Dear editor,

I can imagine the phone ringing at the Mitt Romney residence. Some RNC hack tells him, “Mitt, our party needs you to rein in Donald Trump. He is killing us.” So Mitt jumps on the bandwagon.

It is not Trump who scares them. It is the will of the people. The truth is that the establishment Republican Party activists are scared to death of losing power. In order to maintain their grip on power they are willing to risk losing the upcoming election. Just as they lost the last two!

They have been in collusion with the Democrats for years and have been culpable for getting the country in the mess it is in now. These career Republicans do not seem to be interested in the will of the people or the signs of the times. They are only interested in saving the sweet racket they have created for themselves.

Why is our tax code thousands of pages? Because Congress controls who gets exemptions and other neat little tax breaks. That is just one example of the corruption of power and the self interest of our politicians at the expense of the American people.

The Republican Party establishment needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Why are Trump and Cruz doing so well? Because they are willing to stand up and say what the establishment Republicans are afraid to admit. The people are fed up, but rather than listening to the will and attitude of the people, they are fighting it. Instead of acknowledging their faults and getting on board with the people they allegedly represent, they cajole Mitt Romney into further dividing the party with subterfuge.

The people want a president and a Congress who put the welfare of the nation ahead of their individual careers. I used to proudly call myself a Republican. The Mitt Romneys and John McCains of the world have undermined that.

Middle of the road just doesn’t work. And these machinations will end up giving the election to the Democratic Party — one more time.

As to the candidates themselves, they are not without blame. Instead of pointing to the missteps and disasters of the last seven years, they are castigating each other and talking about “small hands” and other meaningless criticisms.

If they want to be critical of someone other than Hillary and Obama then they should focus on the Republican establishment that has been complicit in getting us in the mess we are in.

Ford McLain

LaGrange