Letters: Republicans got what they deserved in Trump

My parents were lifelong Republicans, and I used to have some respect for their party. No more. The party’s knee-jerk refusal to even consider any Obama nominee for the Supreme Court — which will leave the seat vacant for more than a year — is disgraceful, but no surprise, given its recent history of lock-step partisanship.

For the past seven years, Republicans have been acting like spoiled brats, reflexively opposing anything and everything our twice-elected president proposes. Their party platform seems to be, “We don’t have to if we don’t want to.” The idea that we have to make America great again is pure hokum; we haven’t ceased to be a great nation under Obama’s presidency in any way that I can discern. I don’t think the majority of Americans have been swayed by the Republican candidates’ incessant alarmist rhetoric.

The obstructionist strategy of the Republicans under Mitch McConnell’s so-called leadership has had unintended consequences: The Republican establishment finds itself saddled with Donald Trump as its likely presidential nominee — a Teflon-coated, unpredictable, uncontrollable Frankenstein’s monster of its own creation.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 1:21 PM.