Krugman Assessing our neo Republican Party: "Judas, Tax Cuts and the Great Betrayal"

One of many disturbing articles of the past couple days. Disturbing because they reveal how degenerate and amoral the Republican Party has become.
Bottomline seems that Yes, Republicans are perfectly willing to betray our country for self-enrichment.

Paul Krugman | MAY 12, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/opinion/judas-tax-cuts-and-the-great-betrayal.html?_r=1 "... How did a whole party become so, well, un-American? For this story now goes far beyond Trump. In some ways conservatism is returning to its roots. Much has been made of Trump’s revival of the term “America First," the name of a movement opposed to U.S. intervention in World War II. What isn’t often mentioned is that many of the most prominent America-firsters weren’t just isolationists, they were actively sympathetic to foreign dictators; there’s a more or less straight line from Charles Lindbergh proudly wearing the medal he received from Hermann Göring to Trump’s cordial relations with Rodrigo Duterte, the literally murderous president of the Philippines. But the more proximate issue is the transformation of the Republican Party, which bears little if any resemblance to the institution it used to be, say during the Watergate hearings of the 1970s. Back then, Republican members of Congress were citizens first, partisans second. But today’s G.O.P. is more like a radical, anti-democratic insurgency than a conventional political party. ..."
There's a bunch more before and after that quote. Worth the read.
Why I left the Republican Party to become a Democrat (And it's not because of Trump!) Josh Barro | Oct. 16, 2016 http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-left-republican-party-register-democrat-2016-10 The most important thing we have learned this year is that when the Republican Party was hijacked by a dangerous fascist who threatens to destroy the institutions that make America great and free, most Republicans up and down the organizational chart stood behind him and insisted he ought to be president. ... I want to focus on a fourth group: Republican politicians who understand exactly how dangerous Donald Trump is but who have chosen to support him anyway for reasons of strategy, careerism, or cowardice. Cowards and scoundrels I am talking, for example, about Sen. Marco Rubio, who in the primary called Trump an "erratic individual" who must not be trusted with nuclear weapons — and then endorsed him for president. I am talking about Sen. Ted Cruz, who called Trump a "pathological liar" and "utterly amoral" — and then endorsed him for president, even though Trump never apologized for threatening to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife and suggesting Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Most of all, I'm talking about House Speaker Paul Ryan, a man whose pained, blue eyes suggest he desperately wants to cry for help. He's a man who runs around the country pathetically trying to pretend that Trump does not exist and that the key issue is his congressional caucus' "Better Way" agenda. And he's a man who, of his own free will, seeks to help Donald Trump become president. These men are not fools like Ben Carson. ... Why I was a Republican . . .