Hillary Clinton — Hillary Clinton, of all people! — has done the Republican Party a huge favor.
Hillary Clinton — Hillary Clinton, of all people! — has done the Republican Party a huge favor.
She has thrown the GOP a lifeline, given conservatives their last, best chance to save themselves from the ruinous blathering of Donald Trump.
It’s like the Grinch sitting down to carve the roast beast for the Whos down in Whoville. Who would’ve thunk it?
Clinton reached a hand out Thursday by calmly delivering a speech in Nevada that called out Trump’s litany of bigoted comments, his casual wink-and-a-nod relationships with racists and hate-mongers, his embrace of the bile-spewing internet trolls of the alt-right.
She left nothing to chance, citing specific examples, naming names, recounting stories from the alt-right website Breitbart, whose head man, Stephen Bannon, is now Trump’s campaign CEO.
Clinton said of Bannon:
“To give you a flavor of his work, here are a few headlines they’ve published:
‘Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.’
‘Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?’
‘Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement’s Human Shield’
‘Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.’”
Clinton was not being hyperbolic in her speech. Her words were grounded in facts, like those headlines. It wasn’t so much an attack as it was a demolition.
And it was exactly the kind of speech a Republican should have given during the primary, one that might have kept Trump from ever getting this far. Alas, the other candidates were too cowardly, all of them. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz never stood up to Trump until it was too late, always fearful of the zealous fringe that supported him — the very same wackos Clinton took to task.
“This is what happens when you treat the National Enquirer like gospel,” she said. “It’s what happens when you listen to the radio host Alex Jones, who claims that 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombings were inside jobs. He said the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were child actors and no one was actually killed there. Trump didn’t challenge those lies. He went on Jones’ show and said: ‘Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.’”
That’s all true. And it’s all just as despicable as it sounds.
The “alt-right” that Clinton talked about in her speech is a perverse collection of racist, misogynist, xenophobic white guys who resent America’s diversity and think viciously harassing people online transforms them from pathetically aggrieved man-children into gods. (It doesn’t.)
There are two schools of thought when it comes to handling internet trolls or radical fringe groups: Ignore them or shine a light on them for all to see.
Clinton took that latter path, and said: “This is a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Trump. It’s a moment of reckoning for all of us who love our country and believe that America is better than this.”
She never said, “Vote for me.” She simply called out Trump for what he is: a reckless bigot surrounded by equally reckless and equally bigoted wretches.
The Republican Party couldn’t police itself well enough to stave off the rise of this reality television clown. Now Clinton — the hated Hillary Clinton, of all people — has given Republicans of good conscience a way out.
She did their dirty work for them. She gave them a reason — many reasons, in fact — to accept that Trump is unacceptable, and a chance to wash the stink of his campaign off before it clings to them forever. Not by voting for her, but by recognizing all that comes with voting for him.
Clinton’s an unlikely savior for Republicans who care about the future of their party. But if a lifeline comes along when you’re drowning, you shouldn’t care too much about who’s on the other end.
Rex Huppke is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Readers may email him at rhuppke@chicagotribune.com