On Thursday afternoon, CNN reported that North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson frequently visited a porn site where he referred to himself as a “black Nazi,” said he wished slavery were still legal, insulted Martin Luther King, and expressed several controversial views on sexuality (the latter of which is at least more in line with the tenor of opinions one would expect to find on NudeAfrica, the porn site he frequently visits).

Of course, any political party’s checks are bound to make slip-ups from time to time. But to understand how Robinson was able to win the gubernatorial nomination in a swing state, you have to look a little at the context in which the Republican Party’s checks and balances have degenerated to their deplorable state.

Robinson was known for his history of extremely wild statements outside of the NudeAfrica board. Here is a quick summary from March:

There was the time he called school massacre survivors “media prostitute toddlers” for advocating for gun control policies; the meme mocking a Harvey Weinstein accuser and the other meme mocking actresses for “wearing whore clothes to protest sexual harassment.” The prediction that increasing acceptance of homosexuality would lead to pedophilia and “the END of civilization as we know it”; the talk of arresting transgender people for their bathroom choices; the use of anti-Semitic tropes; the Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a “heifer” and Michelle Obama a man.

Robinson said all these things before his party’s primary. The Republicans were aware of these things, and Then decided to nominate him for governor. The Republican Party could have found a more reasonable candidate than Robinson even if it had restricted its recruitment exclusively to the NudeAfrica posting community.

In the meantime, here are some things that have happened within the Republican Party in the last week…

Donald Trump, the party’s presidential candidate, began spending time with and consulting with conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who wrote – also last week! – that the White House would “smell like curry” if Kamala Harris was elected.

Bill Ackman, a wealthy hedge fund manager turned Trump supporter, began posting uncontrollably about a right-wing theory that it (or Was) a whistleblower at ABC News who claims the network gave Harris his questions before the presidential debate and then died in a car accident.

Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world and a major financial backer of Trump’s ground operation, predicted on his social media platform that Harris’ first act in office if elected would be to banish X and arrest Musk.

And all of this happened at a time when the party’s presidential nomination was spreading the message that immigrants were kidnapping and eating pets in an Ohio town. The lie about eating pets is not a distraction from the real message. It Is the message and the crazier things said by Robinson, Loomer and others are the distraction.

This is not a problem of fringe figures operating on the fringes of the party. The party’s ability to maintain a distinction between respectable, reality-based and influential figures and conspiracy-theoretical lunatics on the fringes of the party has completely broken down.

The end of the party’s ability to control its borders is generally attributed to Trump’s hostile takeover of power in 2016. However, like the fall of the Roman Empire, the decline was more of a gradual disintegration over a long period of time, with Trump’s coronation merely serving to dramatize it. Many Romans continued to think the empire was a continuing entity even after Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome in 476. Many non-crazy Republicans also continue to believe that “conspiracy theorist” and “Republican leader” are significantly different categories.

And just as the slow decline of the Roman Empire both resulted from and caused its inability to defend its borders, the Republican Party today is characterized by a near-total unwillingness to draw lines between acceptable party rhetoric and paranoid ravings. What remains of the party’s once-impressive establishment has been reduced to faint warnings that speaking too crazy in public will have electoral consequences. “Donald Trump likes to call his political opponents crazy, like ‘crazy Nancy Pelosi,’ so why does he hang out with 9/11 conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer?” complains a recent Wall Street Journal article. magazine Editorial: “Is he trying to lose the election?”

Trump clearly does not want to lose the election. The problem is that he is completely insane. If you want to convince Trump, appealing to any standard of truth is hopeless. That should be reason enough not to entrust him with the vast powers of the president. Instead, whining appeals to self-interest are the best the party establishment can muster.

For some Republicans, Robinson may be overkill, if only because his queerness veers into the sexual. But it’s far from clear that they find him unacceptable. Trump has already embraced Robinson, hailing him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.” At this point, what is left of their reputations to defend?