Trump: Not my nominee

Like millions of other Republicans, I am appalled at the fact that our presumed nominee is Donald J. Trump, owing to his latest string of primary election victories.

For 40 years, Mr. Trump has financially and politically supported Democrats. Trump has given hundreds of thousands of dollars and political support to Democrats, including Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel, Harry Reid, Anthony Weiner and Barack Obama.

But now Donald Trump has won my party’s nomination, mostly by playing a cynical game of racist, sexist politics – effectively destroying any hopes of growing the Republican party and winning back the White House. Trump boasts of bringing new blood to the GOP, but who are these people? Are these people excited by his racist, sexist, violent, isolationist, ignorant and inarticulate rhetoric? We are going to lose Republicans that believe in the true principles of the party for a new breed that are simply members of Trump’s cult of personality. Trump is no different than the other demagogues who have preyed upon people’s fears, economic insecurities, and racial, religious and ethnic prejudices.

For 16 years, I have worked tirelessly to open the tent of the Republican Party by bringing the party message to many different groups. Today, how can I, in good conscience, approach Muslim business owners and ask them to join my GOP? Our front-runner has attacked their faith and has put forth a policy to immediately ban their relatives from entering the United States “until we figure out what’s going on.” Trump’s “Islam hates America” ethos ignores the many sacrifices of Muslim American soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen, plus the other thousands of first responders who give of themselves daily, is evil.

How can I approach a child of an undocumented immigrant (who happens to be a citizen) and tell him to join my party, when our front-runner thinks a modern day “Operation Wetback” – the largest authorized racial profiling campaign by the U.S. government where millions of Hispanics were rounded up and expelled from the country by force – is a good idea? Mexicans make up 63 percent of Latinos in the United States but our front-runner blanketed all Mexican immigrants as evil criminals.

Imagine my conversation with an African-American voter. How can I convince this person that the Republican Party is the way to go when Trump would not immediately disavow the endorsements of the Ku Klux Klan, various white supremacists and former KKK Grand Dragon David Duke? Or ask them to support the future titular head of the GOP who refers to Black and other minority protesters as “thugs” and encourages violence toward protesters, not to mention the millions of dollars in racial discrimination settlements Trump has paid?

Women have also felt the wrath of Trump’s candidacy. His inappropriate comments about women’s physical appearance, sexual tendencies and other misogynistic attacks have effectively alienated the most active voting bloc in our country. Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly is just one prominent victim of Trump’s vile, sexist rhetoric that will surely cost the Republican Party women voters this November. How do I encourage women to join my party when Trump equates Kelly’s tough reporting to her menstrual cycle?

Hillary Clinton is a flawed and beatable candidate. Her candidacy presents a phenomenal opportunity for the GOP to win back the White House. How can a candidate with enough skeletons in her closet to fill a cemetery have a cake walk this year? From lying to the families of the victims of Benghazi to using a private email account to evade national security protocols and public information access designed to communicate safely without putting our national security at risk, Clinton is eminently vulnerable. But we are blowing it by enabling Trump’s insane candidacy to bamboozle people into a hostile takeover of our party’s base.

Frankly, after allowing a vile demagogue like Trump to defeat so many experienced Republican candidates with better qualifications, if we don’t rally to stop him and take our party back, perhaps we deserve to lose. Maybe a November defeat will force the party to recalibrate its priorities.

J.C. Polanco, Esq., MBA, teaches History, Latino Studies, Economic Development of the Dominican Republic and Caribbean at the City University of New York. Polanco is an attorney for Polanco Law and a Republican contributor for Univision NY and appears regularly on NY1 Inside City Hall, Pura Politica and BronxNet.