The New York Times editorial board outlined the future challenges Republicans will face separating their proposals from the “frontier gibberish,” “bigotry," and "paranoia” that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump mainlined into the political party.

From the first day of his campaign, Trump and his media surrogates have used his presidential candidacy to push anti-immigrant rhetoric that has empowered white nationalists, who see Trump as their “last stand” against America’s multicultural future. The Trump campaign further entrenched its xenophobic tone with the recent hiring of Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon as CEO. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which specializes in monitoring right-wing extremism, said Bannon’s hire meant that “the line between Trump and the extreme right has just gone from fuzzy to virtually non-existent.” Before assuming control of the Trump campaign, Bannon used his daily radio show to host conspiracy theorists and amplify his own unhinged theories attempting to link the Muslim Brotherhood to Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Huma Abedin, and Obama White House officials.

An August 20 editorial from The New York Times stated that it is “no wonder that the nativists are feelinging inspired” by “the Trump phenomenon,” which “scapegoated immigrants and refugees in general and Latinos and Muslims in particular.” The editors also wrote that Trump’s new campaign CEO is a “purveyor of conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant venom,” and is thus a “natural ally” of Trump, who “hints that President Obama is a secret Muslim” and “insists that Muslims in New Jersey danced by the thousands as the towers fell on 9/11.” From The New York Times:

It could be that the polls are right, and Mr. [Donald] Trump will go down in flames. But while that will solve an immediate problem, a larger one will remain. The message of hatred and paranoia that is inciting millions of voters will outlast the messenger. The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.

The most obvious damage has already been done — to the debate over immigration, a subject that is America’s pride but that can also show the country at its worst. Mr. Trump’s solution is to build an unbuildable border wall and force 11 million people out of the country, while letting millions of “good ones” back in. Or maybe not — now he says he wants to bar immigrants from most of the world, except for a few who pass religious and ideological tests. “Extreme vetting,” he calls it, bringing the Alien and Sedition Acts and McCarthyism into the reality-TV age.

Yes, Mr. Trump speaks frontier gibberish. Outright nativism remains a fringe American phenomenon. But there is no shortage of mainstream politicians who have endorsed his message by endorsing the Republican nominee. Anyone hoping to build a serious solution to immigration after this election will have to confront the unworkable ideas and vicious emotions that Mr. Trump, with many enablers, has dragged into the open.

It seems like a century ago, but it was only 2001 when a Republican president, George W. Bush, began talking about a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the outdated American immigration laws. He sought a bipartisan consensus to boost the economy and make millions right with the law. Then came 9/11. Though sensible immigration reform gained the broad support of the American public, legislation in Congress repeatedly failed, ambushed by hard-core Republican partisans.

This year brought the fever dream of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where speaker after speaker presented a vision of foreigners stealing across the border to rob, rape and kill. Cued by Mr. Trump, they scapegoated immigrants and refugees in general and Latinos and Muslims in particular. The crowd cheered for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, brutalizer of Arizona Latinos, and Rudolph Giuliani, who hollered about terrorists and criminals as if running for mayor of Gotham City.

It’s no wonder that the nativists are feeling inspired, the bigots emboldened. The white supremacist David Duke is running for the Senate. Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s chief purveyor of conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant venom, is the natural ally of a candidate who hints that President Obama is a secret Muslim and who insists that Muslims in New Jersey danced by the thousands as the towers fell on 9/11.

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The challenge to responsible leaders of any political party will be to separate the economic discontent from the bigotry and paranoia that are the key to the Trump phenomenon. The question to future Republican leaders is whether they will even try to do so.