We've Heard the GOP's Line on Trump Before

The Washington Post very effectively demolishes the whole idea, touted by Republican congressional leaders, that we can count on checks and balances to limit the damage of a Donald Trump presidency. I recommend reading the whole thing, but do wish to bring up a related point.

The quote bolded below served for me as an express train to memory lane:

As Benjamin Franklin said, "a Republic, if you can keep it." Today, Americans can't simply rely on the system to save them from the possibility of a fascist president. And they certainly can't count on the Republicans who produced this threat in the first place. They will have to shoulder that responsibility themselves, in the voting booth. [link dropped]

This immediately reminded me of the many court challenges to the ACA that so many Republicans were hoping would save them from the necessity of actually opposing that monstrosity. Regarding those, I once said:

The reactions to these rulings on the part of conservatives is what interests me, and it all reminds me of the atmosphere just before the Supreme Court first rescued ObamaCare (via calling the individual mandate a tax). Having failed to oppose the ACA on the principle that it (like the rest of the welfare state) violates individual rights, the conservatives, unsurprisingly, saw the law passed and seemed to be wishing for it to just go away. (I think the court should have ruled differently, but we shouldn't have gotten to that point, anyway.)

So we are to rely on men with a proven track record of wishing problems away to stop our version of Mussolini? Count me out.

-- CAV