Now, I ask you, as the Republican Party self-consciously tries to become the party of the American working class, which set of values does it model and espouse? Sheepdog or wolf? When Donald Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" he was cultivating not healthy loyalty but rather destructive defiance, and that defiance has withstood some of the worst scandals and misconduct in the history of the presidency.
When Senator Ted Cruz took the stage at a conservative conference and declared, "I'm Ted Cruz, and my pronoun is 'kiss my ass,' " he wasn't being direct or plain-spoken. He was crass and demeaning. When Senator Josh Hawley raised his fist in support of the Capitol mob before the Jan. 6 attack, he was saluting the wolves.
But here's what's particularly perverse: Each of the individuals I just mentioned is a member of the upper echelon of the American elite...
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