Andrew Rosenthal Quotes
It's getting hard to keep up with all of the news from Washington - witch hunts, conspiracy theories and Republicans tearing each other apart over who is ideologically pure and who is apostate. It's a real set of carnival sideshows.
Rosenthal, Andrew. "Taking Note." The New York Times, 2015.
35 years earlier Vice President Hubert Humphrey used the same phrase to describe Republican attacks.
The historian was comparing Obama to other historical presidents who either had a majority of both Houses of Congress or had an opposition party that was generally quite cooperative and willing to compromise for the sake of running the country smoothly. At this point in time there was a Tea Party wing of the Republican that was particularly negative and obstructionist. They tended to threaten and intimidate the main stream Republicans who used the filibuster to block legislation the majority of Senators had voted for more times than all the other Congresses in American history. And that was only in Obamas first 6 years.
Trump, in the 2016, Presidential Campaign viciously attacked not only his Republican opponents for the Republican Nomination, but almost every other Republican leader, the Republican National Committee members and the “Establishment Republicans.” He not only called them names, and ridiculed them and their families, but he lied extensively about each of his opponents and the Republican National Committee. Trump also alienated women, Hispanics, Muslims across the country. The Republican party was fractured and there were great resentments. Many blamed Tump for the Party cleavage. However, what is interesting about this quotation is that Roy admits that there were huge cleavages within the party as the Result of the Tea Party Republicans intransigence before Trump entered the campaign. He just took advantage of it and used it to his advantage. Roy at this time saw the Republican splits and resentments as too deep to be able to bring the party together shortly. The split persevered.
Andrew Mark Rosenthal is an American journalist and former editorial page editor of The New York Times. He is the son of A. M. Rosenthal, a longtime New York Times senior executive and executive editor.
