In his Friday New York Times column, Paul Krugman argued that, when it comes down to it, the real reason that Republicans are lining up behind Donald Trump is the same reason the party does everything, i.e. to further enrich the wealthy.
"To put it bluntly," Krugman argued, "the modern Republican Party is in essence a machine designed to deliver high after-tax incomes to the 1 percent." Trump's racism is little more than a cynical sideshow, as House Speaker Paul Ryan's acquiescence to his nomination demonstrates:
Mr. Ryan, after a brief pretense of agonizing about Mr. Trump, is now in full attack-dog mode on the candidate’s behalf. After all, the Trump tax plan would be a huge windfall for the wealthy, while Hillary Clinton would surely sustain President Obama’s significant tax hike on high incomes, and try to push it further.
I’m not saying that all leading Republicans are racists; most of them probably aren’t, although Mr. Trump probably is. It is that in pursuit of their economic — actually, class-interest — goals they were willing to act as enablers, to make their party a safe space for prejudice...
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