David Brooks has an written an enlightening commentary. Here is my take on it.
When I say "Republicans" below, I am referring to elected officials, candidates, and the extremist base. There are exceptions among Republican voters, whom I will get to shortly.
Trump is nothing new. Trump is what Republicans have been saying since Goldwater. To suddenly come to the realization that Trump's "rhetoric" is "unacceptable" is to pretend Republicans haven't been saying exactly this stuff for five decades. That's half a century.
To pretend Trump should have taken a "pivot" to compete in the general election after the primaries is fundamentally dishonest. It is an admission that either the primary rhetoric is a lie, or the general election rhetoric is a lie. Either way, Republicans are admitting that their campaign strategies, in whole or in part, primarily consist of lies.
Building up to Trump, Republicans have been becoming increasingly obstructionist, dedicated to preventing anything from happening in America. Meanwhile, our problems fester and rot.
Republican demonization of the President and, by extension, of all Democrats--and particularly of Hillary Clinton--is nothing more or less than the Trump ideal. They created Trump.
He is their Word, made flesh.
For the average Republican voter--think about what your party has been doing. You guys built that by electing the people who have been selling you these lies. You bought what they've been selling. It is your fault.
Yours, and yours alone.
If you support Trump, and you like the bombastic hate he is so ardently representing, you're hopeless. You are what is wrong with the world. There is plenty that is right with the world, but you're not part of it, and you will fail.
If you think Trump has "gone too far", then either you're not paying attention, or you're lying to yourself. This is exactly how far elected Republicans have been for decades. Think about the ugly rhetoric that nearly all of your elected figureheads have been pronouncing for the last seven years. None of it is true.
Wake up. You soul depends on it.
So do your lives, and the lives of your loved ones, and the future of the nation, and the fate of the world.