I will date the end if our republic from 1994 or 1995, with the election and investiture of the 104th Congress--the Newt Gingrich crowd--and the intensifying of the disenfranchisement of masses of decent, deserving American citizens. The Gingrichers were new and different: strident, self-righteous, determined and certain of their mandate as bomb-throwers and blackmailers.
Fast-forward to now and the fulfillment of their dream of making the U. S. Government, which has done a relatively enormous amount of good, utterly contemptible. That, in the election of Donald Trump, a loathsome, unattractive and inappropriate person, right up there with the Newtster. Even Trump's critics from within the party are now salivating their way to his Babylon.
Follow the drool if you have any trouble finding the site of the spectacle. They are elementally intent on ensuring the continuing rise of their class and caste in power, wealth and privilege, everyone else be fucked and damned to an ever more precarious existence in the land of plenty. They are deemed to be undeserving and unworthy, many of them having voted their nemesis into power.
A long Winter may be ahead but we all have something to keep us warm--anxiety for Trump's detractors and the quivering anticipation of those who want to see our State finally demolished or on its knees or maybe just dead and buried, the poor thing. Gingrich himself, that huge, disgusting gremlin, is vibrating with excitement. Finally, the wrecking crew will see their target destroyed.