It’s denial. Not denial about Trump. Everybody who is looking sees clearly enough the abnormality of his behavior. Denial about the Republican Party. Just as the GOP is avoiding looking in the mirror, the rest of the country is avoiding looking at the GOP as an institution. If it did, here is what it would see: the same thing that Republicans would see in the mirror.

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They would see that the entire Republican Party is a participant in the unraveling of our republic. The “Saturday Night Live” skit with the Ivanka Trump perfume was apt enough, but the whole party smells the same: complicit.

Many wonder whether it would do any good to impeach Trump and get Mike Pence as president instead. The answer is the same as the answer to a different question: Why won’t Trump be impeached in the first place?

Because the Republican Party is in on it. Remember “Never Trump”? Where is that “wing” of the party now? Nonexistent, or the functional equivalent, is where.

Americans are reluctant enough to see a president as a threat to the nation. It’s harder still to see an entire political party the same way. But tell me where the line of distinction is at this point. They are one and the same. And no, sporadic grumbling — without action — doesn’t count.

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You can’t fix what you won’t define. And the media in the United States is only a half step away from joining the GOP when it continues to report on the GOP as if it is somehow still a traditional, responsible political party. Remember this every time you see or hear of a completely irresponsible bill the GOP is considering to wreck health insurance as a potential “win.” It is not a win; it is a tragedy, and an indefensibly sordid one.