The biggest political problem in post-Vietnam War Washington that haunts Americans is that they rarely have a good choice in whom to elect to do the people’s business.

On the one hand, the radicalized Democrat Party that emerged out of the revolutionary violence of 1968 has progressively grown into the locus of darkness, malevolence, tyranny, and godlessness — so much so that today, its presidential candidate is a woman who never received one vote or captured one delegate. Vice President Kamala Harris is, of course, the second presidential candidate in this century born and raised a Marxist after Barack Obama who became downright Jeffersonian when running for president – hiding the loud and proud sweep of their radicalism. (More background here.)

That one has to hide his or her life-long radical ties and beliefs from the voters whose support they seek, with the help of the corrupt corporate media axis, ought to be a prominent campaign issue. But, alas, it is the brave new world where up is down and the lie stalks the truth like a hungry lion circling a limping gazelle.

The opposition party to that threat, the GOP, is a loose confederation of conservatives and “establishment” Republicans, for want of a better description, that has proven itself most often weak, ineffective, and without the backbone or courage to confront error with common sense, corruption with outrage, and lies with truth – and the Truth.

Too frequently Republicans have tried to play to the music of the radicals in an always-failing attempt to carve out some space in what they thought was the public perception. They want to be relevant and hip with a culture and national media that long ago gave up any pretense of professionalism or attachment to honesty, much less the truth.

What oozed out of the muck and mire that Washington became, many of us have renamed the “uniparty.” Because even when Republicans hold power, they don’t.

History of the Uniparty

The end result is that with few exceptions in passing decades, this uniparty has been pervasive and powerful, unaccountable and irresponsible. They have married up, if you will, and now bicker and snarl at each other until bedtime. Then they get all cozy and chummy.

I came to that hard realization shortly after Ronald Reagan left office. Of course, he was the first “disrupter” president who came to town to shake things up and turn politics upside down.

The process of trashing the Reagan Revolution and supplanting its core conservatism began mere minutes after high noon with George H.W. Bush’s inaugural speech in 1989, filled with the banalities of establishment Republicans. It was confirmed in the first week when the Bush White House publicly made it clear that the Reagan era was past and that it was time to get back to the real business of Washington. [The consequences of that attitude were evident in Bush’s reelection loss in 1992. “Read my lips” indeed.]

Because of his success and popularity, Reagan’s name has been invoked by carpetbagging Republicans for 40 years — those pretending to share his conservatism, vision, and passion for the founding ideals of freedom and hope for the American experiment. But while many claimed his legacy as a means to an end, once that end was accomplished, they quickly sank irretrievably into the foul swamp upon which Washington sits.

The Great Disrupter

The second disrupter turning Washington on its head and invading the uniparty, Donald J. Trump, made it to the White House in 2016. He beat back a supersized Marxist superstructure of the Democrat Party and the same establishment Republican Party that is nothing if not obtuse.

Trump is no Ronald Reagan – and has never claimed to be. However, he does share things in common with Reagan besides being a disruptive force to Washington’s business as usual. Trump, the brash Queens-born billionaire, has spent a lifetime building things – and promoting himself and his brand. The jealous, corrupt corporate media ridicule his success, fame, and riches — yet few of them have ever created anything in life but lies and hot air.

The same media did likewise with Reagan, whom the elites sneeringly called a “B actor.” They dismissed his seriousness because he spoke “plain American” instead of the fake language of the Washington ruling class. Many – and some in his administration as anonymous sources – labeled him a fool, a warmonger, and a danger to world peace.

However, the greatest sin of both men was and is that they had a magical connection with average citizens, those pesky voters. They said what they thought plainly and were, and are, like bulldogs on a bone with their core agendas and beliefs. They didn’t bend.

Neither Reagan nor Trump was, or is, always right or even strictly “conservative.” But they carried the “common sense” learned in the company of average men and women who occupy the real world. They both actually liked people and enjoyed rubbing elbows with anyone willing to talk and think out loud with them. And in private, both were gracious and kind, often to a fault.

Despite the glamour and position they achieved, they were dispositionally more “average Joes” than the “ruling class” who fought them every step of the way politically. Perhaps it’s not more complicated than the fact that neither man saw people as projects, but as individuals. And neither had any interest in changing. They both loved America with an outbound enthusiasm shared by most Americans – except in Washington.

The Radicalized Establishment

But once again, some establishment Republicans (you know who they are) are out to launch a jihad against Trump and evidently willing to turn the presidency over to an honest-to-goodness Marxist, and a temperamentally vicious one at that.

Some merely refuse to endorse the party’s nominee and, at least so far, haven’t supported Kamala Harris. This includes former President George W. Bush, who evidently is still mad about Jeb! in 2016.

Then there’s former Vice President Mike Pence, who feels jilted, and Senator Mitt Romney, who never met a salient thought of his own, plus others still chanting the tired refrains most folks have long abandoned because Trump’s first term proved them wrong.

In numbers, they are inconsequential to any outcome. Still, the media flatters them by making the absurd insinuation that their opinions carry political clout, one way or the other.

But there is also a small but vocal group (see list here) that the media adore like children do balloons, who have crossed the bridge to actually endorsing Kamala Harris – and thus are endorsing the intellectually challenged, tyrannical, anti-constitutional, godless agenda that is hers.

Who woulda thunk it?

Proving Her Quality

The headliners of this group at the moment are the disgraced former Congresswoman from Wyoming, Liz Cheney, her father, the embittered former Vice President Dick Cheney, and most recently, the former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-VA), all making preposterous statements about saving democracy and the usual diatribe that ignore the fact that President Trump endangered no one while he was in office. (Interestingly, both Cheney and Comstock voted “with” Trump 93% and 97% of the time, respectively, while in Congress.)

Liz Cheney elaborated, “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris in this election.”

Wow! For all her bluster about character and the Constitution and saving democracy, Ms. Cheney was hand-picked by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – against House rules – to the January 6 Committee that we now know manipulated, ignored, and hid evidence; destroyed crucial tapes; banned Trump’s lawyers from its proceedings, and outright refused to hear from Trump officials who did not support their predetermined position.

So much for her character. She also voted for the travesty of Trump’s impeachment over a phone call which the official transcript clearly demonstrates is the exact opposite of what was alleged in the impeachment – and about which even the Ukrainian president said, “I did not feel pressured.”

Crossing the Bridge

Of course, the never-Trumpers who refuse to support him are exercising their rights – which no one would deny them.

But those hundred-odd or so who have publicly endorsed a woman who is a flat-out radical at war with the constitutional order and the Bill of Rights, and who supports the darkest ambitions of the death cult in which she has marinated– that is a bridge too far. Their choice aligns them with the worst of humanity and an evil dogma that has left a trail of misery and tens of millions of people dead over the last hundred years.

Cheney, quoted in The New York Times, talks vaguely about a new party. “Whether it’s organizing a new party — look, it’s hard for me to see how the Republican Party, given what it has done, can [credibly ask people] to vote for Republican candidates.”

Many of us would respond, “Don’t bother, Liz. You and your fellow travelers seem to have found the right home. Live in it.”

Michael Giere writes award-winning commentary and essays on the intersection of politics, culture, and faith. He is a critically acclaimed novelist (The White River Series) and short-story writer. A former candidate for the US House of Representatives from Texas, he was a senior executive in both the Reagan and the Bush (41) administrations, and in 2016 served on the Trump Transition Team.