I have no patience with Joe Scarborough moaning about the death of his beloved, "principled" Republican party. The GOP stopped being principled back in the times of Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater, and Newt Gingrich.

They became the party of posturing, of situational ethics, of hypocrisy and slash-and-burn tactics. Don't you remember, Joe? Or do you remember it the way it never was?

Scarborough moans about 75% of Republican voters saying they "liked what he said in Helsinki."

"Who are these people that I grew up with that were the most -- the toughest on Russia, that fought the Cold War alongside with NATO. When the Soviets' goal during the Cold War is the same goal that Vladimir Putin has now, which is to disrupt western democracies and break up NATO," he said.

"The goal is identical and what Republicans always supported. You talk about trade. 73% of Republicans now are telling pollsters that they think tariffs are good for America? This -- again, who are these people? It's like -- political body snatchers."

Grow the f*ck up, Joe. Your party is the one who turned this into mindless team sports, the one that embraced racism as a way to build your base. And you personally helped train Republican voters to "turn off their minds, relax and flow downstream." They became conditioned to stop thinking and instead let people like you tell them what to believe. You gave air time to the people who created the mental bumper stickers, and you repeated their slogans, over and over and over again.

It didn't help that your party spent the past 40 years undermining public education and turning them into job training programs.

And John Heilemann, give me a frigging break. You sound so concerned, but you did the same thing. You elevated these morons in the public eye, and nary a critical word was heard.

So excuse me if I'm just a tad cynical about this sadness over the Republican party. It's been a vicious, winner-take-all, sucker-punching entity for a long, long time.

But okay: Sorry for your imagined loss.