Dear Republicans,

It’s a tough morning for you, I know.  You had a raging party in Indiana last night, topping off what has clearly been a bender of epic proportion.  You have woken up bleary eyed to find out that there are indeed consequences for reckless behavior. Donald Trump is now your presumptive nominee for President.

Look, take some aspirin for the headache, but it’s time for some truth telling.  Yes, there were moments when some of your saner friends tried to intervene.  They started a #NeverTrump intervention, but you didn’t really listen.  It felt harmless.  And let’s be honest, it felt good.  You enjoyed the high of the recklessness of Trump.

But if we are honest, and it is time for honesty, this didn’t happen overnight or even as a result of the admittedly strange quirks of the 2016 election season.  You’ve been exhibiting behaviors for years that have led you to this point.  Sure, you could argue that no one deserves Donald Trump (and as a Democrat- I agree with that one).  But don’t you?  I mean, didn’t you bring him to life with mutterings of hate, like some kind of Golem?

Trump supporters love him because he says what’s on his mind and doesn’t bother with all that PC crap. In fact, he says exactly what you have been whispering in code for years.  You liked to hide it. You winked and nodded through your Southern Strategy.  You built up an audience for Fox news and talk radio inviting them to gorge themselves at the troth of fear and anger and resentment. And the people you whipped up into an angry frenzy about the Muslim Kenyan Socialist Dictator in the White House, actually got tired of having to speak in code. In order to secure their votes, you made them so angry that you forgot that sooner or later, rage needs a place to go.

And rage has resulted in the misogynistic, racist bar brawl that last night culminated in the reality of Donald Trump as your nominee for president.  (The good news is that we get to avoid an actual brawl in the streets of Cleveland in July).

And now is your moment of truth.  You can look through your bloodshot bleary eyes at your disheveled appearance and moral decay and decide that it’s time for a change.  You can decide that this is the moment where you show your true character and go get yourself some help. Or, you can pull yourself together as best you can and wait for the bar to open again.

You can decide to be the person who really meant #NeverTrump because after all, Donald Trump is a racist, a misogynist, a demagogue and profoundly unqualified to be President.  You can decide to be the person who recognizes that having Donald Trump as president would be an unqualified disaster for our country, our stature in the world, the global economy and the rights of men, women and children all over the globe.

But, I’m afraid that we both know your history. You can’t resist this.  You just can’t quit Donald Trump.  And all those protestations of #NeverTrump will become #NeverHillary.  And the Donald is going to make you defend and justify things that make your stomach turn. But you’ll do it.  Because these last few months have shown you don’t really respect yourself that much.  Maybe you don’t even like yourself.

I dare you to surprise me.

-your concerned friend at Politics in Pink