title:  John McCain’s 2008 Top Campaign Adviser Abandons GOP Over Trump: ‘I’m With Her’ Instead
text: A lot has changed in just eight years. The Republican Party is witnessing a collapse that may destroy it entirely. And nobody knows it on a more personal level than Mark Salter, Sen. John McCain s former campaign adviser and long-time friend. On the eve of the Indiana primary, in which all signs point to Donald Trump shattering the last resistance to his nomination, Salter took stock of his party   and bailed.In a tweet that may signal the coming flood of political refugees pouring out of the Republican Party s sinking ship, Salter said that Trump s antics and the GOP s idiotic responses to them have finally settled the matter. In a bold move, he concluded he would be supporting Hillary Clinton instead.the GOP is going to nominate for President a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it's on the level. I'm with her.  Mark Salter (@MarkSalter55) May 3, 2016Forget  loyalty pledges.  Forget standing with the party. Forget coming together to beat the Democrats. There is nothing redeeming about standing with Donald Trump.The last straw was Trump s use of a ludicrous story published by the tabloid (and Trump backer) National Enquirer, which alleged that Ted Cruz s dad was friends with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated John F. Kennedy. The story was patently bonkers, but it didn t stop Trump and his supporters from  just asking questions  about it. This included Fox News.On the conservative network s Fox and Friends, the hosts remained silent and deferential as Trump suggested   quite seriously   that Rafael Cruz was somehow implicated in the JFK assassination. Apparently nobody at the network wanted to risk angering the Republican front-runner and potentially losing a ratings gold mine. The inmates are running the asylum.Cowardice and stupidity have become so entwined in the Republican Party that an entire day can be consumed by a false story printed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER just because Donald Trump brought it up. It s no wonder some conservatives are looking at the wreckage of their party and deciding it s not even worth saving.Salter isn t exactly a bleeding heart liberal either. Having attached himself to McCain s campaign in 2008 as the senator s speechwriter and  closest aide, he s spent the last eight years bitterly attacking Obama and Democrats for the crime of beating his friend. The fact he s now saying  enough  must be terrifying for Republican operatives. If just a small fraction of Republicans abandon the party because of Trump, the general election may end in a landslide for Clinton.For months there has been questions about what the  Never Trump  coalition of Republicans would do if Trump won the nomination. Many are beginning to walk back their earlier comments. A number of them appear to be drawing the opposite conclusion. If  Never Trump  is to mean anything, than Hillary Clinton is the better option. Mark Salter seems to think so.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images