Annals of the Stupid Party: Republicans Before Trump

In this installment of the Wilson files, we turn our attention to Dr. Clyde Wilson’s writing on the “Grand Old Party.” For several decades Wilson Wilson has been prolifically combating the widespread delusion “that the Republicans represent a conservative bulwark against leftist revolution.” “In its entire history of a century …

In this installment of the Wilson files, we turn our attention to Dr. Clyde Wilson’s writing on the “Grand Old Party.” For several decades Wilson Wilson has been prolifically combating the widespread delusion “that the Republicans represent a conservative bulwark against leftist revolution.” “In its entire history of a century and a half,” Wilson writes, “The Republican Party has never conserved anything. It has never had as a goal the intention of conserving anything worthwhile.” Republican leaders have no only failed their voters; they have actively swindled them.

As the author conclusively shows, today the party is not a political party at all. It is an electioneering machine to promote its leaders into positions of power and perks. Have no principles, it cannot function as an opposition party, as revealed in a total lack of effectiveness against the revolutionary Obama presidency.

In 2014 Wilson predicted that grassroots disaffection might lead to the rise of a “maverick candidate.” If such a candidate “is wise, brave, and somehow able to communicate with the people over the massive jamming of the media,” he might “accomplish the wrecking of the Republican Elite, which would be a great service to the restoration of good government.”

Enter Donald Trump. Will the twin Republican and Democratic elites succeed in killing off the Peoples insurgency? This question will remain whatever the result of the November election. The Republican Party is a poor weapon for what needs to be done unless it is radically reformed, as Wilson demonstrates in his devastating history of “the Stupid Party.”