To refer to what has been laid bare within the Republican Party as mere "rot" is as inappropriate as
referring to metastasizing malignant melanoma as "a growth".
The "Grand Old Party" has died from the malady that many predicted decades ago would eventually be their demise: "Arrogance" with a capital "A".
Whether they base it on wealth, skin color, gender, religion, national origin or whatever, Republicans find some way to decide they are "better than" you and me. They may consider "elite" an insult when they apply it to one of us, but they smugly consider themselves exactly that: one of the elite.
Trump came along five years ago and found a segment of the population in which the overwhelming majority was "secretly stressed" because they had branded themselves
"conservative" or "Tea Party" or "Republican" and, damn it!---they were not as wealthy or powerful or respected as they thought they deserved to be. Trump told them why. It was because muslims and people of color and LGBTQ folks and uppity women and "libtard socialist snowflakes" were holding them down.
The gradual withering of their intellect, their courage and their decency eventually left the GOP a coreless husk of the "Party of Lincoln". Trump filled their void with energetic haters who would send them cash, vote as they were told and physically intimidate their opponents. But, apparently, they had not heard the Chinese saying: "He who rides a tiger dare not dismount"
The tiger has just tossed them to the ground and is now "circling back" with a lean and hungry look.
