Hey Truth everything you said is spot on. Repubs screwed up not stopping Trump early on. They could have ban together and crush him before he got started. But they were too scared of his followers and thought Hillary and the Dems could do their dirty work for him. Now Trump is in there and like you said the GOP is basically dead. This is Trumps party now and I don’t see how they get it back. I just want Dems to step up and fix this mess. We can take back the House and Senate in November if we play our cards right. We just need to come together.

“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. ”

– Barry M. Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” – Barry M. Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative

*an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–65, 1969–87) and the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States in 1964.

Good questions DJ. I’ll start by saying: No. Trump and his party aren’t “a legitimate threat to the actual Republican Party” because the actual Republican party is already dead. Its eventual demise was set in motion the moment Repub leaders embraced Nixon’s Southern Strategy, a white racist backlash against the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which was a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Fast forward to 2016: Trump and his party killed off what was left of the GOP and put the nail in the coffin on the day he officially won the Repub nomination for the presidency in June 2016. Since then Every reprehensible thing he’s said and done has, IMO, amounted to dancing on the grave of the Republican party.

Re: “Has it already ruined the mystique and dignity of the presidency or democracy itself?”

Yes. All of that was ruined as of, Tues. Nov. 8, 2016- the day he was elected president of the U.S. thanks to 62 million Americans and the Electoral College. Most Americans and the entire world watched that announcement in utter disbelief and sheer horror. Suffice it so say he has lived DOWN to every standard and principle of that office, as most of Us knew he would.

Re: “Now that Pandora’s Box has been opened, can anyone stop the Trump Party?”

I have absolutely NO faith in Americans age 50 and older. They are, IMO, the ones most responsible for the colossal mess that’s been made of this country over the past 40 yrs to the present. And none of this mess is going to be cleaned up anytime soon because Trump himself is a reflection of America (its people and culture)..TODAY.

My faith is in America’s younger generation today..and future generations to come. They’ll look back on history and wonder just how the h*ll did so many Americans embrace such a vile and dangerous creature as Trump?! How did so many Americans allow that creature to take this country down such a dark path? How did so many Americans FAIL themselves, their children and their grandchildren?

How did so many Americans FAIL…period?