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There is a great deal of difference between how the Republican and Democratic Parties handled some recent unpleasantness in both their ranks. The GOP, as has become traditional, reacted with denial. The GOP Convention was an utter disaster, the biggest hate-fest since Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies and different from them only in a lack of artistry.

The Democratic Party was assailed by an email scandal surrounding Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Here, rather than simply deny everything, Wasserman Schultz fell on her sword, as honor demanded, and resigned from her post. Frustrated as any Democrat can be over shenanigans at the DNC, there was at least that ultimate act of taking responsibility for your actions.

Which is something you will never see from any Republican. Because why admit you are wrong when you can a) blame somebody else, or b) deny it happened in the first place? Look at Trump: rather than admit his wife Melania’s speech was plagiarism, he invented a fictional speechwriter and then had this nonexistent person fall her her sword.

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No actual Republican was harmed in the making of the 2016 GOP Convention.

Wasserman Schultz ultimately fell short of the mark. There had been complaints before and the email scandal was the last straw. I am no longer at this point in my life surprised by human behavior and the gods know none of us are perfect.

You can take issue with Hillary Clinton hiring Wasserman Schultz on as honorary chair of her campaign’s 50-state program, but if Wasserman Schultz did not have what it takes to head the DNC, that does not mean she lacks other talents that can be put to use to keep Trump out of the White House.

And that is really what this race has become all about. Look at Trump’s past week: an acceptance speech full of lies, invented crime statistics and not one, but two plagiarized speeches, and an invented speech writer to be scapegoated. Follow that up with incessant attacks on everyone who opposes him. And for icing on the cake, he lied about the convention’s ho-hum ratings, tweeting,

The ratings for the Republican National Convention were very good, but for the final night, my speech, great. Thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016

Why not? It’s all a sham, a deplorable, dystopian fantasy in the making. One funded by Russian oligarchs and strongman Vladimir Putin.

Yes, if Trump wins, far from America being made “great again,” the Russians will have won the Cold War after all.

Which is where the difference between Democrats and Republicans becomes glaringly apparent: Trump tweeted Sunday night that,

The Democrats are in a total meltdown but the biased media will say how great they are doing! E-mails say the rigged system is alive & well! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016

Yet if you saw the GOP Convention, it would be obvious to you that the party in meltdown is the Republican Party. Sanders did the responsible thing and lined up behind the victor, Clinton. He understands that is more at stake than differences between Democratic candidates.

At the GOP Convention, however, we saw Ted Cruz not only fail to endorse Trump, but to put himself forward as the 2020 Republican candidate. There was not an independent observer alive, and not a few Republicans, who saw in the GOP Convention the death of their party, and possibly, that of American democracy.

And the fascist king of narcissism called Wasserman Schultz “highly neurotic.” If there is one candidate of 2016 who has no right to diagnose the mental health of others, it is Donald J. Trump, who even managed to make the introduction of his running mate about himself instead.

The real meltdown is that of our shared reality, or at least, the disintegration of the last, frayed tethering the Republican Party had with it. If spit was flying out of his mouth as he spoke, Trump would not appear more ridiculous.

And it is typical of the Republican reaction to unpleasant encounters with that shared reality that they blame a very conservative-friendly mainstream media for their problems. The media made Trump’s campaign possible and devoted far more of their attention to his campaign than to that of either Hillary or Bernie.

However, as with McCain/Palin and Romney and whoever, and now Trump and Trump’s pet monkey, even the mainstream media is going to be forced to report enough of the insanity pouring out of their mouths to make it clear these people are raving lunatics.

The GOP claimed the mainstream media gave the 2012 Election to Obama but until they learn that they gave it to Obama they will continue in their addiction to that Rovian math Republicans do to feel better about themselves, and ignore the gooey mass of reality that is pooling around their feet.