In Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, one of the characters is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Nearly 100 years later these lines still ring true. Bankruptcy — whether financial, moral or political — tends to happen gradually until it happens suddenly.
The moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party did not happen overnight. It happened gradually — starting with Newt Gingrich’s attack on the government in the early 1990s. It continued with the Tea Party movement, the birther conspiracy and the nomination of Donald Trump in 2016.
It gained momentum when Trump won the 2016 election despite losing the popular vote. Once in office, it grew worse when his attacks…
