Free Republic has always been anti-GOPe. You forgot the "e" on GOP.
The GOPe makes up a very tiny number of voters.
There are 10s of millions of Conservatives. Trump will likely attract millions of democrat voters. Trump may also likely get more black voters than any recent GOP candidate.
Unifying the GOP is irrelevant when the Silent Majority roars its voice.
I have a very LONG tenure here and there was a time (a substantial block of time) when DEMs were the primary opponent.
This GOPe business has just come about in the last few years. The liberals are squealing with delight as conservatives eat their own over some concept of ideological purity - which is an ever evolving and highly personal concept.
I never, in a million years, would have thought that a long time NY liberal like Trump would meet the ideological purity test of those who profess to despise the “GOPe” (many of those assigned to the “GOPe” have historically been WAY more conservative than Trump ever was and is now).
The GOPe is a straw man and a much misguided focal point. It’s going to cause this primary to be very decisive and going to pave the way for a Democrat to win in 2016.
Just ask yourself this question, how many Trump supporters would support or even vote for a Walker or a Jindal or a Rubio or a Florina, e.g. if one of those is the eventual primary winner? If Trump should lose, there would be very bad blood with his supporters claiming he was robbed, there was a “GOPe” conspiracy against him and so on.
That’s what happens when you have blind worship of any candidate. We saw it in 2008. No matter what facts were put out about Obama, his supporters refused to see, accept and assimilate them.