{NOTE: The following is a letter I have just sent to all the leading Republicans I know how to contact. I urge everyone to do the same with Republicans for whom you have personal contact information.}

Dear [Prominent Republican],

I apologize for intruding on your time, but our nation is facing an existential crisis, and the only way out of it is for patriotic Republicans to come together and take a final, unequivocal stand against the authoritarian liar in the White House who is presiding over a rapidly accelerating decline of the American Republic and all we hold dear.

Late in the 1964 campaign, Ronald Reagan gave a speech—“The Speech,” as it came to be known among conservatives—titled “A Time for Choosing.”

It is now, far more than it was in 1964, a Time for Choosing.

After Mr. Trump’s jaw-dropping actions (laughing uproariously about the horrors of a free press with the man responsible for the murder of numerous journalists), words (saying he is "honored" to meet with the man who attacked—let's put it directly: made war on—the United States of America and American democracy last year) and policies (partnering with Putin on cyber warfare, which is the equivalent of what George W. Bush partnering with bin Laden on flight safety right after 9/11 would have been) over the past few days, the choice could not be clearer:

Patriotism or Putinism?

“Which Side Are You On?” That question was asked in a famous 1931 song by Florence Reece. Let me update the key lines:

They say in America there are no neutrals there

You'll either be a patriot or a thug for V.V. Putin

The time has run out for making the choice. Does anyone doubt that Ronald Reagan would choose America?

And now we have the clearest indication yet that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians against Hillary Clinton during the campaign. The Administration and Fox News have recently switched from denying collusion to saying that collusion isn’t a crime. I’m not a lawyer, but I think the word for it is treason.

For your self-respect, for your reputation, for your party, and—most of all—for your country, I plead with you to get together with other patriotic Republicans and make a public and forceful rejection of Donald Trump and for America.

Yours for the survival of the nation we love,

Robert S. McElvaine