No American with an ounce of patriotism could have watched the video of the animals who overtook the nation's Capitol without being revolted by what former President Donald Trump has done to the country we love. But plenty of Americans who profess to be patriots have watched this Trump impeachment trial not merely stone cold to the evidence, but actually falling over one another to proclaim their contempt for it.

After seeing the House impeachment managers meticulously document one of the worst days in American history — on which a violent mob summoned and directed by the president of the United States stormed our seat of government, assaulted police officers and threatened to execute the vice president and the speaker of the House — Republican Sen. Rick Scott proclaimed the presentation "a complete waste of time." Fellow Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said, "I think the trial is stupid." The evidence was "offensive and absurd," claimed the reliably spineless Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. "They're peddling #fakenews during the impeachment trial," tweeted Republican Rep. Jim Jordan.

Trump loyalist and indefatigable attention-seeker Alan Dershowitz spied yet another opportunity for air time and seized it. "President Trump didn't incite people to come to the Capitol, he invited the people," Dershowitz told Fox News. As if to make certain that viewers appreciated his rhyme, he repeated it, determined to pound every available nail into the lid of the coffin in which his credibility officially resides. "Not incite, invite," he emphasized. Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who famously flashed a fraternal power salute to the mob outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, ostentatiously signaled his disregard for the impeachment trial during the first day of the presentation of evidence. Leaving the Senate floor to sit above in the spectators' gallery, Hawley put his feet up on the chair in front of him, flipping through folders while his fellow senators sat in their seats on the Senate floor below, listening to the proceedings as the Senate rules required them to do.

Congressional Republicans too frightened of retaliation by Trump supporters if they held accountable a crooked sociopath may be cowards, but they're not fools. A poll taken in late January, over two weeks after the Trump mob overran the Capitol, showed that 81% of Republicans had a favorable opinion of the former president. Insurrection or no insurrection, 50% believed that Trump should play a "major role" in the Republican Party. A vote to impeach or convict Trump would surely subject the offending Republican legislator to a successful primary challenge. Political careers would come to screeching ends, and any hope of parlaying those careers into lucrative lobbying jobs would end, as well.

Besides, the truth is that Republicans still love Trump. The fraud, the cruelty, the infantile insults, the lying, the extortion, the contempt for America's civic institutions, the embrace of white supremacy — these don't bother most Republicans. Indeed, many Republicans find all of it enthralling, and that is the most dispiriting manifestation of the disease that grips America. Pro-Trump commentators have gushed and giggled as Trump subjected us to a national nightmare, and they would feel perfectly happy — even delighted — to have a reprise.

The conclusion seems inescapable: The Republican Party is profoundly sick, and likely incurable. For many who cherish the old ideal of two patriotic political parties, each with the good of America legitimately at heart, this is sad. But the current spectacle of a Republican Party so morally corrupt is sadder still. Earlier this month, dozens of former Republican officials held a Zoom call to discuss mounting a challenge to either take back the party or break from it. These included former officials from the administrations of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump himself. One of them was Evan McMullin, former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference. "Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening democracy," McMullin told Reuters.

He is right, of course. And for the moment, those large portions of the Republican Party and their cheerleaders pose a clear and present danger to the country. The battle is over whether they win or the country does.

Jeff Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast. To find out more about Jeff Robbins and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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