The Republican President and the Pottery Barn Rule: Why the GOP Owns the Mistakes of its President
In the summer of 2002 then US Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly warned Republican President George W. Bush about his invasion of Iraq, “once you break it, you are going to own it, and we’re going to be responsible for 26 million people standing there looking at us.”
This statement has come to be known as “The Pottery Barn Rule.” Essentially, it states that if you break it, you own it.
Which brings me to the Republican Party.
Over the past year we watched the GOP fail to stop the momentum of the Donald. We saw the party endorse him as their candidate. We witnessed them embracing his executive orders, his nominees, and his agenda. And we are yet to see them take any meaningful action on his connections to Russia.
History will show the Republican President to be the most hateful, xenophobic, incompetent, unqualified, corrupt person to ever hold the office. But it would be a mistake to see him as an anomaly. He ran as a Republican, and he won as a Republican. He is theirs.
The Republican President is the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Therefore his mistakes are theirs as well.
Until they stop him…
Every malicious tweet is a reflection of the party.
Every lie repeated is a lie told by the GOP.
Every xenophobic policy is a policy of the Republicans.
Every violation of the Constitution belongs to every person in the party who has abetted it.
The Republican President is smashing the vases of our American democracy. And unless those in his party stand up against him, they are responsible for repairing the damage he causes.
The Pottery Barn rule applies to you, GOP.
