This essay, which followed the 2012 presidential election, shows that Mitt Romney was a prototype for Donald Trump and that the Republican Party has long been brain dead.

(THE SCENE: Professor Ray Langston’s graduate seminar in political psychology at a Canadian university. It’s the Monday after the 2012 U.S. election. The students are seated around an oblong table. Professor Langston enters and takes his seat.)

PROF. LANGSTON: “Well, did everyone watch the U.S. election results?”
REG: “I did, but only because I had to for this class. I don’t know what the point was—The U.S. is so religiously and economically insane it didn’t matter who won.”
JUDITH: “Well, I’m glad that Obama was re-elected! The country and the world really dodged a bullet!”
STAN: “Yeah! A ‘dumb-dumb’!” (General laughter from the professor and students—all except Ezra, who doesn’t see the humour.)
EZRA: “I don’t see how you can laugh! Obama is a communist and a national security threat! His Middle East policy amounts to throwing Israel under the bus. Romney is 100% behind Israel and its need to attack Iran. That’s a real American president for you!”

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