If you can keep it
T he GOP has long been toxic in the underbelly and Trump simply opened the doors and said the quiet parts out loud. Suddenly the most base instincts were expressed out in the open and folks could be as openly racist, homophobic and transphobic as they desired. The party made its bed a while ago with a southern strategy which drew in Dixie democrats disgruntled with the way social progress had soiled their previously pristine existence as slave owners and then proud segregationists. Now the guys with the hoods were Republicans and slowly but surely the middle and southern portions of the country became red. This even more so in rural and less diverse areas where the toll of economic hardship was the hardest. The party figured out how to distract with culture war outrage as camouflage for horrific policies which favored their wealthy benefactors. Today this tactic works better than ever with its fight against "wokeism" and LGBTQ rights as strawmen with Trumpism opening an even