As the unthinkable becomes the inevitable, Republicans across the country are coming to terms with the reality that Donald Trump may well be their nominee. Some are moving to support him. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that he could work with Trump. Former presidential candidate and centrist Republican Jon Huntsman said he would probably back Trump in the General Election. They’re the appeasers. Better to try to control him than resist him.
On the other extreme, Republicans are calling for an all-out effort to stop Trump. It’s probably a bit late for that and nobody knows how to do it anyway. The Donald is on a roll and rolling in the delegates. Campaigns that were scared to attack him last fall are regretting that decision today. Nobody thought he would make it this far.
Some Republicans are telling the truth on Trump. Newt Gingrich blamed Fox News for creating Trump. Lindsey Graham is still calling him out and shows no signs of trying to make up. I think Trump is the chicken coming home to roost. After years of fomenting anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment and allowing intolerance to flourish in their party, this is what they get.
The question for Democrats is whether Trump can win in November. So far, Trump has held sway with the media who use his insults and ridiculous policy suggestions to get good ratings. However, nobody is spending big bucks attacking him. Once he’s the nominee that will change. We’ll see if his lies and insults stand up to the scrutiny of a general election audience.
Republicans face a huge dilemma. If Trump is the nominee, he risks causing the type Democratic wave that swept Republicans into office in 2010. An electorate already more favorable to Democrats will get a boost from a negative reaction to Trump. In an election like that, even the House could flip.
If Trump somehow managed to become president, the Republican Party would almost certainly be in a shambles and that wave would just be put off until 2018. How much damage Trump could do to the country in the meantime, nobody knows. What is certain, though, is Donald Trump is the Republicans’ responsibility.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
If Trump became President, he would likely bring a Republican House and Senate with him.
At that point, if he tries to stray from the GOP line, he would soon be treated like NC’s Governor – which means even more intra-party fighting..
Since Congress has the power of the purse and of the veto, it will be a fight worthy of the Spartans vs the Athenians (and I don’t mean a sports team). Who would win and at what cost to the country?
The Republican Dream tag team … President Donald Trump and Vice President Jesse Ventura . Elected in Memory of their most Famous “Acting ” President His Eminence Saint Reagan…
As I watched a trump rally the other night, the one were Trump said “‘I Love the Poorly Educated!’ I noticed in horror that every one of the audience behind him were breathing through there mouth …
So Gingrich blames Fox for creating Trump? Pretty ironic since one could make the case that Gingrich helped in creating Fox. With is abrasive take no prisoners strategy, calling his opponents “the enemies of normal people,” his use of the Special Orders portion of House meetings to manipulate his questioning the patriotism of his opponents, etc. he brought what would become the Fox news style into the mainstream of the Republican party and now he accuses them of creating Trump.
Pretty galling and brazen, but then again that’s Newt Gingrich to a T.
If Trump gets the nomination, he will be the figurehead of a failed party. Through hateful bluster, he has galvanized a segment of our population who most thought were only vestiges of the Klan era. If we allow him to become President, America will become a banana republic run by a fascist oligarch. Is this what our country has become?
Accurate, but so sad that this is where the US stands today. I can’t help but think back to 7+ years ago when the sense of possibilities was so different. Yes, many of us knew it was unrealistic in some ways, but to dream about a more hopeful future in the midst of the most frightening recession of my life was still a far better situation than what I feel today as I watch Trump and the other GOP candidates. And Bernie’s supporters, while never as hateful as the Trump/Cruz group, are still negative at the core. I suspect that for them it is Bernie or no one, which also comes across as an ugly anger.
I also can’t help but wonder when the economic fall out from this anger and despair will really begin to be widely felt. Who spends money when they are scared and ticked off?
When I think of “failed” states or democracies lost, I never imagined I might be staring at my country as one of them.
With Trump seemingly cruising to the GOP nomination, the GOP can either (a) continue to demonstrate to all just how polarizing, divisive, hate-filled, rage-driven, and dysfunctional it has become by allowing/endorsing Trump as nominee, or (b) try to snuff out Trump’s candidacy before or at the convention. The latter course of action could trigger a 3rd party run by Trump, which would cost the GOP the presidency and wide-scale losses in November, but at least it would afford the party an early opportunity to hit its inner re-set button for 2018 and thereafter as a more inclusive, sober, and responsible political party.
Since at least 2000, the GOP has encouraged and banked on the baser instincts within the electorate, i.e., fear, anger, greed, and xenophobia, to win elections. Trump has swooped in as a lightning rod for all of those negative motivations. He is crass, inexperienced in governance, and uncaring. He is also unconstrained by the GOP establishment, or by the need for donations, or by the radical Freedom Caucus, or by king-makers like the Kochs. He’s the Frankenstein monster of the GOP’s own making.
Newt may be correct about Fox’s “Fox and Friends” created Trump, but that’s not why he is doing so well in the polls, and now delegates. I believe it’s because a majority of the Republican primary voters across the country will not support any of their establishment candidates during this election cycle. They have had enough of the lies told to them by other establishment candidates in the past. They would rather have Donald J. Trump than anyone else that’s running as an outsider, like a Fiorina, Carson, or even Cruz for that matter, because he projects confidence and is not PC. When the establishment endorsed Rubio (Haley,Scott,Gowdy) and Bush (Graham,Bush,Bush,Bush) in SC, it hurt them at the polls. Cruz got a last minute endorsement from Sanford, and that seemed to doom his chances as well. If you are going after the evangelical vote in SC, you don’t want Sanford’s endorsement, “That I can tell you”, to use a constant quote from the Donald.
The Republican primary voters of SC were mad with the establishment, and do not forgive them for past lies and promises. That’s why they showed up in record numbers, over 735,000, this past Saturday to make their voices heard.
To your point, the Republican Party was already in shambles before Trump, and is scrambling to keep control of the process even though it’s too late to do so. Politics is always about control, which means controlling the money. No one can control Trump, because he does not need, nor does he want, their money.
With the SC Democrat primary just 4 days away, I predict that Democrat primary voters will make the same statement as their Republican counterparts. Bernie Sanders, therefore, will end up with a much closer percentage to Hillary than previously thought, especially with the momentum from New Hampshire. It will be interesting to see what happens.