So, the Republican Party elders had all weekend to digest what a Republican special counsel had to say about the conduct in office of a Republican President* of the United States without a Republican attorney general running interference for a Republican administration*. As you might have expected, many of them are Very Concerned. The most hilarious of them, as expected, was Susan Collins of Maine. From The Hill:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller's report gives an "unflattering portrayal" of President Trump, including an effort to oust the former FBI director from his special counsel role. “He was not only very upset by the special counsel’s investigations, but tried several times through intermediaries to end it, and it is an unflattering portrayal of the President," Collins told Maine Public Radio.

Straight fire, that one.

Susan Collins strides bravely into the breach. Zach Gibson Getty Images

And then there's John Kasich, who is terribly distressed about the whole situation and would like us to know that he told us so. Again, The Hill:

Kasich, who is mulling launching a Republican presidential primary challenge to Trump in 2020, tweeted that Trump's behavior in the Mueller report "is more than disappointing." "It’s unacceptable & not behavior we should expect from our president. It's worse than I've seen in my career observing & working with presidents or public officials," he wrote.

I have a suggestion.

Run, dummy.

ohn Kasich is saying much and doing little. Newsday LLC Getty Images

That there are not at least five Republican candidates challenging El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago not only is a fine metric for judging the deep internal rot in that political party, but also a good measure of the limits of the Never Trumpers as allies in an election year. Let us stipulate the following two points: 1) It is the responsibility of the Democratic Party to do everything in its power to protect the institutions of our republic, and 2) it is distinctly not the Democratic Party's responsibility to save the Republican Party from itself, and from the political monster it has created over the past 40 years. For four decades, the party has flattered, and begged, and truckled to the very forces of which it is now terrified. Save yourselves, gang.

But that isn't happening because, for all their brave talk, the Never Trumpers want to keep the political power that base gave them while distancing themselves from its obvious and inevitable product. So, instead of gathering forces behind a primary challenge, many of the Never Trumpers seem to be content with advising the Democratic Party on who it should nominate and what policies it should pursue. This, I believe, in preparation for a campaign to blame the Democratic nominee if the country determines that it wants to live six more years in the current gale-force dungwind.

If the country re-elects this president*, it's because modern movement conservatism prepared the ground for it and used the Republican Party to do it.

Let us be clear: if the country re-elects this president*, it's because modern movement conservatism prepared the ground for it and used the Republican Party to do it. It hangs on all of them like a historical deadweight. They should disenthrall themselves from the policies and tactics that hung it from their necks before presuming to beg the other political party save them from their own monster.

Which brings us to former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who's spent most of the winter walking the parapets of the Elsinore green room. He's been deploring hard, has Kasich, most recently on CNN. But he hasn't done anything besides that—and his endless pondering has frozen the field for other possible candidates, most of whom lack the stones to run anyway, but all of whom would like extra credit for at least thinking about it. (Hi, Larry Hogan!)

Seth Moulton is the latest Democratic contender. Bill Clark Getty Images

Meanwhile, of course, every Democratic politician except zombie Martin Van Buren has jumped in. Monday was Seth Moulton Day, and the Massachusetts congressman virtually sewed up the Seth Moulton vote almost instantly. The Seth Moulton vote is not to be confused with the Tim Ryan vote or the Pete Buttigieg vote, although I suspect some retired factory worker in Mishawaka is going to be very confused by the end of the summer especially if, as expected, Joe Biden leaps in this week, more than likely falling over his own feet in the process.

It's already getting a bit...spirited...on the Democratic side. Republicans are just going to have to roll with it. Or they can help re-elect a Republican president*. Loyalty counts, after all.

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

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