Principle or party

Alert emergency rooms across the country: some elected Republicans must be feeling whiplash, so quickly have they reversed themselves with respect to their party's presidential nominee.

This past weekend, these politicians distanced themselves from Teh Donald over that Access Hollywood video. Now, they're proclaiming their intention to vote for him.

They're bending in their party's political wind, and it's blowing fiercely in favor of Teh Donald. But why?

When I think of Republican voters, I think of "values voters". There's a reason the Moral Majority hewed very closely to the GOP. Highly religious voters lean heavily Republican.

How do these deeply principled, religiously devout people stay with Donnie?

It will seem strange to say this, but I hope it's because they genuinely see Hillary Clinton as the devil's handmaiden, capable of bottomless evil. That mindset is the only one that could justify their loyalty to Donnie.

The alternative is that they see politics as a blood sport, and they're all about "our guy, right or wrong". Party over principle. As nihilistic and destructive an attitude toward governance as is possible.

If that's where we are in our politics, this country is screwed.

So yes, I hope Donnie's voters think Hillary is the embodiment of evil, as terrible as that mindset is, because the alternative is just too grim to consider.