Why does the Never-Trump crowd, the earnest viewers of the Republican primary debate, believe that the tactics used against Donald Trump won’t be used against their preferred candidate? Why can’t they explain how Nikki Haley wins the primary, never mind the general election? Or how does Ron DeSantis overcome the structural fraud problems in every state with a Soros secretary of state?

To answer the last question first: Because to acknowledge that the Democrat machine is utterly efficient and capable of manufacturing just enough votes to beat any Republican (including Donald Trump) is to acknowledge that Donald Trump and his supporters have legitimate concerns. For Never-Trump voters to face that would mean extending grace and giving credence to disturbing systemic problems. They simply cannot do that lest they find themselves in the embarrassing position of talking about voter fraud, ballot harvesting, money laundering, the corruption of the DOJ, and on and on. In short, those are icky subjects. They would be “denying Democracy,” or some other idiotic phrase meant to stop the argument. Better to have high-handed discussions about Trump’s “bloviating” and tar his supporters as drug addicts seeking fentanyl hits. These stupid Trump rubes are pathetic. Let us, the enlightened, gingerly step over them on our way to meeting our fellow benighted Americans.

Luther Ray Abel, a young writer for The American Spectator, expressed his contempt for both Trump and his supporters — and thus for many of you, dear readers — with his piece titled “Trump Is Political Fentanyl.” Please do take a moment to read it, as it encapsulates a magical worldview coupled with derision for the 57 percent of the Republican base currently supporting Donald Trump. While it does effectively insult a large swath of the voting public, it does not effectively address concerns I expressed in my piece from Friday, “An Inconvenient Trump.” Abel concludes his piece with this:

Trump is fentanyl: He promises to take away all the evil things while insisting that there can be no success without him. This is a lie, and it has always been a lie. Like mustard gas that is found to kill cancer cells, his contributions to exposing D.C. corruption are acknowledged but don’t merit absolution. Those who champion Trump are addicts to ego who have given up on America’s ordered strength, its economic dynamism, and the possibility of adult leadership.

Abel does not, however, explain how the Republican Party can have success without Trump. Of course, it’s possible. But how? And what are the Republicans doing to make that happen? Why is Never Trump so specific with the insults and so vague with the solutions?

Let’s start with Ron DeSantis. It’s helpful to examine the media’s treatment of him. He is “worse than Trump.” He is, according to the media, to the right of Donald Trump and more effective. DeSantis is a demon and deserves demonization. It’s already happened. How does DeSantis, rhetorically tarred and feathered, win over women across the country, especially in all the swingy of swing states, with his record on abortion? (A stance that this writer whole-heartedly supports, by the way.) Does Ron DeSantis win Arizona? Georgia? How?

How does any Republican candidate beat the universal mail-in ballot debacle in Oregon, Nevada, and Colorado? The not-Trump candidates on the stage at the Republican debate will have to address these issues too. This is not a problem for Trump alone. Since the Republican National Committee is worthless, how will each candidate address this? (READ MORE: The Last Word on Last Week’s GOP Debate)

Writers whose central thesis can be boiled down to “Orange Man Bad” are strangely quiet about actual means and methods of winning. They have a mystical faith that it will all just work out and that the problems Donald Trump has faced will miraculously disappear for their preferred candidate. Votes will appear out of nowhere. Fraud will be magicked away. The amber waves of grain will hypnotize Democrats and stop them from their devilish ways.

Now to Nikki Haley, someone who this writer has had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with before her meteoric rise in South Carolina politics. Nikki Haley cannot be underestimated. She’s smart, ambitious, nimble, and competent. She also will not win the Republican primary. For every Republican voter she impresses, she turns off another. She’s charismatic, yes. Is she presidential charismatic? Like with DeSantis, that question remains to be answered. Her politics, too, are old and sound old. They’re Bush-era politics. Will that work today? No. That answer is for sure: no. Nikki’s great strength is that she speaks with authority. Even those who disagree with her can admire her confidence.

Still, how do either DeSantis or Haley win the primary, never mind the general election? DeSantis, as David Catron points out in our pages, is working the system in Iowa. Trump may well lose there. The stinging nettles of the incessant spurious lawsuits are doing their desired work: making it difficult for Trump to spend time on the ground in Iowa and elsewhere. Abel gives short shrift to these lawsuits, breezily acknowledging that they’re troublesome but somehow blaming the victim for the inconvenience. The injustices against Trump, he implies, are Trump’s alone. No other Republican will face such malice. This, of course, is the opinion of one who has amnesia of the Bush years when Bush and Cheney were threatened with lawsuits for their nerve to enact policies that the Left and the media disagreed with. With Trump, the threats from the left came to fruition. (RELATED: If Trump Sits on His Lead He May Lose Iowa)

And it’s working. Because Republican elites are craven and hate Trump, they’re rather enjoying the legal pain being inflicted on Trump. He needs to know his place. He needs to go away. These politicos aren’t thinking beyond today, when their guy or gal will be the object of these attacks. It will come to them, as it always does, a shocking shock that shocks.

Further afield, Trump will be in court the day before Super Tuesday. This is overt political interference. Another question begs: Why don’t the other Republican candidates believe that they’ll be subjected to the same kind of treatment when they get close to winning?

The Never-Trump crowd seems loath to admit that what the Democrats are doing to subvert justice is working. Probably because they’re enjoying the abuse of the law to destroy their hated enemy, they’re blind to the fact that once the Democrats succeed in their mission to destroy Trump, that template will be used for any Republican. Those Republicans do not have the vast resources and internal fortitude of Trump. They’ll simply be destroyed and discarded.

This is all so tiring. At the heart of the arguments about Trump is a visceral contempt for Trump voters. These people do not deserve to participate in Democracy. Disenfranchising millions of voters because they have the temerity to support a hated adversary saves the republic. The premise is that American voters are too stupid to vote in their own interests.

How long, Never Trump, can the republic survive when both Democrats and elite Republicans hate the populace? Why do you, Never Trump, believe you’ll be the one the alligator eats last?

Politics is a brutal blood sport. It’s nasty, but there are rules. Not only have the Democrats changed the rules, but they’ve created a playing field where only they win, and the Republicans, should the Trump haters get their way, end up a regional party winning nothing and governing their own pointless squabbling.

The Republicans in the Senate and House sit on their hands and do nothing about the structural problems. That will affect Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley too. But losing will be okay, because at least it’s not Trump.

Like most magical thinking, the only result of delusion is losing and despair. Republicans are used to that feeling. It is called politics as usual.