"... The institutions of the American republic withstood Trump just as the
Founders might have hoped: since federal government is complicated and
burdensome and organised around institutional self-interest (‘Ambition
must be made to counteract ambition’), it was relatively impervious to
his simplistic and lazy rabble-rousing. The name-calling was exhausting
and debilitating but it was possible to ride it out. But the one
institution that was not able to withstand Trump was the one the
Founders thought might destroy the republic anyway: a political party.
The Republican Party establishment indulged Trump and then discovered
that when it was time to move on his voters were staying put. Having
paid lip service to his lunacy, it turned out that they couldn’t undo
what they had done." -- David Runciman, in London Review of Books, in his review of Michael Wolff's book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency." The rotted out Republican Party: at the intersection of treason, cowardice, careerism and autocracy.
