The grassroots Right seems to be responding to the McMullin candidacy the same way they did to Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump at last month’s GOP convention: hot anger at an insider who won’t abide the people’s choice.

“These mother #####ers are really pressing their luck,” argued member dp0622. “I see a Bastille Day in their future.”

“His first step needs to be taking a long walk off a short pier,” advises member headstamp 2.

Freeper JamesP81 sees a conspiracy of what members call the “GOPe,” or the Republican Establishment: “Looks like the GOPe’s Operation BackStab is in full effect.”

I could go on but I won’t. Essentially, a huge part of the Republican voting base, many of whom did not support Trump during the primaries, sees the McMullin candidacy as a betrayal on the part of Washington Republicans. It’s not difficult to imagine that they will neither forgive nor forget it, especially if he manages to flip a state to himself or to Hillary Clinton.

There’s no chance that McMullin could somehow be elected through a U.S. House vote (that’s the ultimate goal of Burguiere’s fantasy above). But the former CIA and Goldman Sachs employee just might manage to blow up the Republican Party’s shrinking electoral coalition.