In an election where truth has become secondary and principles non-existent, one line has been able resonate with both of the major parties bases in their attempts to peer-pressure fellow undecided voters:

“A vote against Trump (for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin, or any other option not Trump) is a vote for Hillary!”

Or “A vote against Hillary is a vote for Trump!”

This is silly, and as I said above, simply a tool for each candidates’ base to use to further peer-pressure others into voting for their respective candidate. For Republicans, however, a similar argument may be made but in a different way.

“A vote for Trump is a vote for Hillary.”

How is this possible?

Donald Trump is now in the final weeks of a doomsday campaign that will lead to his seemingly inevitable loss come November 8. This is now more true than ever, as recent polls have the New York City reality star liberal crashing and burning, and public perception doesn’t seem to be swaying his way. While the WikiLeaks content is proving day in and day out to be many times more damning than Trump’s “locker room talk” fiasco, the mainstream media have failed to do their part and give it substantive coverage. Project Veritas, who recently exposed the DNC’s collusion with the Clinton campaign to cause violence at Trump rallies as well as manipulate the electoral system, is expected to continue releasing more content up until election day, but those exposition will also likely fall on deaf ears (Exception: Megyn Kelly vs. Donna Brazile). This election has become more playhouse than policy, and while the theatrics from the Hillary campaign may factually be more substantially damaging, the media have clearly chosen their side, and no policy speech in Gettysburg a la wanna-be Lincoln will outdo the media's decision to focus on Trump’s improprieties considerably more than Hillary’s.

On Trump’s end, as it has become more and more clear that the more sane half of the Trump leadership, Kellyanne Conway, has taken a step back and the campaign has been fully taken over by the alt-right embracer Steve Bannon, Trump is no longer attempting to win this race.

At least it seems that way.

During the final debate last Monday, Trump publicly trotted out his rumored back-up plan to winning the nomination. Prior to the debate, Trump directed his supporters online to his Facebook channel where he began his potentially new quest: TrumpTV.

From the Dailywire.com:

"Before and after the final presidential debate Wednesday, the Trump campaign appeared to be running a test model for what could become TrumpTV… During the half hour prior to the debate, Donald Trump's Facebook page ran a live-stream featuring an assortment of the GOP nominee's surrogates, such as former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, discussing the race to the White House. After the debate, a 90-minute Facebook Live session was held during which time appearances were made by The Blaze's Tomi Lahren, Diamond & Silk, and Omarosa Manigault… The content, which totaled approximately two hours, "drew 24 million people and 8.8 million video views," according to Politico, as well as 1.2 million comments and over 500,000 likes."

Proof of Trump’s plan to go down swinging also comes from the Financial Times:

"Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November. Mr Kushner — an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign — contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Their conversation was brief and has not progressed since, the people said. Mr Bourkoff and Mr Kushner both declined to comment."

Clearly, these are not moves made by a presidential candidate in October who is planning to win the White House in November, and he's not doing a good job of hiding his carelessness either.

Trump channeled his inner Trump on Twitter on the morning of October 11 saying, “It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to.” The shackles he’s referring to are most evidently the shackles of Conway’s attempted delicate control of the campaign. With Bannon now at the helm, it has become less about winning, and more about making the best out of a terrible situation, as columnist Ben Shapiro correctly predicted back in August for TheHill.com:

“Trump wants to go out on his own terms. And those terms will be fully Trumpian. Which means that Trump will get Trumpier. The "let Trump be Trump" angle always attracted Trump, since he's a narcissist. Now he'll get to play out his fantasies with Bannon screaming "that's genius!" in his ear every few hours…Never mind what happens to the Republican Senate and House. This campaign has been Trump's plaything, and he'll play with it until the batteries go dead.”

And that is exactly where we are left. While intellectually honest Republicans have begun to realize the best outcome of this election would be to maintain a plausible system of checks and balances during a Hillary Clinton administration, the party is now in full panic mode as Trump’s antics, both past and present, have put the GOP’s senate majority at risk. Trump, who clearly has no knowledge of the importance of retaining a senate majority even if he won the White House, could care less. From PoliticsUSA:

“A survey released from WMUR/UNH on Thursday shows Democratic Senate candidate Maggie Hassan pulling into a nine-point lead over Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte in the New Hampshire Senate race… The poll represents a seven-point shift toward the Democrat since the pollster’s last survey and could be the difference-maker when it comes to Democrats winning a majority in the chamber… The numbers out of New Hampshire are also consistent with polling out of other key states, like Nevada, which has shown a surprising late surge of momentum for Democratic Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto. After trailing in most polls throughout the year, Cortez Masto’s recent surge now has her leading the race by an average of 2.3 percentage points… According to FiveThirtyEight’s forecast, the Democrats now have a 73 percent chance of retaking the Senate on Nov. 8, and it’s in large part because of these two key races.”

Simply put, from the moment Trump entered the first primary debate, he has proven to have been a suicide bomber to the Republican party, destroying it slowly but surely throughout the primaries and now through the general election. The effect Trump has had on the party’s base has been equally negative, as support for Trump has proven to be not enough for him. No, Trump demands your undying loyalty at every slip-and-fall, no matter how morally or politically wrong it is. It’s what has caused considered-to-be conservatives such as Sean Hannity to lash out on Twitter against real conservatives such as Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a prominent Anti-Trumper. It’s what has caused also considered-to-be conservative Laura Ingraham to make the atrocious accusation that the #NeverTrump movement embraces partial-birth abortion, simply because they oppose Trump.

This is all very nasty stuff, and principled conservatives and Republican leaders know this. If they don’t, the party should have no place for them. The party needs a reconstruction, and in order for them to begin this consolidation and regrowth process, it must be clear what values and principles it does and does not stand for, and Trump is the perfect place to begin.

Barring any potential legal bombshell from WikiLeaks/James O'Keefe or anything of the like, Trump, by no fault of anyone or anything other than himself, is most likely going to get shellacked by Hillary Clinton on November 8. The small chance of a Trump win seems to be the only remaining reason for voters loosely committed or on-the-fence about voting for Trump, to vote for him. With those chances now seemingly out of reach, and with Trump dragging down house and senate Republican races along with openly demeaning Republican leaders and apparently already outwardly preparing his post-election day loss plans, it’s time to see the truth behind a vote for Trump.

A vote for Trump is a vote for a sore loser.