FARGO — My Forum Communications Co. columnist

colleague Rob Port had an interesting take on Republican politics the other day.

In lamenting the rightward lurch of North Dakota’s GOP into Crazytown, Rob saw fit to put some of the blame at the feet of the state’s impotent Democratic-NPL Party.

“Monopolies are bad. Competition is good,” Rob concluded. “I’m a conservative, so I’m generally not interested in seeing Democrats elected to office, but I do wish they were more competitive in North Dakota. If for no other reason than to keep Republicans honest.”

In other words, it’s the Democrats’ fault Republicans are

nominating far-right Christian nationalists to important positions like state school superintendant.

Odd way of looking at things, but I get it. Competition generally is good in politics because historically it’s forced moderation. And the vast middle decides elections, allegedly. Fair enough.

Except …

Minnesota.

One state away, one could say Democrats are “competitive.” They hold every statewide office and the trifecta of the state House, state Senate and governor’s office. So, following Rob’s trail of logic, that would mean the Minnesota GOP would moderate to the middle in order to be more palatable to voters. Appeal to the normies, right?

Except …

Minnesota Republicans are just as loony as their counterparts in North Dakota.

So maybe the problem with Republicans is Republicans, and not Democrats?

In recent months, Minnesota Republicans have:

—

Made reverting to the old state flag their No. 1 issue with which they think they’ll win back legislative majorities.

Like, No. 1 with a bullet. Their rhetoric about the old flag’s “heritage” and “history” sounds an awful lot like the arguments made by Southerners who didn’t want to part with Confederate statues.

—

Introduced a bill in the legislature inspired by the nutty chemtrails conspiracy theory,

which offers that the government deliberately laces airplane exhaust with harmful chemicals for various vile purposes, including forced sterilization and mind control.

—

Had a longtime state senator call for the ban of sexual education in schools

because, he said, it produces “addiction to pornography, and some of those young boys will turn into human sexual predators.”

— Had a different longtime state senator argue against safe storage gun laws because farmers need to access firearms quickly

in case one of their milk cows goes berserk.

“You even walk too close to a cow,” Sen. Warren Limmer of Maple Grove said, “and it’ll take you down and trample you into dust.”

In a state where Republicans would just have to be a little normal to take control of the state legislature, they are openly promoting conspiracy theories instead of something that might gain suburban votes like, say, school lunches for all or day-care assistance.

Republicans have gone ’round the bend not because of Democrats, but because the GOP sold out to the loons 30 years ago (see: Newt Gingrich) and the bill is coming due.

The problem isn’t Democrats, it’s Republicans. This is, increasingly, who they are. And the dwindling number of mainstream GOPers remaining are having their faces eaten by the leopard they released.

Who could’ve seen that coming, except everybody?

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He’s been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.