Trump will lose, probably in ignominious fashion. You don’t want any part of that.

It’s shocking but true that I have Republican friends. Some are mainline conservatives, pro-life, or otherwise drawn to a Republican social policy agenda. Others are close to the Republican Party on Israel, or are socially liberal but conservative or libertarian on economic policy. I feel badly for them. They are good people, now stuck with Trump as their party’s standard-bearer.

To them and others, an offering of unsolicited advice, read for you below.

(There is also a cheesy iPhone video here).

Most of your party will coalesce around Donald Trump. That’s an epic mistake. Trump will lose, probably quite badly. You don’t want any part of that. For any number of reasons and causes, Trump may also leave this experience in some personal disgrace. I have no idea whether this will happen because of some racial code-words, some sexist comment, maybe disparaging the disabled, or some financial or tax thing. I think disgrace will come.

Even if no (further) disqualifying scandal emerges,this is a defining moment. People who publicly back Trump will be in the predicament that some conservatives found themselves in after they defended segregation and Joe McCarthy, and that some on the left found themselves in when they acted as apologists for various excesses committed under Communism.

These mistakes dogged politicians and public figures throughout their careers. They sometimes dogged people’s personal lives and reputations, too. You don’t want to be that dad explaining your election-season pro-Trump 2016 Facebook entries to your daughters five years later. Trust me on this one.