Max Boot: Trump’s Turned GOP into a ‘Cult of Personality’ with Appeals to ‘White Nationalism’ and ‘Racism’

EXCERPT:

BOOT: "It’s utterly transformed from what it was when I was growing up in the 1980s, Anderson, in the days of Ronald Reagan. I can’t recognize this Republican Party, which is why I can’t be a part of it. It’s in many ways become a cult of personality built around Donald Trump and his appeal. Beyond the cult of personality is essentially to white nationalism, it’s to racism, it’s the xenophobia. You see the way that he is fear-mongering and conspiracy-mongering, trying to pretend that this small number of impoverished Latin American refugees are somehow Middle Eastern terrorists who are going to invade America, and most Republicans approve of that. This is the farthest thing you can imagine from the days of Ronald Reagan. In 1980, Ronald Reagan actually gave a speech in which he talked about making America great again, a familiar slogan, but when he was talking about that, he was celebrating the achievements of immigrants. He was not demonizing immigrants. It’s just a vastly different party from the one I joined and I can’t be part of it."