The Dallas Morning News became part of the story yesterday when they announced that they would endorse a Democrat for President for the first time in 75 years. Their editorial is a fairly obvious recitation of the reasons that Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to serve as President, but the fact that the DMN editorial board saw fit to actually endorse Hillary Clinton, as opposed to merely endorsing Gary Johnson or some other third party candidate, is evidence that a growing number of conservatives find themselves obligated to choose actual sides in the Trump v. Hillary battle.

Mark Levin chose the other way yesterday in perhaps the least enthusiastic endorsement in political history, but plenty of others have found themselves doing the unthinkable and actually casting their lot in with a Clinton.

Now, as I have said repeatedly, the idea that conservatives have to choose between Trump and Clinton is demonstrably false. Likewise, the assertion that a vote for a third party is the same as a vote for Hillary is laughably absurd and only advanced by unserious people who are incapable of understanding math. A vote for a third party candidate is not a vote for Hillary; and it turns out, that is exactly the problem. Depending on your assessment of the seriousness of the threat Trump poses to the Republic, merely not voting for him might not be enough to satisfy the conscience of people who believe in the greatness of this country.

And herein lies the rub: Sean Hannity’s delusions aside, Trump offers absolutely nothing to people who actually believe in conservative principles. On the rare occasion that he actually espouses a conservative principle, he inevitably changes course within a week, or else his conversion to conservatism absolutely defies belief by any marginally credulous person. And yet, by all accounts, in spite of the fact that Trump has a sizable portion of the ideological conscience of his party openly backing his opponent, he remains in a close race. The fact that he wears a Republican team jersey and his opponent is Hillary Clinton is enough, for about 40% of the population, to ignore that he has no principles, values, or ability to actually perform a job that comes with a ton of responsibility.

Where do conservatives go from here? What is the hope for the increasingly uncommon impulse to actually shrink the size and scope of the Federal Government? Whither the defense of the free market? Is the battle for the future of America between the economically illiterate xenophobes and the economically illiterate Christianophobes? I think we are about to find that out over the next two months.