WHY IS MEMBERSHIP IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STILL RESPECTABLE?

There it is:

More Than Half of House Republicans Sign On to Trump’s Election Coup

... On Thursday, 106 GOP representatives signed an amicus brief sent to the Supreme Court in support of a petition by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. The petition requests that the Supreme Court grant an emergency order that would nullify presidential election results declaring Joe Biden the winner in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin based on a bogus claim about mail-ballot rules.

That means that more than half of all House Republicans have now endorsed Trump’s attempt to overthrow the election and stay in power for another four years.

It is now the default position of the Republican Party that democracy is not an acceptable system when it fails to deliver results the Republican Party wants. That's so obvious that even very right-wing observers -- Erick Erickson, Mona Charen, David French -- understand it.

But even as the GOP becomes a party unabashedly supporting sedition, no one is asking the "respectable" members of the party why they haven't renounced their membership.

Why? If you were a sitting governor or U.S. senator and it was revealed that you belonged to an organization that advocated the overthrow of the U.S. government by force, your membership in that group would be a scandal and your career would be in jeopardy. No one would argue that your membership was irrelevant unless you had personally called for the government to be overthrown. Affiliation with such a group would be enough to put your career on the line.

We need to stop thinking of the GOP as one of two major parties participating cooperatively in a democracy, and begin thinking about it the way we think about anti-government militias. For that reason, we need to ask the Republicans who are considered "respectable" even by moderates and liberals -- Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey, Northeastern governors such as Charlie Baker and Larry Hogan -- how they can justify remaining in this seditious party.

I'm sure they'll argue that all of this will blow over after the Supreme Court rejects the election theft, after the Electoral College electors vote and Congress (eventually) ratifies that vote, after Georgia holds its Senate runoffs, or after Joe Biden is inaugurated.

But it won't blow over. "Trump was robbed" will remain the default position of the Republican Party. It will certainly continue to be the position of the outgoing president, who'll remain the party's effective leader.

The Republican Party opposes America's system of government -- it's that simple. UIt should be unacceptable for anyone in a prominent government position to be a member of this radical party.