I confess that, before the rise of Donald Trump, I had never expected to see a Republican elected to the White House. What with the attack on traditional American principles in our schools and the illegals whom Clinton would add to the voter rolls, the Democrats would become the country’s natural governing party. Over time, the rot we now complain of would begin to look like Heaven. What for economic decline, an unjust aristocracy, crony capitalism, public corruption, feckless wars and humiliation abroad, the criminal prosecution of political enemies, the compulsory re-education of conservatives at school and at work, and Internet lynch mobs, our experience of Republican liberty will have come to an inglorious end.

And that was before Friday night’s video of Trump’s bawdy language, and his abandonment by establishment Republican leaders.

Don’t get me wrong. The only thing that bothered me about it was the hypocrisy of those who condemned him, and the betrayal by those who released the tape (evidently the Bush camp).

But now the prospect of a Trump victory, or of any Republican victory in my lifetime, seems slightly dimmer. Suppose, then, that he is defeated. If he is, the Republican Party will have split apart, just as cleanly as the Irish Home Rule Party when Charles Stuart Parnell was named as a co-respondent in Kitty O’Shea’s divorce. That delayed home rule in Ireland for 20 years, but in our case there’d be no coming back.

Let me ask this of the Trump supporters amongst you. If he loses, can you ever see yourself supporting the Republican Party of Paul Ryan, Carly Fiorina, and Jeb Bush again? Neither can I.