Hell no. Who would?

So the first and most important reason not to send Donald Trump into the general election is concern that he’d get to the Oval Office, where he is manifestly unfit to serve. Few people (including its backers) expected Brexit to succeed. Hillary Clinton despite her thrashing by the FBI remains the favorite. But the risk Trump might win is not insignificant while the potential danger is immense. (Republican foreign policy guru Kori Schake in deciding to support Hillary explained, “He’s not only damaging to our country in foreign and defense policy, he’s damaging to the social fabric of our republic, which relies of creating one out of many—e pluribus unum.” Indeed.)

But won’t he and his followers cry foul, wreck the GOP’s chances in 2016 and come back for blood in the 2018 and 2020 elections? Remember, the race is likely lost already. Moreover, it’s not clear how many Trump voters really would stay home if he is not on the ballot, in part because we do not know the alternative. The reason many give for supporting him — opposition to Clinton — will still motivate Republicans to turn out.

Moreover, if Trump loses in the general election — as we fully expect him to do — the Trumpkins will cry foul anyway, claiming fraud or saying the fix was in to keep Clinton out of jail or pointing to lackluster support among the establishment. If Trumpkins are intent on keeping the populist fire raging they will use any excuse.

Aside from the risk he could win and Trump’s negative effect on down-ticket Republicans (who will be tied to him or suffer from low GOP turnout due to widespread disgust with the top of the ticket), those anti-Trump Republicans willing to just let him crash and burn in the electorate ignore a messy reality. Once nominated and once he receives tens of millions of votes there will be no denying he is the Republican Party. Republicans will have countenanced his language, condoned his behavior and ignored his crazy policy stances. How will Republicans in office or who will run later make the case the GOP really isn’t the party of the embodiment of Trump — rich, racist, clueless men? The party will have embraced Trump, his anti-immigrant venom, his desire to go to war with all of Islam, and his nutty deportation scheme.

But, you say, look at Speaker of the House Paul Ryan or the other GOP office holders who spoke out against Trump. They are the real face of the GOP. Republicans may believe that but the general public egged on by the media won’t buy that. Moreover, Republicans like Ryan and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) say they will nevertheless vote for him. Besides, how many millions of votes have those Republicans gotten?

In short, a refusal by the delegates to dump Trump will make him inseparable from the party and turn his agenda into the agenda of the right in many voters’ minds. Put differently, they need to dump Trump for the sake of the GOP and its future, and of course to protect the country.

Well, the let-him-lose-in-the-general-election Republicans may say the party’s already dead. The GOP, they argue, not unreasonably, is already beyond repair. The Paul Ryan-Sen. Ben Sasse-Mitt Romney conservatives will need to reconstitute a new center-right party. Umm. They’ve got a point there.

The decision then comes back to whether you want to get on Stu Stevens’s plane. Why not try to rescue a presidential race and save one or both houses? Why not avoid painting the entire GOP as the party that embraced Trumpism? Why not make absolutely certain Trump will never reach the White House? It seems the prudent thing to do.

NOTE: Right Turn is on vacation, but we’ll be back on Monday July 11. In the meantime check back for new posts.