Another thought is this: They believe there is no saving the current USA, with the mountain of debt we now have, a faltering economic structure, and so on. So they'd rather a Democrat be the one in the history books to preside over a dissolved US, like we remember Gorbechev presiding over a dissolved USSR.
If that is indeed true, and you could very well be right, we're in a deep world of hurt.
Grid yer pork chops!