Behind the Curtain: The 6 stages of political surrender

👉 Watch a video version of this column.Republicans didn't decide to become President Trump's party. They surrendered to him, one stage at a time, over a decade, in plain sight.Democrats swear that socialism's growing grip on their party is different, and can be contained. The early signals suggest otherwise.Why it matters: Party transformations follow a predictable six-stage evolution — recoil, squint, rationalize, submit, amplify, and purge. Each stage has language you can hear long before you see it in the votes. Republicans just finished the full cycle. Democrats might be starting it.Watch how the language shifts, stage by stage, for signs of whether recent socialist wins are an anomaly, or the start of something bigger and broader.Stage 1: Recoil. Denounce, by name. Lindsey Graham called Trump a "kook" who was unfit for office. Ted Cruz called him a "pathological liar." That was 2016. Both later defended him against the exact words they coined. Stage 2: Squint. Support without looking. "I haven't seen the tweet" became the go-to response of House and Senate Republicans in Trump's first term when they were asked about the latest storm. Some did the binary dodge: "The other side is worse."Stage 3: Rationalize. This is the "yes, but" stage: "I don't love the style, but the judges ... the tax cuts ... the border ... He's a fighter." This is where accommodation becomes the norm, and the need to win trumps style or tactics. Stage 4: Submit. Dissent becomes career-ending. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said on the floor that Trump "bears responsibility" for Jan. 6. Two weeks later, McCarthy flew to Mar-a-Lago to make peace. In less than three years, he'd been ousted as speaker. Silence becomes life-and-death survival.Stage 5: Amplify. Fully adopt the vocabulary, the style, the maximal claims. Try to out-Trump Trump. After privately calling Trump "America's Hitler" in 2016, JD Vance is now vice president. And routinely seeks to show his Trumpiness. That's almost every Republican now. Stage 6: Purge. Actively work to oust anyone who disagrees. You either fully accept and amplify, or get exiled. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — gone. This year alone, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was beaten in a Trump-backed primary, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) chose retirement over humiliation, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) drew a primary challenger (and lost to him) after voting with Trump 99% of the time.Zoom out and in: With socialism, the Democratic base moved first, as the base always does. Gallup found last year that Democrats viewed socialism more positively than capitalism by 24 points — the widest gap on record, and sharpest among younger voters.All three candidates New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed won their June 23 House primaries, defeating two incumbents: Brad Lander over Rep. Dan Goldman, Claire Valdez over Brooklyn's borough president, and Darializa Avila Chevalier over Rep. Adriano Espaillat — the