HUGH

"He will forever be the face of that group, [Republican Party] the face of greed and hate and division."

Agreed that Trump will be remembered as the GOP's battering ram, chosen in 2016 to launch a plan, many years in the making, to change America's Democratic Republic to an authoritarian dictatorship, for obvious reasons. The fact that Trump wasn't smart enough to stick to the plan and, in fact, only proved himself to be an egotistical screwup with a bent to the maniacal, was little more than a speed bump to the goals of the GOP.

I'm sure the GOP had some regrets by 2020. How could they not? Trump's defeat made it impossible for them to keep their promises to Vladimir Putin and Putin's own plans to restore the USSR to its former glory by way of using Ukraine as a military launching pad.

How the GOP convinced Vladimir Putin that they had a plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden is a bit of a mystery. I really thought Mr. Putin was smarter than that. But such was not the case. He launched an invasion into Ukraine on February 21, 2021, confident that the U.S.A. and the new GOP overlords would soon be rushing to his side.

I needn't go on. We all watched the colossal failure of that plan as it played itself out on TV in real time. It was the worst day imaginable in the heartland of the GOP.

And now here we are in 2024 . . . and daja vu all over again. The "plan" is different, but the goals haven't changed. Russia still needs help, and the GOP still wants an autocracy.

I have faith that America will right its own Ship if State. It always has in the past. I just wish it wouldn't wait until the last minute to do it.