Robert, my opinion is that we have much ado about nothing going on. I believe that the series of events surrounding Trump’s surprising rise to the nomination and the subsequent incremental implosion have been carefully and skillfully orchestrated by a complicit and collusionary press that decided long ago they wanted Hillary Clinton to be President — even if the American people would rather pass on that idea.

First, despite an absence of political savvy, tact, knowledge, and acumen, Trump managed to win the GOP nomination. How does a candidate with nothing to say, and the inability to say it pull off such a feat? Well, you need free 24/7 coverage and a press that for a time pretends that Trump has some legitimacy. Then, you need to elevate every blemish of his competitors to pus-filled blackhead status.

Think how odd it is now to think that Marco Rubio’s decision to help a troubled relative get a real estate license was treated as a major scandal at the time? A real estate license? Meanwhile, Trump’s bankruptcies and Hillary’s foreign policy debacles were treated like small potatoes.

Then, having secured the nomination with the blanket cooperation of the media, which kept Trump’s name at the top of every news cycle, the steady, planned, and incremental assault began.

While the primaries carried through, I imagine the search for damaging information on Trump continued apace. Because he is a fraud of a candidate, it certainly hasn’t been hard to dig up dirt on such a filthy, exploitative, callous, and reprehensible national figure. After all, Donald has arguably been featured in more audio and video than most people ever, by virtue of he long time in the public eye, as well as his reality TV history.

In short, Robert, Donald never had a chance. Reince Priebus is a fool who allowed himself to believe that he could turn Trump into a candidate. Yes, Trump did manage to cobble together a coalition that was comprised mainly of haters, and he added to that a large group of people who hate Hillary, but the early projections in the primaries showed that all 17 candidates — except Trump — were capable of beating Clinton in a general election.

You think it timely, fortunate, or coincidental that the audio of Trump’s vulgar comments surfaced when it did? If so, you are naive. Should Hillary’s ineptitude allow Trump to appear to remain viable in the race, the DNC and the media in general by now have amassed five or six more damning revelations that will serve as daggers to the rest of the campaign.

So Robert, while I could be wrong — it has happened once or twice before — I don’t think Donald’s base will be a factor moving forward. They were in their holes for quite awhile, and they will slink back there soon. Certainly, they run the risk of being instrumental behind the scenes, but after this debacle, overt manifestations of their hateful stances won’t stand the test of publicity.

The sad thing to me is that so many decent Americans allowed themselves to be hornswoggled into believing that any component of Trump’s flash to political prominence was genuine, or sustainable.

As much as I despise the inevitable outcome of a Clinton Presidency, it’s probably a good thing that we have watched Trump’s demise occur as it had. Now, the pressure is on to develop and champion candidates who can withstand the challenge of close examination.

So, for now, let’s hope that the Congress remains divided or wholly Republican to prevent Clinton from implementing too much of her agenda, and let’s work toward finding candidates who are truly committed to finding middle ground that we can use to inch the country in a healthy direction.