The crisis isn’t Trump. It’s the Republican Party.

If the past week — and past four years — have proven anything, it’s that we are not as different as we believed. No longer is the question, "Can it happen here?" It’s happening already. As this podcast goes to air, the current president of the United States is attempting what — if it occurred in any other country — we would call an anti-democratic coup. This coup attempt will probably not work. But the fact that it is being carried out farcically, erratically, ineffectively does not mean it is not happening, or that it will not have consequences. The most alarming aspect of this attempt is not Donald Trump’s anti-democratic antics; it’s the speed at which Republican elites have consolidated support around him. Politician after politician — Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Mike Pompeo, and others — has signaled solidarity with the president, while not quite endorsing his conspiracies. Others, like Lindsey Graham, are literally funding the Trump campaign’s lawsuits. The message is clear: When faced wit