Historians, the ones who eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the ones who are sustained by it, who know it like the lines on the palm of their hands. The scholars, the ones with the long view of the world, who see the details of history in a context, to a depth that most of us can probably never truly grasp. So, well over 700+ of them last I looked, have attached their signature to a statement, quoting history, as the words of history may sometimes be almost prophetic;

[Alexander]Hamilton understood, as he wrote in 1792, that the republic remained vulnerable to the rise of an unscrupulous demagogue, “unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of talents…despotic in his ordinary demeanour.” That demagogue, Hamilton said, could easily enough manage “to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day.” Such a figure, Hamilton wrote, would “throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’”

MEDIUM | HISTORIANS’ STATEMENT ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP

You know, I seriously was not going to write about politics for a bit, but here I am, once again, with some thoughts. Imagine that? Thoughts related to WHY the republicans have become the party of Trump. It is why they, when asked what they stand for, they answer they stand for Trump.

Sure, the man is compelling to some faction of society, like my own father, but certainly I don’t even begin to understand. But, a whole friggin’ political party? Why?

Two dozen House Republicans in the last few months have quit to “be with their families”, so far, and it isn’t even 2020 yet.

First off, let us back up.

Russia came in through a couple of America’s well known Achilles Heels, guns and hate. They infiltrated the NRA over decades, and with their money came the fix, the grift, focused on the gathering of assets within the fortress of D.C., seeking those who are compliant with just enough money. You know who they are. Lobbyists certainly know who they are. Manafort knew who they were, as did Stone.

Catch one in the wild, away from the pack of wolves back in Washington, maybe just one or two, with a taste in their mouth for more, put a bug in their ear concerning white man values, dirty feminists, abhorrent gays, and whatta’ know, they be PREACHING to the choir! Talkin’ their talk, and all of a sudden Russia don’t look so bad, this party that used to talk of the Commies like they were the spawn of Lucifer, and now they’ve turned fascist, well, Bob’s my Uncle, all friendly like.

Fascism comes in all shapes and sizes, Italy from 1922 to 1943 had a version, Germany from 1933 to 1945 had Nazism, with Hitler inspired by Mussolini, and in Japan from 1931 to 1945 had…

Right-wing elements in Japan, including industrialists, military officers, and the nobility, had long opposed democracy as an anathema to national unity. Military cliques began to dominate the national government starting in the 1930s. A major militarist nationalist movement in Japan from the 1920s to the 1930s was the Imperial Way Faction “Kodoha” of which future wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō was a part.

WIKIPEDIA

Russia now has a version, thanks in part to Putin.

In my favourite historian, Timothy Snyders words;

“The fascism of the 1920s and 1930s, Ilyin’s era [note: Putin loves that guy], had three core features: it celebrated will and violence over reason and law; it proposed a leader with a mystical connection to his people; and it characterized globalization as a conspiracy rather than as a set of problems. Revived today in conditions of inequality as a politics of eternity, fascism serves oligarchs as a catalyst for transitions away from public discussion and towards political fiction; away from meaningful voting and towards fake democracy; away from the rule of law and towards personalist regimes.”

Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

And what is the lure of Fascism anyways? Well from reading, seems that it promises a whole lot but rarely delivers. It rarely lasts in our modern world.

The Renaissance gave birth to new ideas, new way’s of being, thinking, interacting, and the eventual smashing of the class structure that had for so long held the grip of Europe, and beyond. The ideas born from that time laid the path towards various revolutions, of the people overthrowing their manipulative masters.

Fascism is in a way a harkening back to the old days before, in its own way. Back to a time of absolute power, with absolute rulers, and no rules but at the whims of the ruler, call him czar, king, emperor, or pope.

Although Fascism can go left or right, still, like the times of old, where some kings were pawns, and some popes pulled some pretty nasty tricks. Nothing has changed. In the end, the only one they are ultimately concerned with is always themselves. Seems that again and again, many over time have fallen for that song and dance of desires for power.

Sure, eventually the truth comes out, the gig is up, and everyone sees, finally, the emperor has no cloths.

The charismatic charlatan is naked clutching their lies.

But the damage is done, the Rubicon crossed,

Its an ancient story, really. They come along every once in a while, show up and seem to just know exactly how to manipulate the landscape, draw the cons to their cave, the easily led astray are their prey.

And, I do not mean ol’Individual 1, son of a Bavarian brothel owner.

No, rumpTus is Putin’s play thing, his toy, an asset for sure, though not quite with it enough to realize he’s been swayed. Unfortunately for him, his ego just always gets in the way. Though, a character flaw for him, the greatest gift for one such as Putin. I mean, all money aside, and I imagine that was the lure, but the ego stroke is what keeps the orange one compliant.

But the repub’s? Why has someone once known for his consensus building, somehow became #Leningradindsey, and began toeing the line for this incompetent scumbag?

So what happened? Well, Stacey Abrams, quoted in the WaPo, has this to say about that.

“They had a moment basically between George W. Bush and today to change course, they knew it, they couldn’t do it,” Abrams said, referring to a brief window in 2013, following Barack Obama’s reelection, when senior Republicans recognized that broadening their appeal was a matter of political longevity. “And now they are left with holding on to power through manipulation, theft and immorality, and that immorality is the acceptance of things they know to be wrong.”

THE WASHINGTON POST | The deplorable hypocrisy of Lindsey Graham and the Republican Party | By Jonathan Capehart 

They are afraid of losing power, losing who they are, all that they are, or think they are. They see the world passing them by, and much as many of those who voted for them, they represent the ones lost in the cracks of globalization, left stranded in the bad ol’days of Jim Crow, and white men watch as that centuries long grip of patriarchy slips from their withered hands, and it frightens them. They do not know how to go forward in this new land, instead they can only seem to look back, to the mythological fantasy of yesteryear Putin’s put in their ear.

They don’t see the grift, they only see the helping hand, the value affirmation, the way out, the desperate escape, their fear-mongering turned back on them, reflecting their own hate.

Republicans see longevity in betraying the constitution for Russia’s grift, to their mind, their values look the same.

Well, not quite. In values, at the heart, they are similar, one almost a reflection of the other. Yet, in mind, oh, they are fools, for what Russia has in mind is not quite the same. This fiddling while America burns is but for one, and only one purpose.

And who do you imagine has the most to gain?

“Authoritarianism arrives not because people say that they want it, but because they lose the ability to distinguish between facts and desires.”

Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

What some republicans MOST fear, is the future they see, the diversity, the equality, and certainly the diminishing of the white man’s power, the control of the narrative they have had for centuries. One side faces the future, while the other cowers.

It is a battle between a mythology and sociology, a battle between we and me, between them of the past, and those who see the many ways forward.