GOP has become a 'de facto criminal organization': analyst

Under former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party has become a "de facto criminal organization" with him sitting on top as the crime boss, wrote analyst Chauncey DeVega for Salon.

Indeed, he argued, it's like the mob in virtually every way — even in terms of violence, with Trump using "threats of violence and intimidation to keep control and to punish his enemies" — with the only difference being that the oath they take is "administered in public."

This comes as the former president is facing four different indictments totaling over 90 charges, including an election racketeering case in Georgia that includes 18 co-defendants like his own lawyers and state Republican operatives. But despite all of that, DeVega noted, six out of eight of his rivals at the Wisconsin primary debate said they would back him as the nominee even if he is convicted of a crime.

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What further compounds on this, DeVega continued, is that Trump engaged in his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in broad daylight, and is "unapologetic in his criminality and proud of his evil behavior – and promises to get revenge on his fascist MAGA movement's 'enemies' when/if he takes back the White House in 2025." Traditional GOP think tanks are even helping him organize a plan to purge the civil service and replace the workforce of the federal government top to bottom with loyalists.

None of this is a problem for the Republican electorate; a recent poll by POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos shows 60 percent of Republicans think Trump didn't even commit crimes at all, and 85 percent believe he shouldn't face punishment even if he did.

The rest of the country, said DeVega, needs not just to defeat and imprison Trump, but to take serious steps to put down the movement propping him up once that happens.

"American neofascism and the type of criminogenic politics it encouraged and was born of did not come into being over the course of less than a decade, such elements where present long before the Age of Trump," concluded DeVega. However, he said, it is vital once Trump has been removed from the picture that "pro-democracy forces" step up to move the country forward.