It seems that the Republican establishment will grudgingly have to accept Donald Trump as their presidential nominee. How did this happen? Why is the Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower now represented by a snake oil salesman? The answer is that Trump is the unwitting result of the congressional Republicans’ determination to thwart President Obama at every turn, an intention they boldly make public. Even early in his presidency, when the Democrats held majorities in both the House and the Senate, most of the plethora of legislation originating in the House died in the Senate when Republican senators invoked the 60-vote rule.

Once the Republicans reclaimed the House, it became even easier for them to reject Obama’s proposals. Congress used to be made up of more reasonable members, led by such stalwarts as Tip O’Neill (Democrat) and Bob Dole (Republican), dedicated to getting things done and willing to engage in constructive compromise.

The Congressional Republicans refusal to join Obama in governing the republic, even rejecting legislation they usually support, has resulted in eight years of failure to address our more urgent needs, beginning with meaningful jobs. Repairing our crumbling infrastructure – roads, bridges, railroads, dams, rivers, forests, seaports, airports, urban blight, toxic waste sites and the vulnerable power grid – could well employ a few million workers.

Trump is now shifting his rant from name calling to jobs and the infrastructure. Still, his basic appeal is that he is an outsider, not part of Washington. And his horde of rabid followers blithely dismiss the very tangible evidence of his fraudulence. They don’t care that Trump University was a scam from its very beginning. What he promised he never delivered. He simply walked off with their money. The government finally stepped in and shut it down. Some of those Trump defrauded are suing him, and the New York attorney general is building a case against him.

Thanks, congressional Republicans, for giving us Donald Trump. If you had done the work you were elected to do, you would not be suffering the embarrassment of a charlatan representing your party.

Denton May

Cortez