So...

Two entire wings of each party sit this one out so they can lick their wounds for four years and come out to pick the bones they expect to be left from their opponent's victory? Intriguing on a meta-level (hence my post's title), but not probable. For one thing, that forces a gadfly to oppose the incumbent in his own party's primaries in four years, no matter which party wins this time. An attempted coup d'etat. That's already happened to the Democrats in recent memory, which is why they're being so careful this time.

At the same time, I'm not keen on the "Hell hath no fury..." theory behind the alleged disgruntlement of Hillary's supporters. Among other things, it puts them in the position of ignoring the wishes of the person they claim to support. Not exactly what I'd call loyalty.

That still leaves us with Robert's question unanswered: "If it exists, what's the motive?" I tend to think it doesn't exist, much... and what little does has been magnified by the attention paid to it.