In lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump. What an obit

Chiropractic Jeffrey H. Cohen’s obituary, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just a few days ago, made this extraordinary plea: “Jeffrey would ask that in lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump. (Also acceptable – donations to the Nimmo Educational Foundation.”

It is a measure of the mounting unease among many Americans with every disturbing new anecdote from Mr Trump’s presidential campaign.

Rightly so. Consider Ryan Lizza’s feature on the Republican primary in the newest issue of the New Yorker. The reporter says that he trailed Mr Trump last month to an event in Arizona, where he was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.

O’Reilly asked Mr Trump if he were serious about his pledge to kill the families of suspected terrorists to deter them from attacking America. Lizza writes that O’Reilly “said that he didn’t believe that Trump would ‘put out hits on women and children’ if he were elected. Trump replied, ‘I would do pretty severe stuff.’ The crowd erupted in applause. ‘Yeah, baby!’ a man near me yelled. I had never previously been to a political event at which people cheered for the murder of women and children.”

It is getting ugly.

Mr Trump seems to be voicing some people’s deepest inner fears – all the things that many might think but never say or do. It is a crossing of the Rubicon.