Republican insiders and establishment types understand that a Trump candidacy would turn off almost everyone but Republican base voters, leading to an electoral catastrophe not seen for the party since at least 1964. That’s why the closer we get to the Iowa caucuses, the more they are starting to freak out that the guy they said would fade away by the end of the summer is still around, and leading the polls. But don’t worry, everything is still fine:
“But even in the face of more evidence of Trump's endurance — and grudging recognition that a Trump victory is no longer outside the realm of possibility — many establishment Republicans still insist that ultimately, the businessman is unlikely to clinch the nomination. They are starting to anticipate a protracted primary race that extends far beyond the early states and possibly into the summer, in which the party slowly wears Trump down.”
Hahahahahahaha, that is your optimistic scenario at this point, GOP, a bloody and protracted primary. Hahahahhahahah! If ‘slowly wearing Trump down’ means what it has meant up to this point, I guess the other candidates will be competing with each other once again to sound even more extreme than Trump and the American people will get to see an unprecedented (in modern times) spectacle of a once dominant political party disintegrating before their eyes.