Posted on 03/15/2016 12:04:45 PM PDT by mojito
....The weird rigors of this process have not always protected the parties from politically disastrous nominees, like Barry Goldwater or George McGovern. But Goldwater and McGovern were both men of principle and experience and civic virtue, leading factions that had not yet come to full maturity. This made them political losers; it did not make them demagogues.
Trump, though, is cut from a very different cloth. Hes an authoritarian, not an ideologue, and his antecedents arent Goldwater or McGovern; theyre figures like George Wallace and Huey Long, with a side of the fictional Buzz Windripfrom Sinclair Lewiss It Cant Happen Here. No modern political party has nominated a candidate like this; no serious political party ever should.
Because such figures speak as Wallace did, and Long, and Ross Perot, and others to real grievances, the process of dealing with them is necessarily painful, and often involves a third-party bid and a difficult reckoning thereafter. Trump would be no exception: Denying him the nomination would indeed be an ugly exercise, one that would weaken or crush the partys general election chances, and leave the G.O.P. with a long hard climb back up to unity and health.
But if that exercise is painful, its also the correct path to choose. A man so transparently unfit for office should not be placed before the American people as a candidate for president under any kind of imprimatur save his own.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If they do deny Trump, they will have denied and violated We, the People.
As near as I can make out, the argument goes on something like this: Trump promises to do things once in office. This means he’s an authoritarian. This means he’s Hitler.
If that happens the party is gone
Let me put forth a modest proposal
Do away with primaries or make them an unbinding “beauty contest”. Each party can select convention delegates as they see fit, and the convention selects the nominee.
Upside: No two year election campaigns, no media circus debates and such, flexibility in the final choice about three months out.
Not “democratic” enough for “we the people”?
Get involved at the local level.
I am VERY dismayed at how electoral politics has become like the NFL
The “party” elite want to be the indisputable anointer of their candidate. There are several ways to try to accomplish that goal. First, torpedo Trump with vote splitting among Cruz, Kasich and Rubio, then hijacking the convention, then refusing to fund his campaign against the Dem candidate, and,finally, if he actually does get elected, then making sure he can’t accomplish anything as a president unless he dances to their tune. Short-term or long-term, the party elite will do whatever is necessary to protect their hegemony in Washington.
I have always voted Republican but I would be very open to a third party if any of this comes about to thwart the will of the voters.
If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, all Hillary will have to do to win the presidency is declare that if Trump becomes president he will very likely deport immigrants.
That will energize every immigrant, particularly the large number of Hispanics in the Republican must-win states of Florida and Texas, to overwhelm the polling sites in November.
Such an outpouring of Democratic voters throughout the country will also be a great boost for Democratic Congressmen, governors, and other elected officials in their efforts to drive Republicans out of office and take over Congress and the states.
Donald Trump: Making America Great Again by Destroying the Republican Party.
The idea is to do kabuki theatre and spend money to attract the dumbest 10% of the 50-60% of eligible people who bother voting, the swing voters who supposedly decide all national elections. It’s hard to give any credence to the whole dumb system. All campaign money in the general is meant to influence the swayable, either to get swing voters to swing, or make folks stay at home in disgust, or to get a bigger turn out. So something they see on TV, or now the internet actually changed their mind to do something they weren’t going to do before. These folks could pick a good president, or not, but in any case the dumbest people were the ones who decided it.
It’s a wonder it actually doesn’t look worse than it does currently, considering.
Freegards
I so look forward to the liquid effluvia of the "depression" stage .... that will be nectar for me, and a tonic for the Republic.
Trump energizes natural born citizens, and they outnumber immigrants.
Advantage: TRUMP
If the party pulls some BS, then they grant hunting licenses to their voters.
I’m not talking about if Trump falls short of 1237. If he has enough, the GOP commits ritual seppuku by stealing the nomination.
If Trump falls short, he will need to demonstrate his deal making skills.
I assume Republicans hold a 26 state majority in the House of Representatives.
How many states, exactly, if you know?
So, he wants the gop to commit political suicide. Speaking for myself, I’m all for it. But I prefer to MAGA. So, lets wait on the political suicide for the gop for now. And who knows? After a Trump presidency having the gop go the way of the dodo bird may no longer be necessary.
I think they’re actually over 30
Wikipedia is saying 32
Unlikely they would lose 7 state majorities in one election.
Ross Douthat knows that will never happen - because any attempt to wrest the nomination away from Trump would destroy the party.
The Democrats would win by a landslide and what’s left of the conservative movement would be rendered irrelevant.
Seriously, TDS is making the #NeverTrump movement’s minds deranged. They give no thought to the catastrophic consequences their hatred of Trump would unleash.
Agree.
I think the GOP House majority - in raw votes anyway - is safe until 2020.
In 2022, after the 2020 Census and redistricting, it will get much tougher.
The Census counts “all persons present,” which includes non-citizen permanent residents and illegal immigrants.
That will add Congressional districts to immigrant heavy states, like California, and to certain regions, like the 100% Democrat districts on the Texas-Mexico border.
I think it's likely the Senate will go 50-50, or an outright Democrat majority, after the 2016 election.
Since the Democrat Party always votes as a unified block, unlike the Republicans, that would mean the Supreme Court is political toast for Conservatives.
Also, I read that the Senate chooses the Vice President in the absence of an Electoral Vote majority, which I did not know.
I think it may be too late to turn the great "Ship of State" in a more Conservative direction.
For reasons I will never understand, a majority of Republican voters have enthusiastically supported massive LEGAL immigration for the past 30 years.
The price tag on that politically deranged decision is coming due, and it cannot be reversed, perhaps ever.
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