Extra

Trump’s taunts have had predicable consequences. Stung by personal insults, many elites of the Republican Party responded with seething anger, contemptuous of their presumptuous leader. 

Here are a few examples gleaned from Nicholas Kristof‘s recent article in the New Times. 

“He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. . . .” — Senator Lindsey Graham 

“A moral degenerate.” — Peter Wehner, evangelical Christian commentator. 

I won’t vote for Donald Trump because he isn’t a truth teller. ... he is a bigot, misogynist. A fraud. A bully.” — Norm Coleman, former Republican senator from Minnesota. 

“I don’t think this guy has any more core principles than a Kardashian marriage.” — Senator Ben Sasse 

“I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the K.K.K. That is not a part of our party.” — Republican Governor Nikki Haley 

“Donald Trump is unfit to be president. He is a dishonest demagogue . . .” — Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard. 

“To support Trump is to support a bigot”.— Stuart Stevens, chief strategist to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. 

I wonder how many of these Republicans would abandon their stated principles and vote for the man they so despise. 

In a rare moment of moral clarity, Bobby Jindal, former Republican governor of Louisiana, offered the most compelling reason why Republican should abandon their fearless leader - “Donald Trump is a madman who must be stopped.” 

There are also those cowardly Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell that fell in lock step in the interests of party power and feigned enthusiasm for their ‘Frankenstein’. Last but not least, let's call out Chris Christie who endorsed Trump in the rapacious hope that he would be nominated VP or Attorney General.