While it should be obvious that Donald Trump’s 2016 victory in the presidential election was a catastrophe, sometimes the damage can be hard to quantify. How do you put a number on the disappointment women felt when they saw a sexual predator elected over a very qualified woman? How do you craft an alternate reality where dictators weren’t elevated and allies were not slighted and neglected?

But ground zero for the carnage was the Republican Party itself, which not only selected him but then was molded for four years in his amoral image. Their moral decay can be measured, and the results show what an absolute disaster Trump has been. What they consider good is not good. What they consider true is not true. Their connection to reality is gone. Their commitment to democracy is destroyed.

Virtually everyone who is not under Trump’s spell is aware of this and everyone seems to be talking and writing about it. But I don’t see a lot of good ideas for what to do about it. I don’t even see much reason to be confident that Trump and his supporters won’t have the last laugh the next time America goes to the polls.

As far as I am concerned, we are in the midst of an ongoing insurrection. It didn’t end on January 6 and it seems to be strengthening rather than weakening.

The Democrats don’t have the unilateral power to stop this tsunami of evil and stupidity, so it’s not just a matter of will power. But the will power seems to be lacking too.

If we don’t want to settle this with violence, we need to get serious about settling it with the enforcement of laws and norms, which means putting people in trial and using the Justice Department and Congress to define what flies and what does not.

Time is running short, and acting like things will be fine as they are is the best recipe for assuring that things will be the farthest thing from fine.

The Republican base has to be deprogrammed before they regain power, because as things presently stand, they will never again willingly relinquish power or allow a free and fair election.

This isn’t hyperbole, but a cool, sober assessment of the situation.

The fight must begin now because the current advantage will not last.