The Republican party is now reaping the rewards of the seeds planted over the course of the last 40 years. With the welcomed inclusion of each constituency over that time period, the party became more extreme, each time choosing power over principle.

I would suggest that the drift to extremism began with the marriage of convenience with the Moral Majority. From that came the erosion of the principle of the Separation of Church and State. The combination of religion and government does nothing but damage to each.

Thirty years later, the GOP welcomed with open arms any and all comers into the party from the traveling carnival known as the Tea Party. This union brought into the party a general incoherent skepticism/dislike of government and governing principles and an equal attraction to conspiracy theories.

In more recent times, as it appeared that the country was becoming more diverse, the party chose not to embrace that reality but to reject it out of hand. This was accomplished by nominating a man who cultivated new voters who were willing to look the other way on matters of race, on matters of democracy, on matters of functional government. The powers that be in the GOP accepted this, maybe unenthusiastically, but once again for the purpose of political power, until they became the ones on the outside looking in.................like the religious right, the Tea Partiers, and the Qanoners used to be.

It was slow motion suicide. RIP