Since he announced his candidacy last June, Donald Trump has steadfastly been promising that, should he be elected President, he will build a wall along the Mexican border to keep illegal aliens from insinuating themselves into our country.  Trump was not taken seriously; at first.  He was wildly politically incorrect, you see. (If I haven’t mentioned it lately, I hate that term.  As far as I’m concerned, PC stands for “Political Cowardice.”)  It was only a matter of time until Trump self-destructed, the experts told us.  Only he didn’t.  Trump said a number of other un-PC  things, and he kept getting more popular.  Throughout Trump’s campaign harangues, however, Donald assured us that he would build a wall on the Mexican border, it would be a great wall, with really nice gates, and Mexico would pay for it.  For the Donald, and for most reasonable people, the idea was that a sovereign nation needs a defensible border.  People outside the border shouldn’t be permitted to enter our country as they please.  Even more importantly, if someone enters our country illegally, that person shouldn’t have the audacity to try to dictate to us what our laws must be.  Even legal immigrants who choose to come into our country should be expected to adhere to its laws.  Simply put, recent arrivals should not show up the day before yesterday and assume that they can dictate to life-long Americans how we must live in our own country.

It’s a funny thing.  As a long-time observer of the world of politics, I often have been struck by the extent to which that world is ruled by the twin pillars of hypocrisy and irony.  Hypocrisy and politics go hand in hand, although that marriage generally is more evident in Democrat politics, where, as I have often observed, “scratch a Democrat, and you’ll find a hypocrite.”  The recent ravings of the Trump campaign are eerily reminiscent of even the most rabid Democrat hypocrite.  When Trump wins delegates in a State caucus, like the one in Nevada, that’s fair.  When Ted Cruz wins delegates in a State caucus, like in Utah, that’s unfair.  When a state assigns delegates to Trump without a primary vote, the system works.  When a state, like Colorado, assigns delegates to Cruz without a vote, it’s unfair, crooked and corrupt.  Indeed, the entire Republican Party, it’s rules, and all State rules of the Party which do not sufficiently genuflect to Trump, are corrupt.  Hypocrisy may come easily to Trump because he is a recent arrival to the Republican Party, having been, alternatively over the years, a Democrat, a Reform Party member and an Independent.  Most recently, however, Trump entered the Republican Party (2012).  This is where the irony comes into play.  Donald Trump just showed up in the Party four years ago, and just last year, he announced he was running for President.  Nothing wrong with that, but shouldn’t such a recent arrival in our Party be expected to accept the Party rules as they are, and work within the framework of those rules?  After all, when you think about it, Donald Trump, the Republican, is really no different than the recent immigrants to America who draw the ire of Trump and his merry band of Trumpeters.  Most of us, the Donald included, recoil at the notion that such a recent arrival should be allowed to dictate policy to the place that so graciously took him in.  “America – love it or leave it,” as the saying used to go.  The Republican Party is no different.  If a recent arrival to the Party swells our ranks, welcome.  But don’t declare that you’re a Republican the day before yesterday, enter our primaries, win a plurality of our delegates (so far) , and then have the audacity to denounce the Party that graciously took you in as a crooked and corrupt organization.  Love it or leave it.  At the very least, as a recent immigrant, take the time to learn our rules, and work within them.  If you don’t care for the rules, then utilize the system that is in place to change the rules.  If you haven’t realized it yet, Donald, the President is supposed to be a leader.  A political party’s presidential nominee is the leader of his party.  I keep hearing media drones warning Republicans that Trump must win the nomination and that the losers must unite behind Trump.  Should he fail to win, the drones don’t suggest that Trump must unite behind the winner.  For Donald Trump, you see, loyalty flows in only one direction – toward him.  Trump can join the system, use the system, trash the system, and then walk away, claiming to be a victim of the system.  I’m sorry, but in my book, that doesn’t make you a leader, but merely a poor replica of Barack Obama, the high priest of hypocrisy.  Some long-time members of the Republican Party have dared to suggest that, should Trump arrive at the Convention without the requisite 1,237 delegates, they will use the Party rules to deny Trump the nomination.  Think of it as the members building a wall to keep an ungrateful immigrant from insinuating himself in the Party.  Ungrateful Republican immigrant Trump says that’s unfair, and that the Party rules shouldn’t apply to him.  For my part, if Trump gets to 1,237 and wins, all well and good, I’ll support him.  However, should he fail to get the majority of delegates, and the Party rules are used to defeat him, Trump should have the decency to respect the system that he chose to exploit.  In other words, don’t come to the Republican Party and dictate how Republicans must live.  I say, let’s build that wall, and make Trump pay for it.  Donald Trump must not be the nominee of our Party.