I'm forever thankful my vocational calling never was to medicine, the ministry or politics.

Medicine because you're around sick people most of the time.

The ministry because I have a hard enough time working on my own faith, let alone that of others.

And politics? Four words will suffice: Thursday night's Republican 'debate.'

If a debate teacher were grading that despicable orgy of trash talk, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz would get F's. John Kasich, who accurately described himself as 'the only adult here,' deserved an A.

And yet if history is any example, whoever gets the GOP nomination for president will be surrounded by his former adversaries, all smiling, making nice and vowing to campaign vigorously for the person they were shredding days earlier.

Whoa. Talk about flip-flopping!

Therein lies the main reason why I abhor radical partisan politics: You're expected to follow blindly, no matter how much you oppose a person or position. What blithering nonsense.

The Dems are just as guilty as the Repubs in this regard — and you only have to look back to recent U.S. Senate races and gubernatorial campaigns in Tennessee.

In 2012, Mark Clayton emerged as the Democratic challenger to incumbent Sen. Bob Corker. One day after winning the primary, Clayton was disavowed by his own party because of his active role in a hate group. Yet he polled 30 percent of the vote, compared to Corker's 65 percent.

Think about that. A full 700,753 Tennesseans cast their ballot for this bigoted fool, simply because he was a 'D,' not an 'R.'

It got worse in 2014. Charlie Brown — whose chief 'qualifications' included sharing the name of a popular cartoon character and a Facebook photo showing him with three large catfish — collected 309,237 Democrat votes to incumbent Gov. Bill Haslam's 951,796.

True, some of these were protest votes, as in 'Anybody But (fill in name).' But you know and I know most came from 'yaller-dog' Dems who'd rather drink poison than vote for a Republican.

This nutzoid shoe appears destined for the other foot in 2016.

Even R's who think Donald Trump is an embarrassing joke at best, a dangerous blowhard bully at worst, are tripping over themselves to back him if he gets the nomination.

Or maybe not.

A few days ago, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked Trump as a 'phony' who is 'playing the American public for suckers.'

We can only hope this gives other anti-Trump Republicans the will and courage to think, 'Hmm. This is one time I'm not toeing the party line.'

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