This isn't politics as usual.

My apologies to those who have read this article by Paul Waldman in today’s Washington Post. It says what many know to be true but are too afraid to acknowledge: The GOP is intensely involved in a deliberate act to destroy the institutions of American democracy. It is conducting a multi-pronged attack on the very institutions that were conceived to prevent this kind of political misfeasance. Republicans won in 2016 because their campaigns were an inside job. So why might they succeed again in 2018 and 2020? Check this out: https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/republicans-have-rigged-…/…

This isn’t just politics as usual, where competing policies are presented to voters, ideas are debated, and the most persuasive ideas win. What we’re observing in Republican politics today is the deliberate unspooling of American culture.

Our politics have devolved from a vision of egalitarianism achieved through the pursuit of Enlightenment principles, from the celebration of admirable individuals and ethical leadership, from a cultural worldview that values compassion and admires excellence and professionalism…

To a nation that glorifies tinny mercantilism, to a culture that declares that ignorance is a virtue, and to a society so devoid of ethical standards that it elects a thuggish ignoramus as president and supports a Republican Party that functions more like a gang of sneering thieves than decent citizens. Today’s GOP is a cultural plague that requires Democrats to step back and look at the larger picture. We need to change the debate from DACA, and tax cuts for the rich, and focus instead on what this is: an historic coup that is dismantling our democracy. Anything less will be our undoing.