Paul Krugman starts his Friday column somewhat charitably. "As far as anyone can tell, Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House — and the leader of what’s left of the Republican establishment — isn’t racist or authoritarian," he writes. Then he drops the other shoe: "He is, however, doing all he can to make a racist authoritarian the most powerful man in the world. Why? Because then he could privatize Medicare and slash taxes on the wealthy."

The columnist devotes the rest of his column to chronicling the systematic destruction of, well, America, by the Republican party. And while Trump has certainly accelerated that process with his daily shattering of every political (and human) norm—a steady stream of lies, not releasing his taxes, bragging about sexual assault—it was all well underway before him. Krugman:

On one side, Republicans decided long ago that anything went in the effort to delegitimize and destroy Democrats. Those of us old enough to remember the 1990s also remember the endless series of accusations hurled against the Clintons.

Nothing was too implausible to get on talk radio and get favorable mention in Congress and in conservative media: Hillary killed Vince Foster! Bill was a drug smuggler!

Nothing was too trivial to trigger congressional hearings: 140 hours of testimony on potential abuse of the White House Christmas card list. And, of course, seven years of investigations into a failed real estate deal.

When Mrs. Clinton famously spoke of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” out to undermine her husband’s presidency, she wasn’t being hyperbolic; she was simply describing the obvious reality.

On the flipside, while Christmas cards were investigated, even very obvious wrongdoing by Republicans went unchecked. You probably don't even remember George W. Bush's political purge in the Justice Department, although you may remember the baldfaced lies that led us into the Iraq war, for which no one has ever been held accountable. (Except possibly Hillary Clinton.)  

The Republicans proudly declared themselves the party of No and obstructionism with Obama's ascension to the presidency. Refusing even to govern, they have blackmailed the president over the debt ceiling, and refused to perform their constitutional duty to hold hearings for his Supreme Court nominee, Krugman fumes.

"What was the purpose of this assault on the implicit rules and understandings that we need to make democracy work?" Krugman asks. "Well, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995, he was trying to, guess what, privatize Medicare. The rage against Bill Clinton partly reflected the fact that he raised taxes modestly on the wealthy."

Bingo. Krugman draws a straight line to Paul Ryan, who continues in the despicable tradition of "trashing democratic norms in pursuit of economic benefits for their donor class."

Krugman still thinks Clinton will win, but there is little doubt that the "barrage of fake scandals," and the attempt to delegitimize any Democrat in the White House with full collusion of the mainstream media breathlessly reporting every pseudoscandal will continue.