Bill Kristol attends Politicon at The Pasadena Convention Center on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2017, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP)

From 2016 to the present, there has been a collective group of Republicans who have said they will vote against Donald Trump no matter what. The goal is to beat Trump, get him out of office, and attempt to reclaim the party they once called theirs.

The idea is that the Democrats can find someone who can beat Trump, due to his many flaws, and that they can work with the Democrats to purge all that is Trump-like from their party. With this idea born from nothing less than an incredible hubris, these people – like Bill Kristol, Charlie Sykes, Jennifer Rubin, Max Boot, Tom Nichols, and others – actually believe their brand of Republicanism can survive in the modern world, and that they know better than the masses that swept Trump into office.

There is a sad truth to this farce, however: When it comes to proving their point in the current political landscape, they can’t bring themselves to do it.

Bernie Sanders is on the path to becoming the nominee, with maybe one or two chances for a more moderate candidate to take the reins of the party back. The polling does not look good for the Bidens and the Buttigiegs of the world, and they are finding themselves unable to measure up at this time. So, where does that leave the cadre of “NeverTrump” Republicans who struggle to find meaning (and relevance!) in today’s political world?

In desperate need of inhalers, apparently.

Each one of them is panicking because Sanders represents everything they’ve ever fought against, and their promise to vote for the Democrats over Trump has seemingly put them in a tight spot.

I fully expect Rubin and Boot to vote for Sanders, because they haven’t really been conservatives for the last decade or more. But folks like Kristol and Sykes, who are the proto-typical neoconservatives? Voting for a straight-up socialist would hurt them just as bad as voting for Trump would.

So this is the box they’ve painted themselves into, and it’s hilarious to watch them flail about and beg Democrats to vote for literally anyone but Sanders.

It could almost make you feel bad for them, except they totally deserve it for the way they’ve acted since Trump became the nominee. They wanted to help the Democrats win, and in a turn of events only a Universe that loves comedy could provide, the Democrats are poised to nominate Sanders, the very last person they ever wanted.

I could feel bad for them, but I don’t. I didn’t spend the last four years telling Republicans how stupid they are for choosing Trump. I didn’t declare I’d vote for the Democrats over Republicans because of Trump. This is their bed, and they have to sleep in it.