[T]he Republicans are no longer the same party they were a decade ago, or even in the early Trump years. The storming of Congress, on January 6, proved a Rubicon moment for their attitude to democracy. Alas, the party didn't so much cross the river as pole-vault over it.

Briefly, we saw glimmers of hope. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, explicitly blamed Trump for the Capital Hill violence. Ten House Republicans crossed the floor to back impeaching the president for "incitement of insurrection". For the briefest of moments, it looked the like old conservative elite, who surrendered the GOP to Trump in 2016, was finally fighting back.

But it proved a false dawn. All ten Republican impeachment rebels either look set to face a Trumpist primary challenge, or have already announced their intention to retire. At all levels of the party Republicans who openly challenge Trump's big lie, of a rigged 2020 election, are being purged. McConnell, more windsock than statesman, has fallen back into line. In May he torpedoed plans for a "9/11 style" Congressional commission into the Capital Hill attack.

Key to Trump's strength is his popularity amongst the Republican grassroots, which remains rock solid. A recent Politico poll found 67 per cent of Republican voters want him to run again as president, with his support far outstripping that of possible rivals like Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis. Some 60 per cent of GOP voters, having brought into Trump's delusions, say the 2020 election result should either "probably" or "definitely" be invalidated.

Trump's electoral fraud claims are providing the kindling for openly anti-democratic ideas on the American right. Liberty Hangout, a political start-up with boasts 629,000 YouTube subscribers, was founded as a "libertarian media outlet" in 2013. But over time, as America's political climate grew darker, it's politics changed. On January 6, insurrection day, it's official Twitter account urged Donald Trump to "declare himself a king", adding "democracy has failed us". Three months later they simply tweeted "If you like democracy you're a loser".

In 2020 the Republicans ran Loren Culp, a man who claimed the founding fathers "hated democracy" because "democracy is a step towards socialism, which is a step towards communism", as Washington state governor. Defeated, he is now preparing a primary challenge against one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.

One of America's most popular cable news shows is Tucker Carlson Tonight, broadcast by Fox News. In August, Carlson, who provides Trumpist politics with a veneer of competence and intellectualism, travelled to Budapest to pay homage at the court of Viktor Orban. After a fawning one-on-one interview, Carlson saluted Orban as the only world leader who "publicly identifies as a western style conservative". The Hungarian prime minister's ruthless assault on independent media, which saw him labelled a "press freedom predator" by Reporters Without Borders, went strangely unmentioned. The American right isn't so much flirting with autocracy, as clambering into bed with it.