The Spirit of the Republican Party

Chris Hayes has tried to pinpoint the spirit of the Republican Party: it’s cruelty. He showed some clips to back up this assertion, including one that showed a right-wing media persnality savagely criticizing Simone Biles for dropping out of the Olympics: she was weak; she let America down; etc. I suspect that this character feels inadequate to the core. Criticizing someone who is a great athlete and a lovely sensitive human being is his way of trying to prop up his battered ego. He likely has a population of regular listeners who are as mean-spirited as he is. Trump epitomizes this malevolent strain of personality and cultivated it in others. People like that can’t feel shame, an emotion that never seeps into the narcissistic bubble they inhabit and are helpless to escape.

Is this really the spirit of the Republican Party? Maybe it’s not, but it’s certainly pervasive among a lot of Republican office holders, media people, and their supporters.