Tim Swarens

tim.swarens@indystar.com

Donald Trump is coming.

Brace yourself, South Bend. Get ready, Terre Haute. (You can stand down, Bloomington, the People’s Republic is likely to remain a Trump-free zone.)

And awaken your conscience, Republican leaders in Indiana. It’s time to take a stand against the egocentric billionaire’s reckless campaign for the White House.

Will Indiana’s leading Republican candidates disavow the civic corrosion that is Trump’s campaign? Or will they silently share a ballot with Trump on May 3 and thereby tacitly endorse his ugly, dangerous tactics?

Until Tuesday, until a majority of GOP voters in Ohio stood up to say, “Not in our name,” Republican candidates here could still hope the Trump train would bypass Indiana. Perhaps Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio would derail Trump’s roll toward the nomination. Perhaps Trump would flatten all other challengers, making Indiana’s presidential primary perfunctory.

Now, the delegate math makes it likely that Trump and Cruz, and perhaps John Kasich if he hangs on, will invest significant time and money here.

That means Mike Pence, Marlin Stutzman, Todd Young and other Republicans on the May ballot must decide: Do we, out of political expediency, welcome the man most likely to lead our party in November, or do we defend the values we’ve long claimed to hold?

Because there’s no middle ground on Trump.

Indiana Republican says Trump can and should be stopped

This is a candidate who has excused, and walked to the edge of inciting, violence by his supporters. He’s hurled horrible insults at women. He’s tagged Muslims, Mexicans and others with gross stereotypes. He’s failed to distance himself, until shamed into finding his voice, from blatant racists.

Perhaps worst of all, he’s exploited the deep frustrations and legitimate concerns shared by millions of working-class citizens in a bid to further his boundless ambition and insatiable need for attention. Rubio was right when he labeled Trump a “con man.” And the targets of Trump’s sad and cynical con are the many Americans who rightly feel left behind by the economy and ignored by the nation’s elite.

For all of those reasons, self-respecting Republicans and true conservatives simply cannot make peace with Trump’s tawdry act, not without selling out their own credibility and values.

Yes, Chris Christie and Ben Carson have endorsed a bully who not long ago mercilessly ridiculed them. But in doing so, they’ve forfeited the respect many Americans once had for them.

GOP donors scramble to cope with Donald Trump's primary sweep

With Indiana’s primary approaching, what will Pence say about a candidate who’s shown himself unfit to serve as commander in chief? What signal will the governor send to fellow Republicans who look to him for leadership? Can a man who often describes himself as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican — in that order — possibly be comfortable having his name just below Trump’s on the ballot?

What about Stutzman and Young in the U.S. Senate race? And the GOP’s large field of congressional candidates? All are sure to be asked about their take on Trump in the coming days. Each will have to make a moral choice about what to say and how strongly to say it.

Because the politics of the usual won’t suffice this year.

For decades, Indiana Democrats have tried to distance themselves from the national party. John Gregg could pretend that Barack Obama wasn’t at the top of his party’s ticket, and he could scoff at the “out there” liberalism of an Elizabeth Warren, and many Hoosiers would buy it. And reasonably so, to a degree. Joe Donnelly, after all, isn’t cast from the same mold as Harry Reid.

Hoosier votes likely to matter in presidential contest

But Indiana Republicans can’t borrow the Democrats’ dodge this election. Not after Trump has exposed himself as so dangerously unprincipled and unprepared. The national Republican brand and the Indiana Republican brand will be bound as one — with a big red Trump stamp affixed to candidates’ foreheads — if state GOP leaders fail to speak out.

To their credit, many conservatives on the national level already understand that reality. Opinion leaders from the political right have promoted the #NeverTrump social media movement. And rising stars such as Sen. Ben Sasse, a promising young conservative from Nebraska, have raised their voices in dissent over the dangerous turn their party has taken.

Now that Trump is coming to Indiana, will Pence, Stutzman and Young join the chorus of the concerned?

Tully: Young, conservative and fearful of Donald Trump

Let’s be straight here. For conservatives, this year’s election is no longer about winning the White House. The demise of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush’s campaigns, and likely soon Kasich’s, signaled the passing of Republicans’ best chances for returning to the Oval Office by respectable means. (Cruz, if he were somehow to emerge as the nominee, likely would lose the general election, given his inability to attract moderate voters. But at least he would lose with dignity).

Although Trump could prevail in November, he would do so as a populist without principle, someone willing to say and do almost anything to gain power. He wouldn’t hesitate to discard any shred of conservatism, and any remaining sense of decency, if it meant furthering his ambitions.

Given what we’ve already witnessed, there’s also good reason to forecast the remainder of this year’s election cycle as the nastiest, most brutal campaign since at least 1968. Who knows what new outrages Trump will unleash between now and November?

As a result, the Republican brand is at high risk of being tarnished for decades. To the point it may never fully recover.

Individual reputations may be shredded as well. Do Indiana Republicans want to be remembered years from now for sitting silently behind the most bigoted national campaign since George Wallace’s appeal to Old Dixie?

It’s time to pledge #NeverTrump. Time, for darn sure, to say never Trump in Indiana.

Email Swarens at tim.swarens@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @tswarens.

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