The GOP is currently staring down the barrel of a Donald Trump cannon. Running on a platform of xenophobia and bullying, Trump has captured the imagination of many GOP Primary voters. And there is almost nothing the Party establishment can do to stop this wrecking ball.

After the 2012 primary season, the GOP realized that a long, drawn out fight hurts the party’s eventual nominee in the general election. Many of Rick Santorum’s attacks on the eventual nominee Mitt Romney stuck to him after the primary. The long primary forced Romney to tack to the right, and doomed him that November. So, to avoid this issue in 2016, the Republican Party increased the importance of the early states, particularly those happening today. The hope was that an establishment-friendly front runner would emerge, secure the nomination early, and turn their ire on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. With a deep bench of many establishment-friendly governors and senators, the GOP establishment thought the cards were in their favor. What they didn’t account for was the racist, foul-mouthed Donald Trump captivating the GOP base, and turning the primary on its head.

With a platform of bullying, hatred, and war crimes, Donald Trump has “trumped” the entire nominating process. After narrowly losing in Iowa, Trump rattled off three consecutive wins. There is no doubt that he is the GOP frontrunner. Recent polling has Trump ahead in almost every race today. Should the polling bear out and Trump wins big tonight, he has a clear shot at the nomination. The establishment has coalesced around Marco Rubio, who has failed to gain any significant traction. He needs a miracle in the post-Super Tuesday primaries to have any chance at the nomination. At this point, it is Trump’s nomination to lose.

The GOP has spent decades telling their supporters government is the problem. They have encouraged the belief that immigrants and Muslims are the problems plaguing America; that Welfare Queens are using government funds to buy Cadillacs, Manolos, and T-bone steaks; that the liberal media is propping up an illegal Kenyan usurper President. Trump has tapped into this belief like no other candidate. He is advocating forced deportation of immigrants. He is advocating building a wall along the Mexican border, and forcing Mexico to pay for it. He is proposing banning Muslims from America. He advocates using torture on terror suspects, and murdering the families of enemy combatants. These ideas are disgusting, horrifying, and frankly fascist. But, this is what the modern GOP voters want in their President. Trump is simply giving them what they want. The nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for President in 2016 is the culmination of decades of racism, xenophobia, authoritarianism, and anti-government conspiracy by the Republican Party. The GOP establishment lit the fuse 50 years ago, and now the cannon is about to go off. They only have themselves to blame.