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Time for the RNC to Cut Trump Loose
There was a time when the Republican National Committee was terrified that Donald Trump would launch a third-party run. Now their biggest fear should be Trump as the face of the Republican party.
Once a candidate is the presidential nominee, it is the party’s job to defend every statement he makes. When Romney criticized the 47 percent, or McCain suspended his campaign after the economic crisis, or George W. Bush was blindsided by reports of a 1976 drunk driving arrest, the RNC had to support their candidates and aggressively attempt to spin the bad news in their favor.
Every candidate makes missteps here and there, but Trump has based his campaign on indefensible statements. Criticizing POWs because “I like people who weren’t captured.” Claiming a debate moderator had “blood coming out of her wherever.” Saying that in New Jersey, “thousands of people were cheering” the fall of the World Trade Center. Bragging that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
And when The Donald talks policy, it gets even worse. Trump promised “I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Reince Priebus, et al., will have to passionately back a pro-torture position in a general election.
If Trump repeats that his extremist pro-choice sister would make a great Supreme Court nominee, the party will have to applaud his vision, along with her defense of partial birth abortion.
“I will tell you. They lied,” Trump said about the Bush Administration. “And they said there were weapons of mass destruction and there were none. And they knew there were none.” The RNC press shop will have to agree that Dubya lied his way into the Iraq War and denounce the party’s complicity in promoting this lie. And then the RNC will need to reverse their position when Trump does the following day.
Trump has denounced free trade and threatened tariffs as high as 35 percent. There goes a prominent plank of the Republican platform, newly aligning the party with a rump of far-left economists and Big Labor.
The natural end result of Trumpism is the destruction of Reagan’s three-legged stool, not by sawing down one leg or another, but simultaneously tossing social conservatives, economic conservatives, and defense conservatives into the wood chipper. By necessity, the party will need to be utterly destroyed and remade in The Donald’s image.
Meanwhile, the RNC is charged with backing the election of numerous congressmen, senators, and other down-ballot Republicans whose positions are diametrically opposed to their party’s nominee. Can the party support a candidate who promises to repeal Obamacare when Trump says that he loves the mandate? Will congressional candidates agree that we should “bomb the oil” and then, somehow, take it for ourselves? Do would-be senators in swing states agree that Muslims be banned and deride Hispanic illegal immigrants as marauding rapists?
A party divided against itself will not stand. Nor should it. It would have lost its reason to exist.
Of course the loathed GOP establishment brought this nightmare upon itself after double-dealing conservative voters for decades and mocking the Jeremiahs warning of a coming judgment. The entertainment wing gleefully promoted the reality star as he lashed out at feckless beltway culture. But that is all history. Today, everyone on the right needs to figure out the least bad way forward.
According to most polls, Trump will lose to a Democratic nominee. More and more party faithful are announcing that they cannot in good conscience pull the lever for an anti-conservative like The Donald. After dithering for months, waiting in vain for Trump to fail on his own, the RNC has a decision to make.
The only way the party has a future is for them to cut Trump loose so he can fall on his own. Otherwise, the entire organization will go down with him.
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I would much prefer he run as a third party candidate, that way the conservative movement survives along with the GOP.
Trump will not beat Hillary, we will see a McGovern like rout with losses all the way down the ticket.
We are a democracy, which is why I feel absolutely no obligation to back a man who despises my values and whose most vocal supporters include deranged racists and sadistic kooks who daydream about the coming “Trumpenreich.”
I’m not a Republican, I’m an independent conservative, so there’s no issue of Party loyalty, either.
Even if there were, my conscience overrides that. You bring up honor, but honor to me means having an internal code of principles that you are not willing to sell out for any Earthly reward or sanction. Honor means standing for what is right, regardless of the personal costs.
There is no group whose membership I value more than my principles. Politics is about compromise, I get that. I held my nose and voted for McCain and Romney because they were the best of a situation I was not pleased with.
Hillary will be a terrible President. Trump might be worse, or he might be a little better; it is not important which. The United States might be gearing up to sign her own death warrant, but my signature is one that won’t appear on that infernal document.
Con Man: slang for Confidence Man, informal a person who swindles another by means of a confidence trick.
As in somebody that tells you they will do one thing and then when the time comes do something different. See also: McConnell, Cornyn, P. Sessions, P. Ryan, Boehner, etc.
If Trump is a con man, something we can’t discount, he will be in very good company on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Not while the Dems oppose it. But Trump will act stupid enough while in office that eventually the Dems, principled GOP, and “establishment” GOP will unite in impeaching him.
Haha- this is so ridiculous it’s almost funny. The appeal of Trump is that republicans “betrayed” us by “dealing with it” and not fighting Obama even harder… But like everything else involving trump, this requires a wiped short-term memory. I hope you don’t keep the toothpaste in the same cabinet with the fungal cream, Jim; with a memory like that, you’ll end up with a bad taste in your mouth. But then, you’re a trump guy. I’m sure you can convince yourself it tastes good.
Forecasting Bleg: Would all of the psychics please rub their crystal balls and tell me where April Crude Oil Futures are going to settle on Thursday afternoon so I can make a fortune and take Friday off.
Since everyone that knows exactly the election outcome including every Congressional seat if Trump is the nominee then something like Thursday’s crude oil settlement should be a chip shot.
Thanks.
Disagree. It’s exactly this type of thinking that assumed he wouldn’t catch on in the first place. Trump is exceptional at connecting with people, and talking about the issues people care about. And he fights, hard.
Hillary’s a terrible candidate. Bernie won’t even attack her, rambles angrily, and he’s getting ~50%. Trump will go after Hillary hard on her crimes and her abuse of Bill’s mistresses. In “obvious crony” versus “crony who’s turned and wants to tear it all down,” I like the latter’s chances.
Not saying he’s a lock to win. But he stands a very good chance.
You’re right to distrust politicians, as do I. But discovering that DC works differently than you thought as a candidate, or making bad decisions when faced with actual situations, is a lot different than Trump’s con-man act. He is playing (badly) the part of a conservative with the intent of deceiving a gullible public.
I believe that human nature limits politicians, which is why I believe in a strong Constitution, but these guys are not con-men, and Donald Trump absolutely is.
I cannot endorse this enough. We have to be capable of distinguishing ineptness from perfidy.
Democracy is not about the people always making the right choice. Democracy is about the people learning when they make the wrong choice. And Trump, while awful, is not a “country-ending” choice that justifies overruling the votes of the people. This isn’t Lincoln at the start of the Civil War.
You’re all arguing that our principles are important enough to justify abandoning any pretense of letting the base decide, assuming Trump will win out if the votes are counted. Newsflash: if Trump would win out when the votes are counted, in the Republican primary, it’s already over. Sorry guys. We had a Republic, we lost it. Welcome to the future.
Trump may use more boorish language, but the majority is DC is far more dirty and malicious about it.
I think that will result in people abstaining. We will likely have a very low voter turnout, but I don’t imagine independents going for Donald. I know many conservatives who would stay home, myself included.
I know you are being sarcastic, but there’s a difference between noting a general trend (Trump alienates many on the Right and is toxic to most independents and almost all Democrats) and being able to predict the precise price of a commodity on a given date.
That Hillary and the media will clean the floor with Trump is a bet I am willing to make. His vaunted “media prowess” is nothing more than the media doing what they always do and giving as much airtime as possible to the GOP candidate they think will be easiest to beat. That Trump is also a freakish curiosity does not hurt things.
There’s plenty of polling out there if you want to see what people think of Trump. I think he’s already given the media nearly all the ammo they need to destroy his candidacy, but he will be happy to provide more, if they point a camera at him.
Buried stories to look for once Trump is the nominee: his hotels employ illegal immigrants; he’s ruthlessly hurt countless “little people” to make money; his nasty fights with random people on Twitter.
On the last one think of what happens when Trump calls some teen “disgusting” or “repulsive” and the kid ends up in the hospital after a suicide attempt. Online bullying, anyone?
The media could not craft a better “heel” for the upcoming staged fight if they wanted to.
When did Ricochet turn into DailyKos?
Name a state Trump wins that Obama won.
I do think impeaching someone from your own party is much easier. The problem with a stupid Trump in office is that it would have been glaringly obvious he was stupid while running for office and was allowed to continue; actually encouraged by the press, talkers, and the party. Bob Dole would rather back him than Cruz.
Donald Trump the beauty pageant candidate.
Stan Fields: Miss Rhode Island, please describe your idea of a perfect date.
Cheryl “Rhode Island”: That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th. Because it’s not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.
In the Movie, Miss Rhode Island won.
Please, please. I would love to be able to vote in November.
Plenty of R’s would stay home, but plenty of dems would too- voter turnout is significantly lower this year in the Dem primaries versus ’08. They’re not excited over there, and the candidate who is getting excitement (Bernie) is gonna lose.
I don’t “imagine” independents going for Donald, but that’s who’s going for him right now. He definitely appeals to low-information voters. And if this is the year of “establishment vs outsider”, we really are picking the best chance by putting Trump up against Clinton.
You’re mistaking kinds, here… Maybe DC is corrupt, but that isn’t an argument in favor of Hillary, so why should it be an argument in favor of trump? I don’t buy the “everyone is the same” routine, but good grief, if they’re all liars and frauds, may as well vote Sanders, right? At least Rubio and Cruz get the words right even if they don’t believe them (which I think is false) trump gets the words wrong, AND he doesn’t believe them. On what planet is that an argument in favor of the guy?
Ryan, while you know I share some of your concerns about Trump, could you knock it off with the gross imagery? It’s coming across as really insulting.
Check out the polling. He’s toxic. It’s only going to get worse.
He’s connected with 1/3rd of GOP primary voters, which are only a tiny fraction of the population. He’s done more to alienate Republicans than any GOP candidate I have ever seen.
His talk on the issues is all over the place. The media is smart enough to hold off its attacks until the GOP makes the mistake of nominating him.
I think he will leave a bigger crater than SMOD when it’s all said and done.
Why? I’d rather have Clinton than Trump. So why don’t we back Sanders if ideology is out the window? Then at least when the country implodes, we can still hate socialism…
Will win? No idea. But I could see disaffected whites, combined with lower black turnout, flipping Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Whole rust belt would be a lot more competitive. Hispanics are concentrated in non-swing states, with the notable exception of Florida
Well, you may get your wish. (edit: and 2 likes already!)
What is your choice between Trump and Cruz?
Please add Nat Gas storage data for Thursday to the list of airtight forecasts and I will donate half the profits to Ricochet.
I love how everyone knows exactly what will happen in a general election could never in their wildest dreams imagine Trump running let alone running away from the field last year.
I’ve seen all the polling. I also remember when he went from total negative to frontrunner in the GOP. If he can’t get past 35% in the R primary, he won’t win anyway, so no need to rig it.
Your scenario of full-on media war will, of course, happen, if Trump gets the nomination. But Trump’s ability to generate a new controversy daily, and the public’s disdain for the media, makes this less effective against Trump than against a McCain or Romney.
Wait, so Trump dooms the country, but Clinton doesn’t?
We need to pin #82 to the sidebar of the member feed and use it as exhibit A to indict Ryan when Hillary wins.
I fully intended it that way. Skating on the CoC? Perhaps… But no more than “you’re desperate. Deal with it.”