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The GOP Should Steal the Nomination from Trump
National Review ^ | March 18, 2016 | David Harsanyi

Posted on 03/18/2016 5:37:44 AM PDT by reaganaut1

...

The Republican party is not a direct democracy. It crafts its own rules, and it can change them. Here are questions that Republican delegates should be asking themselves: Is it worth upsetting a bunch of angry, marginally conservative voters who often have a minor fidelity to the doctrines of your party? Or are you prepared to put your political infrastructure and full weight behind a cartoonish George Wallace–like character who’ll probably inflict more damage than you could ever hope to repair?

RNC chairman Reince Priebus says that he expects every GOP presidential candidate to uphold a pledge to support the eventual nominee. Considering what we heard in Senator Marco Rubio’s concession speech, I find this difficult to believe. At best, Priebus is going to have a bunch of politicians tiptoeing around Trump in tacit nonsupport. And if enough big-name Republicans end up supporting Trump, it only accentuates the need for a new party.

An ABC exit poll — with all the usual caveats about the unreliability of exit polls — said that six in ten non-Trump-supporters say they would “seriously consider a third party if he became the GOP’s nominee.” The more disgust his big-government positioning and ugly rhetoric generate, the higher that number rises. And there are a number of rational reasons to support such a run.

For starters, Trump supporters are already very angry about everything. It’s not as if they could be any angrier with the establishment. Once Trump is gone (and he’ll leave with no coherent movement), these voters will either have to come back and look for alternative candidates with compelling messages, or leave the party altogether.

In the short run, a third-party candidate might insulate down-ballot candidates from Trumpism. You do remember Todd Akin, I’m sure?

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: New York; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016election; cruz; cruzers; davidharsanyi; election2016; gope; marklevin; nationalreview; newyork; tedcruz; texas; trump
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To: reaganaut1

GOPE, if you do this you will do massive damage to your candidates not just nationally but in state and local elections as well. No matter how passionately you hate Trump, do not fool yourselves. The GOPE will not be able to disenfranchise millions of GOP voters and escaped unscathed.

IF Trump is such the disaster as the GOPE predict, then the GOPE should let him win simply to teach the GOP voters a lesson for the future. Show them the GOPE knows better then the voters who should be the candidate.

These daily desperate attempts to stop Trump at all costs send the voters the exact opposite message.


21 posted on 03/18/2016 5:48:41 AM PDT by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: gr8eman

“Who is this douchebag?”

Just another National Review eGOP who is afraid they won’t be invited to DC parties if Trump is elected.


22 posted on 03/18/2016 5:48:55 AM PDT by CodeToad (Islam should be banned and treated as a criminal enterprise!)
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To: reaganaut1

I can’t believe someone would openly suggest this. What a douche nozzle. We can like it or not, but the RNC knows better than to override the voters. I’m with the other who say doing so would cause an uprising... one that my old bones might even consider participating in.


23 posted on 03/18/2016 5:49:23 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: reaganaut1

I believe they will do exactly this, leading to two turbulent years of insurrection in the voter base.

If they feel threatened by trump, wait until they see what it is like to deal with hundreds of burning “fires” spreading throughout the country all at once. They will, in the end, create their own destruction.

They will never face they’ve created this themselves.


24 posted on 03/18/2016 5:49:43 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (BREAKING.... Vulgarian Resistance begins attack on the GOPe Death Star.....)
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To: glasseye

Totally get that. But my question for the “media” and the GOPe is, from a POLICY standpoint, why must Trump be stopped? What has he said or done that is sooooooooo outrageous that you MUST circumvent the will of the people and steal the nomination from him?


25 posted on 03/18/2016 5:49:55 AM PDT by cincinnati65
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To: reaganaut1

Try this and I stay home. None of the down ticket republicans will get my vote either.


26 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:06 AM PDT by dforest (Ted took your money and is laughing all the way to Goldman Sachs)
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To: gr8eman

27 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:15 AM PDT by JPG (Go Trump!)
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To: cincinnati65

Good question.

I meant to say Harsanyi but to come to think of it, he’s like the ancien regime.

It was unloved and despised by every one and soon forgotten.

And NRO’s attitude to the peasants is: “eat cake!”

That’s their notion of “conservatism” in a nutshell.

Its already been hallowed out and the charlatans are the GOP establishment Harsanyi so assiduously defends.

Put some on ice on that and get used to hearing more from Trump.


28 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:22 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: reaganaut1

More trump hate. Surprise, surprise.


29 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:24 AM PDT by McGruff (Just another "Low Information Voter" for Trump)
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To: reaganaut1

Garbage.

Exit polling shows regardless of who a person supports today when asked if your guy doesn’t win will you vote for the nominee if it is X. They did it for every candidate for every candidate and the numbers of yes, probably and never were exactly the same regardless of who the person voted for and who they hypotheticaled the nominee to be.

Trump has no higher I’ll never vote for him among primary voters than any other candidate. This entire article is hogwash


30 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:33 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: reaganaut1
The author is saying Trump supporters are trash to be left at the curb. They are dumb and angry, wont vote the way we want them, so stab them and their guy in the heart and move in without them.
31 posted on 03/18/2016 5:50:56 AM PDT by Awgie (truth is always stranger than fiction)
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To: reaganaut1

NR - Day in day out hour after hour trying to tear down the only one who can beat illary. Light Bulb! They want our next President to be illary! NR = Death to America!


32 posted on 03/18/2016 5:52:10 AM PDT by Harpotoo
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To: reaganaut1

I wonder what National Review’s circulation will look like when all is said and done.


33 posted on 03/18/2016 5:52:38 AM PDT by grumpygresh (We don't have Democrats and Republicans, we have the Faustian uni-party)
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To: reaganaut1

If this was put out by “National Review” the complete organization deserves to be put out of business Immediately.


34 posted on 03/18/2016 5:53:20 AM PDT by chatham
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To: dforest

The Republican Uniparty just may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory unless they get their head out of their *ss. We don’t call them the stupid party for nothing.


35 posted on 03/18/2016 5:53:25 AM PDT by McGruff (Just another "Low Information Voter" for Trump)
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To: reaganaut1

And once again National Repugnance shows why it is NOT the voice of a Republic, let alone a democracy, but an elite aristocracy that feels entitled to tell us all what to think.


36 posted on 03/18/2016 5:58:14 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
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To: reaganaut1

I’m glad you posted this and gave us the gist of the article without having to click to go the NR site. They’ve gone around the bend since February 15th and I will not read their crap again.


37 posted on 03/18/2016 5:58:21 AM PDT by SueRae (An election like no other..)
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To: reaganaut1
I guess Harsanyi wasn't paying attention during the past few elections where Republicans in down ticket races won with only a few percentage points. In some places the number of voters who chose the Libertarian candidate was enough to tip the election for or against the Republicans.

But now the GOPe thinks that they can reject a majority of the Republican voters, concoct some third party, and somehow end up with enough voters to elect the down ticket Republicans. And they think they can do all of that when a lot of their normal Republican volunteers are staying home because they are supporters of the candidate the GOPe wants to throw overboard so they can lose to Hillary Clinton.

That's some strategy - lose to Hillary Clinton and somehow hold onto the House and Senate by starting a third party to siphon off Republican voters, volunteers, money, and campaign operatives. The net result of which can't cost the down ticket candidates more than 1 or 2% of the votes they would get with a united party.

No wonder the GOPe guys get us called "the stupid party".

Of course those down ticket Republicans didn't do much to stop President Obama's policies in the last seven years. Why would we think they will do anything different if Hillary is elected?

38 posted on 03/18/2016 5:58:28 AM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: 20yearsofinternet

I met Buckley, did an event with him in college. I was the co-organizer, had a nice pic with him. (He said of me and my co-organizers that we were living proof that an “intelligent conservative” was not an oxymoron. I had to look up oxymoron after that!)

Anyway, Bill told me that he did those kinds of speeches to subsidize NR, that it could not make it on circulations.

I’m sure that is true to the nth degree today.


39 posted on 03/18/2016 5:59:59 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
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To: reaganaut1
... a cartoonish George Wallace–like character who’ll probably inflict more damage than you could ever hope to repair?

That's worked well!




40 posted on 03/18/2016 6:02:58 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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