This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Republican Party is on the brink of failing in practically every way. Politically, by nominating a man who would be completely unacceptable to many in the GOP. Organizationally, by failing to coordinate an effective challenge to Donald Trump despite widespread recognition that he is a severe threat to the party. Morally, by embracing an offensive bully who is running a witless campaign and poses a direct threat to the American political system. Morally, again, as some party elites show they are so derangedly anti-Democrat that they question whether Trump might be better than Hillary Clinton.

In short, Super Tuesday was an utter disaster for the GOP.

Trump took at least seven states, sweeping nearly every contest. Because the Super Tuesday states hand out delegates proportionally, he has not yet taken a commanding delegate lead. The GOP has until March 15 to stop Trump from winning several big winner-take-all states, including Sen. Marco Rubio's home state of Florida.

Now is not the time for ideology-fueled denial of reality. Now is not the time for vanity to override reason. Now is not the time, in other words, for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. He just won his home state and Oklahoma. Now he should get out.

It's true that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio did not even pass the 20 percent threshold in Texas, which means he will get no delegates at all from its big pile, and he failed to win Virginia, a state he put some last-minute time into. But he won the Minnesota caucuses, and, more importantly, by process of elimination he remains the candidate who could most plausibly draw on enough of the GOP's various factions to mount a successful anti-Trump effort. Don't count on him getting out before March 15.

Cruz's strategy of activating movement conservatives, on the other hand, has failed in states across the South, where Trump peeled away evangelicals. Trump is winning on Cruz's turf. Instead of proving that there is a wave of ideologically motivated far-right conservatives ready to wash across the country, Cruz's campaign seems to have proven that much of the GOP base is shallow, motivated not so much by ideology as petty identity politics, rhetoric and personality.

Besides, a lot of people simply do not like Cruz, because he is divisive and insufferably holier-than-thou. He is not a unifying candidate. But Cruz will not get out after Tuesday night, because he won a couple of states.

It is plausible that Cruz and Rubio between them can deny Trump an outright majority of delegates before the convention and then deny Trump the GOP nomination on the floor. One of them would have to yield to the other — or both would have to yield to a non-candidate such as House Speaker Paul Ryan. But that strategy assumes a brutal delegate fight that would be difficult for anyone but the overall delegate leader to win with any legitimacy, giving Trump the upper hand.

The party's best hope is for some massive shifts in the politics over the next couple weeks. More likely, barring some weird Trump stumble, the GOP will begin to sort itself between those with moral substance and those without. Those who join with Trump, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has, will permanently discredit themselves. It will not be enough to simply decline to endorse Trump or sit on the sidelines. Republicans of conscience must advocate voting against him, which may, in fact, require them to endorse Clinton over Trump, as Robert Kagan did last week.

There will be some Republicans desperate enough for a third option that they will favor running an independent conservative candidate. But we should also expect a disheartening number of Republicans to side with Trump. That is in part because they have depicted Clinton as such a monster and built up the stakes riding on beating her to such a degree that literally anything may seem better. But it is also because Trump will change his performance to suit whatever his present needs are. In his victory night press conference, he began pivoting toward the general election, bringing his tone down a notch or two, talking about unity, getting in several digs at Clinton, insisting that he will work with Congress and promising a victory in November. Trump so far has proven that vast numbers of people can be tricked by sheer showmanship. He will probably continue to do so.

In this scenario, Trump may still break the Republican Party. But not before tarnishing a lot of people in it.