Dear Republican Leaders: If You Really Care About America, You’ll Strip Trump of His Nomination

For basically all of my political life, Republicans claimed to be the party of patriotism. You were the guys who waved flags while us liberals burned them. Well, now is the time to prove that all that flag waving wasn’t just empty posturing. If the Republican Party truly loves America, it should strip Trump of his presidential nomination.

I know, I know—as a bleeding-heart liberal I certainly have a vested interested in seeing the party essentially surrender the presidential election by changing their nominee this late in the process. But this isn’t about politics anymore.

Trump has, in the span of 10 days, stated that if he loses it is because elections were rigged, and implied that his chief political rival should be shot. His rhetoric has always been repulsive, but now it is actively dangerous.

The basic underpinning of our democracy is that when we hold elections, everyone agrees—even if begrudgingly—to abide by the results and power is peacefully exchanged. Trump has now attacked both the “abide by the results” and “peacefully exchange power” part.

By virtue of being a presidential candidate, he is bringing to a large audience anti-democratic sentiment that should be confined to the deepest and darkest recesses of the Internet. Worse, by doing so as a major party nominee for president, he is legitimizing these ideas.

Sure, you can try and spin this away. Maybe was “just joking” about shooting Hillary Clinton. I’m not sure all of his supporters will be in on the joke, though. And the longer he is allowed to spew this garbage from the campaign trail, the more certain some of his supporters may become that they don’t have to abide by the democratic process, the more angry they’ll be when Hillary likely defeats him, and the more probable it is that something tragic will occur.

So yes, Republican leaders, I know you disagree with Hillary Clinton on a large number policy issues, and you just plain do not like her. None of that matters anymore. If you care about the broad values of America itself, strip Trump of his nomination, or quit waving the damn flag.