There was no need for what happened on the floor of the Republican Party’s nominating convention on Monday. The outcome of the Republican National Committee’s heavy-handed effort to put down a modest anti-Trump rebellion could not have gone better for the faction it was attempting to delegitimize.

Presented with a petition reportedly signed by nine states and the District of Columbia calling for a vote on a package of rules for the convention, all agreed to in the Rules Committee last Friday, the RNC did precisely what John Podhoretz predicted they’d do. The chair called for a voice vote. Faced with a blaring din of noise from all sides of the room rendering it impossible to tell who was screaming what, the chair asserted that the “ayes” had it, and the motion had failed.

That was never going to be the end of this insurrection, and the RNC was foolish to assume that it would be. It could have simply acceded to the wishes of the anti-Trump faction and called a roll call vote. The anti-Trump faction would have lost it. Instead, just as the Rules Committee chair had done last week, the presiding officer simply refused to call a vote. And with that, the committee’s chairman vacated the podium. Chaos reigned.

What proceeded was an optical nightmare for the Republican National Committee and the candidate it had dedicated itself to saving from the consequences of his own actions, Donald Trump. Nicolae Ceaușescu demonstrated more competence and cool-headedness when faced with a revolt of his erstwhile supporters. For approximately 20 minutes, the party’s most vocal anti-Trump critics held the floor. From Senator Mike Lee to former Virginia gubernatorial candidate Cuccinelli, the “Never Trump” faction appeared in command of events and was given total control of media microphones. Faced with the conclusion that there would be no vote, the delegations from the key swing states Iowa and Colorado chose to walk off the floor of the convention.

The unity the party had so desperately sought to project dissolved in the disorder. Images of a party divided may not have been seen by many as events unfolded, but they will be witnessed by millions in the coming days as the political press jumps at the opportunity to contrast a shattered Republican Party with its harmonious and placid Democratic counterpart.

When the chair finally restored order and called for a new voice vote, the results were interpreted precisely as they were the first time. The “ayes” had it. What’s more, the chair revealed that three states had withdrawn their support for the contentious motion, so there was no need for the committee to even entertain a roll call vote. Which three states? No one knows; the committee chairman declined to specify.

This whole affair was entirely unnecessary. If the Rules Committee had called a roll call vote on Friday, they would have demonstrated that maybe 12 of the 112-member body backed a measure to allow the delegates to vote their “conscience.” There would have been names and identities associated with the modest insurrection, and the mutineers would have been humiliated. But in the party’s desperation to shield its members from scrutiny and opprobrium for supporting Trump, it created this demon.

On Monday, the party made the same mistake. In the desperation to protect its members and to save face for Trump, the GOP again invited insurrection and a mortifying spectacle. Had the party called a roll call vote, the insurrectionary faction would have lost and been embarrassed in the process. The RNC’s move was shortsighted in the extreme and created a much bigger political headache for the party than was necessary.

When the chaos subsided and the convention returned to something resembling order, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin took the stage. “Theirs is a secretive, top-down process, and the result is a platform that reflects a house that’s divided,” Fallin said of the Democratic Party. She added that, by contrast, the GOP is committed to “unity.” It was a lovely speech. It’s a shame that the anti-Trump delegates who walked off to protest what they viewed as a power grab weren’t around to hear her it.