Washington Post columnist Max Boot said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believes people who are crazy and dangerous are the mainstream of the Republican Party.
Boot said, “There’s always been a lunatic fringe in the Republican Party, but it used to be truly the fringe, folks like The John Birch Society in the 1960s. This is the same mindset with the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and the Louie Gohmerts and all the rest. They are almost literally out of their minds. The stuff they believe is illogical, dangerous, it’s crazy. These people are not the fringe anymore. The fringe in the Republican Party is people like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, saying we need to uphold the Constitution and respect the sanctity of elections and defend our democracy. That’s the outlying view in the Republican Party today. ”
He added, “The mainstream is the people who say that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. That is, in fact, a litmus test for being a Republican in good standing. You see the way that David Perdue is humiliating himself in the Georgia gubernatorial race by putting the big lie front and center. This is a formerly establishment Republican. This is what they’re doing because they think that’s what they need to do to connect with the Republican base and to avoid the wrath of the orange man, who still remains the dominant figure within the Republican Party. This is a very dangerous situation for American democracy because, as we all know, Joe Biden’s opinion ratings are very low right now. It’s very possible to imagine that not only do Republicans win the midterms in the fall, but Donald Trump could easily be elected president in 2024, and you know, despite all the revelations about his attempts to overthrow our democracy, if he wins again, he’ll get another chance.”
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