It should be increasingly clear to Republican delegates that their rendezvous in Cleveland is going to be a ritual mass suicide. In addition to losing the presidency, they will lose the Senate, endanger the House, and see catastrophe all the way down the ballot. But they can choose not to commit suicide. The Republican delegates have the power to reject the purported nominee.

Over the next two months we are all going to witness the Schadenfreudenfuhrer beclown himself and retreat from all the values of the Republican Party. At the same time, we will see a party fail to unite. It’s standard bearers will flee. Those who carry its ideas will distance themselves.

The white nationalists are already creeping in. The protectionists will drive out those who support the free market. The isolationists will finish collapsing the post World War II order that Barack Obama likewise wishes to break apart. The evangelicals with any sense of shame will flee.

Donald Trump is going to fundamentally alter the party and still lose to Hillary Clinton. With his loss will come recriminations. The party will cripple itself while the Democrats themselves do very little — very little except win.

All of this can be avoided. The delegates themselves can stop the madness and halt the party’s suicide. They can do it by unbinding themselves. The delegates have that power. They can take that vote. The delegates can save the Republican Party from those outside forces who have launched a coup of the party.

If the delegates refuse, the suicide of the Republican Party is on them.