The thing readers should take away from this important column is the importance of voting Republicans out of office: all of them, at every level of government. This holds true even of those who are comparatively moderate, because they participate in a party structure that has become corrupted beyond repair. There remains not a shred of good faith Republican participation anywhere in the country, at any level of government.

The sad thing about all of this. and I say this as a liberal/progressive, is that if there were a party that actually, honestly adhered to the principles that Republicans have always claimed to adhere to -- i.e., fiscal responsibility, smaller government, etc., such a party could be a constructive force in the governance of the nation. It never hurts to have someone in the room who questions the cost of things. But that party disappeared a long time ago and everybody knows it, although some Republican candidates still pay homage to those shopworn talking points as if they still had currency.

More and more, voters are coming to understand that a party cannot claim to be fiscally responsible while advocating tax cuts that blow huge holes in the budget, nor while refusing to consider any cutbacks to our outrageously bloated defense/security spending. Nor can it claim to be for smaller government while at the same time seeking to put Uncle Sam into Americans' bedrooms and inserting government into the reproductive choices of Americas women."

It was as though Nancy Reagan had given a "Just Say No" speech while her hisband honored the occasion at the White House by snorting cocaine during a live news conference.

"My problem with gun control!?🤔 One We people have the right to keep and bear arms. To keep Tierney from having in our government. Because we have allowed them to become too powerful. To where we lose all of her constitutional rights. "