There is no redeeming the Republican Party.

Hasn’t been for a while, I suspect, but I don’t know when they passed the point of no return, and at this stage I don’t care. They have no respect for the rule of law. They have no respect for ethics. They have no respect for the safety or well-being of anyone who isn’t white, straight, able-bodied, male, and evangelical Christian.

They have no respect for anything but power.

And they are gutting this country. Hollowing it out so they can eat the entrails of our democracy and grow fat upon them. This isn’t hyperbole; this is for anyone with eyes to see.

In a few weeks we go to the polls. I don’t want to look back five, ten, two years from now and realize we’ve passed the point of no return as a country — so get out there and vote. Don’t fucking tell me “my vote doesn’t matter” or “the two parties are just the same” or any other excuse for not voting. If you have the right — if the Republicans haven’t found some way yet to strip that from you — then use it. Vote. Vote for the elections at the top of the ballot and the elections at the middle of the ballot and the elections at the bottom of the ballot, and all the measures and local bits, too.

And do not vote for a SINGLE FUCKING PERSON with an R after their name.

Even if they don’t seem so bad. Even if they’re just a local official. Even if, even if, even if. At this point, the letter R after a politician’s name is — and no, I am not exaggerating here — the equivalent of a swastika. It is a declaration of allegiance to the party of bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, plutocracy, and naked selfishness. They don’t get to say “no, no, I’m not for those things; I’m a different kind of Republican.” They chose to join hands with the bigots, and guess what: that makes them a bigot, too. Because they’re saying “I’m willing to accept all that shit in order to get what I want.” The spiraling horror that is our nation’s government right now is aided and abetted and made possible by just that kind of crony and bootlicker at every level beneath it.

Burn them out. Purify this atrocity with fire and water and your vote. Do it while you still can — because the thing that terrifies me most about Kavanaugh isn’t Roe v. Wade; it’s the way we cannot trust the Supreme Court to uphold any fairness in our elections going forward. Our only option at this point is to armor ourselves so thoroughly in democracy that the result doesn’t go near the Supreme Court.

Do it now, before your vote really doesn’t matter.