Has the GOP been hijacked by racists and lunatics, or has this election cycle simply brought the truth behind the party to light?

This is just crap. The Republican party is not racist...

You'll have to forgive my candor, Mr. Mattheisen- Controversial question , so my "answer" can be no less controversial. No-neither the Republican Party, nor the majority of Republican voters are "racists" or "lunatics". My personal assessment is that Mr. Trump is not so much of either, as he is a showman and salesman. The media, infused with the insatiable desire for profit at any cost...is equally non-representative.

What the overwhelming majority of "us" should be viewed as, are working class Americans who always seem to have more bills than money, work for years in careers that "promised" security that appears to becoming more elusive, who are increasingly concerned that our "safety" is at risk, who hold values that appear to be the central "target" of a very loud minority, who are sick and tired of hearing that "we" have some obligation to self-deprecate ourselves for slights that, at best, took place before many of us were even born.

Mr. Trump doesn't "inspire" me, nor garner any great portion of my respect-but after a kangaroo court of a primary, where the "best" the Party could come up with was re-treads of the same empty, pasty, weak-willed tag lines that lost before...at least he's coming out with both guns blazing. It is assumed his "bark" is worse than his "bite", and that's what "we're" counting on.

It's come to that because the opposition isn't Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Sanders, but the people who steal righteous anger they've neither earned nor understand from those who truly have issue-most of whom, are working, paying and serving right alongside us. It's become a "war of words" with people who seem all too ready to surrender every hard-won right they have merely to get a "guaranteed" mediocrity, supported by a host of dangerous, malicious interests that neither represent, nor care about the disenfranchised, displaced, or disavowed.

Long diatribe, for which I apologize, but let's get one thing absolutely, 100% crystal clear-We're not voting for the Party's "savior"...rather, we're choosing the only remaining option that may interrupt the "Progressives'" leadership and give the RNC time to come up with a candidate who has real principles, real experience and for heaven's sake...a backbone...to support them.