For a couple of decades now, the term I have used most often to describe the Republican party is "profoundly undemocratic." They don't believe in representative democracy; they believe in the use of brute force to get their way (i.e. Merrick Garland). They steal elections and money, they cover up, they don't believe in accountability and the rule of law -- except when they want to impeach a Democratic president for lying about a BJ in a deposition.

So I don't accept that Donald Trump is somehow an aberration. He is the inevitable outcome of pure Republican philosophy. That's why these words from Malcolm Nance on AM Joy this morning resonated so deeply:

"Donald Trump believes in autocracies, he does not believe in republican democracy as it is represented or parliamentary democracy as seen throughout Europe and the United States over its entire history," Nance said.

"He believes the obstacle is democracy. That's why he doesn't like the investigations. That's why he doesn't like the way of governance in America. And he feels comfortable with dictators and autocrats. I just finished a new book on this, 'The Plot To Destroy Democracy', which shows that he is in complete alignment with Vladimir Putin ---because Putin has worked very hard over the last 20 years to create an axis of autocracies, and Donald Trump was one of those people that they saw as very favorable to this global oligarchy running democratic nations and destroying the Atlantic alliance, the globalist world and democracy as it's been spread since the end of the World War II."

Yep. Putin didn't want Trump in the White House because Trump is smart. He wanted him because he's vengeful and brutal, Kryptonite to American democracy.

I pray we survive.