Garbage in, garbage out.
I’ve spent a lot of time recently arguing that the Republican party only has itself to blame for its current predicament, which is that it has assholes and demagogues leading the polls, and that they’ve been leading the polls for months, without any sign of abatement. Oh yeah, and they have the inexplicable Ben Carson.
The Republican establishment is getting increasingly nervous about the possibility of reaping what they have sown. So, they have been mumbling about the possibility of a brokered convention. A brokered convention is what we used to have before presidential primaries became all de rigueur. It’s the proverbial power-brokers sitting in smoke-filled backrooms deciding who is going to run for President.
The last President to be elected from a brokered convention is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. There was a possibility that the 2008 Democratic Convention would be brokered if neither Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton could get the required majority of pledged delegates before the Convention.[1]
Garbage in, garbage out.
Right wing talk radio, Fox News, and the Republican Party have thrown so much red meat at the American public, that a good portion of the American public now resonates with demagogues like Donald Trump. Trump supporters don’t trust the establishment or the news media. At all. They find his willingness not only to be politically incorrect – but to be patently racist and offensive – to be “refreshing.” Finally, someone is speaking out loud their own incoherent animus. And Trump keeps defying revered political wisdom by doubling down on his inflammatory remarks, and his devoted fanbase keeps doubling down with him.
The problem for Republicans is that this fanbase is limited. And it doesn’t include the great unwashed political middle, the unregistered and undecided voters, the ones that have to be won over to win an election.
Garbage in, garbage out.
The problem with a brokered convention is that Donald Trump and Ben Carson won’t stand for it. Trump has already threatened to break away, and a brokered convention would give him every excuse to run as a 3rd party candidate. He has the money to fund himself. But now even the inexplicable Ben Carson is saying that he would leave the Republican Party in the event of a brokered convention, and that he too could run as a 3rd party candidate.
Good luck Republicans. You are reaping what you have sown.
Garbage in, garbage out.
[1] Of course, Obama did get a majority of pledged delegates in the end, but not by much.
Very interesting commentary, Juergen. Of course, while it is easy to be cynical, the stakes related to the impact of the rhetoric are high. So I do hope that the Republican party can find a successful solution.
Does Trump really want to be President or is he simply on a massive ego trip? It might suit him NOT to be the official Republican candidate, and to lose the election as an independent, with the added bonus of of being able to say to the Republican fixers “you would have won if you had stuck with me.” The scenario that scares the s**t out of me is that America might elect him as an independent, and he would then be free of the restraints which would be entailed on an official Republican candidate.