Posted on 04/30/2016 5:45:53 PM PDT by jazusamo
Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president. As harrowing a prospect as that might be for some of us, the reality is that Trump can't be stopped. He needs a mere 43% of the remaining delegates up for grabs to get to 1237 and a first ballot victory. Given that he is far ahead in California, a state that awards the winner of their primary all 170 of its delegates, The Golden State will almost certainly put Trump over the top if he wins there.
So what is George Will talking about here? Will penned a column with the curious title "If Trump is nominated, the GOP must keep him out of the White House," which is about as incoherent as Will has ever been.
Were he to be nominated, conservatives would have two tasks. One would be to help him lose 50 states — condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials, including the manners and grace that should lubricate the nation’s civic life. Second, conservatives can try to save from the anti-Trump undertow as many senators, representatives, governors and state legislators as possible.
This is magical thinking. So conservatives should work to give the Democrats all 50 states and "try to save" as many down ballot candidates as possible? But earlier in the column, Will informed us that ticket splitting was rare in recent elections:
Ticket splitting is becoming rare in polarized America: In 2012, only 5.7 percent of voters supported a presidential candidate and a congressional candidate of opposite parties.
How, pray tell, are conservatives to "save" good candidates if they're working to elect a Democratic president?
If Trump is nominated, Republicans working to purge him and his manner from public life will reap the considerable satisfaction of preserving the identity of their 162-year-old party while working to see that they forgo only four years of the enjoyment of executive power. Six times since 1945 a party has tried, and five times failed, to secure a third consecutive presidential term. The one success — the Republicans’ 1988 election of George H.W. Bush — produced a one-term president. If Clinton gives her party its first 12 consecutive White House years since 1945, Republicans can help Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, or someone else who has honorably recoiled from Trump, confine her to a single term.
Just one question for Will: Who will be doing the purging after the election? The pro or anti-Trump camp?
I sympathize with Will regarding Trump's toxic effect on political discourse. But if he's going to get the nomination - and he is - why should conservatives work to bring about the exact catastrophe that the writer is warning against?
Trump has apparently made George Will incoherent. And the rest of the #nevertrunp crowd isn't far behind.
Agreed, FRiend.
A conservative who wants to give Hillary all 50 states ?
I question Mr. Moran’s expertise. He states that California awards the winner of their primary all 170 of its delegates. This is misleading, at best. Below is an excerpt from the CA GOP website.
How does the winner-take-all primary work?
California’s primary is a winner-take-all system by Congressional District. The Presidential candidate who wins any given Congressional District will receive all 3 delegate appointments for that district. In addition, 10 at large delegates are awarded to the presidential candidate receiving the largest number of votes statewide.
Trump could, therefore, win the majority of cores overall but lose a number of Diatricts
Will believes that leadership is only for, “certain people”. Those who have been instructed in and around rarefied air, who drink hot tea with an extended pinkie, and most important, understand the highest of the elite always wear a bowtie.
Anybody who works against Trump in the general election, if he wins, should be permanently shunned and ignored thereafter.
I meant votes, not cores, of course.
Will is suffering bitter despair at seeing a man he regards as utterly unsuitable and dangerous on the verge of becoming the nominee of his party for President. It is not that Will thinks well of Hillary, but that he is utterly opposed to Trump.
[ Anybody who works against Trump in the general election, if he wins, should be permanently shunned and ignored thereafter. ]
What happens if Trump wins, gets sworn in and then does a 180 from everything he says, that is my biggest fear, then all the dump trump people will be obnoxiously right.
A conservative that didn’t support RWR?
I understand what your point is, but if memory serves me, did not Will feel the same way about Reagan for a time ?
Yup....that’s my memory. Will ridiculed Reagan, until he did not & joined the team.
Whenever I see George Will and some of the others whining about Trump taking over the party, I hear:
It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want too
You would cry too if it happened to you.
But the fear he is expressing lacks logic as does his call to lose all 50 states to the Democrat candidate to preserve the Senate for Republicans. Why I'm not sure since they claim now that they are powerless to do anything with a Democrat President who will veto whatever they send up unless it is something they want anyway.
But if Trump were to win and something like only 5.7% vote for the opposite party for Congress and/or Senate than the President they vote for. Then a Trump win would most likely mean gains in the House & Senate for Republicans along with the Presidency.
Trump already has more votes than Mitt had at the end of the 2012 primaries and there are still 10 states left in this primary process. Thus he could garner the largest vote ever for a Republican in the primaries. Which would spell success for down ballot candidates, not losses.
The truth is George Will does better when Republicans are out of power, because he gets more readership, than when Republicans are in power. Thus I must conclude he is trying to remain relevant, but he is spelling his doom.
DTDS (Donald Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a very strange malady to be sure, and when they catch it they catch it in the worst way that it is all but fatal for them.
9 out of 10 things you worry about never happen.
Well said, completely agree.
Trump has something that none of the other candidates have, including Cruz. That’s an enviable track record going back decades.
One of the keys to Trumps tremendous success has been a very simple rule; Keep the promises made during the sale.
That simple rule is so important to Trump that he repeated it during his Foreign Policy speech.
You are going to be able to watch President Donald J Trump keep his campaign promises.
Let’s face it, George Will has never has an “America FIRST” gene in his body.
Epic temper tantrum.
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