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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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That is an interesting plan.
I think both Bush presidencies and Congressional Republicans did as much to tip over the stool as Trump. The others just took longer and did it more elegantly. Trump is kicking the thing out into the garage.
Trump isn’t running to be the Republican nominee, face of the party, and be supported by the RNC. He is running to take over the entire show. It isn’t pretty, but it is interesting.
Just what is it that you propose here? Invalidating his delegates at the convention or something?
Amen, Amen!!
The conservative movement, painstakingly built by WFB, Goldwater, Reagan, Gingrich, et al … along with conservative majorities in both houses of Congress will come to a screeching end with a Trump candidacy. Think 2009-2011, Democrat control of WH and both houses of Congress for a generation or more with the added benefit of a 6-3 liberal Supreme Court majority.
Agreed. The final candidate will be used as a symbol of the Republican brand by Democrats, Libertarians, independents, and many others. That ship probably sailed already, but they can limit the damage now.
That said, if Trump goes 3rd party, then the only way Republicans can win the presidency without those voters is if Bloomberg steals Democrat voters in a 4th-party run.
Yes, a 4th party. American politics might never be the same.
How could the RNC do such a thing? Remove him from the ballots as a Republican? Using what mechanism?
Douglas has a point. The delay until now would justifiably destroy the party’s credibility (further) in the states which have already held primaries. And it would create chaos among both remaining and former primary candidates.
Trump as a third party candidate would, by the time November comes around, attract as many Democrats as Republicans.
Only thing missing from this is how to do it. Otherwise, who exactly will be mourning the death of the RNC at this point?
Okay, but how does the RNC actually do this?
Perhaps appointing 9,999 Ricochet superdelegates would help.
This takes me back to the first question of the first Republican debate back in August, with which the RNC smugly expected to take Trump out:
Reince conveniently stood off stage, with his fingers crossed, I guess.
I don’t see how you “cut him loose.” Trump will be done if it comes down to a two-man race early enough. First thing to do is get Kasich and Carson out of the way. They need to go for the good of the country.
Can the RNC back a candidate who repudiates its entire platform? I don’t see how it can without utter incoherence.
We are in a serious pickle.
I really hope Cruz and Rubio join forces sooner rather than later.
Rubio is busy calling Cruz an out and out liar. I wouldn’t hold my breath on such an alliance.
Taking him out now will destroy the GOP. His disciples will burn the party down and he will go 3rd party, taking them with him.
Having him as the nominee will destroy the GOP. Lots of principled conservatives will stay home or vote 3rd party. I know I will. He’s toxic to independents and Democrats, and that’s before the media onslaught that will come as soon as he’s picked.
There are lots of moderate Republicans and swing voters who are going to take one look at this train wreck and bolt and say “No way.” His crazy anger, which is what his fans love about him, turns off so many people. The media will amplify it.
The thing is, even if, by some miracle, Trump loses fair-and-square his supporters will burn down the Party and he will go third party.
All scenarios lead to President HRC. Unbelievable. It’s almost like it was engineered this way.
I agree with you. Ultimately Trump will harm Conservatives more than help them–since he isn’t one. I just can’t figure out how to remove him without serious damage–to our cause.
The candidates have been divorced from the platform for a while.
Not me. However, those that fear HRC may disagree.
One solution would be to move the date when winner-take-all primaries are allowed from March 15th to May 15th. Then Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and several others would move from WTA to proportional. That would make it impossible for anyone to win the nomination with just 35% of the vote.
South Carolina was winner-take-all but the one exception before March 15th.
That’s what I’d like to know. How is this done? And why wasn’t it done months ago?
Churchill sunk the French fleet at Oran.
An organization with a low bar to membership always sets itself up for opportunists. It takes a lot of work and time to build an organization, and business man Trump knows that at 69 he doesn’t have much time. . It is much easier to jump into something pre-made. Happens to social groups all the time. Scouting is and example. It still enjoys a good name too.
I worked for a mid sized company that hired the President of the company they aquirred (that was a competitor) to run both companies. It was rumored that he said the best way to destroy the parent company was by going to work for them. By the time he was shown the door, all that was left was for the owners to clean up and sell what was left.
I have been given no reason to believe that Trump hasn’t been running for Hillary all along. I think that is his goal. He sounds like a parody of Colbert, who was a liberal pretending to be a conservative. It is obvious that he has no idea what conservatism is, equating it roughly to a list of character flaws. I find it interesting that trump embodies everything that liberals always claim we are. I find it horrifying how many of his supporters are prepared to embrace that.
Except that he chose the Republican banner initially, which is anathema to many voters who might otherwise warm to him. We’re talking about people who dismiss anything on Fox News as lies and think every Republican is a heartless, stingy warmonger.
As a 3rd-party candidate, Trump would steal more Republican votes than Democrat votes.
Is that still possible at this late of a date?
The only downside I see is that Trump will cry “Cheating!”–and he’d have a point–and go third party, taking a sizable portion of his voters with him. That all-but-guarantees the Democrats win in November, but I’d rather lose with Rubio or Cruz than win with Trump.
As I said… The biggest indicator that he is a fake. He plays like a bad Hollywood depiction of a conservative, written by people who have never met one.
Could the Conservative Party or the Constitution Party (or both) nominate someone like Rick Perry (whose Republican career is over)? Maybe he could win enough southern and western states to throw the election into the House.
A political exorcism. Both the conservatives and the GOP elites and anyone else with a right of center governing philosophy must cast Trump out by any means necessary.
Granted, the GOP elites appear to have no governing philosophy whatsoever, but simple self-preservation should be incentive enough.
After Trump is cast out then the GOP elites and the Tea Party Movement can resume that death-match Trump has so rudely interrupted.
So, basically the whole spirit of this is, “We’re going to cut our throats, but at least we’ll be pure”.
I have been been saying for months now that Trump is the Clinton’s Judas goat. #calledit
Let him say what he wants. In theory, he shouldn’t care if he is so confident of winning. Running as an independent may syphon more votes away from the Democrats. Since he is no conservative.
Someone will have to take a lesson from Mr. Worf:
https://youtu.be/JspTr5TdR4k?t=40s
Which Republican has true Klingon blood flowing through his veins?
I imagine the RNC has the full compliment of edge weapons ready for situations like this.