So-o-o-o-o where, precisely, were you folks during the rise of the Tea Party and the Christian Right? Both groups consist of ideological extremists who hide behind a false reading of the US Constitution. All that Trump is doing, in his speeches, is appealing to this type of extremist absolutism.

Maybe there’s a reason that a lot of moderate Americans like me have been rejecting the Republican Party and its platform since the Gingrich Rebellion more than 20 years ago. You can’t quietly tolerate the rise of absolutism in your own party, then cry when an embarrassing, verbally inflammatory thug rises up to further hijack your political party for his own ends.

“ Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” — John Stuart Mill (cited in https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)