Hmmm, Republicans privately said they support the bill, but they wouldn't vote for it. Sounds familiar. Like Mitt Romney's bio where he said fellow Republican Senators told him they absolutely thought Trump should be impeached but they didn't dare vote to impeach him. They were concerned for their own safety.

It is a defining characteristic of a nascent autocratic/authoritarian party. The militant wing of party members will police their own and do so brutally with threats and intimidation against their own.

I guess in at least one sense (to try and see the bright side in very dark times) this is further proof that most people really are on the side of justice, equality, love and live-and-let-live. It is a small militant minority that has seized the Republican Party and in turn is reigning terror on us all.

Of course, the ultimate success of a small band of autocratic militant thugs requires just one thing: Weakness on the part of good people, and their failure to stand up to them. Somehow we have to figure out how to signal to good-hearted Republicans (they actually do exist--they are just hiding in attics right now) that we have their back and will support them. Which is a big ask of us, isn't it? But it is what I have been pondering lately. How to build bridges and alliances before it is too late. If it isn't too late already, that is.