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Are You #NeverTrump?
For months, we’ve speculated, theorized, and (occasionally) hyperventilated over how we’ll vote in the general election. So — with the stipulations that the following poll makes no pretense of scientific accuracy and that the Ricochetti have polled quite differently than Republicans at large — let’s shed a little light on how members of The Smartest Conversation on the Right intend to vote this coming November:
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I said on one of the other threads that any elected national-office holder in the Republican party should support the party nominee. I also think anyone that ran for the Republican nomination and lost should support the party nominee. Fortunately, as a lay-person, I am under no such obligation.
At least one #NeverTrump-er (IE me) agrees here. I voted for Rubio, but if Trump can’t get 1237, the runoff needs to be between him and Cruz. Anyone else, even Rubio, would lack legitimacy. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or whatever fever dream David Brooks is dreaming up are right out.
I am thinking of a scenario where they try to draft a Paul Ryan or Mitch Daniels, etc.
Presidential election years are driven by enthusiasm.
Republicans may be able to win without the enthusiasm and support of Trump’s primary voters or Cruz’s primary voters consistent with your thesis.
I propose Republicans have no chance of winning absent the enthusiasm of both of those groups.
I could not disagree more strongly. I would actively work to defeat any Republican candidate who supports Trump.
To me #NeverTrump and #NeverHillary go hand in hand. Both of them are crooked crony capitalists who want to President just so they can put it on their resumes. I’m not voting for one or the other just because one happens to have an R next to his name.
I understand, but there are different levels of support.
Saying “I’ve been a member of the Republican Party all my life and I will honor the decision of the party and support the nominee” is VERY different than saying “I think Donald Trump is the person this country needs right now,” at least to me.
But, everyone has to go their own way. I don’t begrudge people who vote for Trump because they think he is less evil than Hillary, even if I don’t think I can do it.
If nominated, I will not run! If elected, I will serve. (I just don’t want to run.)
No wonder Trump has surged up to 3%.
What if we got you a Segway? Would you roll for office?
Not quite Shermanesque. In fact, isn’t it close to the inverse of Buckley – I will run, but if elected I demand a recount!
You don’t think that our distancing from constitutional principles has enabled people like Barack Obama to do things that early Americans would look at today and say “I thought we guarded against that” ?
I hesitate to misstate you by saying “if you don’t think the constitution is relevant today…,” but I’m finding it difficult to read this comment any other way. I know that Burke wasn’t a founding father, but surely he influenced them; do you disagree with his skepticism regarding direct democracy?
Personally, I think we should bar anyone that seeks the Presidency from ever holding it. Plato understood that the person we need to run our government is smart enough to not want to run our government, however incompatible that belief is with our current democracy
Further, I think part of Trump’s appeal is that he isn’t really sure if he wants the job.
I’ve long advocated a return to the original Electoral College, where we nominate some local person that we trust to go to a convention in Washington that elects the next President. I think there is great wisdom in that process our founders created that we have discarded along the way.
I live in Lynden, Washington, which is almost like another country. You can all come here. We have a well, and a garden, and soon we’ll get eggs from the chickens. And we have ammo. Lots of it.
Yeah, he could go from 2% to 4%. It could be a banner year.
Then you are having a very bad day reading comments counselor.
What does the Constitution have to do with the nomination rules of a private organization?
Republicans, whether legislating in Congress or nominating a Presidential candidate have proven repeatedly their lack of interest in adhering to the Constitution. Unfortunately for us the Constitution only applies to the former.
Lynden is beautiful, you sir (or madam) are a very lucky person.
I hadn’t considered that the convention might choose someone who hadn’t run, only that they might choose someone other than Cruz, Rubio, or Trump.
I don’t agree with Brent that the ability to run a campaign is necessarily important. And I like the idea of someone other than the also-rans becoming President. This has Frank Underwood written all over it.
Ricochet needs to work a sponsorship deal with Segway. The ad copy has so many options, “Love Lileks’ segues on the podcast? Get your very own Lileks Segway from the Ricochet store.”
I’m not sure I want a segway that is constantly being stopped by somebody else.
The number of Republican superdelegates is only about 7% of the total. That means that, unlike the Dems, the GOP Party apparatus has virtually no control over who is selected as the nominee at the convention. The nominee will be whoever the delegates pick, and the delegates are overwhelmingly the people elected in the primaries and caucuses.
That means that if Trump has a plurality, but someone else wins the nomination, one of two things has happened. Either some of Trump’s own delegates have turned on him, or all of the other delegates (a majority) have spoken with a single voice against Trump.
Either way, Trump would have no legitimate claim that the voice of the voters had been overridden. There is no GOPe boogeyman pulling strings from some smoke-filled room. The delegates are 93% elected. The rules committee is made up of those selfsame delegates. All the claims that “they” are planning to steal the nomination are total nonsense. There is no “they.”
Maybe the 2016 Presidential campaign is the reason behind the Constitutional amendment mentioned in Arthur C. Clarke’s Imperial Earth. Set in 2276, it’s mentioned that the U.S. President is chosen by lottery from eligible citizens and if a person ever shows interest in the Presidency, his name is withdrawn from the pool. It’s been years since I read the book, so the details might not be entirely correct.
I am still confused by this line of argument. The founders did not want political parties and did not put anything in the Constitution regarding the Presidential nominating process for a political party. The parties already make new rules every four years.
Could you please explain the tie between the Constitution and the internal workings of the Republican Convention?
You needed a choice that said – I will not vote for Hillary or Trump, but will vote down ticket.
For me staying home is not an option, but neither are Hillary or Trump.
This election cycle is going to cause me to start drinking.
No, I wasn’t trying to be technical, and yes I know that the republican party was not designed by our founding fathers. I was simply referring to the fact that most of our rules seem designed to counterbalance the more dangerous aspects of direct democracy.
The 55% of Ricochetti who, at this hour, will vote third party if the Donald is nominated might as well vote for HRC.
I prefer the villain I can oppose to the villain I am responsible for.
I am not surprised, given the way the poll was worded.
A-Squared seems to be expressing a common sentiment among Ricochetians that may cause them them to prefer the #NeverTrump option in this poll over the #MaybeTrump option, even though they’re not committed #NeverTrump-ers:
I suspect that there are many Ricochetians who are #MaybeTrump, but for low enough values of #Maybe that their current state is better approximated by the #NeverTrump option.
Well, that is an option. If there is any real risk that my state will go for Trump, that’s the way I will have to vote. I just hope it doesn’t happen.
The risk of international destabilization and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East as well as Russian attacks on Europe is too great to allow me to vote in any way that might favor a Trump presidency.
So were you looking for a “Really don’t want Trump but aren’t committed to #NeverTrump?”