The astonishingly bitter divisions within the Republican ranks, at a time when one might expect us to be more unified than ever in the face of Obamaclinton, are in part a measure of the success of the "progressive" left in dismantling the constitutional constraints on the federal government, and on the president in particular. People are more supremely committed to their candidate, and more fiercely opposed to his rivals because, thanks to the unprecedented arbitrary and capricious power exercised by Obama with his phone, his pen and his executive orders, who sits in the Oval Office matters more than it ever has, perhaps more than it was ever intended to.

Six months ago, Trump's raised hand notwithstanding, a near unanimity of Republicans, confident in their deep bench of seventeen eminently qualified candidates, were ready for a gentleman's and lady’s tournament, to be concluded with unreserved support for the winner. "My favorite is X, but I'll take any of them on their worst day over Clinton on her best.” That genteel sentiment seems to have been a pipe dream, with unprecedented numbers of Trump and Cruz supporters angrily proclaiming that they will not just never vote for the other, but HASHTAG NEVER!!!

The problem runs much, much deeper than one man. The institution of the presidency has metastasized, thanks to a century of "progressive" subterfuge, into something it never should have been and was never intended to be. The chief executive has degenerated from president to king, then emperor and finally messiah. Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board observed some months ago that the next Republican president will have the delicate task, in the wake of the Obama presidency, of reining in the presidency itself. Of restraining himself.

In other words, even if we manage against all the current odds to get our preferred candidate elected, that is only the beginning. It's not just the man, it's the institution. What is necessary is a restoration of constitutional separation of powers and checks and balances. And that begins with a legislature willing and able to oppose and restrain a president, even in a majority of cases, even a president nominally of the same party as the legislative majority.

The good news is that in this, at least as of 2016, we have the wind at our backs, if we don’t neglect to trim the sails. Republicans have gained more city councils, state legislatures, state mansions, congressional and Senate seats during the Obama administration than at any time during multiple generations. That momentum must not be lost through complacency, neglect, or division spilling over from the Trump-Cruz-Establishment civil war at the top of the ticket. The House must reassert its power of the purse, and the Senate especially must be prepared to confidently exercise its authority, from the vetting of Supreme Court appointees to the ratification of the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 2017 (not!), putting principle and institution before Party (such as "party" is at this point). Let the president declare what he wants to achieve, and for the top three "whats" upon which there is consensus, let the people's representatives in the legislature provide the how.

So yes, any American who is not a socialist, communist, or Islamist needs to get behind the Republican candidate, whoever that turns out to be, however bitter the taste. Then we keep him (or her; can't rule anything out in this insane season) on a short leash. He may be a rabid dog, but he's our rabid dog.

We won't lose our country just because we elect the wrong Duce. We'll lose it because we neglect to fix what the last Duce left behind. That's on us.

Howard Hyde is author of Escape from Berkeley: An EX-liberal progressive socialist embraces America (and doesn't apologize)