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Along with Trump’s rhetoric, the stakes for 2016 have risen dramatically
The Washington Post
Dan Balz
12/8/2015
Excerpts:
Donald Trump continues to go where no recent candidate for president has gone before, plunging the Republican Party — and the nation — into another round in the tumultuous debate about immigration, national identity, terrorism and the limits of tolerance.
Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States marked a sudden and sizable escalation — and in this case one that sent shockwaves around the world — in the inflammatory and sometimes demagogic rhetoric of the candidate who continues to lead virtually every national and state poll testing whom Republicans favor for their presidential nomination.
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What once might have seemed inconceivable in political debate has become acceptable, at least to a part of the population. That makes this moment a potential inflection point in the life of the country.
For the Republican Party, it highlights what has emerged as a deep split between the party elites and at least a portion of the rank-and-file. Next week’s debate in Las Vegas, the final GOP debate of this calendar year, will bring the candidates together on a stage in what has become the most virulent moment of the campaign. Trump will be under fire, but he has been there before and survived, even prospered. Will this moment prove any different?
Beyond that, however, Trump has brought into sharper focus important questions that will play out during the coming election year: What can be done to make Americans feel safer? What will impede or encourage recruitment by Islamic State terrorists? What does it mean to be an American? What kind of image does this nation project around the world?
Along with the rhetoric of Donald Trump, the stakes for 2016 have escalated dramatically.[/I]
View the complete article, including video and images, at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...43c_story.html
The Washington Post
Dan Balz
12/8/2015
Excerpts:
Donald Trump continues to go where no recent candidate for president has gone before, plunging the Republican Party — and the nation — into another round in the tumultuous debate about immigration, national identity, terrorism and the limits of tolerance.
Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States marked a sudden and sizable escalation — and in this case one that sent shockwaves around the world — in the inflammatory and sometimes demagogic rhetoric of the candidate who continues to lead virtually every national and state poll testing whom Republicans favor for their presidential nomination.
.................................................. ......
What once might have seemed inconceivable in political debate has become acceptable, at least to a part of the population. That makes this moment a potential inflection point in the life of the country.
For the Republican Party, it highlights what has emerged as a deep split between the party elites and at least a portion of the rank-and-file. Next week’s debate in Las Vegas, the final GOP debate of this calendar year, will bring the candidates together on a stage in what has become the most virulent moment of the campaign. Trump will be under fire, but he has been there before and survived, even prospered. Will this moment prove any different?
Beyond that, however, Trump has brought into sharper focus important questions that will play out during the coming election year: What can be done to make Americans feel safer? What will impede or encourage recruitment by Islamic State terrorists? What does it mean to be an American? What kind of image does this nation project around the world?
Along with the rhetoric of Donald Trump, the stakes for 2016 have escalated dramatically.[/I]
View the complete article, including video and images, at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...43c_story.html