Brooks: The GOP ‘Has Become an Ethnic Nationalist Party’

On Friday’s broadcast of “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued the Republican Party “has become an ethnic nationalist party.”

Brooks said, “Trump today, he — you know, buy American, buy American, anti-free trade, and got big cheers. They’re waving Russian flags, probably partly as a joke. But, still, the party has become an ethnic nationalist party. And I don’t think it’s just because they, oh, that we agree with Trump on some things and not on others. I do think, over the last 10 years, a lot of Republicans have decided it’s not working, what the party believed in, free trade, global capitalism, open borders. They looked at basically the failed wars and they said, oh, this, us being the policeman of the world, that’s not working. And so, something really serious has shifted in the minds of Republicans, and certainly others.”

He added, “[W]e had the clip earlier in the program of Trump saying: I’m not president of the globe. I’m president of the United States. Reagan would have never said that. Eisenhower would have never said that, because he would have said, yes, I’m president of the United States, but it’s in our interests to be securing a world order.”

Brooks concluded, “[I]t’s interesting how identity politics and Ann Coulter-style tactics have now blossomed. But they were always there at CPAC.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett