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For our system of government to function properly, we really need two major political parties with competing visions for the future of America. Right now we don't have that as the Republican Party has basically become a cult of personality around former president Donald Trump and those who continue to support the party are its cult enablers. If divisions exist within the Republican party, it is not about issues but about Trump himself.

Consider that the party didn’t bother to adopt, propose, or even write a platform in 2020. All that mattered was affirming Trump. This meant that feral Republican elected officials had to affirm or at least remain silent about Trump’s racism, sexism, nativism, and homophobia, or face political exile. This continues to be the case.

More than one hundred days into the Joe Biden presidency, the GOP continues to embrace, or at least fails to condemn, Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and, contrary to the evidence, continues to insist that Trump, not Joe Biden, won the election. In furtherance of this claim, Trump filed over 50 lawsuits in state and federal courts challenging the election or its outcome, each of which was dismissed.

Then Republicans demanded post-election audits in states where Trump lost; no widespread voter fraud was uncovered. 

Even a group of election security groups including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) dismissed the unproven claims of widespread election tampering claimed by Trump. Days after the CISA statement was issued, Trump fired the agency’s leader.  

Then on January 6, Trump instigated a riot at the U.S. Capitol where five died and 140 were injured in what amounted to an attempted coup d’etat. The pro-Trump riot was the basis of Trump’s second impeachment. 

Now Arizona Senate Republicans have hired a firm called Cyber Ninjas to audit the results of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, where some Republicans have claimed widespread voter fraud even though these claims have been dismissed in court and proven unsubstantiated by a previous audit of a sample of ballots. Arizona Democrats have dubbed this nonsense as a “fraudit.” 

No one seems to know much about the Cyber Ninjas or its background, if any, in conducting election audits. If this “fraudit” is allowed to continue, then states lost by Trump and controlled by Republicans, will probably conduct similar audits. Of course, Joe Biden will remain president no matter what happens with these audits. 

Trump cannot admit that he lost the election because he hates being viewed as a failure. Therefore, he will continue to claim that he actually won, but voter fraud snatched victory from his grasp. Will Republicans ever realize that the emperor has no clothes?