You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

Remember when Republicans had moral qualms about Donald Trump?

Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images

Paul Ryan, the standard-bearer for Republican respectability this election season, delivered the most definitive evidence yet that the GOP has become Trump’s party.

Ryan once refused to campaign with Trump, after a tape emerged of Trump bragging about groping women’s genitalia. Remember that? He also once accused Trump of “textbook racism.” Then he admitted to voting for Trump. Now he and the American Nazi Party share common sentiments about the appointment of Stephen Bannon.

My, how times have changed!

Lest we forget, Bannon boasted repeatedly about his ties to the alt-right and ran a racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist website that propelled Trump by publishing scads of misinformation. He is a skilled propagandist, and for his entire career he has deployed those skills in service of white supremacist jingoism. He is the perfect Trump adviser. And the GOP, if it doesn’t condemn him and his ilk now, will only further cement its status as the party of white nationalism.

But at least they got some free hats.