Headline: “Republicans rally around Trump as threats mount.”

Our political system would be healthiest if we had two strong honorable major parties. Alas, so fast that we could barely register it happening, the Republican Party descended into unplumed moral and intellectual depths. Jennifer Rubin nailed it: “Fidelity to the Constitution, ensuring the nation’s security, and even simple honesty are foreign to this gang. They have become apparatchiks in Trump’s authoritarian scheme.” 

Authoritarian rulers don’t ascend to power single-handedly; they rely on unprincipled, opportunistic, strategically positioned lieutenants to assist them in undermining and eventually destroying democratic institutions.

Our Constitutional system of checks and balances presumes that those who have a duty to check and to balance the president will do so. Occasional peeps and squeaks aside, Republicans have propped Trump up. Their moral depravity is a great tragedy of our times.