Get those nice kids at Politico a Pulitzer, guys: 

It’s June 2016. Time to think about the 2020 election.

I almost stopped reading right there.

Would that I had:

The 2016 GOP convention is still weeks away, but would-be contenders – from Ted Cruz to Tom Cotton — are already laying groundwork for the next Republican presidential primary. While some are lining up blue chip staff, scheduling trips to early primary states, and setting up political action committees, others are huddling with the party’s biggest financiers.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT SHIT THAT IS 4 YEARS FROM NOW, PLEASE. I mean, the earth is caving in, people are trying to start race riots, we are seriously discussing a border wall like that’s a thing, but please, do not deny us news about candidates nobody liked more than Donald Trump, who everyone hates.

Tell us about the terrible burdens of being Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Tell us how hard they have it:

It’s a complex calculation. Whether they choose to support Trump or to oppose him – or something in between – future Republican candidates could find themselves explaining their decision for years to come.

The pitfalls are obvious: Throw your support to Trump, and be tied to him. Buck him, and risk turning off his supporters.

Yep. Pretty complex. Oh, the agony of having to decide if you want to be an actual racist or just win the votes of racists. WHAT A TOUGH CALL. Truly, since Jesus on the cross no one has suffered so.

Can we stop providing these clowns plausible deniability? It’s bad enough they get to pretend this is something new they get to be horrified by. Can we stop acting like they don’t have a choice here?

“Trump will have a very negative impact on our brand and what potential candidates do regarding Trump could impact them in the 2020 general election,” said Jason Roe, a veteran Republican strategist who advised Marco Rubio during this year’s primary. “On the other hand, not getting behind Trump will hurt them in the 2020 primary. It’s a tough spot for our party and those candidates.”

It’s really not that tough a spot compared to, you know, being a Hispanic immigrant or devout Muslim who faces deportation if your candidate gets elected. It’s not that tough a spot compared to being too poor to just jet out of the country once we default on our debt and China blows our economy to kingdom come. Compared to any of those scenarios, having to choose whether to mingle with the unwashed Klan-lite to get elected is maybe slightly less of Sophie’s Choice. Calm down, mofo.

And by the way, there IS A THIRD OPTION. IT IS CALLED DON’T BE A DISGUSTING GARBAGE HUMAN. You are in fact empowered to tell Trump and his supporters to fuck themselves, leave your party, do penance by building houses with Jimmy Carter for a while, and rethink your whole fucking life. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

The whiny agonizing Politico is letting these people get away with is nauseating.

Cruz still isn’t budging from his refusal to endorse Trump.

[snip]

The 2020 calculations, though, continue. Cruz’s team is pushing to make a splash at the convention – and get the senator plenty of headlines, whether he ends up with a primetime speaking slot or not.

So he’s not endorsing him but he is speaking at his nominating convention and hoping to make A SPLASH there. How brave. The men who stormed onto the beaches on D-Day must tremble in their boots at such courage.

What a load of horseshit. These guys are allowed to say whatever they want, of course. They’ve benefitted from the forces now driving Trump and they’ve done so for decades. But we don’t have to act like they deserve some kind of cookie for offering non-endorsement endorsements or pretending they just showed up to hear the band.

A.