Trump, Cruz and Kasich should end hysterics, unite to stop Hillary: Column

As a Republican, this November I look forward to voting for the GOP candidate for president, whoever that may be. These days, that’s an unfortunately controversial position.

Just one glance at any newspaper or TV screen clearly reveals the remaining Republican primary field in an all-out brawl. Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Gov. John Kasich — along with many of their supporters — seem hell-bent on tearing each other to pieces, no matter the cost to our team.

I understand that there are passionate differences between the candidates. And I understand that numerous Republicans are very fearful of not feeling represented by the eventual nominee. But typical primary posturing has given way to an unprecedented display of animosity, suspicion and even violence.

There are some who argue that a general election defeat might actually cleanse our party of undesirable forces, however defined, and that we can then pick up the pieces and start anew in 2020. I emphatically disagree. Locally, nationally and internationally, there is far too much on the line. We cannot afford to lose again.

Reminders of the stakes of this year’s election seem to arise with each passing week. Over the course of last month, three particularly daunting episodes stood out.

The first came when Hillary Clinton bluntly stated at a Democratic town hall event that as president she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” With the coal industry employing almost 40,000 people in my home state of Pennsylvania alone, these words hit close to home.

Second, the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns devoted to helping poor senior citizens, came to Washington to defend themselves against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate before the U.S. Supreme Court. (Also involved in their case, Zubik v. Burwell, are a Catholic prep school and two dioceses that serve my district.)

And finally, when the Islamic State carried out bloody attacks on civilians in Turkey, Belgium and Pakistan over the span of nine days. The whole world was watching: As a NATO ally mourned its dead at the hands of the civilized world’s most savage enemy, the American president was busy doing the wave at a baseball game with the dictator of geopolitically insignificant Cuba.

These snapshots matter. They are reminders of the consequences of a two-term Democratic president’s left-wing agenda, and of continuing down this path.

Under a Hillary Clinton presidency, the EPA’s reckless war on coal will carry on and countless livelihoods in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere will be destroyed.

Under a liberal-dominated Supreme Court, the federal government will likely be granted once-unthinkable authority to trample on the religious liberty of charities, schools, hospitals and more.

And rather than a more muscular foreign policy rooted in fierce American leadership to recover lost ground during the Obama era, under a Clinton administration, we’ll have a commander-in-chief who not long ago claimed we “are where we need to be” in our underwhelming war against Islamic State.

On virtually every count — the economy, energy, the courts, terrorism and so much more — any of the Republican contenders for president would be better for conservatives and better for America than Hillary Clinton (or her socialist rival Bernie Sanders).

Fifty years ago, Ronald Reagan followed a simple rule during his successful run for governor of California known as the 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

At a time when such a rule is needed more than ever, most of today’s GOP is flagrantly flouting it. This is wrong.

Twenty-six years prior, Reagan starred in the 1940 film, Knute Rockne, All American, in which he played George Gipp, the famed half-back for my beloved alma mater, Notre Dame.

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

In the film’s most famous scene, while lying on his deathbed, Reagan tells the team’s legendary Coach Rockne: “Rock, some day when the team’s up against it, the breaks are beating the boys, ask ‘em to go in there with all they got — win just one for the Gipper.”

I cannot think of a more fitting plea for Republicans right now.

Three generations later, our team is certainly “up against it.” From coast to coast, Republicans are feeling “the breaks” amidst a humiliating intra-party struggle, sadly, of our own choosing. But we can choose to end it. We can choose to focus on the real prize, and win.

Starting now, Republicans of every sort should commit to fully supporting whichever candidate ultimately acquires 1,237 delegates, whenever that may occur. No more threats to subvert the convention. No more fantasies about a third party. No more flirtations with staying home.

For the sake of America’s economy, liberty and security, let’s bring back the 11th Commandment, end the in-fighting and commit to winning one more for the Gipper. Or, in 21st-century vernacular: #NeverHillary

Rep. Mike Kelly is a Republican from Pennsylvania. 

In addition to its own editorials, Paste BN publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.