Donald J. Trump's lifelong grift has merged seamlessly with The Grift - the modus operandi of the Republican Party. Trump isn't a Republican or a "conservative" - he's a parasite, and the Republican Party is a willing and compatible host.
The Grift has been fine tuned over the past five decades, and it operates - in essence - like this: carefully cultivate the worst impulses of the human species - bigotry, paranoia, xenophobia, ignorance, fear, hate and delusion. And, while your marks are busy foaming at the mouth, pick their pockets, and divvy up the proceeds among your rich pals and the wealthy fascists on whose behalf the entire scam operates (noteworthy participants include: Trump and family, Manafort, Kushner, Mnuchin, Ross, Zinke, Price, Pruit, DeVos, Azar, Bannon, McConnell"really, this is just scratching the surface of those prominent during the past 5 years, and those who have passed through the revolving doors of Chaos Inc. during that period)
No discussion necessary - Trump is a traitor. He lied about his financial interests in Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign; he cooperated with Russian election interference through Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, he revealed state secrets to Russian officials during a 2017 Oval Office visit, he destroyed interpreter's notes from meetings he had with Putin, he had other meetings with Putin with no other U.S. officials present, he sided with Putin in Helsinki against U.S. intelligence agencies and then lamely tried to walk it back the next day.
Contrary to what gun fetishists of the right-wing Rambo fan-boy militias apparently believe, "treason" is not trying to save your fellow countrymen from a dangerous virus. It's more like siding with a foreign adversary (i.e. Russia) by "giving them (Russia) Aid and Comfort" as per Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution. Specifically, that would be Trump's failure to confront Putin about "bountygate" - bounties placed on U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan by the Russian government. This would seem to be much closer to 'treason' than compelling someone to wear a virus blocking mask.
Members of the Republican establishment know that Trump is a traitor and a charlatan and they don't care. They will betray anyone and anything to stay in power, and maintain The Grift - which is the end result of their ability to maintain power. By enabling a traitor they are traitors, and those of them that hold elected office should be summarily voted out; and, as former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt has stated, should be banned from holding public office for life.
Post election, many of these traitors have been reelected or were not facing reelection, and have doubled down on their traitorous behavior by baselessly sewing doubt in the most important feature of democracy - free elections. There is seemingly no bottom for these cynical self-serving cowards. Even though many despise Trump, they fear his increasingly unhinged supporters. They know if they offend Trump a subsequent tweet can mean a primary challenger and ultimately a distinct possibility of losing their piece of The Grift.
It's especially galling that these shameless hypocrites are making allegations of "election fraud". After all, Republicans have made voter suppression a feature of their campaigns for decades.
With all the concern about foreign election interference, corporate media has mostly ignored (possibly intentionally) a much more dangerous interference - well organized and pervasive Republican election malfeasance. And, it's not like they've tried to hide it - especially in the age of Trump.
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