The Republican party died in 2016 when every one of the nonentities on the debate stage with Trump said they would support the party’s nominee, whoever it might be. Only Trump had the courage to say “no,” and yet he got the nomination. (So much for party loyalty pledges.) Every single one of those wastes of skin should have said, loudly and clearly, “I will not vote for Donald Trump.” If any one of them had done so, that person would not only have had a real shot at the nomination, but he or she might also have brought the party to its senses.

But the party’s immune response had died. Mitch had killed it by making obstruction his object. He wanted to make Obama look bad, but instead, he made politicians look bad. So Trump, an essentially apolitical sociopath, was able to take the nomination from the politicians on the debate stage, not one of whom had the stones to renounce a party that would nominate such a man. So the party nominated such a man.

There is no point in calling Trump voters stupid. There’s plenty of stupidity to go around in both parties. The real problem is a blindness to what makes America America. It is not judges and tax cuts. It is the separation of powers and a free press and respect for the rule of law. Trump voters simply do not value these things, probably because they do not understand their necessity. These ideals seem effete luxuries when you have a family to feed and Congress can’t do anything to protect your job or your union or your wages or the air or the drinking water or anything.

Trump voters are wrong, but most of them are good people nonetheless. Yes, the most vocal are deplorable and worthy of hatred. But the fallacy of composition fits the gander as well as the goose. Their resentments don’t explain Trump. Congress’s 19% approval rating explains Trump. The brain-death of the GOP explains Trump.

(Not that the Dems are any better. Does it not occur to them that Bernie is not even a bona fide a member of their party? But that’s not the subject of today’s sermon…)