The problem with letting go of Donald Trump has nothing to do with how much his supporters love the man – because he isn’t very lovable.  It isn’t because they are all that impressed with his career as a successful builder.  It isn’t because of his inspirational oratory (his oratory is unremarkable).  Yet his message, delivered as if he were your next door neighbor, seemingly unscripted and completely in touch with who we are as a people, has struck a nerve that stopped us cold in our tracks.  We couldn’t take our eyes off him, even as the political establishment has decided that we should. 

Mr. Trump’s vision for the future of America is the same optimistic vision Ronald Reagan held out to the American voter in 1980 – minus his cringe-worthy Trump Talk about the face of a rival female candidate and his reminders that he is really rich, along with his reflexive need to personally attack anyone who criticizes him.  We are aware of the obvious; his demeanor and carriage aren’t exactly spot on.

Yes, Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan, but in the minds of American voters, if he can make the immigration issue, which has been around since before Reagan, go away; if he can help to rid us of the oppressive failure that is Obamacare; if he can create a business environment where our manufacturing sector returns home, bringing with it jobs and productivity, his offer is worth serious consideration.  If you will, much of Republican America is interested in kicking the tires, or just maybe going on a test drive.   

His presence in the Republican debates brought a staggering 24,000,000 viewers.  That is a full 18,000,000 more viewers than watched the Republican debates in 2012.  So The Donald tripled the audience, and everyone was a winner for it.  While we can’t know exactly know how many of the viewers were Democrats, we can bet that they made a substantial showing, allowing the candidates to cut through the media translation to reach a diverse audience in their own words.  The voters won, the Republican Party won, and last but not least, the media won.

Do we really want this to end?  This moment is too good in every way for Americans and Republicans to just walk away from.  We have the attention of the nation, and they are listening.

Trump was and still is a serious contender in the 2016 campaign – not in spite of, but because of the total failure of America’s professional political class and the so-called “media watchdogs” who are supposed to protect us from them.

With Obama’s re-election, the lives of everyday Americans changed for the worse in very real and tangible ways.  His election and re-election were won as a direct result of what well may be the most egregious cluster of lies ever told by a presidential candidate in the history of our nation. 

Just as a refresher, we were repeatedly promised by our Democratic president: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”; “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”; and “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year.”  As far as can be determined, these promises were first delivered before the American Medical Association’s annual meeting by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2009, and they went on to be repeated by our president, his defenders, and his supporters hundreds if not thousands of times.

In Obama’s presidential campaigns, these lies served as Obama’s deal closer, allowing many to justify pulling the lever for our current president rather than handing him his walking papers.  For those who don’t reflect on this sort of thing, $2,500 is real money to the vast majority of Americans. 

These were serious lies because they were intentional and meant to deceive for the purposes of expanding federal power, regardless of the consequences to the American people.  And just when we needed them most, when history begged for their full attention, our professional media watchdogs looked the other way – and in doing so failed a vulnerable nation.  In looking the other way, they became knowingly complicit in the president’s plan to dupe the American people.

So we re-elected Barack Obama, and only then were we allowed to learn the full truth about exactly how the Democratic Party works to maintain power, courtesy of Dr. Jonathan Gruber.  Lest we forget, our collective stupidity is the essential ingredient in the Democratic Party’s Secret Sauce.

For many of us, this was the moment when we finally heard from the horse’s mouth what we always feared was the truth.  At issue for the voting public is the knowledge that high office holders knowingly lied to achieve a desired political outcome, and to date have gotten away with it.  Maybe all this is a stale old story by media standards, but we have to live with the consequences of Obamacare every single day.  The nation has come to realize the enormous magnitude of the betrayal by their president when they face the reality of soaring deductibles brought to us courtesy of Obamacare.  These oppressive costs make it very difficult for those who have insurance to actually utilize the insurance they supposedly have. 

The American people were played by our current president, the Democratic Party, and the liberal media.  This is the reason why Americans are interested in outsiders Trump, Carson, and Fiorina.  While each of these outstanding Americans provides the Republican field with an unusual level of success in the business, corporate, and medical sectors, only Donald Trump has demonstrated the most basic and compelling reason for the Republicans to continue following his candidacy and the positions he takes on the campaign trail. 

If the classic definition of politics is the art of persuasion as it relates to governance, then a successful politician must be that someone who can compel voters to stop and listen to what he has to say.  So far, Donald Trump stands alone in that capacity, whether he’s right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate.  In other words, when he speaks, the press reports, and the nation listens.  To date, no other candidate, Republican or Democrat, insider or outsider, has nearly as much command of the media as does Donald Trump.  Republicans need to pay attention to this very important fact. 

So yes, the nation is hopping mad and very wary of all establishment career politicians and the media who stood by silently as free enterprise got torpedoed and liberty was again put on the defensive.  We were let down, and badly so.

Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who effectively withdrew American leadership from the world stage.  He became the president of a country that he saw as profoundly flawed and has made it his mission to trash and then dismantle the best parts of us.

It’s been a profound letdown to have a president who thinks that we need to be overhauled from top to bottom.  It’s like getting married to someone who wants to change everything about you.  “If only you weren’t so ambitious, maybe we could spend more quality time together.”  “If you’d lose 20 pounds, I’d feel more attracted to you.”  Six and a half years with a creep who has dragged you down and trashed you will make you stop and listen to that guy who thinks you’re being treated shabbily and just wants to see you walk happily into the future, being exactly who you are meant to be.  Having lost all hope, you cling to the man who says he can save you from a fate worse than death.  In this case, that fate is Socialism.

So, letting go of Mr. Trump is going to be like letting go of that man who wants you just the way you are, only stronger and healthier.  This is not going to be easy, because it’s about letting go of our freedom in favor of some European-style socialist democracy that will absolutely destroy the American spirit.  We are a free people, exceptional, unique, and unequaled.

Mr. Trump’s life story is a quintessentially American success story.  While not exactly rags to riches, Donald Trump took the success his father passed along to him and with it built an empire that is recognized the world over.  He is ambitious, brash, and embarrassingly so; loud, overstated, garish; a 21st-century P.T. Barnum pushing the limits of his Big Top, determined to set the ship of state back on its intended course.

So, to the rest of you, while you trash this very American man, remember that so far you’ve not given us a replacement who will provide us with the passionate love of and belief in the unique greatness of our nation displayed by Mr. Trump.

Having had a passionate suitor declare his love for us, it’s hard to let go of him just because we don’t like the cut of his jib.