My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) may have noticed I’ve been gone from these informative pages for the last couple of weeks. Others likely didn’t notice (Editor: you’ve been gone?) but in case you did notice, I was away attending the memorial service for my eldest brother, who died unexpectedly. He was 78 and was a public-school teacher back in our home state of Michigan for more than 35 years. He was beloved by students and colleagues alike, and more than 200 people attended his remembrance service. I appreciate the kind words and the support of the nice folks at Colorado Politics.

Driving home from Michigan caused me to be driving through Iowa during the first Republican presidential candidate debate, as we are rapidly approaching the Iowa caucus that will formally kick off the presidential campaign season.

Having been away from political advertisements for a couple of years now here in Colorado, I was startled, though I shouldn’t have been, by the seemingly continuous TV ads on Iowa stations for the various GOPers running for the nomination. I saw my first Nikki Haley ad, wherein she warned the greatest danger our nation will face in the future is likely China, along a number of dimensions, from commerce to possible combat. I’ve made no secret of my concern, as a Dem, that Haley represents the GOP’s greatest chance to win the White House next year. She is a clear thinker, a fine speaker and a moderate that could pull significant independent votes away from Biden. Happily, she is almost certain to lose, and I can’t see former President Donald Trump picking her as the vice presidential candidate, and even if he did, I can’t think she would accept, in that she shows all the signs of being an honorable person.

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There were nutty ads from candidates that, frankly, I hadn’t even heard of yet. And there was, of course, one candidate who didn’t bother to show up at the debate at all because he leads the GOP pack by roughly a 2-to-1 margin over his next nearest challenger. Plus Trump had to make sure he had his bag packed and the private jet gassed up for when he had to go surrender to Georgia authorities and be arrested, fingerprints taken, vitals taken (6-foot-3, 215 pounds, really? Does anyone believe 215 lbs?) and a mugshot taken. Trump took fewer than 24 hours to start fundraising off the mugshot, selling it along with the slogan “never surrender,” even though that is precisely what he did the day before. Oh, and Mrs. Trump was again not by her husband’s side during this now fourth indictment.

The debates had a most remarkable moment, not according to me, but rather in the view of GOP candidate Chris Christie, who stated “the most amazing part” was when all but Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson raised their hands when the panel was asked to raise their hands if they would support Trump as the nominee even after he had been convicted of felonies in a court of law.

That means the following, per CBS News: “Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence raised their hands, saying they would support Trump as the party’s nominee – even if he was convicted.”

They would support a convicted felon.

For the presidency.

Can you even imagine what the Republicans would say if President Joe Biden were running as a convicted felon? Seriously?

The war Trump has declared on not just the media but now on the actual justice system in this country is working when some of the (theoretically) most distinguished party members would agree to reject the verdict of a jury of Trump’s peers. This should horrify, but it doesn’t.

It seems quite likely Trump will be the GOP nominee for president, regardless of whether he is convicted of any of the no fewer than 91 criminal indictments. Some scholars, ironically including many on the far-right, are exploring 14th Amendment solutions that might deny Trump a ballot slot, as he has engaged in a coup attempt, but it is not at all clear, to me at least, that this line of legal reasoning will result in much.

Therefore, I’m taking to the pages of CoPo to make an appeal to the only person in the United States that might be able to stop the Trump madness and perhaps back his party away from the ledge they seem utterly intent on leaping over. So, here is my open letter to former President George W. Bush.

President Bush,

Sir, I did not vote for you, nor do I agree with many of your policies (though compared to the next GOP president after you, we might be in much greater agreement now). I feel your decision to invade Iraq was a massive mistake, and I could go on and on about your policy failures.

But, Sir, there is one area in which you tower over the current GOP presidential field, most especially including Mr. Trump.

You, Sir, are a man of honor.

You always did what you thought was in the best interests of the United States. When you were president, we never had to worry about things like you using your office to guide diplomats and others to stay at the hotel you owned. Similarly, we never had to worry if any of your kids were employed at the White House, with security clearances you directed be granted, and who took roughly $2 billion from the Saudis. We didn’t have to worry about you setting up a fake college or selling fake steaks.

Frankly, Mr. Bush, you are the only entirely honorable leader of the modern national Republican party. There are some local folks – former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens leaps to mind – who are honorable and possess great strength of character, but you, Sir, are the only one with the ability to speak to the nation, – or more specifically, at the current GOP, a party that’s become afflicted with a Trumpian swamp fever that threatens the party’s existence, and perhaps that of the nation.

It is time, Sir, for you to speak out, clearly and powerfully, to denounce the non-true-Republican, thrice-married, serial adulterer, multiple-failed businessman facing 91 criminal indictments who claims today to speak for the GOP in 2023. There is no one else to whom his base might listen, when speaking the truth about an election that was not stolen, about poll workers who were just passing around candy, and counties in Arizona, run by Republicans, who accurately reported Biden won that state.

You, Mr. Bush, may be the last hope of a party that has agreed to “believe” more than 60 judges, many of them Trump appointees, conspired across a number of key states to deliberately rule against Trump’s post-elections lawsuits (he lost 61 of 62, and the case he “won” impacted a tiny number of votes that weren’t counted anyway).

You can speak for the thousands of GOP poll workers who did not miscount the Trump vote, while still counting accurately for a number of GOP candidates that managed to win their elections on the same ballot.

We need your voice, Mr. President. It’s time we get back to arguing about actual policies and not hinting another civil war might be needed. Frankly, Sir, you are not that great a painter, so perhaps you could put your brushes aside for a bit.

Your country needs you.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.