You pride yourself on being the party of Ronald Reagan, the grand old party of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. None of those leaders were perfect, though Lincoln may have come close. But please understand in the coming years that your continued willingness to tolerate Donald Trump will wipe out all those other distinctions and forever brand you the party of Donald Trump.
Whether or not you truly understood that Trump’s rhetoric would normalize the kind of white nationalists who marched in Virginia over the weekend, the fact is that he has done that. You’ve had plenty of time to see Donald Trump for the bigot and nationalist that he is. When he ran a campaign promising to make America great again, you knew that meant he longed for a world of unquestioned privilege and power for men like himself. You put up with it because you hated the Clintons and you wanted a Republican Supreme Court nominee. It was a craven political calculation.
On Saturday, you reaped the reward for those decisions when your president couldn’t summon the character or the will to stand up and reject white nationalist fascists and Nazi sympathizers. This president is yours now. In the coming days if you don’t condemn Donald Trump and seek to remove him from office for his obvious abdication of leadership then his stink will taint your party forever. You will be the party of Trump. Generations to follow will know that first when the name Republican is invoked. You will stand for bigotry, intolerance, racism, and exclusion.
Your move, GOP. One of you must show some courage and take the lead. The nation is watching. The clock is ticking.
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