Last week, I wrote that the media needs to ignore former president Donald Trump.

I was wrong. None of us should ignore Donald Trump.

Time and time again, Trump has proven himself to be a bigoted, misogynistic, narcissistic and dangerous liar. Now, he’s crossed the Rubicon . . . no course correction . . . no going back . . . no redemption for this sociopathic Caesar after . . .

• Hosting a dinner with white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, a more rabid antisemite.
• His recent statement regarding the 2020 election results:

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

And the results of those words and many others continue to be amplified by hate and extremist groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks extremism and hate, writes, “In response to the elected officials and other public figures citing the great replacement theory, Vincent James Foxx, a white nationalist who helped organize the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, wrote on Telegram:

“We are the mainstream now. Our message and worldview are inevitably the conclusions every conservative in the country will come to.”

The SPLC “defines a hate group as an organization or collection of individuals that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate group. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations.”

“In February,” the SPLC writes, “Arizona congressman Rep. Paul Gosar addressed a crowd at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). The event, held annually, is hosted by white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes, who stationed himself outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and told his followers to ‘break down the barriers and disregard the police.’”

Today, we are watching an ever-increasing level of hate and violence under the guise of patriotism.

“Republican voters, too, are shifting toward a greater acceptance of political violence. According to research conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 30% of Republicans, and 39% of those who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, agree that ‘true American patriots might have to resort to violence in order to save our country.’”

Only a handful of republicans in the Senate and House have spoken out against Trump. Senate Republican Lisa Murkowski wrote on Twitter:

“Suggesting the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our Oath of Office, it’s an affront to our Republic.”

Liz Cheney, the outgoing and outspoken republican representative from Wyoming tweeted:

“Donald Trump believes we should terminate ‘all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution’ to overturn the 2020 election. That was his view on 1/6 and remains his view today. No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.”

Fear and silence fueled Senator Joseph McCarthy’s rise to power under the guise of patriotism as he pushed his communist infiltration in the federal government conspiracy.

Too many elected leaders at that time lacked the courage to speak out until Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine took to the floor to denounce McCarthy and his actions.

When are we going to learn the lessons of the past?

When are we going to understand that silence is complicity?

After achieving victory in the Gallic Wars, Gaius Julius Caesar was ordered by the Roman Senate to dismantle his armies and return to Rome. Caesar refused. Crossing the Rubicon River became Caesar’s point of no return, marching on Rome itself, leading to his dictatorship and eventual death.

Those republicans in the House and Senate who, by their silence, have passed their own point of no return against their oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; [and] bear true faith and allegiance to the same . . .”