#NeverTrumpNeverKasichWelcome back to another installment of the Watercooler, RedState’s daily Open Thread! Today, we’ve got…

The Mourning After

Well, the voters in Indiana officially pronounced a death sentence on the GOP last night… before we open the question of what to do from here, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all the new members of the EX-Republican Club among us. Some of us are #NeverKasich, while others might consider him as a tactical-vote to try to deny Trump 1237 and force a second ballot; I’d like to invite fellow RedStaters in the yet-to-vote states like the Left Coast to share your thoughts and plans here. Cruz is still on the Washington primary ballot, so I’ll continue advocating for him here and will cast my own vote accordingly, not just for the man himself but as a personal flip-off to the Kasich-fellating senile old fools and has-beens of the WSRP Establishment.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just because our standard-bearers have fallen doesn’t mean our cause has–if politics is war, our “army” has been defeated in the field and the enemy marches upon us, so the next phase is partisans and “guerrilla warfare.” Things like contacting any delegates we know and leaning on them to make sure they’re #NeverTrump and willing to play Lawfare in the Rules Committee. How? Things like:

• Declaring incitement of violence to make a candidate ineligible
• Requiring an eligible candidate to have won election to prior office as a Republican at least once
• Requiring membership in the GOP for some number of years prior to this election
• Declaring active criminal investigations or certain tort cases such as fraud to render a candidate ineligible

Perhaps it is time to burn the GOP down and rebuild from the ashes, as the GOP did from the Whigs. At the very least, some major house-cleaning is in order and it needs to start ASAP. I can’t really say which or where to start, having ceased to be a Republican myself eight years ago after some Kool-Aid-chugging Mike Huckabee carpetbaggers gave my precinct and me at our County Convention the same treatment as the Trumpsters have given us so far this year, so it’s not my place to tell you how to set your Party’s house in order–however, I can assure you that I’ll help wherever I can with keeping the Conservative Movement a viable force in politics.

This Week In History

• Sunday, May 1: New Orleans secured, 1862; Columbian Expo opens in Chicago, 1893; Battle of Manila Bay, 1898; Empire State Building dedicated, 1931; Amtrak begins operation, 1971
• Monday, May 2: King James Bible first published, 1611; Good Housekeeping magazine first sold, 1885; Jack Benny’s first broadcast, 1932; OBL’s ticket to Hell punched, 2011
• Tuesday, May 3: Gone With the Wind wins Pulitzer, 1937; O’Malley moves Brooklyn Dodgers to LA, 1957; Birmingham civil-rights protests met with televised police brutality, 1963
• Wednesday, May 4: Panama Canal started, 1904; Capone starts serving sentence, 1932; Marines suppress Alcatraz riot, 1946; Kent State shootings, 1970
• Thursday, May 5: Mary Kies first woman to receive US patent, 1809; CSA government officially dissolved, 1865; Tchaikovsky opens Carnegie Hall, 1891; Alan Shepard first American in space, 1961; Secretariat first under-2-minute Kentucky Derby win, 1973
• Friday, May 6: Crazy Horse surrenders, 1877; Hindenburg disaster, 1937; Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter first flies, 1941; Cedar Point’s Magnum XL-200 ride launches “Coaster Wars,” 1989
• Saturday, May 7: New Orleans founded, 1718; Lusitania sunk, 1915; Battle of the Coral Sea, 1942; integrated circuit concept published, 1952; Michigan ratifies 27th Amendment, 1992

Today’s Birthdays: Soldier-statesman Hosni Mubarak, 1928; actress Audrey Hepburn, 1929; Miles Davis bassist Ron Carver, 1937; authors Robin Cook, 1940, and George Will, 1941; singer Randy Travis, 1959

This Week In History is compiled with assistance from History.com and Wikipedia. Something interesting not listed here? Please share in the Comments section–this is an Audience Participation Encouraged featurette.

Quote of the Day

We have a Triple Play this week, several apt ones from the ancients I couldn’t decide between.

• The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits. — Plutarch
• We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. — Aesop
• Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms. — Aristotle

Did those ancient Greeks call it, or what?

As always, the Watercooler is an Open Thread. Mourn the suicide of the GOP if you like, and share whatever else may be on your mind here. It’s one of those “sometimes there are no words” days…

#NoQuarter