Here's a fun fact about the American democracy experiment: Did you know there are actually THREE branches of government? It's true! First, there's Congress, which represents meticulously engineered map-squiggles. Then there's The Supreme Court, an eight-judge panel that is no longer accepting new members. And then finally, there's a little-known branch known as "President," and although it's important, suddenly Republicans can't seem to figure out what the big deal is about the office.

Ask any of the Republicans running for Congress about their party's nominee, and they just sort of roll their eyes with a sort of implied "president schmesident." Yeah, yeah, they've heard that some guy's running for the office; but that's not their department; and wouldn't you like to talk about something else instead? Anything? Please, God, anything at all?

When I was in college, I worked at a camera store that for some reason also sold cell phones and teddy bears, and occasionally people would ask me for help selecting a phone. "I dunno," I'd tell them, hoping they'd either leave me alone or buy one of the Fujis that got me a commission, "I only sell cameras."

This was a profoundly unhelpful and dickish attitude, and although I've grown out of it (I hope), it's a little weird to see it practiced by the likes of John McCain. "I’ve said everything I can say about Trump," he told reporters. "I’m running my own campaign, and I just don’t really want to keep talking about Trump. I just don’t."

Republican politicians may not want to talk about Trump, but you know who does? Republican voters. Ten million of them have cast votes for Donald, which is a quarter million more than Romney got during the primaries and 153,000 more than McCain managed to attract. (George Bush 2 got 10.8 million, which Donald might pass after today's primaries.)

Even among Republicans who are voting for Trump, they can't resist adding caveats to let everyone know that they really really really don't want to. "I’m running my race and focusing on the people of New Hampshire. I’ve said he’s our nominee; I plan to vote for him, but I’m not endorsing," said Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire Republican running for office.

“I’m just not going to talk about Donald Trump,” said John Cornyn of Texas. “You guys may not be able to stop talking about Donald Trump. But I can.” He was talking to reporters, but he might as well have been talking to Republican voters since they're the ones who love Donald more than any other nominee in recent memory.

And that would be fine but for one thing: just like customers at my camera store kept the place in business, voters keep politicians in office. By ignoring (or even worse, criticizing) those 10 million votes for Trump, Republicans are essentially telling shoppers, "Stop looking at the product you want, and come back to the product we would rather sell."

That camera chain that I worked for eventually filed for bankruptcy protection — twice — and has shrunk from around 400 locations to six. (They no longer sell phones, but the website has quadcopters on clearance so who knows what's going on at corporate HQ these days.) That's probably because most of us don't need a point-and-shoot camera anymore, or film. Our Kodaks and Polaroids have been replaced by cell phones that have cameras inside of them, and that's good enough for most users.

Back in 2002, when I told customers I couldn't help them with cell phones, they'd wander out and (I assume) buy one at some other store. When Republicans say "I dunno," and "I'm not going to talk about Donald Trump," what we're hearing is the stubborn smugness of a camera store asshole, still trying to sell a product that nobody wants anymore.