The Republican party is shattered, not only because of Trump, who hopefully is the last Jim Jones wannabe on this train careening toward the Führerhauptquartiere, but because of its acquiescence to the radicals in the party. When someone punches you, you punch back even if they call your father a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, even if they call you Little Marco or Lyin Ted . . you punch back.
The Republican moderates let the crazies take over the party, and it resulted in wacky, but dangerous, people in office who had no interest in working for the country . . they were interested in getting their own way and stopping everything else. The result, Trump.
I don’t want to minimize the responsibility of Trump, who is astronomically unfit for office and very probably corrupt, but I think we should recognize that the problem was the Republican middle who didn’t do any favors by retreating in fear.
The Republican middle should pick themselves up, start a new party or join the Democratic party. A gaping hole has emerged from the ether of our political system where moderate Republicans, who worked productively with the other side, used to be.
And, I implore the Democrats to learn from this. Don’t let the extremes take over the party. Maintain the middle where we can all work together.
P.S. I would like to add that, at least, we have figured out where the backbone of the Republican Party has gone. The answer is obvious . . Moscow.