A few Republicans, both elected officials and pundits, journalists, theorists and scholars have rejected Trumpism--and what's more important, have rejected it publicly. But too many have either made excuses for it, defended it, or just looked the other way and hoped no one noticed it. This is unforgivable.

But the GOP is now Trump's party. It has been purged of all dissent and forced into line. Those brave individuals that stood up to him are pushed out and hated by the rank-and-file and by the leadership. They are like that stock character in old WWII movies, the Good Nazi, who fights for his country but not for Hitler. And they will wind up just like them, betrayed or killed by their own comrades.

The Republicans are not guilty of failing to adopt Democratic principles, they are guilty of failing to live up to their own. Flake himself puts it most eloquently.

At this point, the president’s conduct in office should not surprise us. But truly devastating has been our tolerance of that conduct. Our embrace of it. From the ordeal of this presidency, perhaps the most horrible — and lasting — effect on our democracy will be that at some point we simply stopped being shocked. And in that, we have failed not just as stewards of the institutions to which we have been entrusted but also as citizens. We have failed each other, and we have failed ourselves.