Republicans Are Throwing The 2016 Election: Here’s The Evidence
Republicans — or at least the so-called “Republican establishment” — appear to be getting their wish with Donald Trump.
After the last two weeks, the Trump Train has shown serious signs of slowing down, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz on his way to overtaking the caboose (or at least throwing a serious monkey wrench into “the Donald” getting nominated at a brokered convention).
Most political analysts agree that any attempt to nominate someone in such a manner who isn’t leading the pack with voters in the 2016 election cycle would result in a Democratic romp come November, regardless if it’s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders opposing the candidate of choice.
But I would attest that you’re not going to have to wait that long to anoint whomever the Democrats select as the next President of the United States, and I say that as a somewhat right-leaning libertarian who thinks that Hillary Clinton is a bigger danger to the United States than Trump ever could be.
After all, the woman has a clear and inarguable history of attempting to sell out the First Amendment, as evidenced by journalist Matt Welch’s disturbing detail of her anti-freedom of speech ways for Reason magazine.
She definitely wants to see the Second Amendment repealed. And her economic preferences are more Bernie Sanders-esque when it comes to the rest of America (just not for herself, as seen with the controversies surrounding her bought-and-paid-for corporate speeches and the shadiness surrounding them).
Sanders, while a genuinely good man, has an inept view of economics and couldn’t possibly accomplish a single thing he’s promised if elected to the White House.
By all accounts, Republicans should have had this election in the bag, but they’ve already lost it. Here’s how.
1. They’ve torched Trump.
As someone who has written at length on the primary cycle over the last eight months, I’ve seen more Donald Trump campaign speeches than I ever care to again.
The man repeats himself at every new engagement, and his policies are pretty vapid when it comes to the actual details.
He is 100 percent personality, and capable of inspiring great enthusiasm among a voter type that doesn’t usually participate in the process. That had the potential of being a secret weapon for Republicans come November.
Now the enthusiasm is dying out, and it seems like Trump himself is tired of fighting and just wants to go back to his businesses.
This is a direct result of the tens of millions of dollars in negative ads that Republicans have used to slow his momentum.
I win a state in votes and then get non-representative delegates because they are offered all sorts of goodies by Cruz campaign. Bad system!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2016
Essentially, they have destroyed their clear frontrunner before he even had a chance to get the nomination. While Trump is still likely to have more delegates than Cruz or Ohio Governor John Kasich at the time of the convention, he has been eviscerated for the general election as evidenced in the stunning nosedive he has taken in general election polling, according to Real Clear Politics.
2. Their only ‘fair’ alternative choice to Trump at a brokered convention is unelectable.
The U.S. is not a place that has written off Christianity, but there is an overwhelming majority of Americans that wants more populist solutions that encourage peace or coexistence among all the differing values.
Evangelical Christians like Cruz do not fit that bill, and as poorly as Trump may now do against the Democratic nominee, Cruz would see his general election bid come to a screeching halt because he would lose independents, who don’t want a Pastor-in-Chief as their President.
3. Republicans can’t nominate Kasich by vote, so they would have to do it the kiss-of-death way.
Yes, Kasich would probably win the vote of libertarians and other independents, who can’t stomach Hillary Clinton, but he has no way of getting to 1,237 by votes, so he would need a backdoor brokered convention, and that is the kiss-of-death to any candidate who gets it, since it usurps the votes of the people.
For these reasons, the Republicans are set to lose an election they clearly should have won. But then again, that may be exactly what the Republican establishment wants.
The only real value that anyone adheres to in Washington is big government. They run on “differences” over abortion and gay marriage and minimum wages and income inequality, but all any of them really want is as much centralized control in Washington as we’re willing to give them.
“@becker_berta: @vivhall3 @Reince Millions more will burn their Republican registration if GOP continues to subvert the will of the people.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2016
A vote for Democrats or Republicans isn’t really a vote for Democrats or Republicans. It’s a vote for what I call a Federalist super-party. That’s why Republicans aren’t really throwing this election. They’re gunning for the only outcome that preserves power in Washington — Hillary Clinton or any candidate other than Sanders or Trump.
But what do you think, readers?
Have Republicans already lost the election? Sound off in the comments section below.
[Image via Flickr Creative Commons / Gage Skidmore]
