Conservative demolishes Republicans over impeachment debacle: 'I hope democracy survives -- and the GOP does not'

The failure to call witnesses in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial revealed the moral corruption that defines the present-day Republican Party, according to conservative Max Boot.

The former Republican said in a new Washington Post column that he could never rejoin the party he left after Trump's election, and the impeachment debacle gave him another reason to be disgusted.

"Trump will leave office some day (I hope!), but he will leave behind a quasi-authoritarian party that is as corrupt as he is," Boot wrote. "The failure to call witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial revealed the GOP’s moral failure."

Some of the GOP senators who joined the majority vote to block witness testimony explained they believed Trump was wrong to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, but they gave varying reason to justify their vote to exclude new evidence -- despite continuing revelations about the scheme.

"Given the flimsiness of the Republicans’ rationales, it’s hard not to conclude that something else accounts for their decision-making," Boot wrote.

Some of the GOP senators truly believe Trump did nothing wrong, while others may have feared angering the president's base or his supporters back in their home districts -- but Boot denounced all of them as cowards.

"Senators who shirk their constitutional duties are cowards who disgrace their oaths of office and betray the Constitution," Boot wrote. "Our troops risk their lives for this country; these senators won’t even risk some unpleasantness."

The former Republican said his old party didn't deserve to exist anymore.

"I want nothing to do with a party led by the deluded and the dishonest," Boot wrote. "I fervently hope our democracy survives this debacle. I fervently hope the Republican Party does not."