Okay, here are a few sentences I will not countenance in the election year of 2016:

- The Republicans have no chance of beating Hillary Clinton.

- Because Paul Ryan did or did not do X, I am leaving the Republican Party.

- If Republican candidate X is nominated, I will not vote.

- Or worse: If Republican candidate X is nominated, I will vote for Hillary Clinton.

As much I admire the rectitude of my fellow conservatives -- neo, paleo, and all shades in between -- the year 2016 is no time to praise our own purity or scruple about the failings of our fellows. We are all impure. We all fall short. No one was Ronald Reagan except Ronald Reagan.

Today, to declare oneself a Republican of any sort is a countercultural act. In many fields -- the arts, the media, higher ed -- such a declaration can kill a career. This is especially true in states, cities and even corporations hostile to traditional America.

That said, we cut little slack even to the embattled. People I genuinely admire -- Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Franklin Graham -- have yielded to this pharisaical urge. People I usually respect -- George Will, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer -- pride themselves on their yielding.

It is time to sober up. Barring the unforeseen, America will have survived, just barely, the presidency of Barack Obama. Barring the unforeseen -- mirabile dictu -- the Supreme Court will be in no worse shape in 2017 than it was in 2009. And regardless of what Obama does, the U.S. military will withstand the social tinkering and remain strong for at least another year.

Does anyone believe that America can endure eight more years of Democratic misrule, especially with a gangster as the head of the state? If my choice of terms for Hillary seems harsh, I would ask you to read my book Ron Brown’s Body, whose facts and thesis no one has challenged.

I would also encourage wafflers to watch the 60 Minutes interview with Bill and Hillary Clinton during the 1992 campaign. When Steve Kroft asked Bill if he had an affair with Flowers, he lied, “That allegation is false.” Hillary, her hands lovingly intertwined with Bill’s, nodded in affirmation.

Hillary then volunteered how she personally consoled those women caught up in the allegations. “We reached out to them,” said Hillary. “I met with two of them to reassure them they were friends of ours.” She continued, “I felt terrible about what was happening to them.”

Hillary had reason to feel terrible. Among the people she “reached out to” that year -- in this case, through a private investigator -- was Sally Perdue, a former Miss Arkansas and Clinton paramour. “[The PI] said that there were people in high places who were anxious about me and they wanted me to know that keeping my mouth shut would be worthwhile,” Perdue would later relate.

“Worthwhile” meant a GS-11 or higher job with the federal government. If Perdue turned down the offer and talked to the media, “He couldn't guarantee what would happen to my pretty little legs.” If you do not believe Perdue, Google “Juanita Broaddrick” or “Elizabeth Ward Gracen.” Their stories are worse.

For a more recent example of Hillary’s thuggery, consider the case of anti-Muslim filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. In the wake of the Benghazi assault in 2012, Hillary promised the family members of the deceased that she would “have the filmmaker arrested.” Even though Hillary knew Nakoula’s video had nothing to do with the attack, she proved as good as her word. Nakoula spent the next year in prison. When several of the Benghazi family members recounted the conversation, Hillary said they were confused.

If for no other reason, this story interests me because I have a new book coming out in a few months -- TWA800: How the Clintons Pulled Off the Most Successful Cover-up in Peacetime History. The media, I am sure, will be no more solicitous of my fate than they were of Nakoula’s.

Against this criminal ideologue, the Republicans are running their best slate in my memory and being guided in Congress by their most capable House Speaker since Newt Gingrich. But I know. Paul Ryan is a traitor. Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen. Marco Rubio is weak on border security. And Donald Trump is, among other things, a liberal, a racist, a fascist, and a Hillary plant.

There may be a grain of truth in all of these charges. In 2015, we voiced them often as befits a collective of independent thinkers and retail voters. In 2016, however, the threat to jump ship loses all charm with the ship heading into battle and the future of the nation at stake.