It seems at every turn, Donald Trump is sabotaging whatever chance he has of winning the presidency. Instead of pivoting towards the general election after clinching his party’s nomination, he remains stuck in the campaign style that brought him to the dance. Going against his own staff’s advice and the hopes of the Republican powers that be, Trump just keeps doubling down on his divisive rhetoric, committing one unforced error after another.

Since becoming his party’s presidential nominee, Trump has belittled the Muslim parents of a fallen soldier; suggested his “Second Amendment” people would prevent a President Clinton from appointing liberal Supreme Court justices; and, most recently, made the absurd claim President Obama is the actual founder of ISIS.

It is no wonder why more and more members of his own party are abandoning ship. The man just can’t find the resolve, or the desire, to change his ways.

“He can’t simply continue to preach to the choir and think he’s going to put together a coalition that will win the White House,” said Ryan Williams, a party strategist and former aide to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “He’s essentially guaranteeing that he will lose by refusing to clean up his mistakes and stop committing future ones.”

Some are calling Trump the candidate of self-destruction.

However, there are still those who believe Trump, even with his hateful form of campaigning, can win the White House. Hillary Clinton’s high negatives give the self-proclaimed billionaire a puncher’s chance.

Which raises the scary thought of a thin-skinned, erratic and vindictive Donald Trump as the nation’s commander in chief.

“I think anyone who listens to what Donald Trump has to say on foreign policy should be concerned, “said John Noonan, a former nuclear missile officer (and former adviser to Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush). “This is not the first time that he has talked about nuclear weapons in a reckless manner. Remember, he was interested in maybe having Japan or South Korea leave the U.S. nuclear umbrella and develop nuclear weapons of their own. That is contrary to decades’ worth of nuclear weapons policy and is, frankly, a terrible and dangerous idea.”

While many Americans have no problem with Trump being the candidate of self-destruction, they are terrified with Trump as the man with the nuclear launch keys. They rightly fear Trump as the candidate of mass destruction.

Photo | markamerica.com

The GOP is undoubtedly in meltdown mode. Many Republicans are refusing to support their party’s presidential nominee, while others are officially abandoning the Party of Lincoln.

Like other Americans of conscience, Chris Ladd, Texas Republican and founder of the website goplifer.com, is leaving his political party of thirty years. Below is his letter of resignation as a York Township Republican committeeman:

“The Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the utter failure of supply-side theory, climate denial, and our strange pursuit of theocratic legislation have all been troubling. Yet it seemed that America’s party of commerce, trade, and pragmatism might still have time to sober up.  

Remaining engaged in the party implied a contribution to that renaissance, an investment in hope. Donald Trump has put an end to that hope.

From his fairy-tale wall to his schoolyard bullying and his flirtation with violent racists, Donald Trump offers America a singular narrative – a tale of cowards. Fearful people, convinced of our inadequacy, trembling before a world alight with imaginary threats, crave a demagogue. Neither party has ever elevated to this level a more toxic figure, one that calls forth the darkest elements of our national character.

With three decades invested in the Republican Party, there is a powerful temptation to shrug and soldier on. Despite the bold rhetoric, we all know Trump will lose. Why throw away a great personal investment over one bad nominee? Trump is not merely a poor candidate, but an indictment of our character. Preserving a party is not a morally defensible goal if that party has lost its legitimacy.”

“Fast-forward to our present leadership and the nature of our dilemma is clear. I watched Paul Ryan speak at Donald Trump’s convention the way a young child watches his father march off to prison. Thousands of Republican figures that loathe Donald Trump, understand the danger he represents, and privately hope he loses, are publicly declaring their support for him. In Illinois our local and state GOP organizations, faced with a choice, have decided on complicity.


Our leaders’ compromise preserves their personal capital at our collective cost. Their refusal to dissent robs all Republicans of moral cover. Evasion and cowardice has prevailed over conscience. We are now, and shall indefinitely remain, the Party of Donald Trump.


I will not contribute my name, my work, or my character to an utterly indefensible cause. No sensible adult demands moral purity from a political party, but conscience is meaningless without constraints. A party willing to lend its collective capital to Donald Trump has entered a compromise beyond any credible threshold of legitimacy. There is no redemption in being one of the “good Nazis.”

I hereby resign my position as a York Township Republican committeeman. My thirty-year tenure as a Republican is over.”

Photo | videezy.com

Just when you think Trump couldn’t get any lower, out pops his golden shovel and the Republican presidential nominee just digs a deeper hole for himself.

No one knows what rock bottom is for the real estate tycoon, turned TV celebrity, turned cult leader, but suggesting his gun-loving, “Second Amendment” enthusiasts resort to gun violence in order to stop a President Clinton from appointing liberal judges has to be pretty close.

Of course, Trump’s rabid group of followers is defending him and blaming the media for deliberately misrepresenting his words in order to stir up a controversy where none exists.

Here are Donald Trump’s exact words:

“Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” Trump said.

This is not the first time Trump has spoken about “Second Amendment” rights or remedies.

At an Arizona rally this past April, Trump told a cheering crowd, “We’re going to win with our Second Amendment. We’re gonna win big league with our Second Amendment!”

If you believe many Trump supporters are nothing more than textbook cultists hanging on to his every word, be worried … be very worried.

Trump may have once just been a bombastic buffoon and a great source of entertainment, but he has now clearly evolved into a national security threat. Realizing this, some responsible members of his own party are  determined to stop him at all costs.

By alienating moderate Republicans, independents, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, the disabled, and veterans, there is no way Trump could ever win a general election.

So what could he possibly be thinking?

The one conclusion many have drawn from Trump’s dangerous and erratic behavior is that he is building up his base for a media empire to be created once he is crushed at the polls come November.

Of course, Trump will claim the system was rigged against him and that he’s still a winner. And his cultists will believe it.

(AP Photo)

The 2016 presidential election is unprecedented for a number of reasons. Republicans have a candidate who single-handedly, and without bloodshed or violence, hijacked the Party of Lincoln. A self-absorbed, self-described billionaire and political novice is carrying the GOP’s hope of regaining the White House.

For Democrats, we have a political candidate who has been around so long, and accumulated so much baggage, that her standard mode of transportation is not a limo but a semi. And oh, the Democratic presidential nominee is trying to become the nation’s first female Commander in Chief.

As unusual as this pair of presidential candidates may be, there is one singular fact that is truly unparalleled – with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, we have two of the most disliked presidential candidates in U.S. history competing against one another!

While it not unusual for a candidate to be disliked by members of the opposing party, both Trump and Clinton are hated by a significant number of voters from within their own party!

According to RealClearPolitics averages, Trump has an unfavorable rating of 65 percent. Clinton has 55 percent.

It seems with each passing day, Republicans are running away from Trump like rats on the sinking Titanic. Not only are some refusing to endorse their party’s nominee or give him their vote, an ever-increasing number are publically stating they will vote for Clinton.

On the Democratic side, for many disappointed voters who supported the Bernie Sanders revolution, the game plan is to sit out the election or vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. Some diehard Bernie or Bust enthusiasts have even vowed to vote for Donald Trump.

With such a bizarre election cycle, the White House may go to the candidate with the least number of defections from within their own party!

The election of 2016 is shaping up as a field day for presidential historians.

Photo | abcnews.go.com