George Curry

President Obama has seen this horror movie before. His political opponents not only distorted his positions when he first ran for president, but deliberately lied about his place of birth, asserting that because he — according to their fiction — was not a U.S. citizen, he was not qualified to be president.

Donald Trump, who actually sent a private investigator to Hawaii in an attempt to prove that President Obama was not born there, is now the leading Republican presidential contender. And now that he is eliminating his competitors with the irresponsible language and Demolition Derby-style tactics that he hurled at President Obama, GOP party leaders are in a panic because it might cost them this year’s election.

Meanwhile, President Obama is wondering why anyone is surprised. 

“How can you be shocked?” he asked in a speech at a Democratic National Committee event in Austin, Texas. “This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya — who just wouldn’t let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren’t saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot, wanted to get his endorsement. And then now, suddenly, we’re shocked that there’s gambling going on in this establishment.” 

Feeding their base constantly the notion that everything is a disaster, that everybody else is to blame, that Obamacare is destroying the country. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. It’s not, we disagree with this program, we think we can do it better — it’s, oh, this is a crisis!

“So if you don’t care about the facts, or the evidence or civility, in general, in making your arguments, you will end up with candidates who will say just about anything and do just about anything.”

Among those who didn’t “care about the facts” at the time were former Republican presidential nominees John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mr. Romney’s running mate, House Speaker Paul Ryan.

David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, described Mr. Trump as an “American Demagogue” and said he is “the beneficiary of a long process of Republican intellectual decadence.”

He wrote, “Paul Ryan denounces Trump but not the Tea Party rhetoric that propelled his own political ascent. John McCain holds Trump in contempt, but selected as his running mate Sarah Palin, the Know-Nothing of Wasilla, one of Trump’s most vivid forerunners and supporters. Mitt Romney last week righteously slammed Trump as a ‘phony’ and a misogynist, and yet in 2012 he embraced Trump’s endorsement and praised his ‘extraordinary’ understanding of economics.”

Mr. Trump outmaneuvered the Republican competition with outright racist appeals that would have derailed any other candidate.

The Republican front-runner has become a favorite of white supremacists largely by insulting women, “the blacks,” Muslims and the physically disabled while delivering one simple-minded message, according to Ted Koppel: “ ‘We’re gonna be the best, we’re gonna be the greatest, I’m gonna negotiate the best deals you’ve ever seen.’ ”

Mr. Koppel explained, “There is no substance in any of that, and nobody among his followers seems to care about that.”

Mr. Trump has become the Republican Party’s Frankenstein. In the horror movie, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature from the body parts of the deceased. He discovers his experiment has gone awry and expects the creature to die, but he doesn’t. Once the creature is rejected by society, he exacts revenge by killing everyone Frankenstein loves.

There is no doubt that the person who has been referred to as “Frankentrump” is killing the Republican Party.

Historian Nina Turner said on CNN, “It is ironic to me that some of the same Republicans right now, some of them who are calling out Mr. Trump, did not call him out when he pushed the birther movement on our African-American President Barack Obama. They were nowhere to be found. They thought it was cute. Now that it’s plaguing their house, it’s not so cute anymore.”

The writer is editor-in-chief of EmergeNewsOnline.com.