It’s hardly reasonable to expect that a single word can characterize an organism as complex as a major political party. But that’s never stopped people from trying.
Right now, for instance, Republicans are painting Democrats as Marxist (Marx himself would be astonished by that one), racist (okaaay), and criminal (evidently, in Republican eyes holding the powerful accountable is criminal).
Dems, meanwhile, have pegged today’s GOP as authoritarian (check), a cult (bingo!), insurrectionist (spot on), and, of course, weird. But none of those labels, taken alone, quite does the trick.
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Fortunately, there is a word in English that does capture everything that has gone haywire in the GOP since it pledged fealty to now former President Donald Trump. Namely, depraved, “from Latin depravare to pervert … crooked, bad.” (Thank you, Merriam-Webster.)
And while Trumpism’s poisoning of the GOP is hardly news, it’s worth reminding ourselves just how depraved the head of the party truly is, and how that depravity colors every aspect of the GOP, from its very real war on women to congressional apologists cheering jailed Jan. 6, 2021, thugs.
First, never forget that Donald Trump is a rapist. As the judge in the two E. Jean Carroll defamation trials wrote in July 2023, far from clearing Trump of rape, “the jury found that Mr. Trump … did exactly that.”
Trump, who (along with his campaign goons) recently desecrated military hallowed ground and has infamously labeled fallen American troops losers and suckers, is an unapologetic draft dodger.
And a convicted felon.
Trump is an adjudicated fraud. In February 2024, after losing a civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, he was hit with a $350 million penalty (now closer to $500 million with interest).
The list goes on—his praise for tyrants, his racism. But the degree to which Trump has twisted the GOP into a grievance-fueled engine of his own animus is the real measure of the party’s growing depravity.
Taking a broader view of the GOP landscape, the picture becomes, if possible, even more depraved.
Consider his historically unlikable running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who has said (in public!) that people without kids should not be teaching children. Who is going to kick thousands of nuns in Catholic schools all over the world out of the classroom?
Consider the House Oversight Committee’s expensive, deeply personal, and fruitless “investigations” into the “Biden crime family,” led by the Republican congressional Tweedledees and Tweedledums Rep. James Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan. After more than a year of laughably weak testimony from scores of witnesses, many of whom were subsequently discredited, Republicans in Congress unanimously approved a resolution to initiate formal impeachment proceedings against President Biden—even as Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged that there was insufficient evidence for such proceedings.
Consider reproductive rights. In the six months after the radical Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, for which Trump takes full credit, Republican elected officials around the country stripped millions of women and girls of safe, legal abortion care—in many cases, attempting to force victims of rape and incest to carry their pregnancies to term.
Consider voting rights. As former Wall Street Journal editor Albert Hunt pointed out after the 2022 midterms, “anecdotal and some empirical data” indicate that “[GOP] voter suppression measures achieved their purpose to hold down votes, particularly in minority communities.”
Consider gun violence. More than 42,000 people died as the result of gun injuries (homicides, suicides, accidental shootings) in the United States in 2023, and firearm fatalities are the leading cause of death among American children and teens.
In the face of those horrors, Republicans refuse to meaningfully address the issue. One random comparison of the two parties’ approach to the crisis: Heavily Democratic New York, with some of the toughest gun laws in the country, witnesses around five gun deaths per 100,000 residents. Mississippi, where the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and both chambers of the state legislature are Republican, has in effect no gun laws on the books and sees close to 30 gun deaths per 100,000 residents—more than twice the national average.
Consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—shrill anti-vaxxer, roadkill gourmand wannabe, whale decapitator, and so much more. Yes, he is technically an independent. But by enthusiastically endorsing Trump, he has effectively crossed over into the MAGA realm, where his own brand of profoundly entitled depravity marks him as a star.
Wait. Did we mention the brain-eating worm?
No matter. Trumpism has deformed and diminished the Republican Party beyond recognition, and what it will look like when or if the fever breaks is anyone’s guess.
For now, recall that in 1931 Winston Churchill asserted that “courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because … it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
In 2024 we are faced with the reality that depravity is the first of the GOP’s qualities, because it is the quality which animates all others.
And seriously, how weird is that?
Benedict Cosgrove is a librarian, former editor at LIFE.com, and freelance writer who has contributed to The New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian, and other outlets. He lives in New York City.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.