This is an opinion column.

About a dozen people are running for the Republican nomination for president, but in Montgomery Friday night there was only one.

A day after his latest arraignment in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump returned to Alabama, the place where he first made headlines as a viable candidate for president, where seven years ago in Mobile, he attracted an audience of thousands (exactly how many has been a debate ever since).

His showing Friday night was no less significant.

America, but we have to do this again.

According to the Alabama GOP, 2,700 people paid to attend the party’s summer dinner in Montgomery — a new record. The audience greeted Trump warmly, giving him standing ovations.

This for a man who incited an insurrection.

This for a man under three indictments, already.

This for a man with another indictment coming any second.

This for a man found liable for sexual assault and defamation.

This for Donald Trump.

We’ve been here before, but we know more this time around. And it doesn’t seem to matter one lick.

A Who’s Who of Alabama politicians endorsed this man Friday. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville gave his support to Trump before the event, as did all six of Alabama’s Republican congressmen.

Alabama will host the last of three Republican primary debates in October, but none of these officials think the matter merits further consideration. This is their guy.

Trump isn’t keen on debating, anyway.

“Does it really make a lot of sense? Does it really?” Trump said. “I love to debate, but sometimes you don’t want to be a fool. You want a smart president. You don’t want a stupid president.”

It used to be that debates were how we sorted the smart from the stupid, but this is Alabama, where we haven’t had a debate in four election cycles. And we’ve had the elected officials to show for it.

Trump’s speech was his typical stream of consciousness, sliding through a checklist of fears and aggrievements —  the deep state, “communism” as a catch-all (with no credit given to George Wallace), sickos who want to mutilate children, diseased and dangerous people crossing the border.

And those other people who “hate America.”

“We will drive out the globalists and we will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and throw off the sick political class that hates our country, absolutely hates our country,” he said.

And so it went for the greater part of an hour.

We’ve been here before.

After my first Trump rally in 2016, I pleaded with Republicans that it wasn’t too late to make a better choice. The alternative then was John Kasich. Who is it today? Tim Scott? Nikki Haley? Asa Hutchenson? Will Hurd? Heck, Mike Pence?

The moment any one of them speaks the truth about that man on stage, they get booed. They’re not going anywhere.

For the GOP, there’s no getting past Trump.

And he knows it. Even DeSantis — DeSanctimonius, he’s named him — has run out of gas. Who could have guessed that pandering to extremists while courting moderates would be a zero-sum game?

This is their guy.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from one Trump apologist or another, “I don’t like him but at least he’s not …”

No more.

There are Republican alternatives. This is the party’s choice to make. There’s no “buts” after this. There are no excuses this time. We’ve seen where this can go.

And plenty of folks seem fine with that prospect.

Trump isn’t a strongman. He’s just surrounded by weak people — folks who should know better but who don’t have the courage to stand up to him. I’d list their names, but I don’t have to. Before the event Friday night, they put them in a press release endorsing Trump for president.

Jerry Carl.

Barry Moore.

Mike Rogers.

Robert Aderholt.

Dale Strong.

Gary Palmer

Tommy Tuberville.

Will Ainsworth.

They have convinced themselves this doesn’t matter, that it’s all some sort of game.

Others will follow suit in other places. The most unsettling thing about Trump’s latest run for office is how predictable it is.

We’ve been here before, and we’ve seen where it can go — zealots punching cops and breaking windows. Zip ties, nooses and Confederate flags.

Those folks giving him their devotion saw all that, too, and it didn’t make a lick of difference. If they could tolerate that before, what excuses might they make this time? How many have to get hurt?  What cost must we pay?

We’ve been here before, and we’ve seen where this can go.

But not yet where it ends.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

Tommy Tuberville leaves Alabama lost in space

Alabama’s new congressional map is a feat of Republican cowardice

A fight for rights and control in a Black Belt town without elections