Republicans have drunk the Kool-Aid. They are dangerously intoxicated
The shift from political party to cult is now complete.
This vile brew steeped in decades of hate, laced with lies, is the house drink served at Mar a Logo. Ingested in quantities it is ultimately lethal.
A delusional Donald Trump is the new Jim Jones, leading a once-respected party to mass suicide.
More than 70% Of GOP voters believe the lie that election fraud led to Trump’s loss in 2020. Republicans have now chosen to break our electoral system for political gain.
They are setting up to refuse to accept defeat in an election.
Republican groups have shifted their litigation focus from voter suppression to election subversion. The GOP is no longer satisfied with restricting who can vote; they also want to limit which votes count.
This includes litigation empowering partisan poll watchers, and even limiting county officials from allowing voters to fix simple errors on their mail-in ballot envelopes to ensure their ballots are counted.
One of the first symptoms of ingesting this toxicity is a total and complete abandonment of any decency and respect.
Republicans no longer bother with dog whistles.
The hate and call for violence are out front and center not from the party’s fringe elements but from sitting members of Congress. When they speak of voter suppression and election subversion it is no longer with a wink and nod but a full embrace of these anti-democratic tactics.
Susceptibility to the big lie may have begun 25 years ago with the Bush administration but it solidified and blossomed into a worldview under Donald Trump.
And it is a worldview that is dangerous to democracy.
Envisioning The American Dream 
Sally, as a former Republican and now independent voter, it saddens me to see how adrift the Republican party has become untethered to the truth. Conservative pundit Michael Gerson says “the Republican party is in decay.” What these folks do not realize, but more than 1/2 of the GOP party is voting against their economic interests and have no idea they are. Here is a letter I sent to my editor this morning as what you write is disheartening. Keith
“It is disappointing to this independent and former Republican voter that too many Republican candidates feel obligated to pretend the former president’s bogus and universally unproven election fraud is not a falsehood. It also disappoints me some are beating a resulting drumbeat that the upcoming election might be problematic to sow doubt.
From where I sit, I see a misuse of Trump’s Big Lie to perpetuate a fraud on the American people by restricting voting by certain manipulators who are making a fuss. I encourage all eligible Americans to vote and ignore the noise from these manipulators. We should make it easier for people to vote, not harder in my view.
And, for those who still want to believe the former president bogus election fraud claims, he has lost every recount, audit and review and all but one court case out of 65 or so to overturn results. To be frank, he cannot lose any more than he has time and again. Perpetuating the Big Lie to sow doubt is disservice to the American people.
We deserve better than this. Please vote.”
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Thanks for sharing your letter. It cogently lays out the disturbing place we find ourselves in and the urgency of voting.
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I will never understand how anyone listens to Donald Trump and finds anything of value in his words.
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I couldn’t agree with you more. Its head-boggling.
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In all my years following American politics I’ve never witnessed such a discord. Did it happen after decades of lies that Trump would come across as a truth teller? Hope those 100 million who didn’t vote decide to stop being a couch potato and make the move to vote.
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It is so imperative that everyone gets out to vote.
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Sally, this post goes along with yours and my comment above. I have sent it to a few folks in email and it got good feedback. Please forgive the marketing herein. Keith
https://musingsofanoldfart.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/please-vote-on-tuesday-if-you-have-not-already/
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