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As soon as Donald Trump injected himself into the bloodstream of American politics, the Republican party had a problem. And after four years of the Trump presidency, the fascist tendencies he invoked and promoted torpedoed traditional conservatism. As a result, the pre-Trump Republican party lays at the bottom of America’s political ocean, its wrecked hollowed hull a visage of hopelessness.

Although Trump lost resoundingly in 2020, Trumpism remains rampant in the Republican party. Trumpian principles of might-is-right and that lying is perfectly acceptable as long the lies achieve the desired result continues to threaten our democracy.

Republicans in the Senate had multiple opportunities to expunge Donald Trump from the Republican party, with the second impeachment the last best chance. But instead of being proactive, Mitch McConnel and other republicans hedged their bets and sat on their hands.  Privately, Republican leadership hoped their voters would have been sickened enough by the events of January 6th to wash their hands of Trump and Trumpism.

Republicans not pushing for Trump’s removal was a strategic decision. The thinking was that if voters said, “enough is enough”, Republican politicians could absolve themselves of the “Trump problem” and avoid getting on the wrong side of Trump. But unfortunately, McConnel and others in the Senate didn’t account for how deeply entrenched republican voters had become in the big lie. They also failed to recognize the degree to which hot-button cultural issues had buttressed the Republican voter’s willingness to turn away from truth and facts.

The Republican leadership’s miscalculation on Trump has led to a “rat-in-the-shower” state of affairs for American Democracy.

Our Democracy is more vulnerable than it’s ever been. And with the midterms in November and the 2024 Presidential election looming, America’s democracy problem has taken on a sense of urgency that we’ve never seen before.

Democrats and independents need to be single-issue voters in 2022 and 2024, and that single issue is Democracy.

As I listen to the mountain of compelling evidence about President Trump’s attempted coupe, I hear the same complaint repeatedly from friends: 

Even in the face of undeniable evidence, Republican voters and politicians continue to deny facts. They refuse to admit that Trump was, and is, a threat to Democracy.

The presumption that Truth and Democracy are unifying principles in America is false.

The fact is this:

Millions of Americans could give a flying-fuck about truth or Democracy. 

If Trump supporters had a choice between living in a Democracy or living in a system where “their guy” runs the show (regardless of whether he was duly elected), they’d choose the latter. Every. Single. Time.

For the rest of us, it’s time to stop thinking that Republicans will experience a “come to Jesus” moment as it relates to democracy and truth. It’s not going to happen. There won’t be a tipping point or epiphany where millions suddenly realize Donald Trump lied.

There are two reasons this won’t happen:

1: For most Trump supporters, truth and democracy matter less than their vision for America and what they feel in their gut.

2: Trump’s lies have spread and metastasized as an “alternative truth” in the collective minds of millions of Americans.

Historically, the phrase “The truth will come out” implies that truth cannot be suppressed forever. Eventually, it is revealed. In the past, when truth was revealed, there was some sort of backlash against the lies and liars who tried to suppress it. Those days are gone.

In America, truth has become inconsequential. Today, when the truth is revealed and that truth conflicts with what millions of Trump supporters want to believe or what they feel in their gut, they simply deny the truth.

So, what’s the consequence of truth becoming inconsequential? Disorder and conflict. And that’s where America is heading, sadly.

Republican voters were fed a constant diet of lies from when Donald Trump became the leader of the Republican party.

There were lies from Trump and his surrogates.

There were lies from Fox News.

There were lies from conspiracy-based websites and groups like QAnon.

A constant diet of lies is not unlike a constant diet of junk food. If you eat nothing but junk for years, your body turns to shit. Likewise, if you consume nothing but lies yearly, your mind becomes damaged and malleable mush.  

Honestly, it’s difficult not to get angry at Trump supporters who constantly spout nonsense entirely refutable by facts. But getting angry at them is like getting angry at a 10-year-old who still believes in Santa Claus.

From the time that 10-year-old child was old enough to comprehend language, they were fed the Big Santa Claus lie — most likely by someone they trust.

Trump supporters (like that 10-year-old child) were lied to for years by a person (or a website or cable television network) that they trusted implicitly. As a result, millions of Americans refuse to believe the truth, and a boatload of truth-denying anti-democratic politicians seek public office.

American Democracy is teetering on edge. Will you fight for it?