As actual voters get ready to weigh in on the GOP presidential race, establishment Republicans are laying down a marker: Sen. Ted Cruz must be stopped at all costs, even if it means nominating Donald Trump.

It appears that these Republicans are so blinded by their personal hatred of Cruz that they’ve convinced themselves that the party would be better off choosing somebody who represents everything they claim to abhor. In making this calculation, they are exhibiting the same shortsightedness and lack of pragmatism that they claim to hate about Cruz.

Though there’s been plenty of talk about the national Republicans lining up behind Trump as a last-ditch effort to stop Cruz, former Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole got the ball rolling publicly when he warned The New York Times of “cataclysmic” losses if Cruz is nominated while suggesting Trump would do better.