As August becomes September, and the November elections loom ever closer, the GOP’s internal battle shows no signs of resolving to an uneasy truce. Indeed for many, no common path forward can be found and the GOP has hit rock bottom — it is a moment of pessimism, a moment of little if any hope. Human nature has shown that in such times, and only then, is a moment of clarity possible. And if the reader will allow, I would like to humbly offer one.

Trump’s candidacy is a reaction, a symptom to an underlying malady. The Tea Party, whether or not supportive of Trump, is another such reaction. Yet another is any talk of “Ruling Class,” “Establishment,” or “Elites.” So many symptoms exist which make obvious that there is something very, very wrong with Washington DC, and the People sense it. The Democrats are malignant, the Republicans are complicit, the Media are corrupt, and the People, especially those who sense that something is wrong, are considered the enemy. Just how deeply these previous statements are regarded as true is the fuzzy but deep line along which the GOP is divided. Any possible reconciliation of the disparate GOP factions must address this division. Moreover, it must do so in a manner which is a return to the very roots of the party.

There was a time when the GOP was a party of freedom, a party dedicated to the abolition of slavery. It is a proud history. A history of people who bravely proclaimed that Human Dignity held supremacy over an economic structure which required compulsory servitude in order to remain viable, that it was the basest of immorality to import people from foreign lands to our shores and into compulsory servitude in order to sustain that inviable economic structure. It was a long and hard fought battle, but it was won. And a party that stuck steadfastly to the principles of Human Liberty won it.

And the battle needed to be won, because the system was deeply immoral. So much so, that to this day, 150 years later, the scars inflicted by that system have not fully healed and are ripe for any opportunistic demagogue to rip a dirty fingernail into. So much so, that our country may never fully be at peace with itself. Look at Milwaukee. Look at Baltimore.

So, ask yourself, members of the GOP, if such a system were around today, would you stand against it? Hint: this is a “moment of clarity” question.

There was a time when the GOP recognized the argument, “but our agriculture economy will not survive without the importation of cheap labor,” as an immoral one. Does it do so today?

There was a time when the GOP recognized the argument, “but there are jobs that Americans won’t do, so we need to import cheap labor to do it,” as an immoral one. Does it do so today?

There was a time when the GOP recognized economic structures which, in order to remain viable, required compulsory servitude along with the importation of people to fulfill that servitude as immoral ones. Does it do so today?

I would like to suggest that Trump’s outrageous rhetoric on illegal immigration resonates not because our people are immoral, but because our economic structures which require and promote it are. Economists fret over the price of labor and lettuce. Bureaucrats fret over population replacement rates as a threat to compulsory government programs — programs which could never long or legally exist in the private sector, but which, for the sake of government, must exist in perpetuity.

I can only speak for myself; the rest of the GOP must follow their own path to their own clarity, but let me state now: I do not exist, nor should anyone exist, for the viability of a compulsory government program. The requirement that I, or anyone else, should do so is immoral — devastatingly so. And I will gladly join any party which also proudly proclaims the same.