If the GOP is breaking apart over differences on issues, why is it altogether impossible for the warring factions to reach some accommodation to save the party?

Is it truly unthinkable that Donald Trump could sit down with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich, joined by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and, with the help of a few bottles of fine Kentucky bourbon (perhaps provided by Mitch McConnell), work something out for their mutual benefit?

The obvious answer to such questions is that the current divisions have little or nothing to do with issues, or with the popular notion of some snooty “establishment” looking with contempt at the GOP’s long-suffering base.

The divisions are about one man, a singular and profoundly polarizing personality. You can compromise over issues, or address grievances from the party’s rank-and-file to its feeble and teetering hierarchy. But you can’t split the difference over contrasting attitudes toward an egomaniacal Bonapartist whose followers believe that he, and he alone, possesses the magical power to “make America great again” and whose critics believe, with equal fervor, that his reckless, demagogic style, dubious character, and authoritarian tendencies render him altogether unfit for service in the nation’s highest office.