(CNN)Today's Republican Party is building a political bomb -- and the ingredients for the explosive concoction are being mixed before our eyes. When it all blows up -- and it will, unless the party changes course soon -- the result will be not just rhetorical extremism but could well include real violence.
Frida Ghitis CNN Opinion 5/29/2021

If you thought the events of Jan. 6 were shocking, what comes next could be far worse.
A chilling new poll by PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, found that nearly one in four Republicans (that's tens of millions of people) believe the QAnon mythology that "the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles." You might just shake your head and laugh at this nonsense, except that that they also believe that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

This is no fringe cult. The number of people believing these and other outlandish QAnon conspiracies is enormous. There is a current of poison circulating in American society, threatening its cohesiveness and its social and political order. "If it were a religion," according to PRRI founder Robby Jones, "it would be as big as all white evangelicals Protestants, or all white mainline Protestants."
Poll after poll has also found that a majority of Republicans, 61% according to the latest from Reuters/Ipsos, believe the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Inspiring these legions to keep their weapons handy for political purposes are the likes of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has taken to campaigning with that other GOP "luminary," Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. During a joint appearance with Greene in Georgia on Thursday, Gaetz declared that the Second Amendment is "not about hunting." Instead, he said, it's about "the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary."
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---Then they are told by Republican outrage peddlers that the US Constitution protects their right to own firearms for the purpose of rising up against the government. And then -- the match to start lighting the fuse -- they are told that Democrats are similar to Nazis.
If that's not the recipe for disaster -- not just for Republicans but for the entire country -- tell me what it is.