That is the title of this superb Washington Post column, which to put it mildly, is absolutely on fire, superbly written, with prose at which you cannot help but go”Wow!”
I will not go through the entire column, because you really should read it. Trust me.
It begins simply enough, but as you will quickly see, by the end of the second paragraph Parfker’s words are — to put it simply — on fire:
With the electoral eviction of Donald Trump from the Oval Office, Republicans had a shot at redemption and resurrection.
They missed and failed — and deserve to spend the next several years in political purgatory. The chaos now enveloping what’s left of the Grand Old Party after four years of catering to an unstable president is theirs to own. Where conservatism once served as a moderating force — gently braking liberalism’s boundless enthusiasm — the former home of ordered liberty has become a halfway house for ruffians, insurrectionists and renegadewarriors.
Note that last groups of words: a halfway house for ruffians, insurrectionists and renegadewarriors.
But as you can see below, she is just getting started.
Try this, and after you read it, read it again:
The party’s end was inevitable, foreshadowed in 2008 when little-boy Republican males, dazzled by the pretty, born-again, pro-life Alaska governor, thought Sarah Palin should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. The dumbing down of conservatism, in other words, began its terminal-velocity plunge, with a wink and a pair of shiny red shoes. Palin cast a spell as potent as the poppy fields of Oz, but turned the United States into her own moose-poppin,’ gum-smackin’ reality show.
Forget Kansas. We’re not in America anymore.
There is much more of that pointed language.
Immediately after what I just quote is a paragraph that begins
Eight years of Barack Obama added insult to injury and paved the way for Trump — a gaudier, cinematic version of the “thrillah from Wasilla.” Seizing upon our every worst instinct, he turned Palin’s lipsticked pig into a herd of seething, primitive barbarians.
In trying to explain today’s Republicans, Parker muses that either Trump has lots of incriminating videos, or
today’s Republicans are the weakest, wimpiest, most pathetic crop of needy nincompoops in U.S. history.
There is more, including a final paragraph which I will leave you to read as the culmination of reading the entire piece.
Do it.
Then pass it on.
You’ll be glad you did.