Let’s be clear about this and not mince words … the standard-bearer of the Republican Party is:

• A racist, bigot. This is someone who is a believer in “the birther movement.” If you don’t know what the birther movement is, good for you. Someone who is a “birther” believes that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen – he still thinks that Obama was born in Kenya. This is someone who has mocked Asian accents. This is someone who was endorsed by David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan senior leader (he did disavow this endorsement). This is someone who has a large group of supporters that still believes slavery should exist in the United States (nearly one in five of his supporters do not support the Emancipation Proclamation). This is someone who was endorsed by Pat Robertson.

• A xenophobic demagogue. This is someone who feels that there should be a ban on all Muslims entering the United States. This is someone who thinks that Mexico only sends rapists and criminals across the border. This is someone who says “Mexico should build a wall.”
• A misogynist, sexist human being. This is someone who thinks that women are just objects – and not real people.
• A public policy lightweight – and that’s putting it mildly. This is someone who repeatedly says “Make America Great Again” whenever he is asked for public policy prescription.
• A foreign policy buffoon. This is someone who says he admires Vladimir Putin. Putin has gone past an authoritarian style of leadership all the way to dictatorship (Putin was a critic of Joseph Stalin’s tactics – and he now embraces them).
• A nonsupporter of freedom of the press. Freedom of the press is one of the most important rights and values we have in the United States. You go on a slippery slope if you want to silence this press through lawsuits.
• A liar. This is someone who has a combined 59 percent “Pants on Fire” or “False Statement” record from Politifact.com – which means he basically lies all the time.

If you haven’t figured how who I’m talking about – meet Donald Trump. Listen, my Republican friends. Simple electoral college mathematics shows that this person will be the next Republican nominee for president. There’s really no way around this. Trump has won Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina – and has smashed Super Tuesday.

Is this really who you want to be the next president? Are these really the characteristics you want in your next president?

You still have time to ensure that Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the Republican nominee for president. While I don’t agree with all of Kasich’s policy positions (and probably wouldn’t vote for him), I do think he is a good, decent, honorable man. Kasich:

• Led the effort, as the chairman of the Budget Committee in Congress, to balance the federal budget for the first time in a generation;
•  Expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in Ohio to provide health care to the uninsured;
• Cut taxes substantially in Ohio; and
• Turned an $8 billion budget deficit into a surplus of $2 billion.

Kasich is electable – you must win Ohio if you’re a Republican and want to win the presidency.

I don’t agree with all of Kasich’s positions – especially on women’s health care issues – but you don’t get everything you want in a candidate for either party.

The nation would be better off having a conversation with Kasich and whoever the Democratic nominee will be this fall.

And leave Trump behind.

Is it too late? Maybe so, but you don’t know if you don’t try.

Reprinted with permission by Matthew Worner. See original post here.

Worner is a graduate of Mayville (N.D.) State University, Virginia Tech, and Georgetown University, and is from Mayville and Devils Lake, N.D.