The GOP now exists to further the personal desires and wealth of one man. We now see friends and former colleagues celebrate its new form. It is no longer a party of ideas, but a party of idolaters. It is a dark mirror of the authoritarian regimes we once fought.

In the past several decades, America has experienced a steady dilution of the power, competence, and value of our institutions, and the near collapse of what we once called political discourse. Public trust in government, business, religious institutions, and our faith in the idea of America is strained to the breaking point. As Lincoln understood on the eve of the Civil War, we need a clarion call to hold the line against a tyranny from within.

If Donald Trump wins a second term, the consequences will be dark—and it does no one any good to deny them. The month following his Senate acquittal has given us a preview of what lies ahead. Even his friends and fans now understand what Trump might do with untrammeled power in a second term.

Yoni Appelbaum: How America ends

Since taking office, this president, despite his radical, reckless, and corrupt actions, his constant stream of unpresidential words and deeds, has faced no substantive sanction, official or otherwise. A reelection will embolden him and his allies in ways Americans should fear.

Much of America feels helpless to confront a president who treats the rule of law as a joke, who weaponizes the federal government against his political and personal opponents, and who engages in corrupt acts for his personal benefit.

That is why in December of last year, we founded the Lincoln Project. Like the president whose name we have humbly adopted, we know that to “bind up the wounds” of our Republic, we must first defeat the most clear and present danger to it.

However, while defeating Trump at the ballot box in November is our primary stated goal, our mission in the end is not merely about him. Those who claim we are “Never Trumpers” are missing the broader scope of history. Lincoln wasn’t just “Never Slavery”; he was “Always America.” He fought slavery’s horror, risking the end of the Republic in order to save it.

Trump is the antithesis of what the Republican Party was founded to defend, and that makes him the tangible and temporal target of our current efforts. Defeating him is only the beginning of a national reformation that will be the work of years, perhaps decades.

We come to this fight believing that our country is bigger than any one person or faction, and that the roaring tribalism of the right and left is a dead end for what should be a nation of unlimited promise. We love America, and what it stands for, not because of some ideological predisposition, but because it has created a place where liberty and freedom aren’t brand slogans, but sacred truths.