Imagine it’s winter, the skies cloud over, and a few snowflakes begin falling. The schools immediately close and send students home. Businesses shut down for the day dismissing all employees. The local airport cancels all flights in and out. Just for some snow flurries. Will the clouds pass and the sun emerge an hour later or will the snow intensify into a blizzard? Not knowing, why would everyone run for cover as if the end times were approaching?

Instead it’s another Donald Trump storm. He said something outrageous, crass, and totally unacceptable for a potential President of the United States. Only this time he said it 11 years ago, as a private citizen, not as a candidate for anything other than the next hotel owner or reality television show host. Snow flurries or a blizzard?

Last weekend the political weather forecasters predicted a blizzard. The smart set hosting the weekend cable show, along with their brilliant guests, were predicting Trump’s Waterloo. The same clairvoyants who predicted that Trump would never win the nomination.

Republican establishment pundits and elected officials hopped on the blizzard bandwagon. Denunciations and walked back endorsements. This was the excuse they were praying for, a chance to get out of school because of the prediction of snow. A chance to dump Donald Trump, their party’s nominee, a candidate they are embarrassed over and despise. The same candidate chosen overwhelmingly by the voters.

Start with Private Ryan, also known as Speaker Ryan. He disinvited Donald Trump from a scheduled Wisconsin campaign event. Good move for Ryan as a card carrying member of the GOP establishment, but perhaps not so good as a Wisconsin representative. At Ryan’s event, constituents weren’t pleased and shouted, “We want Trump! We want Trump!”

Following Trump’s solid debate performance, the weather forecast improved, calling for light snow rather than a big dump, Ryan still wanted school cancelled. “Dashing any remaining semblance of party unity and inviting fierce backlash from his own caucus by announcing that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump’s candidacy”, he announced the day after the debate.

Not only national politicians but local ones as well. In my state of Colorado, Congressman Mike Coffman is another Republican #NeverTrump. In a summer campaign ad when asked about Trump he replied, “Honestly, I don’t care for him much.”  He also promised, “If Donald Trump is the president, I’ll stand up to him.” Strong words. I don’t recall any of his previous campaign ads promising to stand up to Barack Obama. Now Representative Coffman found his golden ticket to really pile on Trump, calling for him to “step aside” after Trump’s hot mike story broke.

Another local candidate, Republican Darryl Glenn, seeking to unseat incumbent Colorado Democrat Senator Michael Bennet, “called for Donald Trump to step down” after the Trump trash talk became public. The other Colorado Senator, Republican Cory Gardner, also called for Donald Trump to step aside. Go north a few states to Idaho and hear yet another Republican Senator Mike Crapo, calling on Trump to step down. Senator Crapo finds Trumps words disqualifying, but he himself felt no compunction to step down from the Senate after his DUI conviction in 2013.

Plenty of other #NeverTrumps now finally have what they consider a good excuse to run away from their party’s nominee. John McCain. Condoleezza Rice. Mitt Romney.  So where will they go? Who will they support? And what will it get them in return?

Good question for the oracle of the Republican establishment, the National Review Editors. They “understand the calls for Trump to step aside” and recommend, “Congressional Republicans should try to separate themselves from Trump.” Instead, “The party should make saving its congressional wing — an indispensable check on a potential Hillary Clinton presidency, and a Trump presidency as well, should it somehow come to pass — its highest priority.”

They all seem to forget that their chosen candidates were beaten solidly in the primaries. If any of the others had won the nomination they would now be getting trashed by the Clinton campaign and their media operatives just as Trump is. The natural born citizen issue, never worthy of discussion during the Obama era, would be dominating the news as would a plethora of lawsuits challenging Cruz or Rubio’s right to even be on the ballot. Heidi Cruz’s ties to Goldman Sachs would be of immense interest to the media, unlike Mrs. Clinton’s 20-minute speeches to Goldman Sachs, each earning more than a US Senator’s yearly salary. Bush and Kasich would have had their tax returns leaked to the NY Times just as Trump and Romney’s tax returns were leaked. Illegally I might add, but that doesn’t seem to be of any concern on either side of the aisle.

Aside from the fact that a Clinton presidency would turn the electoral map a permanent shade of blue after legalizing and giving voting rights to 20 to 30 million illegal immigrants, the #NeverTrumps risk their own political futures. What happens if the GOP establishment turns off all financial support of the Trump campaign and goes further by actively campaigning against him? Not difficult to predict.

Donald Trump is the choice of the voters. Of “We the People.”  Not “We the elites.” Trump is the inevitable result of a feckless and incompetent Republican opposition to the Democrat agenda. His supporters don’t want business as usual, they want change. If Congressional Republicans get in the way as they are doing now, the solution is to simply vote at the top of the ballot and stop. Forget the Senate and House races. In Colorado, why vote for Darryl Glenn or Mike Coffman who both oppose the will of the Trump voters who gave him his presidential nomination.

Many Trump voters have not voted in years. It would be quite easy for them to tick the box next to Trump, turn the ballot in, and walk away from the political process for another few decades. Tens of millions of Trump supporters who will never lift a finger, write a check, or cast a vote for the Republican Party again. But the GOP elites don’t care, as long as their open borders globalist paymasters remain happy.

Paul Ryan and his quislings are playing a dangerous game by siding with the ruling class rather than their constituents. Great strategy #NeverTrumps. Donald’s crass comment is your golden ticket of relevancy. Ride with it on your moral high horse into the sunset of the Republican Party. But as long as you have your seat at the trough of government largess, what difference does it make if a Democrat occupies the White House?

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook  and Twitter.