The RNC and virtually all Republican Party elected officials are shouting, jumping up-and-down, flailing their arms and doing everything else that they can think of in an effort to get the attention of American voters so that they can tell them that Donald Trump neither represents the thoughts of the Grand Ole Party nor reflects its intentions with regards to immigrants and the overall US immigration policy.

They supposedly were spurred to do this because they are indignant about how Mr. Trump referred to Mexican immigrants and, even more recently, how he referred to Senator John McCain. It seems that they just cannot stomach him abusing people by using these negative and inappropriate ways of referring to them. According to an article in The New York Times titled ‘Donald Trump Says John McCain Is No War Hero, Setting Off Another Storm’, Mr. Trump said; “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

If the Republican Party and its elected officials are claiming that they are piling on Donald Trump and some are saying that his comments make him unfit to be the President of the United States of America and are demanding that, as a result, he withdraw as a candidate for president, I do not buy what they are selling. Where was all of this indignation when Mr. Trump was pushing all of this ‘Birther’ garbage about President Obama, saying that it was highly questionable as to whether he was an American citizen and asking that he show his birth certificate? Where were the Republican statesmen then?

This is definitely not to say that I am calling what they are doing now by attacking Mr. Trump an act of statesmanship but where were they when many highly visible elected Republicans and other Republicans whom many Americans consider to be the face of the Republican Party were totally inappropriately trashing President Obama?! Where were they when these elected officials and other highly visible Republicans were comparing him and the FLOTUS to animals – which some are still doing (e.g. Mayor Patrick Rushing of Airway Heights, Washington)?! Where were they?!

Donald Trump says that they are demanding that he apologize to Senator McCain and withdraw as a candidate for United States President only because he is leading in the polls and they fear that. Because of the way that they reacted to his ‘Birther’ comments and various other inappropriate comments about the president by elected members of their Party, I find what Mr. Trump is selling to be more plausible than what the Republican Party and its elected officials are selling.

Now that Mr. Trump is soaking up all of the national media attention that all of those Republicans who are running for president badly need and is berating them while insulting their intelligence, suddenly, they want to trump ‘The Donald’. But Mr. Trump is having none of it. He may be obnoxious, narcissistic, backbiting and many other adjectives that have a negative connotation but stupid, even if solely as it relates to business acumen, is not among them. The Republican Party played a major role in creating what they now view as an insatiable political monster that threatens to completely devour the positive political image that they worked so hard to create of a bigger-tent Party with a more welcoming attitude toward people of color and women. As a result, they must now either live with it, figure out some way to tame it, or rid themselves of it.

I do not want Mr. Trump to totally destroy the Republican Party because, as I have said before, we need a healthy and vibrant two Party system because that is good for the country. However; I do want the way that he is conducting himself to cause the Republican Party to reflect on how the overall Party operates and compel them to work to make real and meaningful change to their Party and thereby its image.

This way, they will not have to constantly work on image facades to attract people of color and women. Instead, by truly creating a bigger and more inclusive tent all of those who share the Republican view of how America should be run will naturally be drawn to the Republican Party and its message.

I am confident that the Republican Party will be able to address the current problem, fix it and avoid the demise of their Party. My hope is that they will do this sooner than later. But to say that I am not enjoying the current Republican sideshow would make me a liar. Ahhhh…hope and change. It is happening; all of us simply have to keep watching, working and voting.

Eulus Dennis