…on its way to a dark place.

There is a radicalization happening in the Republican Party.  Belief in the big lie of a stolen election in 2020 is no longer a fringe belief, but has become mainstream in the GOP.   Conspiracy theories offered by fringe groups such as Critical Race Theory being taught in grade school, has morphed into acception of the Great Replacement Theory within the mainstream.   The idea that Jews and a cabal of elites are bringing non-white, non-european heritage peoples into our country via immigration intentionally to change the voting demographic to disadvantage whites…  A conspiracy theory offered by white supremacists for years, is now repeated by Republican politicians.

I predict this all goes too far, and candidates supported by this newly-mainstream republican radicalization can win in primaries.  They cannot win in a general election and will ultimately fail in elections this coming fall.   The concern this raises, is what will happen next?  Where will these fringe, now-mainstream right-wing ideas evolve to?  Where do they go when they find they cannot get their grievances addressed using the democratic process.  Will they give up?  I fear they won’t and there will be violence.  They will claim the elections are rigged.   A rise of militancy, and marches, and protests, and provocative violence is coming.

Trump and others, including Fox News celebrities have helped to mainstream these ideas, and they will be consumed by them, because you cannot play, as long as they have, with fire without eventually getting burned.   Their house will eventually burn down and will have to rebuild, just as our country had to rebuild after the Civil War…. Ironically after the assassination of the founder of the GOP who rid our country of the stain of slavery… and was thus vilified by the white supremacists of the time.