By CLARENCE MCKEE

One thing is for sure — you don’t want the GOP establishment with you in a firefight. They will be long gone before the first shot is fired.

Just look at House Majority Leader Paul Ryan, former GOP presidential nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain, and scores of Republican establishment elites who joined the stampede to disavow Trump in the wake of the release of a vulgarity-laced video.

Yes, Trump needed to do a mea culpa and apologize for his remarks; and, Republicans had the right to condemn them — but in way similar to how his running mate Mike Pence did— not cut and run.

They have put their personal political fortunes above the future our country.

They obviously don’t care about a Hillary Clinton administration which would most likely continue and even surpass Obama’s corruption and politicizing of the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice, the State Department, have a White House where the Lincoln Bedroom would not be the only thing up for sale, and support the further secularization of our country.

As for law enforcement, they also obviously don’t care that a Clinton administration would continue Obama’s antipolice, pro Black Lives Matter attitudes which could bring more urban violence and killing of police, and an expansion of sanctuary cities.

But why should they worry? They are among the top one percent who don’t and won’t feel the impact or pain of Clinton’s policies. Their children and grandchildren will still go to elite private schools and their families won’t have to worry about the cost of groceries, gasoline or the country’s slide into socialism.

Contrast that to Democrats who never break ranks and have remained silent over Hillary’s lies, emails and her leaked comments to banking elites favoring open borders.

Did Democrats or the major media criticize her for calling Trump supporters racists and deplorable? No.

Have any Democrats and the friends in the media chastised Bill Clinton for referring to Trump supporters as “rednecks”? No.

And, have any Democrats — or anyone in the general media — criticized Clinton’s staff for their bigoted comments against Catholics and evangelicals? No.

You don’t see such criticisms from Democrats because they don’t break ranks now, or in the past.

Did we see them running from Bill Clinton after his White House affair with an intern?

No.

Did they abandon him after his impeachment? No.

Did a group of Democrats go to the White House and tell Clinton he had to go after these events as was the case with Republicans going to Nixon telling him to step down? No.

Too many of the GOP elites deserting Trump are seeking a pat on the back by the major media which abhors him. They are falling for the Democrats’ challenge for them to throw Trump over the side. They don’t understand that given the chance, that same media would support a Democrat against them.

The problem with the GOP’s blue-blood establishment, and many of their donors, is that they would rather switch than fight! They would rather have a Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Congress than a Trump presidency.

With friends like those he doesn’t need enemies.

It is obvious that those jumping ship feel that their political hides and media image are more important than priorities such as:

• Growing the economy

• Stopping the disgusting practice of partial birth abortions

• Expanding school choice for poor children

• Ending the killings in our urban centers

• Preventing Hillary’s “open borders” which will raise the black and Hispanic unemployment rates even higher

• Taking action against sanctuary cities And let’s not forget the Supreme Court.

If they want to know what a Clinton Supreme Court would do, just look at Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s recent pronouncement that the 2nd Amendment doesn’t protect a person’s right to own a gun to protect their home; and, the WikiLeaks revelation that Clinton would use executive orders to impose more gun control.

If they really think that somehow they will seize the White House after a one-term

Hillary reign with some lackluster, milk- toast “RINO” (Republican in name only) approved candidate, they are completely delusional.

With the power of the presidency, she — arguably the most corrupt person ever to run for president — will hold the office for eight years.

It’s a pretty sad picture.

Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida.