John Avlon, Editor in Chief of The Daily Beast and a CNN centrist commentator, nails it. He says the time has come for individuals, Republican voters and the Republican Party to choose between Donald Trump and the American constitution. Here’s a big chunk of what he wrote:
The appeal of the autocratic strongman is so basic that the Founding Fathers worried that it would be the Achilles’ heel of democracy. The strongman candidate taps into fear and frustrations about the ineffectiveness of government. With rambling speeches that double as populist entertainment, they divide the world into us and them. And with blustery promises that would make a con man blush, they declare that everything will be better for you once they are in total control.
If you believe that, I’ve got a populist billionaire to sell you.
The thing about the strongman candidacies is that they are secretly weak. They feed off feelings of fear and inadequacy. That’s why they target minority rights first.
And that is what’s happening here. We’ve seen brushfires of fear sweep through this election season, with mayors calling for internment camps, governors refusing refugees, and presidential candidates trying to win over the angriest inmates of the hyperpartisan asylum. This competition to connect with the reptile mind is beneath the country Lincoln once called “the last best hope of earth.”
This is a time for choosing between our best traditions and our worst fears. If you care about the Constitution, the time has come to take a stand against Trump. If you believe that unity in diversity is a defiant answer to extremism, the time has come to take a stand against Trump. And if you believe the integrity of the Republican Party is worth saving, the time has come to take a stand against Trump.
What should be troubling to thoughtful Americans of both parties or no parties is the spectacle of a chunk of voters who will follow Trump like lemmings. They will echo his phrases, applaud his increasingly over the top statements — and have made it clear they’d vote for him if he runs as an independent candidate. Yes, “it” could “happen here.”
Which is why many Jewish organizations today repudiated Trump’s idea and defended Muslims as a group that should not be targeted.
What have we seen?
We’ve seen an ISIS-groupie couple in San Bernardino put on their masks and go out to kill.
And we’ve seen Donald Trump take off his mask, and reveal the face of a bigot and demagogue.
In the end, what face will the Republican Party reveal when it comes to dealing with Trump?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.