I was in an Ostrava pub shortly after the fall of communism. Merrick had enough English behind him to explain his disenchantment with the new democracy that was sweeping Czechoslovakia.

Merrick and his wife had spent three years of weekends attending "communist" schools. He just got his communist membership a few months back. He was set for better career opportunities for the rest of his life. He was going to be the elite of that society.

Communists were pretty good at voting. There were all sorts of votes within the Communist Party, and the party functioned fairly democratically. It's just that 95% of the people were not allowed to vote.

But democracy cast aside all that work he had put into the system. He had no more pull then the average Czech citizen.

The motivation for many Republicans is not to "save America." They see themselves as having a lot more pull in a one-party state than they do today. They think they will be the new elite.