I will warn you, though, it is not an easy way, nor is it quick. It will take as many years as it took that Hindu man to raise the orphaned Muslim child as a Muslim as Bapu instructed.
Do you want to hear it? Have you finally come to realize that the problem you’ve created over the last 50 years isn’t going away, that the evil you have released isn’t going to jump back in the box?
Do you want a way out of the hell you’ve made?
Here it is: lose. On purpose. With honor.
If you want your party to continue in public life with some meaning other than race hate and religious bigotry, say so.
Tell your partisans, without hemming and hawing, without qualifications, that all Americans are created equal, that all are brothers and sisters, and that hatred of The Other is not welcome in your party.
Tell your people that if their votes are contingent on supporting hatred of The Other, those votes are not wanted by the Republican Party.You will lose this election if you do this. You’ll lose the next one, as well. Perhaps more. The racists, sexists and religious bigots that you have excused and laughed off and condoned and cultivated will turn on you and leave your behinds in the breeze. Likely enough, they’ll migrate to another party or perhaps found a new one.
And your party, bereft of a third of its supporters, will languish for years and cycles to come.
But, if you have the courage, the integrity, the basic humanity to unequivocally renounce the hatred you’ve stoked and cynically manipulated since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, your party may survive as a viable force in American life.
What’s more, you will save what remains of your souls.