comment: >
  
  And Cheney is not really a moderate in terms of her policies, except for her belief in the integrity of elections and that trump lied and tried to foment an insurrection
context: Because they aren't the "fringe." They are the base, the standard ignorant, nasty, stupid GOP voter. I wish the media would stop pretending like mainline GOP politicians are somehow "fringe." >
  
  In 2010 we watched hard-core conservatives like Bob Bennett get defeated in primaries because they weren’t sufficiently crazy.  They actively purged moderates and old-school conservatives for years. >
  
  And those guys themselves were purgers of the sensible moderate/Rockefeller/Nixon GOPers when the Reagan/Gingrich faction rose to power. It's the latest devolution of a party thats been morally and intellectually bankrupt for 40 years. >
  
  They find themselves mired in money, myopic in their understanding of value as they flounder in media seas, gripping pathological ego trips and obsessing on trivialities while the foundations of civil society rot away from neglect.
  Most of these cretins are accurate representatives of their voters, which raises some questions about democracy I’m not qualified to ponder. >
  
  Yes but I think for a lot of these ghouls, the rotting away of civil society is a plus because then they can say "See! The government doesn't work!" And then they sell the parts that are left to their buddies for profit. >
  
  When the Rs punish their moderates (Cheney and others) and accept their extremists openly calling for Christian Nationalism, this is what they get.