Since Barry Goldwater's losing campaign of 1964 as the standard bearer for the Republicans in the US presidential election, we have never seen such public undoing of a presidential nominee as is happening in the case of Donald Trump. Goldwater ran against a sitting President Lyndon Johnson. The GOP moderate liberals such as Nelson Rockefeller were defeated by Goldwater to become the nominee. But there remained visible fissures in the GOP throughout the campaign which Johnson used to brand Goldwater an "extremist" and trounce him in the general election.

Johnson who had taken over as President after John Kennedy's assassination was at the time of the 1964 election a popular president. The US economy was doing well too. In the USA today Hillary Clinton is not very popular and has the emails and Bengazi controversies dogging her. But she is supported by the sitting and rather popular President Barrack Obama and a very popular First Lady Michelle Obama. Although the economy isn't as strong as it was in 1964, the US has experienced 76 months of continuing job growth--the longest job growth streak in the US history. When viewed against the looming great economic depression left behind by George W. Bush that Obama had to wrestle and prevent, the economic performance and outlook looks impressive. So hopefully, Clinton may win. But if she doesn't win, the US and the world may have a serious problem on our hands.

Donald Trump has proven to be a xenophobe, racist and entirely ignorant of the foreign and defence policy imperatives of the United States of America. His foreign and defence policy utterances have unnerved many US allies. That and his inability to understand the basic tenets of democracy such as the independence of judiciary have prompted fifty well known American experts on national security and foreign policy, with connections stretching back from the recent administrations to Richard Nixon's, to write a public letter against Trump's candidacy. These and many other Americans of note from all walks of life and across party lines have declared Trump to be unfit for the highest office in the US.

As I write these lines I understand more elected Republicans are readying to dissociate themselves from Trump and oppose his candidacy as dangerous for the United States. Many of those who have already gone public believe that Trump as president would be most dangerous for the US.

Trump has railed against Muslims and Mexicans as threats to the US and the safety of Americans. He has seen fit to insult the Gold Star family of a Muslim American hero who lost his life in Iraq. Women, people with disabilities and minorities have been shamelessly insulted by the demagogue Donald.

In the latest and most bizarre utterance Trump has seemed to suggest to his rabid and overzealous gun owning and bearing supporters and the so-called defenders of the 2nd Amendment that political assassination of Hillary Clinton might be a way out of a potential Clinton victory. There is just no end to how reckless, dangerous and uncaring he can be.

The Republican leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have argued and prayed for and have witnessed several failed resets of Trump's campaign to bring it back to some semblance of sanity.

Whether one likes it or not, the US is still the strongest country on earth whose influence, for better or for worse, reaches into the four corners of the world. The very real possibility of an unhinged, thin skinned and easily provoked Trump in control of the Nuclear Code should worry most capitals in the world. It worries many in Washington, D.C.--in fact across party lines and many more in the world at large.

There comes a time in the life of a political party when the nation must take precedence over the Party. Now is such a time for the Grand Old Party, the Republican Party. The GOP must show the US and the world that it is not driven by the pure pursuit of politics in Presidency.

The RNC must understand the silence of its inaction is deafening and frightening. It must show that it understands that the Presidency of the United States of America stands for something more than Trump's demagoguery, xenophobia, racism and ignorance. It is time for the RNC to stand up, do the right thing and tell Donald Trump he is no longer the Republican candidate. The USA will thank them for it. And so will the world.

 

 @ujjaldosanjh