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Donald Trump: A Reflection of the GOP's Regression

Any time I hear a Republican sound surprised by the rise of Donald Trump within the GOP, I have to chuckle, for his ascendancy in the party didn't just happen overnight, and for as unintentional as it may have been, the president has become a direct reflection of decades worth of GOP regressions.

The Republican Party used to be a respectable party. It was the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower. It was a party that supported healthcare reform similar to the Affordable Care Act, a party that supported stricter gun laws, a party that supported higher taxes for the wealthy, a party that fought for the civil rights of all. Had I been alive in the days of Lincoln, I would have been a Republican, but it's not 1865 anymore. The GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln; it's the party of Trump, and with this new identity, the party has gone from respectable to contemptible, losing their sense of selves, and with that, the sense of what's best for the country.

Especially since the days of Reagan in the early '80s, the Republican Party has slowly transformed from a party of the people to a party of the rich Christian straight white man. The GOP went from a 90% tax rate on the wealthy under Eisenhower to less than 30% under Reagan. The party went from fighting for blacks to attain equal rights to a party fighting to suppress blacks' voices on election day. The party went from a healthcare-for-all platform to a healthcare-for-few platform. The party went from pro-life to pro-life-until-birth. The GOP went from the Grand Old Party to the Greedy Old People, and sadly, these trends don't appear to be changing any time soon.

There's a reason Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, and with that, the presidency. There's a reason why so many self-described conservatives and Republicans voted for him. While Abraham Lincoln may have been the face of the GOP of yesteryear, Donald Trump is the face of the GOP today. It's ironic that Trump has garnered so much heat for his controversial comments and tweets, because most of what he's said has been supported by Congressional Republicans' actions for years and there wasn't near the uproar for their regressive legislation as there has been for Trump's offensive rhetoric. While I'm in no way defending the president's ridiculously offensive commentary, ad while both actions may be despicable, I find it far more harmful for a person to punch another in the face than to talk about punching another in the face.

- "An extremely credible source has called my office and told me that Barack Obama's birth certificate is a fraud."

- "I will build a great wall - and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me - and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

- "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bring crime. They're rapists... And some, I assume, are good people."

- "One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace. Good people don't go into government."

- "The beauty of me is that I'm very rich."

- "It's freezing and snowing in New York - we need global warming!"

- "The point is, you can never be too greedy."

- "I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist."

- "Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, [Republican rival Marco Rubio] referred to my hands: 'If they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."

- "Number one, I have great respect for women. I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry."

- "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

- "Why can't we use nuclear weapons?"

- "[The New York Times] don't write good. They have people over there, like Maggie Haberman and others, they don't - they don't write good. They don't know how to write good."

- "You could see there was blood coming out of he reyes, blood coming out of her wherever."

- "I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me."

This is who you've become, GOP. Donald Trump is your modern-day mirror, and unless you face this reality, that mirror is going to crack eventually, and with that, the Republican Party.

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainment/people/donald-trump-quotes-57213

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