What say we all raise a glass and drink to the health of republic, and may it survive people like this idiot. From The Guardian:

Multnomah County GOP chair James Buchal, however, told the Guardian that recent street protests had prompted Portland Republicans to consider alternatives to "abandoning the public square"."I am sort of evolving to the point where I think that it is appropriate for Republicans to continue to go out there," he said. "And if they need to have a security force protecting them, that's an appropriate thing too." Asked if this meant Republicans making their own security arrangements rather than relying on city or state police, Buchal said: "Yeah. And there are these people arising, like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters." Asked if he was considering such groups as security providers, Buchal said: "Yeah. We're thinking about that. Because there are now belligerent, unstable people who are convinced that Republicans are like Nazis."

Portland is still reeling from the hate crime perpetrated on its mass transit system last week, a crime that occurred because three decent men tried to get a lunatic to stop screaming epithet…er….exercising his First Amendment rights in the faces of two women who'd done nothing to him. (Also, is being a "YouTube personality" really a thing now? I weep for my nation when I remember God is smart.) Portland has been a tinderbox for some time now and the election of Donald Trump has been a slow-burning fuse.

So, naturally, it's time for the local politicians to throw some more powder into the magazine.

Buchal appears to have made radical statements in the past. Portland reporter Corey Pein surfaced a video of Buchal addressing a Multnomah County Republican central committee meeting. The video depicts Buchal making a fiery pro-Trump speech. He says of the president: "His enemies are my enemies and his enemies are all our enemies." "Our enemies are more dangerous than ever," he continues. "We are really in a life and death battle for the future of our society. And these globalist people are not going to give up." "If we don't tell our fellow citizens that there are these dark forces in the government, like the CIA and the shadow government, who are trying to take Trump down with lies, who is going to tell them?"

This guy is the Republican chairman in the most important county in Oregon, the one where Portland is situated. He is the Republican mainstream in Multinomah County, and one might even say he's been…I dunno…radicalized. Might be worth examining how that happened.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io