This is the year of our American Mussolini and I say: Thank God for Donald Trump. Really. I mean it. Watching the Republican Party’s nomination race is the most political fun I’ve had since, maybe, ever.

For the last 36 years a GOP increasingly dominated by the extreme right-wingers has deliberately destroyed our social contract like a steamroller over eggs. In exchange for phony culture wars and tax cuts for the rich, America got stagnant wages, crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded and under-funded schools, the ruin of entire nations in endless war and a political system hystericized to the point of paralysis.

And all of it, essentially, has been in the service of the 1 percent in this, The Age of Truthiness.

But now, that Republican juggernaut seems like an old rag factory, and Donald Trump is a cat with a torch tied to his tail.

Are we having fun yet?

We should be, because America really dodged a bullet when Ted Cruz dropped out. Trump’s monkey in the machine has so discombobulated the GOP that had the unpopular Cruz somehow forced open a path to the nomination, his ascendency would’ve so relieved the powers that be that the entire GOP would’ve heaved a sigh of relief, held their noses and united behind Cruz to do the two things the GOP does best: bash Hillary and gridlock our national politics.

But with King Donald all but crowned we get to watch all summer while the Republicans try and catch that cat before it burns the joint down. The convulsions and conspiracies, the back-biting, the insults, the talk of “hand size,” the sheer schadenfreude of it all!

And yes, not to be cavalier, there is danger in this scenario, for once the apparent front-runners are crowned at their conventions, one of them must win. And so it is impossible to say Trump can never become president – and all the attendant dangers of that. But let’s be clear: There is simply no doubt that in a straight-up match Hillary Clinton will defeat Trump in November.

And his defeat might have a serendipitous effect on down-ticket races for the House and Senate as well, which might at least reduce the GOP majorities in both.

But the fear, the fear remains. The fear that somehow, something in Clinton’s background or past will jump out like that damn zombie that just won’t die, and by that route Trump downsizes his living arrangement and moves into the White House.

But that’s what you get for voting for HRC! There were supposed to be three reasons to vote for her over Sanders: She’s been at it forever, let’s give her a shot; she’d be the first woman president; she’d be the most electable Democrat.

Well, for whatever reasons, it looks like now we’ve got her. But with Clinton the election will go down to the wire. Until she actually wins we will be fearful of that Clinton zombie delivering our American Mussolini the presidency.  

A far better match-up – better for the country rather than the two parties that act like they own the country – would’ve been Bernie vs. Trump.

Two candidates outside the two-party system running inside the two-party system. That match-up would’ve broken the stranglehold the Dems and GOP have on our politics, at least for this cycle. And yes, Bernie would’ve had a more challenging path to the White House, but he would’ve defeated Trump nevertheless. (Sometimes you just got to pick a fight, and when you do there is always the chance that you’ll lose. And Bernie, sadly, has lost, at least in this election cycle.

Unless…. “Mmmmmm…brains…”)

To see the good news in Trump’s candidacy and his near-certain nomination does mean we have to hold our noses and – not excuse nor accept – see past the racism, the misogyny, the xenophobia of the man and his minions. But that is the political task at hand. See past the clown and notice that the once mighty GOP circus is starting to fray.

There is no prize for hating Trump the most, but it is important to study his candidacy with more than disdain (or just the entertainment factor). Trump is not some virus stuck in the matrix. He is the Monster the GOP has created by playing Frankenstein for a generation. He is the whirlwind they will reap for sowing the wind.

And the blowhard just might blow their house down!

Joe Gannon, a Northampton novelist and teacher, can be reached at darevjdg@gmail.com.