Posted on 03/23/2016 7:17:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better.
Denial has been Trump's greatest ally. Republicans and commentators didn't believe he would run. They didn't believe he could be an attractive candidate to rational people, no matter how angry with "the establishment" voters said they were. They -- which includes me -- were wrong.
The denial lasted longer for some than others. Long after many observers had come to the realization that Trump was the front-runner, Jeb Bush's super PAC, Right to Rise, believed Bush's real rival was Marco Rubio. It spent $35 million trying to destroy Rubio before it dropped its first $25,000 attacking Trump.
Over the weekend, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus showed the first public signs of acceptance about what's in store for the party. He finally acknowledged that the Republican nominee was probably going to be determined on the convention floor in Cleveland.
Priebus explained, rightly, that the rules are the rules, and that if Trump can't secure the required 1,237 delegates before Cleveland, it's anyone's game. "This is a delegate-driven process," he told CNN's Dana Bash. "The minority of delegates doesn't rule for the majority."
Trump's response to this floor-fight talk was to vomit up the usual word salad.
"All I can say is this, I don't know what's going to happen," Trump told ABC's "This Week." "But I will say this, you're going to have a lot of very unhappy people [if I'm denied the nomination]. And I think, frankly, for the Republicans to disenfranchise all those people because if that happens, they're not voting and the Republicans lose."
Even through the syntactical fog, Trump's point is clear: If he can't reach 1,237, he should get the nomination anyway. Because he is Trump. If that doesn't happen, his supporters will stay home, defect from the party, riot or all three.
And he's right. Not about deserving the nomination even if he doesn't have the delegates. That's typical Trumpian whining. But he's right that if he's denied the nomination, many -- not all, but many -- of his supporters will bolt from the convention and the party.
Left out of Trump's unsubtle threat: Many anti-Trump Republicans will desert the convention and the party if he's not denied the nomination.
There are only three possible ways to avoid a calamitous walkout. Ted Cruz can win the nomination outright before the convention. That's very unlikely given that he'd need to win roughly 80 percent of all the remaining delegates.
Second, Trump could reveal he has a hidden reservoir of magnanimity and patriotism, and rally his faithful to the consensus nominee. Stop laughing.
Third, the delegates could pick someone sufficiently attractive that Trump followers get over their understandable bitterness and support that candidate despite Trump's objections. Who would that be? Certainly not Mitt Romney. Maybe a reanimated Ronald Reagan. Or Batman? I have no idea.
All of these scenarios are so unlikely in part because the split in the GOP isn't merely about a single personality. Trump represents just the most pronounced of a spiderweb of ideological and demographic fault lines that are increasingly difficult to paper over. As Joel Kotkin put it in a column for the Orange County Register, the Republican Party now "consists of interest groups that so broadly dislike each other that they share little common ground."
Put simply, and with the incessant and obtuse comparisons of Trump to Reagan notwithstanding, you cannot have a party that's both Reaganite and Trumpish.
Trump's cheerleaders insist that he's a symptom of long-simmering maladies on the right. I'm persuaded (even though I think Dr. Trump's remedies are nothing but snake oil). Even now, too many GOP leaders think Trump's success is purely a result of his brash personality, and nothing more. But only when we accept that a terrible diagnosis is real is it possible to think intelligently about our options.
To wit: This ends in tears no matter what. Get over it and pick a side.
You can hear his teats and grinding teeth through the whole thing.
Like a tyke having a fit because they can’t get the toy they want. Eventually they will run out of tears and their voice will be too hoarse to continue.
The GOP is in trouble whether Trump is nominated and wins or if a GOPE steals the nomination and the Socialist Democrat (either one) wins ... and converts tens of millions of illegal Mexicans into Democrat voters.
I get it. You guys think Trump is an answer to a problem. If he wins the nomination he will be a bigger loser than the establishment provides. Your adoration of Trump does not translate into everyone adoring him, he will never consolidate the base but he will unite the dems and independents.
It not the “Conservatives” who are threatening 3rd party. it is the GOPE paid AstroTurf mouthpieces like Erick Erickson, Red State, NR and the rest of the GOP Establishment fake “Conservative” media
Stupid article
The DC political class is in full panic mode
Nothing is so sad as the people who are blind because they refuse to see.
They know why Trump is so popular. They just refuse to acknowledge so because it will cost them control and positions of power.
Jonah’s been confined to his fainting couch since Trump announced he was running.
With their behavior on here, I cannot see the strong Trump following as being placated by manipulations that lead to some other “acceptable” candidate. For most of the strident ones, there is no one but Trump. The author is deluded that this is a possible “answer”.
Now that is a curious and disturbing metaphor. ((Just kidding. I know what you meant))
And I feel fine.
Or that he sees Trump very clearly.
No, they know exactly what they are doing.
Both the politicians who betray the citizens and the propagandists like Jonah who enable their perfidy.
They are trying to convince the citizens that we have no choice but to abandon the rule of law and surrender our country.
They would like us to believe that it is not possible to stop the illegal alien inundation.
That is is not possible to keep the rule of law.
That it is not possible to keep our country.
All of that is true if we keep voting as directed by the likes of Jonah and his cohorts in the Ministry of Propaganda.
Utter nonsense from an anti-Trump, RINO supporting author.
Trump represents conservatism just like Cruz, he’s just a better candidate.
And yeah, if the GoPe steals the nomination from the candidate nearest 1237, and denies the will of the people, even if he is a few votes short, their done.
Don’t blame the candidate or his voters, the GoPe will be responsible for its own end.
And I will consider voting against every R on the ticket.
It is actually the most accurate analysis of Trump’s commandeering of the party from the GOPe to date, but they just can’t help themselves. Their cup of fear runneth over!
The sooner she is indicted, the better. Otherwise it’s Hello president Hillary Rotten Clinton.
Note to Jonah: The consensus nominee among the voters is Trump. By the millions.
Cruz is nothing. Many have changed their minds about him, and more are doing so every day.
The Republican Party as we know it died when Reagan left office. The Bush family has their surrogate in there now trying to bail water out of the boat.
But it will sink. Next month.
Corrected
That's what the GOPe doesn't get. They think this is because of Donald's popularity and his showmanship. It isn't. The people are tired of the same old crap DC has been serving up for the last 30 years, both (D) and (R). Every election cycle we are promised for and vote for 'change' and never get it. Trump is not our first choice, and maybe not even our 2nd, but he's not a DC 'Go along to get along, good old boys in the backroom type.' He's never been a politician, and that is what many people are voting for, a non-politico type, on both sides of the spectrum, and it has DC crowd scared out of their minds..........
Even when they win, we still lose! Oh it was a grand old party, for those on the inside who butt kissed their way into the exclusive chambers of influence.
But as with most big bureaucracies it's primary purpose was to serve itself, while pretending to serve it's larger nontenured base.
Unlike Cruz who is winning states virtually untouched by illegal immigration and economic problems, and actually vote in a primary process, Trump’s message is resonating and he is bringing new voters into the fold. He is schlonging Cruz and will continue to do so.
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