Voters must 'mercy-kill' the GOP to guarantee democracy's survival: Ex-GOP pundit

Former President Donald Trump is expected to soon face yet another indictment in the January 6 case, and it could come as soon as this week.

But that isn't enough to undo the damage he has done to his party, argued Rich Logis, a former Republican pundit and twice-Trump voter who founded the group Perfect Our Union to reform political divides, in a Salon interview. In fact, he said, the entire GOP as we know it must be obliterated in the next election.

"Irrefutably, Trump is partly responsible for the insurrection; the justification of politically motivated violence was one of the reasons I left behind the politically traumatic world of Trump/MAGA/GOP," Logis told Chauncey DeVega. But both Republicans and Democrats are kidding themselves if they think prosecution will finish him off, he went on. Instead, it will galvanize his supporters even further, even if it turns off the rest of America.

Moreover, he warned, "Because of the Electoral College, Trump was much closer to winning in 2020 than the Democratic Party wants to acknowledge. Biden's re-election is not guaranteed."

There are signs another Trump presidency would be even more dangerous than the first, with reports showing he has a plan to dismantle federal limits on executive power — and much of it was put together by staple right-wing institutionalist groups like the Heritage Foundation, meaning much of it could be on the table even if some other Republican became president.

"America has survived one Trump presidency. But another? It is a risk we must not take," said Logis. "The most beneficial outcome for the country is to electorally mercy-kill the GOP. We must be patient in affliction, simultaneously bringing the good news of conserving democracy to the afflicted.