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Traditionally the benediction at the opening session of a party’s national convention is a prayer. Nothing more. An appeal to divine goodness and grace.

Alas, not this year, not at this Republican National Convention unravelling in Cleveland. Rather than a prayer, Pastor Mark Burns, Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser, offered a rant.

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“Our enemy is not other Republicans,” he thundered, “but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.” He gave thanks to the Almighty for “the life of Donald Trump” and for giving him “the words to unite this party, this country, that we together can defeat the liberal Democratic Party.”

Here was something extraordinary at a political convention: a clergyman as a partisan. But this is the Republican Party, Trump’s party, which knows no moderation and sees Clinton as the anti-Christ. If you are still not persuaded that we are through the looking glass, consider his unconventional convention, its own interpretation of Pokemon Go.