I’ll preface this with a disclaimer so that everyone understands where I am coming from: I am a registered Republican, though more so for reasons of convenience and pragmatism rather than any party loyalty. With that being said, I consider myself a staunch moderate and a fierce independent, I don’t need anybody on either side of the aisle telling me how I should live my life and what I should believe. The belief that either side has the correct answer for every issue all of the time goes against every single thing a person who considers themselves educated and intellectually minded should stand for.

If New York State Primary voting laws allowed me to vote in whatever primary I wanted to vote in, you can bet I’d be ditching the parties altogether and proudly penning a nice big check onto the box next to “Independent.”

Unfortunately, that’s not the case, so I had to declare myself for a party, and against all odds—and against all standards of logic I might add—that party decided to nominate an orange buffoon with zero relevant experience, competence, or human decency whatsoever.

Democracy sucks sometimes, doesn’t it?

Be sure to take a look at the section you’re reading this in right now. It says opinions. You should understand that and take everything I say as simply that: opinion. As the Opinions Editor, it is my job to write about the important issues, and I hope that you find my opinions both insightful and informative, but be prepared because this article is exactly what it seems: a rant. I wholeheartedly support and invite you to challenge anything I say in the comments below, or if you’re feeling extra gutsy and want to write a fully fleshed out opinion and response to me, email me at [email protected]. I’ll publish it. Scout’s honor.

With all that being said, on with the rant. GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Republicans in general: It’s time to stop, take a good hard look at what’s going on, and cut your losses. Your Party is dying.

It’s time to completely disavow and drop Donald J. Trump, cold turkey, and without looking back. It’s time to stop appeasing him, it’s time to stop looking the other way, it’s time to stop allowing him to stir up hate, and it’s time to stop making excuses.

You are going to lose this election, it is almost certain, look at any unbiased poll you want to look at, and you’ll see that the point of no return has been passed. Your candidate is incompetent, inexperienced, vulgar, dangerous, sexist, racist, anti-intellectual, a bully, egocentric, driven by anger, and knows absolutely nothing about what it means to lead a country.

It doesn’t matter how much you don’t like Hillary Clinton, or how much you think the system needs to change. I don’t like Clinton, and I think there are many changes that need to happen, but it doesn’t take me more than a second of thought to conclude that Trump is simply not the answer. Believing that he can fix our broken political system is like believing that the best way to fix a leaky ceiling is by throwing a grenade into the center of the room, closing the door, and hoping something good comes of it.

Accept your defeat, get ready to pick up the pieces, and prepare for next time. It’s time to take a stroll through the pasture, it’s time to review the herd, and it’s time to remove all the wolves’ in sheep’s clothing causing uproars.

It’s time to ditch the faction of your party that has been recently coined the “deplorables” and to stop giving them the legitimacy of identifying with a major political party.

They obstruct the system, spread hate and ignorance, and disregard everything this country was founded on. I’m talking about those generally considered the far-right: the Tea Partiers, the Evangelicals, the science-deniers, the anti-intellectuals, the fear mongers, the conspirators. You know exactly who I’m talking about. The Elephants in the room. The bigots, the racists, the sexists, the uber-nationalists, the “Make America Great Again-ers”, and their fearless leader who’ll say anything to get support—it’s the dictionary definition of demagoguery. They don’t belong in the party founded by Abraham Lincoln, anti-slavery activists and modernists who were truly committed to preserving the union.

The Republican Party needs to cut out the ultra-right extremists who bring nothing of value to the table, and make room for some semblance of sanity by being more inclusive to moderates and people who aren’t blind to the train wreck of a candidate that is Donald Trump.

Plenty of countries  have some kind of small, far-right extremist fringe party and faction that tends to make a lot of noise, complain a lot, and spew hate. But they don’t have any sort of dictation over policy because they aren’t given the legitimacy of being allowed into a major party. One example I’m thinking of is the British National Party from the UK, who’ve been considered by some to be “neo-fascists”, who advocate for opposition to multiculturalism, opposition to same sex marriage, and oh yeah, the resettlement of immigrants and their descendants to their lands of ethnic origin. The BNP, like any party, are completely free to shout all they want, but they are far from treated seriously by the major parties.

America needs something like this. Republicans, ditch the ultra-right. Let them start their own party, let them complain amongst themselves. This goes for the ultra-left as well. Let sanity come back to politics. Leave the governing to the sane, let the insane complain on the sidelines.

Now, Speaker Paul Ryan, you’ve already dealt the first cut, and I applaud you for that. Now it’s time to follow through and rip off the Band-Aid.

On Oct. 7, this video of Donald Trump from 2005 surfaced.  Please watch it, but be warned that it is quite vulgar. I feel that it needs almost no explanation.

Donald Trump has been no stranger to controversial statements, but this is being called the straw that breaks the camel’s back, the point of no return.  Mr. Speaker, here is how you responded:

“I am sickened by what I heard today…. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves…In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow’s event in Wisconsin.”

You have banned him from attending your campaign event. You have called him out on his vulgarity and his sexism. You have made it clear that he is not someone you want to even stand next to. So it’s time for you to bite the bullet, take a stand, and say enough is enough. It is time for you to recant your endorsement of him, and call for respectable republicans like yourself to do the same.

Donald Trump is in a downward spiral; his campaign seems to constantly be in crisis management mode. The once narrow gap between Clinton and Trump is now widening. His polling numbers are down following his horrible debate performance.  He starts 3 a.m. twitter rants asking America to watch a sex tape in a clear example of not being able to control himself. His tax returns have been leaked suggesting he didn’t pay federal taxes for 18 years.   Here’s one of my favorites from a while ago: Donald Trump cheating small business owners out of their work and hard earned money.

For the record, not only are most of these examples just from the last two weeks alone, but also they just reflect him as a person.

Now, shall we take a look at some of Donald’s brilliant policies? How about suggesting women who get abortions should be punished ? His complete lack of understanding or respect for the power of nuclear weapons perhaps?  Dare I mention the wall, and how laughably doomed the concept of it is? Or should I mention the fact that he is a compulsive liar and can’t go any stretch of time without flip flopping and denying it?

I can go on all day. I literally have too many sources. For the sake of convenience, here’s a cheat sheet of his many scandals. It’s a great read.

Here’s Mr. Trumps video response to the leaked video that just surfaced, and here’s some insight about a statement  he released to reporters. You could call it an apology, if you have a very loose definition of that word. The classic, “sorry but Hillary and Bill are worse.”

Did you notice how different he sounded in that video, compared to any other video of him speaking or debating? Did you notice how rigid and composed, and dare I say rehearsed, he seemed? That’s Donald Trump reading an “apology” written to him by his campaign over a teleprompter, a rare sight indeed for the man who so loves to brag about how “smart” he is, and who knows words, the best words

Would you like to know what that means? It means his campaign realizes the absolute mess they’re in right now, and they’ve decided to put Mr. Trump on a leash. They are afraid of him making things worse. It doesn’t take a political analyst or a college professor to see the problem in this. The man literally cannot be trusted by his own campaign with his own words. This is a man who is running for president. This is not okay. It’s time to stop.

Trump supporters, it is very clear that a lot of you are angry, and it is very clear that a lot of you are frustrated at a system you feel has failed you and our country. It is a feeling that many people, including myself, can relate to and understand.

But this has to stop somewhere. Don’t let anger and frustration cloud your judgment. Don’t let hate, vulgarity, and immodesty sweep you up in a movement that is in clear opposition to the entirety of what America was founded on. This is a country that decided they will not succumb to the wills of a single figure declaring themselves the absolute. Don’t let his “business success” and his loud uncontrollable mouth fool you. He is not good for America. He will not “Make America Great Again.”

What makes America great is our ability to come together when crisis tries to bring us down. What makes America great is that we do things because they are right, not because they are easy. We trust ourselves, we don’t allow ourselves to be controlled by megalomaniacs. Don’t let this man weasel himself into the highest office in the land. Don’t let this man try to tell you he is some kind of omnipotent savior.

There is a debate tonight, October 9^th 2016. Pay attention to it and do not be mistaken America, because the decision we are about to make on November 8^th could very well be the most important one in decades. Do me a favor and watch this video. Maybe you’re starting to see where I’m coming from now. Do not take this decision lightly. Do not allow anger and frustration to control you. Do not allow him to set us behind.

Donald Trump, it’s time to stop.