Veteran GOP strategist quits party, writes scathing critique

Veteran GOP strategist, Steve Schmidt, former adviser in the Bush White House, has renounced his membership in the Republican party with a series of scathing tweets, calling it "corrupt, indecent, and immoral" and saying it has become "fully Trump's party."

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Citing a few Republican governors as exceptions, in a series of tweets, Schmidt says the GOP:

". . . is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party's greatest leaders.   

"This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history.   It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families.   It is immoral and must be repudiated.   Our country is in trouble.  Our politics are badly broken.

"The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities.   I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda.   I say this as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.

"On Ronald Reagan's grave are these words:   'I know in my heart that man is good.  That what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.'   He would be ashamed of McConnell and Ryan and all the rest while this corrupt government establishes internment camps for babies.  Everyone of these complicit leaders will carry this shame through history.  Their legacies will be ones of well earned ignominy.   They have disgraced their country and brought dishonor to the Party of Lincoln.

"I have spent much of my life working in GOP politics.  I have always believed that both parties were two of the most important institutions to the advancement of human freedom and dignity in the history of the world.   Today the GOP has become a danger to our democracy and values.

"This independent voter will be aligned with the only party left in America that stands for what is right and decent and remains fidelitous to our Republic, objective truth, the rule of law and our Allies.   That party is the Democratic Party."

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I've long admired Steve Schmidt, even when he was working for "the other party."   He speaks in very strong language, but he is not a hot-head.   He chooses his words carefully and conveys what he means.

Coming from him, this is the strongest statement yet to come forth in this time of horror enacted simply on the whim of a president too easily influenced by one or two advisers -- Stephen Miller, to be specific -- and by certain Fox News broadcasters who toady and feed him his lines.

It's not reassuring to hear reports from journalists' inside sources that say those around the president are very selective in pictures they show him and reports the give him so as not to upset him with conflicting evidence that calls his policy into question.   That makes them complicit enablers of the worst sort.

Schmidt is right.   This is a dangerous time for our democracy.   Not for Democrats, but for our democracy.   This way heads to autocracy, if not even fascism.

Ralph