S. president. Yet Boehner still defended the former reality TV star for enacting what Republicans say "by and large are really good things."
Indeed, from a GOP point of view, Trump is often crude, rude and unpredictable. He's a recent Republican but he still dances with the folks who brought him, and that can mean everything in politics. Even when he signs a tax cut that benefits the rich more than working stiffs, his voters stay loyal, judging by the polls and his rally crowds.
That's the political tribalism to which Obama alluded. In the tribe, issues take a back seat to which team you're on. It's working for Trump. The only Republicans criticizing him are those who aren't running for office again.
Boehner's right. The party of "Honest Abe" Lincoln has become the party of fabulist Trump, whose falsehoods in office now exceed 3,000, according to the Washington Post Fact Checker's count.
And Democrats have become the party of anti-Trumpers, fired-up and eager to vote against Trump -- as soon as they decide who to vote for.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
