I do not write this from a partisan viewpoint; I used to be a Republican. I registered when the voting age was 21, when it was considered the brain would have matured from the tumultuous teenage years.
I have voted for several Republican candidates, including John McCain. In the next election, I voted enthusiastically for Barack Obama. I mention this to hopefully prevent a barrage of hate-filled responses, which are the least likely to change sensible minds.
My family had no television when I was young but I remember as a child the obvious concern my parents showed about radio and newsreel reports of the rise of Adolf Hitler. I remember how frightening to me were the films of violent crowds raising their arms and shouting “Heil Hitler!” to a screaming speaker saying hateful things and the terrible war that followed.
I am horrified by the fact that Donald Trump is the presidential candidate for the Republican Party and that so many of my fellow Americans think this is a reasonable choice. Perhaps they all expect more from some other source than their own efforts. If so, I think they are being misled, but then it is hard to hear the lack of specifics, and how often any specific changes, when every utterance of the speaker is drowned out by roars.
So many, including members of the media, are so caught up in this circus they don’t know the tent is sagging.
