I'm not an alarmist. Studying history makes you see the ebb and flow of events over time and provides a comforting perspective that bad things don't last.
However, the purge of Republicans who have even the slightest grasp of reality and respect for American democracy is legitimately concerning, because in a two-party system, a Trumpist Party if guaranteed a disproportionately high number of votes relative to what its actual strength should be.
There are plenty of "Republicans" who are skeptical that the current iteration of the Republican Party is, in fact, an anti-democratic, neo-fascist personality cult. After all, Democrats cancelled Dr. Seuss and made that kid in your son's high school transgender, so they can't be trusted to run things. The real fascists are those who want to mandate vaccines and masks to squash the pandemic, not the people who stormed the Capitol and have spent the intervening months catering to Trump's Big Lie.
As Josh Marshall notes, the really scary thing is that - having purged the Liz Cheneys and Brad Raffensbergers from their posts - there will be no one with the objectivity and commitment to the Constitution and democracy to allow for a smooth transition in 2024.
If it becomes apparent to people like Cheney and Romney that they are effectively persona non grata in the GOP then they must break away and form a new party. They must run candidates at every level of government - state houses, House, Senate - in order to deny the GOP majorities and the ability to become a full-on Trumpist movement. Yes, it will mean massive losses for "conservatism" in general, but there is zero chance casual Republicans will listen to the evidence of the degradation of their party from someone like me or MSNBC or the NY Times.
The Right Wing political movement must have a civil war to destroy itself and save American democracy. Anyone want to lay odds on that happening?
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