What it looks like when mainstream leaders fall in behind a fascist

It's been terrifying enough to witness a large plurality of Republicans respond to Donald Trump's calls for mass deportations, a ban on Muslims, uninhibited use of torture and terror. It's about equally terrifying  that, "policies" aside, large numbers of Americans would respond to a man whose speech consists entirely of empty boasts and insults. 

It will be more terrifying to watch Republican party leadership fall in behind the blowhard. And Chris Christie -- the kind of garden variety authoritarian bully-boy who in his own right would be constrained by American political institutions -- has started what will probably become a stampede.

Here is how Christie introduced Trump at a rally in Oklahoma City on Friday. The message is simple and moronic: Trump is "strong." American needs a strongman.

America needs a strong leader who's gonna restore American strength around the world and Donald Trump is that man. America needs a strong leader at home to restore jobs and American confidence to our people, and Donald Trump is that man.. And the Republican party needs a leader who will make sure that Hillary Rodham Clinton never gets within ten miles of the White House, and Donald Trump is that man.

I'm full of optimism for when we get a strong leader in the White House and not the hand-wringing guy  we have in the White House right now.  Can you  imagine the whiplash that America's enemies are gonna feel  when they go from a weakling like Barack Obama to a man of strength like Donald Trump.

Let's have one more message for someone who's had a pretty big mouth today. Marco Rubio, your campaign is almost over, buddy. You've been showing a lot of desperation today, throwing a lot of punches from every direction, but none of them are landing because America has made their decision: Donald Trump represents strength and Marco Rubio represents Washington D.C...  We don't need any more D.C. politicians -- we need an executive on the job, and that man is Donald Trump.

And so I am proud to be part of the team that is [moving..?] toward strength and confidence and faith and hope in our country and its people again. Nothing that has happened in this country under Barack Obama is not able to be reversed by having a strong person to lead us in the White House again, and Donald Trump is that man. 

Republicans are almost duty-bound to hit Obama for weakness. Regardless of whether you believe the U.S. could have forestalled the rise of ISIS or five years of mayhem in Syria or Putin's destabilization of Ukraine, it all happened on his watch, and it would be political malpractice not to promise more "strength," with or without credible policies to back the promise. But to credit a blustering megalomaniac and self-proclaimed war criminal-in-waiting with the necessary "strength"... Christie has disgraced himself forever.  If by a series of malign accidents the U.S. goes down the Trump rabbit hole, Christie will have a special place in hell as a prime enabler.