We all knew

For half a decade, we’ve watched Donald Trump transform the party of Reagan into a party of alternate facts and sycophants.

Those who refused to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 were castigated. Those who did speak up were chased out of the party, and those of us who continued to refuse to join the echoes were forced into silence.

Ignore the tweets, they said. The alternative is far worse, they said. But Gorsuch, they said.

The consequences, sadly, have never been as clear as they are now.

Since the election, the party faithful sprang into action upon Don Jr.’s threat to Republican elected officials. They peddled outlandish conspiracy theories and demanded absolute loyalty to one man. They demanded a betrayal of our country and Constitution.

Most yielded.

Some yielded because they have no choice, so they tried to walk the line as best as they could. Others actually believe it. They actually believe it.

Now today, these Q’Anon conspiracies are forcing dozens of Republicans members of Congress into the most unconstitutional and unamerican stunt our party has seen in modern times.

They believe that this is a conspiracy so grand and powerful that they have bought off even the most pro-Trump officials in the country. Who can forget all the lavish praised Trump heaped on Governors Doug Ducey and Brian Kemp?

And who can forget as recently as last summer, the loudest MAGA voices were heaping praise on Attorney General Barr for leading the cavalry that rode in to fight for their fearless leader. Finally, they said, a true Trump supporter rooting out corruption in the Deep State!

Strangely, the new Attorney General handpicked by Trump after the election hasn’t lifted a finger to investigate this nonexistent widespread fraud.

But perhaps the greatest scandal of them all is that Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett have all been bought off. Forget all they said about how these three principled, Constitution-loving jurists would be faithful to the Constitution alone.

They tell us we are deceived and need to “open our eyes” to see that the steal is real. Odd that this “4D chess”-playing savior of America who is always two steps ahead keeps appointing and endorsing people bought off by Hugo Chavez to steal the election from him, over and over, and over again, huh?

But wait. Despite how much power they have (so much so they even bought off ACB!), the only reason we know about this steal is because “they broke the algorithm”…because Trump got way too many votes. Yes, really, this super secretive web of 10 intelligence agencies across the globe infiltrated all these county election commissions, but the algorithm was…broken.

To believe the election was stolen is to believe some truly “weird shit”, in the prescient words of 43.

Sadly, what we knew about Donald Trump in 2016 has become all too true, and then some. Mick Mulvaney called him a “terrible human being.” Ted Cruz told us he was a “pathological liar,” “utterly amoral,” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.” Mike Pompeo predicted he would be an “authoritarian” president.

Lindsey Graham, who once called him a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” maybe summed it up best when he warned the GOP in 2016: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.”

The man didn’t change, but our party sure did.

Shame on those who repeated lies about voter fraud and woke up shocked we lost both Senate seats. Shame on those who played along for years but are now outraged they have to choose between loyalty to the president or loyalty to their oath. Shame on those who empowered this man. And shame on those who shamed anyone who dared speak up.

But make no mistake: We knew. We all knew.

We keep wondering when Trump will finally go too far for the Republican Party. The truth is: It will never be too far. Ronald Reagan wasn’t wrong when he compared politics to the oldest profession.

In our youth, we couldn’t fathom how strongmen could have possibly acquired power from the masses throughout history. Sadly, that’s not a question this generation will have to look in the history books to study anymore.

-A former Republican official