Republished with permission from Steve Schmidt

There is one news story in America that transcends all others. It is the detonation of a MAGA/GOP nuclear threat bomb in the aftermath of the guilty verdict against Donald Trump.

The threats exploded the second the verdict was read. Make no mistake: they are unprecedented in modern American history. Beyond the calls for murder, imprisonment, firing squads, torture, investigation, revenge and dozens of other types of retributions against MAGA opponents and the media made by the America First fascists, there lies a simple truth. There has never been a political movement promising the destruction of its opposition, the rule of law, and revenge that didn’t deliver on the promise when taking power. Ever.

Watch this incredible exchange between CNN’s Abby Phillip and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. It is truly incredible:

Lately, I’ve been watching, reading and listening to MLK sermons for a project I’ve been working on, and the only thing I could think about when watching the exchange was the degree to which elements of his magnificent dream have truly come to pass. Here on my TV screen were two black Americans at the pinnacle of American journalism and politics engaged in a conversation about the future of America that was sabotaged by the dissembling, absurdism, and corruption that flows like raw sewage into the ocean from the wretchedness of Tim Scott’s character.

Dr. King’s exact quote was:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.

There are two sides in America now. What separates them is a boundary line that is black and white, and black and white Americans stand on both sides.  It de-marks right and wrong, freedom and oppression, patriotism and nationalism, violence and non-violence.

The border separates a diverging faith between those who believe elections should determine destinies, and those who believe power is an entitlement to be taken by force if necessary. This is where the truth and the lie face off, and love and hate stare each other down. The American flag flies on one side of the divide, while on the other, it is desecrated, and America’s earliest symbols of defiance and liberty are perverted into totems of extremism that fly over the homes of a justice of the United States Supreme Court with snarling menace.

Here is the deepest crevice in the gorge dividing Americans where an irreconcilable difference looms large. MAGA demands that Americanism be replaced by Trumpism, that faith in a noble ideal and obligation for its fulfillment be replaced by allegiance to a single man. A choice has been forced and it is the same as it has been for nine long years: America or Trump.

The temperature is rising now. The wretchedness of America’s GOP senators, congressmen and women and governors is simultaneously predictable and startling. Watching graduates of the nation’s leading law schools like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley take a gleeful blow torch to the judicial system after inciting insurrection and denying an election result is like getting to watch arsonists with a YouTube channel and podcasts celebrating their work. The fire has started, that much is for sure.

The most significant political event of my lifetime occurred last week, and I think most people missed the story. It’s not the verdict; it’s the reaction and the explosion of calls for violence.

The Republican Party is the third oldest political party in the world. It has succumbed to a terrible disease of the heart and soul. It has abandoned its faith in Americanism and the American people. It has abandoned the constitution and the sacrifices that have sustained its endurance. They have desecrated the sacrifices of our war dead and their cause. They have rebuked the founders of the party and repudiated the essence of Abraham Lincoln’s wisdom. It is rotten to the core. Before anything good can happen in America—before we can imagine the future again—a majority of Americans must come together.

They do not have to believe in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They just have to believe in America. That requires saying something loudly, clearly and irrefutably: NO.

We must say “NO” together. We must say “NEVER” together.

This MAGA cause—and the leaders it has corrupted and co-opted—must be opposed and stopped. They have told us who they are. We do not have many warnings left.

As Maya Angelou so wisely said:

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.