Sadly, it's not going to mean the end of the party, but it will make for some real nastiness this election cycle.
April 10, 2016

This guy was too crazy for CNN and Fox "news," but now NBC feels the need to bring him on the air and legitimize him? The race to the bottom from NBC and their sister network, MSNBC continues unabated with the appearance of Glenn Beck on this Sunday's Meet the Press, who was invited on the show to weigh in on the Republican presidential primary race.

Beck, who has been accused by Tucker Carlson's right-wing rag, The Daily Caller, of taking money from the Republican establishment to attack Trump, told host Chuck Todd that he'll never vote for or support Trump himself, but predicted the demise of the Republican party if one of them doesn't come out of the convention with the nomination:

CHUCK TODD: Let me start with this concern. We've heard it from many people that are Cruz supporters and that Trump supporters over the airwaves, who are concerned that somehow the party establishment may deny both of them. What would happen do you think to, what would your listeners, how would they react?

GLENN BECK: I think it would be the end of the G.O.P. I don't think it's going to happen. FiveThirtyEight.com just said that Ted Cruz has a 61 percent of chance winning California. Ted Cruz has won the last 10 in a row, with Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. I just don't see it happening.

CHUCK TODD: So you think if Paul Ryan is somehow plucked as the Republican nominee, that it would be the end of the G.O.P. --

GLENN BECK: -- I think it would be very bad. You can't disenfranchise people. We've all gone out. We've been passionate about it. We've all been going back and forth and voted on the people that we believe. I really think it has to be one of the two frontrunners. I just think people would feel very betrayed, and that's why, quite honestly, that's why people like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are doing well, because people feel very, very disenfranchised and they are angry. And that's something we don't want to add fuel to.

When Roger Stone was calling and saying he was going to put out the hotel room numbers and encouraged people to go to the delegates' hotel rooms, and called for the Days of Rage which we all remember in 1968, that's really not a good thing. We don't want to play into the anger and the hatred and vitriol. We are in this together. Martin Luther King said we either going to live like brothers together, or we are going to perish together like fools.

[...]

CHUCK TODD: You were pretty aggressively on the "Never Trump" bandwagon. But under this circumstance, it sounds like you would prefer a Trump nomination if it's not Cruz over anybody else?

GLENN BECK: No, no, no. I think a Trump nomination would be, I am a "Never Trump" guy.

CHUCK TODD: Okay.

GLENN BECK: I think a Trump nomination would be disastrous. With that being said, you can't disenfranchise people. If Trump wins the 1,237 or wins in the first, second, third ballot, it must go to him. And it can't go to dirty politics. You can't continue to disenfranchise people. I will never vote for Donald Trump. But if he's the guy that is picked with fair play, that's fine. But you have Reince Priebus saying that it will be somebody who is running right now. Okay, let's take the G.O.P. chair at his word. It's got to be somebody who's running.

CHUCK TODD: Does that mean you'll support a third-party bid and will you actively try to get others to support a third-party bid if Trump's the nominee?

GLENN BECK: I just don't think this is going to happen. And I haven't decided on what I would do. I know I will not vote for Trump. And I would probably go and just look for the strongest people in the House and the Senate that would keep Hillary Clinton at bay. Because Trump is not going to win the general. If you look at the polls, Todd, and you know this, no matter what you say, you look at the polls, Hillary Clinton wins every time with Donald Trump.

Sadly, it's not going to mean the end of the party, but it will make for some real nastiness this election cycle. I don't think it's going to bode too well for them to deny Trump the nomination no matter who else they give it to if he goes in with the most delegates. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, a third of Republican voters who supported Trump could turn their backs on the party if they take it away from him.

I'm not buying Beck's bluster either. If this country does manage to lose its damned mind and elect Donald Trump president, he'll be right on board with the rest of the right wing and calling anyone that dares to say anything negative about him traitors just like they did when Bush the Lesser was in office.

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