History will mark how many Republicans shy from Trump’s extremism

by E.J. Dionne Jr.

E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He is also a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio and MSNBC.

In 1964, Nelson A. Rockefeller, the governor of New York, rose before the Republican National Convention to condemn “extremists” who had “no plan and no program to keep the peace and bring freedom to the world.”

Amid the boos and catcalls from right-wingers on the floor, Rockefeller denounced those who “spread distrust,” “engender suspicion” and “encourage disunity.”

“There is no place in this Republican Party,” declared this stalwart of GOP progressivism, “for such hawkers of hate, such purveyors of prejudice, such fabricators of fear.”

You wonder what Rocky would make of President Trump and the movement he has nurtured. And you sure wish someone like Rockefeller were around today to call his party back to reason and tolerance.

The events of recent days ought to try the consciences of Republicans who know that extremism and hatred are wrong. Many in the party acknowledge — usually in private — that the president they have continued to back has rooted his political appeal in vicious attacks against his opponents and a free press. He has invented crises for the purpose of stoking dread and horror. And he has targeted minority groups (immigrants especially) to harvest political support.

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