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At the end of the 1970s Conservatives criticized President Carter for his lackluster response to Russian aggression with the invasion of its neighbor, Afghanistan.

During the 1980s a common critique of the Democratic party by the GOP was that the liberal of the party were too favorably inclined to our geo-political rivals the Russians.

By the 1990s and the collapse of the Soviets GOP found new failing to launch at their political opponents. President Clinton they charged was a guilty of financial fraud, despite a massive investigation that yielded no proof of this, and a sexual predator, lacking the moral standing to be president. When Clinton foolishly committed perjury over his sexual dalliances the battle cry became ‘rule of law.’ Impeachment they insisted was required for a president that held the law in such contempt.

With the new century the GOP once again shifted in which traits made their political foes utterly unacceptable. President Obama, in addition to being a narcissist, was at times a ruthless Chicago politician and a naive neophyte easily manipulated by the forces around him. A fool easily manipulated by enemies of America when they stroked his over inflated ego.

And where is the GOP today? Slavishly devoted to a man that shows utter deference to the Russian regime, who praised the slaughter of people peacefully demonstrating for freedom as ‘strength.’ Who defrauds small businesses and individuals. A man so egotistical that everything must be about himself. A man who tried to overthrow a free, fair, and legitimate election in order to illegally retain power and who has been found accountable in court for sexual assault.

All the major criticisms the conservatives have hurled with disdain and hate at their opponents that have embraced in their strong man. Everything that said mattered was nothing more than a lie.

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Today as I write this the first votes in the first primary for the 2024 presidential election are being cast. Last week was the Iowa caucuses in which, braving truly terrible weather, Trump’s supporter gave him a victory with massive margins. Today it is likely that in New Hampshire Trump’s only remaining opponent, the ethically chameleon Nikki Halley, to his dominance will be swept aside. OH, there is a small possibility that Nikki will squeak out a tiny number of votes more than Trump. The state is notorious for knifing the winner of the Iowa contest, the electorate there is made up of much greater numbers of the politically moderate and it is a contest where it is easy for people to cross over and vote in the primary that does not match their political party. Clawing each and every vote from these non-Trumpist could possibly push her just barely ahead of Trump, but that is meaningless.

For one, Trump never loses. He is only the winner, or he is cheated. A GOP electorate that has been trained and fashioned to accept charges of ‘rigged’ on trump’s behalf means that a marginally victory is no victory at all. If she fights that she actually won it sinks her utterly with the base and if she doesn’t fight, well, then she loses.

It is also meaningless because there are no other states in the primary where she can replicate even such a tiny victory. Any sort of ‘victory’ here only prolongs the terminal state of her campaign. She’s a dead pol with only an illusion of life.

The GOP is truly and utterly Trump’s party. Policy doesn’t matter, principal doesn’t matter, laws do not matter, the only goal is Trump’s goal, and he serves only himself. I fervently hope that he never returns to any sort of political power, that the GOP is crushed in November to such an utter ruin that it is forced to rebuild and perhaps be reborn a saner party.

There was a time, and not that long ago for it was within my political lifetime, when the Republican Party was the party that warned of appeasement, that at every instance, and often when it was far from justified, invoked the specter of the terrible policy of appeasing Hitler and the Nazis. It is both ironic and fitting that they are destroyed by the same mechanism that they so vocally insisted others be wary of.

As I have written before it was the ‘Southern Strategy’ that invited in the segregationists following that passage of landmark civil rights laws that first began the process of infecting the GOP with its current disease. Once invited in racism is painfully difficult to excise, particularly if that action cost you power.

Rather than face that pain, the GOP has for decades appeased it. Throwing scraps of legislation to this faction while feeding it lies and outrage in an attempt to satisfy its hunger and hatred. Of course, like the patrons of The Menu they could never be satisfied. Fed lies and outrage their appetite did not reach fulfillment but only grew. So, the GOP fed its racist hateful base more lies, more outrage in an ever-growing movement of appeasement.

With the coming of Trump, a sadly predictable event, the faction now having grown strong and large on its near endless diet, now longer needed to beg for scrap from the legislative table but rather determined the entire menu. The masters of the party found that instead of appeasement that they now paid blackmail, begging for their money and their lives with subservience to the monster of their creation.

No person better epitomizes this than Kevin McCarthy. An experience feeder of lies and sower of hatred, in his vain, egotistical quest to be Speaker of the House, paid and paid and paid the blackmailers, giving them every lie and every hatred that they demanded foolish in his delusion that he could pay off the blackmailers enough to save himself.

He had as little chance of satisfying the MAGA as the Europeans did of buying off Hitler. I weep no tears for McCarthy, he paved the road to his own destruction, delineated lanes, and posted signs to hell before he drove it to his doom. He hasn’t suffered a portion of what he has earned, but I do weep for my nation, my imperfect, flawed, but beautiful country, ravaged and on the brink of ruin by these little men and their foolish appeasement.

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This is coming off the top of my head, but I think there are some useful analogies to be found here.

Fascist Italy: This is the Old Guard Republican Establishment. With the ‘Southern Strategy’ and playing directly to disaffected racist voters they built the new Fascism believing that the dominate position would always be theirs, dreaming of a great Empire that would never materialize. Now they find themselves the powerless junior partner, locked out of their own systems and suffering at the system that they created.

Nazi Germany: This is Trump and his death-cultist, poisoned by the Flavor-Aide and devoted to the one man, the one leader, that is leading them to destruction. Trump seized the machine built by the Establishment and made it serve himself and only himself. Trump and his cult are the driving force of the conflict and they will never stop believing their own deluded lies and myths.

Austria: Remember that Austria was an independent Republic that was ‘annexed’ by Nazi Germany, well these are the Evangelicals. They share a language and a culture with the Trumpists at their side but had until the death-cult ‘annexed’ remained their own force in Conservative American Politics. However, after enthusiastically welcoming the new strong man across their borders they have lost all that independence. Look to that new survey that reports more Republicans trust Trump to tell them the truth than their own pastors. They are now indistinguishable from the Trumpists.

Romania and the minor Axis Powers: These are the wealthy seeking their tax cuts, the businesses looking to escape any and every regulation that impedes even a single penny to their coffers, and the gun-right enthusiasts. They have signed the Axis pact; they have supplied the men and material for the invasions and conquest but now see that they have lashed themselves to a foundering ship. They desperately want to be saved from the consequences of their own actions but are wholly occupied by the death-cult and there is no escape. Their fate, deservedly so, is tied to the cult’s.

Finland: These are the ‘Anti-anti-Trumps’. For these there is no greater enemy than ‘liberals.’ And like Finland they’ll give resources and co-ordinate attacks against the shared ‘enemy’ with the Trumpists all while tutting the co-belligerents war crimes, genocide, and racism. I also suspect that they will also flip the moment their own survival is imperiled turning on those that had just moments before been defending.

Yesterday, the latest set of indictments were charged against Donald Trump, these related to his direct assault on American Democracy and the attempt to overthrow the election.

There are those who hope, futilely I believe, that this will finally break ‘the fever.’ There is no fever. There is no madness gripping the Modern Republican Party from which sanity can be restored. This GOP is the GOP that is logical and inevitable result of decades of committed action. The party Trump usurped was once crafted to believe the big lies, to reject reality, and one motivated by hate, primed for a man such as Trump to come and take it away from the monied interests who foolishly believed such a monster would remain forever in their control.

So, one more set of charges, one more barrage of criminality, one more assault on democracy will matter not at all to a base cultivated to reject reality for their own twisted and hateful fantasies.

Within the GOP primary I suspect Trump numbers will move no more than the usual amount dictated by statistical noise. Old School Republican Pols such as Mike Murphy will continue to cling to their own delusions of a weakening Trump and the spineless will continue to supplicate themselves for breadcrumbs of power from this poisonous party.

The salvation of this nation, this democratic experiment, lies outside of the Republican Party. The GOP must be defeated everywhere and at every level of political power. Not just in the next election or the one after that but for the next twenty years. Saving America is a generational project and only a new generation of Republicans might be trusted with any power at all.