Regardless of who is nominated this summer the Republican party has injured itself, probably fatally.
This is true. The Republican Party will probably trigger enough damage to be a marginalized party for at least a decade.
Do the scenarios. Trump doesn’t win on first ballot....suddenly delegates flip around and either Cruz wins on second ballot or another unknown character arrives to be the nominee. You can figure that 35-percent of the voters throughout the US who voted for Trump will be peeved. If Cruz is edged out and a unknown gets the nomination, then another 35-percent of the voting public will be peeved.
You can figure that roughly half of the normal crowd that would vote Republican will either stay home in November or vote Democrat. They aren’t doing anything to help state or local elections....so everything will slide to Democrats. This isn’t just for 2016....it’s for 2018, 2020, 2022 and probably even 2024.
Lobbyists will be sitting there and spending millions...on Republican candidates who can’t win.