“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).

Republicans have no patience with consistency or token justice. They have even neglected the ancient art of political horse-trading, so obsessed are they with amassing power. And now they are reaping the whirlwind, as the prophet Hosea put it.

The prophet had seen a succession of corrupt and idolatrous kings in Israel in the eighth century BCE and wrote to warn of the coming implosion and overrunning of the nation by Assyria. 21st century American politicians might heed the ominous caricature of greed and lust for power embodied in the Trump campaign, as a sign of the gangrenous decay of political processes.

How blind with power can you be to miss that Donald Trump is the symbol of indignation of citizens and the refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee is a prime example? Can’t Mitch McConnell see that American voters are sick of obstructionism, the dismembering of time-honored processes of electing, confirming and legislating?

Donald Trump is outrage personified. He boasts and blusters of his plans to bend a world to his will, and his followers resonate with that indignation. He cannot say anything to alienate his tribe, because he, alone, defies the absurdity of the politics as usual. Trump is the attack dog for one-third of the electorate.

If Republicans are dismayed by him, they should not be astonished. They have provoked a nation to wrath provoking the whirlwind of Trump. He will annihilate their Party, unless they perform their Constitutional duties. Each day that they obstruct the Supreme Court nomination they are sweeping toward chaos.

Perhaps this turn of phrase is too apocalyptic for the hardened souls of Washington, but they should consider that there are consequences for abusing power. The Trump whirlwind is storming the country and only the revival of reciprocity and integrity in the corridors of power can possibly abate its rage.