Why are so many people scared of Donald Trump specifically, rather than Republicans in general? [View all]

[Donald Ian Rankin]

We've known for decades that in 2016 there was going to be a Republican nominee for president, that they were almost certainly going to be breathtakingly far right, and that they might well win.

Now the Republicans are on the verge of nominating a candidate who by most measures is less far right and less likely to win than was expected, and suddenly people are freaking out.

Yes, the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president is scary, and the odds against it are not that long. But it's less scary, and less likely, than a candidate Rubio or a candidate Cruz would have been, and it was inevitable all along that the Republicans would pick somebody.