RINOS, Bill Barr and Donald Trump's War On Language and Meaning

One of things that made Donald Trump such a mercurial and provocative figure in the 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was Trump’s apparent contempt for the Republican Party. 

Trump broadcast his hatred for the Republican establishment at every turn. He seemingly had only a vague sense of what being a Republican even entailed beyond xenophobia, white nationalism, lower taxes and hating Barack Obama and the Clintons with a white-hot (emphasis on white) fury. 

Trump consequently did not change to fit the Republican Party so much as the Republican Party changed to fit the whims and rages of Donald Trump. Instead of Donald Trump remaking himself in the image of the Republican Party, the Republican Party remade itself completely in the tacky, tawdry image of Donald Trump. 

Before Trump, we had a pretty good sense of what being a Republican involved. It meant wanting lower taxes and smaller government, a well-funded and aggressive military and police force and an intense hostility to social welfare programs. 

After Trump, being a Republican means one thing and one thing only: blind obedience to Donald Trump and aggressively, co-signing literally everything he says, up to and including angrily insisting that Trump won the 2020 presidential election in a sacred landslide that was unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who had been badly & unfairly treated for so long.

When Ivanka Trump said that she was a proud “Trump Republican” that’s what she meant: that she was publicly committed to supporting every crazy-ass thing her father said. 

By seemingly any criteria other than “blindly supporting literally everything Trump says” people like Liz Cheney, Bill Barr and Mitch McConnell are much better Republicans than Donald Trump. For starters, they all seem familiar with the party’s history and beliefs, unlike Trump. 

Yet in the months since the kerfuffle on January 6th, Trump has called Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell AND Bill Barr, his OWN UNFAILINGLY LOYAL ATTORNEY GENERAL RINOs. 

RINO is of course a euphemism for “Republican in Name Only.” It’s a pejorative phrase used to disparage politicians who belong to the GOP yet are seen as excessively moderate or even Liberal by hardcore Conservatives. 

There’s NOTHING remotely Liberal or moderate about Cheney, McConnell or Barr however. 

They all fit the classic Conservative mold far more than Trump does but the twice-impeached ex-president has re-defined “RINO” to mean “any Republican who dares displease me.”

The only criteria by which these Conservative Republicans could possibly qualify as RINOs is by Trump’s definition.

Here’s the thing: I fucking HATE Mitch McConnell. He is a fucking monster. I absolutely despise him. I feel the same way about Bill Barr. He was a HORRIBLE attorney general and a spineless sycophant to Trump throughout his time in office. I don’t know much about Liz Cheney but everything I do know about her other than her hatred of Trump and Trump’s hatred of her is negative. 

Yet I nevertheless find myself in the absurd and surreal position of defending their Republican bona fides against Trump’s attacks. 

RINO used to mean something. Thanks to Trump it doesn’t any more. 

Along with his war on democracy and his war on decency, Trump has unleashed a war on the English language and a war on meaning that we cannot and must not let him win, even if that means defending, on some level at least, the deplorable likes of Barr, McConnell and Cheney, at least from the ridiculous charge of being RINOs. 

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