In Case of Emergency, Break Glass

In which I argue that it’s pretty much time for institutional Republicans and down-ballot candidates to pull the plug on the presidential race.

What I find so interesting about this is that if the nominee was a normal Republican, this wouldn’t be controversial in the least. People within the party would be openly planning the contingencies. Maybe they’d wait four more weeks or so. But if it was a guy that most Republicans liked/quasi-respected, they’d toss him over the side in a heartbeat if they thought it would help them down-ballot. It’s not show-friends, it’s show-business.

But in a weird way–because everything about the 2016 dynamics is weird–people like Ryan and Priebus and Ayotte are more tethered to Trump precisely because they find him so contemptible. They’re worried that cutting bait on him now would make their earlier decision to hold their noses for Trump look foolish, craven, or worse.

Normally, you expect that people who get suckered into throwing good money after bad do so because of sentiment or affection. But in this case, the GOP is doing it out of sheer embarrassment.

Which is fine. Except that it’s going to make it harder to hold the Senate and the House.

Trumpkins spent most of 2015 insisting that their guy was so strong and so amazing that he was going to put Connecticut and New Jersey and New York into play and redraw the map and win in a landslide.

They’re now arguing that if/when Trump loses by 5 million votes, it’ll somehow be the fault of the 200 professional conservatives who refused to get on the train, and that those people will be “responsible for Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees.”

But we’re way past that point of no return. It’s just as fair to say now that anyone who isn’t bailing on Trump is responsible for every Senate and House seat that flips.