Following Trump’s recent comments about the Hispanic judge in his Trump University case, there has been another outcry among Republicans to replace Trump as our nominee. Yesterday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called Trump’s recent remarks the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” Doesn’t sound like he’s on the Trump Train.
Is it still possible to replace Trump? The simple answer is yes. A week prior to the convention the Rules Committee could change the rules. It’s our party, our rules. The rules can be changed and delegates unbound on the first ballot. From the Washington Post:
Curly Haugland, a longtime Republican National Committee member from North Dakota, is an outspoken advocate for unbinding delegates. He has long been dismissed by party leaders — one former RNC official said that he is on a “watch list of troublemakers” — but Haugland is so devoted to the idea that he is publishing a new e-book, “Unbound,” set for release this week.
“The delegate freedom movement’s alive and well,” Haugland said in an interview. With several states yet to elect their delegations, Haugland is hopeful that “by the time the delegates are seated and ready to vote, 100 percent of them will know they’re free to vote however they want to.”
Earlier today on his radio talk show Hugh Hewitt argued that the Republican Party must change the rules at the Convention,
“It’s like ignoring stage-four cancer. You can’t do it, you gotta go attack it,” Hewitt said. “And right now the Republican Party is facing — the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours.”
Hewitt added that he disagreed with Lindsey Graham and Mark Kirk who have said they will not vote for the nominee.
“I wanna support the nominee of the party, but I think the party ought to change the nominee. Because we’re going to get killed with this nominee.”
“I have never said that!” he stressed. “I waited until after the primary was over, I stayed Switzerland to the end, and in 72 hours, dovetailed to that.”
“They ought to get together and let the convention decide,” he concluded. “And if Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next 4 to 5 weeks, great, they can keep him. It would be better if he had done so 5 weeks ago.”
We elected delegates to the National Convention to represent us. If they feel nominating Trump is not in our best interests because he can’t possibly win the Presidency, they owe it to us to replace him as the nominee. Reince Priebus should not be controlling the rules of our party. Our party, our rules. More from the Post:
Eric O’Keefe, a longtime conservative activist favoring term limits and changing RNC rules, said that concerns about Trump’s nomination present “a great opportunity to revive the party as an independent institution.”
Delegates sent to a convention “are not agents of the state party and they’re not agents of the state government when they’re convened in Cleveland,” he said.
“What we’re experiencing here is a Priebus-led power grab of the delegates,” O’Keefe added. “The headquarters staff doesn’t trust delegates and it wants to increase its own power. It doesn’t want delegates making the big decisions.”
Delegates are exactly who should be making the big decisions! That’s what we elected them to do. We didn’t elect Reince Priebus!
Another way Trump can be replaced at the convention is a “conscience clause.” From Heavy.com :
Some delegates have suggested proposing a “conscience clause” to the RNC Rules Committee. This would be a rule that stipulates that delegates should generally vote for who they are assigned, unless the candidate in question fundamentally contradicts the delegate’s set of beliefs.
Guy Short, Republican delegate from Colorado, plans to introduce this clause at the upcoming convention, and if adopted, it would mean that thousands of Trump’s delegates could suddenly become free agents if they feel voting for him would violate their conservative principles. It would no longer matter how any of the delegates’ states voted in the primary.
Ted Kennedy tried this at the Democrat Convention in 1980. It didn’t work then, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t work at our convention.
More here from Business Insider. Ace of Spades asks ” Who is the GOP Going to Install as Its Nominee Instead of Trump”?
132 comments
[…] Should Republicans change the convention rules and replace Trump? […]
[…] We previously reported the comments of conservative Hugh Hewitt. He too is questioning the possibility of a replacement for Trump at the convention. […]
The course suggested in the linked article might be a better solution than asking the delegates to dump Trump at the convention. Dumping Trump at the convention runs the very high risk of alienating his supporters, which would hurt down ballot conservatives. But if a conservative runs independent, conservatives can show up to vote for him, populists can show up to vote for Trump, and both can vote for the down ballot republicans. Might be the best way to try to salvage a bad situation. http://www.weeklystandard.com/an-open-letter-to-mitt-romney/article/2002732/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=20160608_TWS-blog-open-letter-romney-6_facebook.com&utm_content=TWS
I would never vote Republican again. I do not like Trump, but the people have spoken.
To steal an Erick Erickson quote: “The will of the people is crap.” The Founders knew that something like this might happen, that’s why we are a Republic not a democracy, to prevent people like Trump from getting into office and turning it into their own personal mafia position.
A republic is simply a government constituted of representatives of the people. That does not mean “the will of the people is crap”. In our republic the people don’t vote on every little thing, but they darn sure get to vote for their own representatives. The Republican party ran a primary and the voters decided our representative should be Trump. Now you are suggesting we should overthrow that decision with a cabal of party insiders to install some other candidate that you personally like better… a very dangerous idea. When the party leadership and the base decide they don’t like each other, I guarantee the base will win every time. The leadership isn’t going to find a new base. The base is going to find new leadership. That’s why Trump won in the first place!
This Republic is a government that has checks on the process of democracy via it’s system of governmental representation in order to insure mob rule doesn’t happen. We are not, nor have we ever been, a pure democracy because they don’t work. The pure will of the people is the will of the mob, the vocal few who scream the loudest and cuss the most.
The “will of the people” argument for Trump is an excuse, used since the early days on the primaries when Trump was winning pluralities.
A cabal installing a candidate that I personally like? No, this has been going on for quite literally over a hundred years. The party system *always* chooses the leader via system of proctors to prevent unfit people from getting the nomination in spite of the “the will of the people” who sometimes, like now, choose a caricature over a candidate.
Actually, the base usually loses in the Republican primaries. Case in point, we got Romney, McCain, and Bush, three moderates, stepping up to represent us.
“Fall on their sword?” Who is doing that? Erickson, Beck, Loesch, Sasse, Cruz, possibly Cuccinelli, French, Levin, you think these people are going away? They are becoming more popular and gaining more influence, not less.
A good example of that is that Renee Ellmers, Trump’s big supporter and his big endorsement, got crushed in her primary. Chris Christie? His popularity has plummeted since he came out for Trump.
The party will be destroyed by Trump either way. He’ll lose to the Democrats and his supporters will tear the party apart, bringing it down with them. Or, we’ll kick them out and reform the party before this election. Either way, the current Republican party dies.
Your rant is full of straw-men. First, I made no argument for pure democracy; a republic is simply representative government as I said above. Second, you seem to be confused that the “will of the people” doesn’t apply in a republic; the will of the people most certainly does apply in our republic; the people choose their representatives. Third, the party is not a republic anyway. The party chooses the procedure for candidate nomination through mass meeting, convention, primary, or canvass. The party chose primary, with partial binding of delegates at a convention. It is you who are advocating a deviation from the party rules, by throwing out the results of the primary. That is exactly how a cabal operates. Fourth, I love Cuccinelli, Levin, et al. but their popularity has nothing to do with the issue. Fifth, your prediction of election results is your own irrelevant opinion. You don’t know the results of the election anymore than I do. Sixth, the Republican party has lost many elections before and it didn’t die. Losing an election will not kill the Republican party. However, betraying the Republican base as you are advocating will surely kill the Republican party. The entire reason Trump defeated his 16 other Republican rivals is because of prior betrayals of elected Republicans. The base is in the process of getting rid of people that betray them. And here you are advocating the biggest betrayal of all.
Rant? Please, I was expressing my opinion in a logical way. My point was, and still is, that a Republic has checks on Democracy, which is the will of the people, because the will of the people turns into the will of the mob.
The party is a system that is serves the Republic by choosing who will be part of the process, the people chosen to be elected officials are chosen by the party to make sure they are quality individuals instead of whoever is most popular at the time. Another check on the will of the people.
Deviation presumes that this hasn’t been done before and that it isn’t in place to insure that a single group doesn’t take over. In fact there are rules already in place to prevent the delegates from having to violate their beliefs by voting for someone they find unfit for office. To top that off, we’ve had quite a few nominees picked by conventions who weren’t the delegate leaders going in. How badly did they cry that their nomination was stolen? Yet it happened.
When it’s blatantly obvious that something isn’t going to work, like running a racist candidate, saying that it isn’t going to work is just pointing out the obvious. And if my opinion is irrelevant, yours is equally so.
Yes, holding to principles is certainly a betrayal. That’s if my loyalty is to Donald Trump and his mob and not to the ideals which Republicans claim to uphold.
Sickened me to see Obama on Jimmy Fallon last night when asked whether he thought Republicans were happy with their choice. He paused and then responded “we are.”
The Never Trumpers do realize that Trump has made history w/receiving the most votes in the GOP primary ever? If you are such patriotic Americans why can’t you accept that the American people have spoken and the majority rules? Trump won fair and square. To change the rules at the convention w/his historical win would be CHEATING, as well as robbing all the people that turned out to make him the nominee. Besides who do you think the handful of you are that you know better than anyone else?
Trump beat out 16 other people w/out fraud and lies. Sorry your guy lost but quit being a petty, snobbish, sore losers. I hated when barry won, but he won, I had to deal w/it. It is really quite something to see grown adults crying like babies. Did your parents not teach you anything about sportsmanship, or all of you trophy kids?
The GOP denies Trump there will be blowback like never before. I would think long and hard before doing something so stupid.
Ruby I’m aware Trump has received the most votes ever in a GOP primary. I’m also aware he received the most votes against a candidate in GOP history.
Sometimes people become so committed to their positions that they decide to see only the worst in people who disagree with them. You seem to feel that is the case with the people posting here, but are you sure you are not choosing to see the worst in others?
Where is it written that changing the procedural rules at a convention is cheating?
How did you arrive at the conclusion that anybody here, myself included, feels he/she is “better” than anybody else?
How did you reach conclusion that the procedures being discussed aren’t consistent with the Specific intent of the framers of the Constitution? (I would underline and bold the word “specific” if I could)
If I posted links to facts about Trump and facts about the design of our electoral system, would you believe them?
How did you reach the conclusion that I am worthy of your contempt and not a middle class, hard working, lifetime conservative, frequent voting, community volunteering, veteran, father, and husband?
I encourage you to criticize the merits of what people say but avoid making value judgements of people you have not met. They may be speaking truth. They may be trying to help. They may be people who have served you as public servants, firefighters, police, EMTs, or military personnel.
You never know.
Donald Trump won the nomination fair and square, he is who the American people voted for. You either love this country and you get him into office to save us from Hillary or you are a POS. That is my judgement of people I have not met, people I have met, and people I know very well, as it is my opinion, you don’t like it? Too bad. I prefer to do my part as a middle class, hard working, no longer “conservative”, always a voter, community volunteer, sister, daughter, girlfriend, patriot, to save my country, not to bring it to its demise.
I absolutely despise the whining, crying, self-rightous, bitter loser Never Trumpers. Our nation is at war on many levels and some of us want to save it, some do not, this is our last chance. The GOP has betrayed us, and it is the GOP that brought us Donald Trump. Some people can see the bigger picture, know the truth about what is going on, and others choose to stay in their own little bubble. Sorry, but the Super Bowl or the World Series doesn’t get a do over because your team lost, and neither do the Never Trumpers. Get over it and do your job as a Patriot if you are going to claim to be one, get Trump elected. He will not be perfect, but he is better than the alternative.
Sorry Michael, playing the uniform card is LAME, and whenever anyone plays it, it tells me exactly who they are. You should be ashamed of yourself. I am in a military family, a family member did three tours in OIF/OEF and my family is paying dearly for the price of those tours. I am living w/what George W. Bush and Barrack Insane Obama has done mentally, emotionally, and physically to my family and many, many friends that are dealing w/their scars. I have lost several good friends to suicide because of the uniform. Not to mention I have numerous friends that are firefighters and cops, some pulling double duty as Veterans. And I have done more than my fair share as a support system giving my time and treasure over the years to do whatever I can to assist and honor those that wear the uniform of their choice. So how dare you spout the uniform to someone you don’t know in a political argument. It is offensive. People that wear the uniform can be jerks, the uniform doesn’t make them immune, you prove case in point. You are definitely worthy of my contempt. So bless your little heart, in military language, Foxtrot Oscar.
Is this my country? Loyalty tests? Unrestrained anger? Insults? Shaming? Hypocrysy? Is this what we aspire to be?
I believe I told you to Foxtrot Oscar, now go away. Go put on your uniform and pretend to be something you are not.
Records tend to be broken when you have both parties voting in the same primary.
I just came across this article which expresses more on the subject, It’s very good, worth a readhttp://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/08/trump-advisor-hugh-hewitt-should-be-banned-from-the-convention-for-calling-for-our-leaders-ouster/
Is everybody ignoring the fact that no candidate ever has received as many votes as Trump? The individuals have spoken.. LOUD n CLEAR!
Oh so now you all are catching on. I’ve only been saying change the rules for a couple of months now. C’mon, get with the program. Kill the party and get it over with. Watch the house and senate turn blue. You don’t want Trump, then be a Dem. Do It!
They do this, they lose everything down ballot….
What makes you think we won’t lose down ballot with Trump on the top? Barbara Comstock seems to think he’s not good for her re-election as do several Senators with more dropping off the bandwagon.
Because he was chosen by a very fed up voting base. If their choice is ignored they will punish the GOP.
33%. That’s not a mandate.
LMAO! Let’s all listen and do what Barbara Comstock says because it might not be good for her re-election, especially since she has been just so wonderful///
I do believe the media, along with all the pundits, (both broadcast and armchair activists) have been predicting the demise of the Trump campaign since he announced last year. How’s those predictions working out so far for you?
I encourage all of you to turn off the radio, and the TV, and go talk to the working man and woman on the street. They don’t have the time, or the energy for all the political posturing that happens here.
What they do know, in their gut, is that there are a multitude of changes in this country being shoved down their throats, and they have had enough. These changes are being foisted on America by Republicans and Democrats alike, from the 535 people in DC, down to your local City Council, Board of Supervisor’s, or local school board.
Trump threatens the huge money making party that is going on down in DC by both political sides. Why do you think both sides are trying to destroy him?
Keep on this track, and a spark will be lit to the anger in this Country that is barely being held in check.
Well, the polls don’t show that but I hope you’re right. I also hope Trump has learned his lesson and will finally begin to watch what he says and stop spouting things that sound racist to the average person. Why is he even talking about his lawsuit? No one cares!
Quite frankly, the “average person” doesn’t believe that he sounds racist. The only people who feel that way, are the ones who are told to feel that way, by the so-called “media”. The reason he is talking about the lawsuit is because the judge scheduled to hear the case has deep ties to LaRaza (surely you have heard of them). And since the so-called “media” perpetuates the myth that Trump is racist, he has a point. Like him or not, Trump is a master at manipulating the media. He’s had at least thirty five years of living his life in the media, he’s probably the only candidate who will be able to control them (at least as long as those who don’t want Hillary to win help him out).
Dody if Trump is as you say a master manipulator of the media — who can control them — how is it they are perpetuating myths abut his racism? And if I hear him say racist, sexist, indecent things about people on live tv, how is that a myth?
Are you sure you aren’t listening to somebody who is telling you to be angry?
Trump doesn’t sound racist to racists. I’ve been surprised how many are still around. This cycle has brought them out of the woodwork.
Because the media brought it up. Jeez.
Dody is correct — Trump is certain to exploit moves against him to his advantage with frustrated American voters.
That is why the response to Trump should not have its basis in the GOP’s dislike of Trump or their feverish moves to save an election. Although the latest polls indicate he will lose http://thebullelephant.com/iowa-electronic-market-predictions/, he should not be rejected for that reason. He should be rejected because he is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe, and a man of questionable integrity. The betrayed working man and woman on the street deserve better. The American people deserve better.
Deceiving don IS the money in Washington, or haven’t you paid attention? He’s supported every big wig lib in Washington. He can’t fix the problem bc he’s part of that problem. Good grief. Quit listening to the turd throwing chimp and do some research.
Trump was unfit to call himself a Republican from the day he started running. Priebus and the GOP poo-bahs dropped the ball starting there. Trump is unfit to serve as president. Would the GOP please grow a spine?
There’s little chance of that happening.
You need to get this straight. WE THE PEOPLE have chosen Trump. We understand that YOU, the old political elite, don’t like him because your livelihood is threatened. Too F ing bad. Either get on the Trump Train or get the F out of the way. We want a new Sheriff in DC.
How does Trump threaten my livelihood or that of Mr. Hewitt? He doesn’t.
More precisely, we the people have chosen the delegates. It is up to delegates to translate the sometimes passionate reactions of voters into candidate selection. We’re in a democratic republic, not a democracy.
Like the design of the government itself in the House and Senate, one part makes one decision and the other moderates that decision. In this case, that’s a good thing.
Nobody dislikes Trump because he threatens their livelihood. We don’t have to look that hard for reasons to dislike Trump.
Trump threatens my sensibilities. He is an obnoxious, inarticulate, thin-skinned braggart given to reckless and incoherent speech. My livelihood is just fine thank you.
Well said.
I got to see good leaders and poor leaders in my time in the Service. Same with many other vets I know, included my combat-wounded father. We all see the markings of an effective leader in Trump. Or would you rather “Mr. Rogers” keep losing to the dems when it matters?
Nothing more dangerous than someone who does not recognize their weaknesses, and thus make an effort to overcome them. A megalomaniac, of course, has no weaknesses.
Oh shut up. That shtick is boring. There is nothing new about deceiving don. He’s everything you trumpeteers say you hate. Who do you think has funded the liberals? He’s on the buying end. And, plz, stop with the “he’s a business man” bs. He’s as corrupt as any politician, he just hasn’t held an office. He’s a loud mouthed turd throwing chimp. And, he cannot win with 33% and that’s where his support lies. So, really, stop with all that tired crap. It’s old. Like him.
It isn’t going to happen. The people at the convention are not going to do this. Never. Ever. Nothing short of Jim Jones Kool-Aid could induce this many people to lose their minds and commit political group suicide on national TV. It will never happen. Trump won, and he is going to be the Republican candidate.
And he will lose, big. If Republicans nominated ANY other Republican candidate we would easily be Hillary. By the same token, if Democrats had put up any candidate other Hillary, Trump would stand even the slightest chance of winning. They are both such deeply flawed candidates.
You are right that both candidates are flawed. But they are the candidates anyway. You don’t know the outcome of an election that is five months away, and neither do I. But I do know we have to get over this and we have to start working to ensure a Republican win and Democrat defeat.
“You are right that both candidates are flawed.”
So flawed, in fact, that I cannot in good conscience support either.
Neither candidate is a Republican, and voters aren’t going to get over racism, sexism, and shallow lip service to Christian or Conservative ideals.
Trump isn’t worth supporting, that’s all there is to it.
Wake up and smell the napalm, Frank. Trump’s penchant for acrimony got him a minority of popular votes from a group that won’t grow in the general election. Je will lose in the general election.
The nominee has not been chosen. The primary elections have been held and the delegates have been chosen.
This situation is why the framers avoided a straight up democracy.
You’re obsessed with a fantasy that is not real. Your dream of dumping Trump is completely absurd. You will never get the convention delegates to act like a bunch of frightened lemmings and just destroy themselves in unison. It ain’t gonna happen.
Trump is radioactive. His nomination will threaten the reelection of every Republican in the house and senate. Delegates will be forced to choose between these two options:
1. Trump runs and is defeated
GOP loses majority in house
GOP loses majority in senate
2. Another candidate is selected and may be defeated
GOP keeps majority in house
GOP keeps majority in senate
I believe the delegates will see blind allegiance to Trump as the self destructive course of action. The only lemmings in this conversation are the ones who are have given in to their frustration and closed their eyes to the totally unsatisfactory candidate known as Donald Trump.
I’d love to put some money on that bet.
On which specific part?
I’ve never placed a bet with a Showtime character before. Is that possible, or do you plan to use your big kid name?
You say “I believe the delegates will see blind allegiance to Trump as the self destructive course of action”.
I say that is BS. They will NOT dump Trump. $100. I trust Jeanine to hold in escrow and I’ll send it to her. Are you willing to do the same?
Not as long as you continue to use your troll name. Legal, searchable, big kid names only, Mr. Spacey.
Well then let’s just leave the money out of it. You and I will both know who was right and who was wrong after the convention. If I’m wrong I’ll be happy to acknowledge so.
And I insist on names. I am well aware that posting using one’s legal name allows others to pass value judgements, ridicule, and even do worse. I use my name because these discussions need to remain sober and they won’t if we aren’t accountable for what we write.
If you aren’t willing to put your name by your words, you should probably reconsider what you are saying.
And I have a better idea on the accounting. Winner chooses the charity, loser pays $100 to it.
I choose the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. As the Casualty Assistance Calls Officer for a local family whose son had been killed in an ambush in Iraq, I was confronted with the federal government’s inability to move the Marine’s personal belongings back from his new place of residence (he was in the reserves and had not updated his files before deploying to Iraq). His family was suffering every bit as much as you might expect, so the last thing I wanted to do was slap a $12,000 moving bill on their kitchen table. At a friend’s suggestion, I called MCLEF in New York City. I began with “Good morning sir, my name is Michael Parkyn. The Marine Corps assigned me to be a CACO and…”
“Stop,” the man on the other end of the phone interrupted. “You’re helping the family of a fallen Marine. Your word is good enough. Give me the amount and the address. It will go in the mail immediately.”
I passed the information to him, and our conversation ended. He was good for his word. I can’t adequately convey how much MCLEF’s gesture meant to a distraught family.
So there’s my pitch for MCLEF. What’s your charity of choice, and why, whoever you are?
Fair enough. I’ll go for that. Your charity sounds very worthy. But I’m going to have to think a bit about what kind of charity would be appropriate to have your donation. I’ll get back to you in a bit.
After Donald Trump is formally nominated at the convention, you can make your $100 donation to the Eric Trump Foundation, which is dedicated to raising money for children battling life-threatening diseases at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
On the John Frederick’s show in early June I predicted on air that the candidate who hammered on the economy, the immigration nightmare, and terrible corporate trade pacts, would win the primary. After the first debate, even though i supported Cruz, I wrote that Trump would win the primary without question. New prediction; Trump will win easily. He will also draw a large much larger piece of the black and Latino vote than any Republican in 30 years. Everyone who is making predictions about how bad he’ll lose are generally the same folks who said he couldn’t win the nomination. Just saying.
I agree with you completely but then we have seen this before haven’t we. The media fans the flames for sensational coverage dollars, the all knowing purity ideologues rant and rave, on and on, regarding a political philosophy they largely don’t either understand or comprehend but will defend to their dying breath (but this time around it’s who is that Hume guy anyway?) and the struggling voters just turn to the only one that is making the slightest attempt to address the painful economic and social issues that are impacting them and their families daily with a massive vote support.
The plain fact is that this current Republican Party hasn’t learned a single lesson from any of this (as evidenced by many of these comments and yet another repeat of the past) and instead spend their efforts, not reaching out to the American people on these issues (late but better then never), but taking to their fainting couches or scheming fruitless scenarios to deny the people’s chosen nominee his candidacy. But wait say the holy party lamas and the countless wannabes he is not “one of us”, not “of the party” so to say. For those that haven’t lost all sense of reality try to remember that the party is just a faceless, lifeless and generally useless apparatus that without it’s blood and sinew is nothing more then a shadow play. That blood and sinew is the voter base and they have unequivocally spoken. Time to listen
I agree with you that Trump will capture the popular vote though translating that to the electoral college map and win might be a little more tricky. Yet like that past I mentioned earlier we have seen that before as well in his remarkable strength in the northeast and mid-west that no Republican presidential candidate has remotely come close too since you had a bright, shiny White House pass, meanwhile continuing to hold the traditional Republican strength in the South. Those that are predicting his crushing defeat are the same wishful thinkers that were chanting “just wait until the next primary” as he swept opponent after opponent aside on the way to the nomination, pushing aside logic, trends and actual numbers for wish fulfilment.
Those that wish to fall on their swords should quietly find an out of the way corner and feel free to do so. For the rest of us conservatives it’s time to learn from our mistakes and rebuilt a more modern, germane conservatism that focuses on delivering policy solutions and leaves the endless debating energy expenditure on ideological purity as a relic of a failed past. Either way Donald Trump will be amongst us and I would rather leverage conservative policy out of his administration then ethereal philosophical debating points and so by the way would the party base in my opinion.
Hear, Hear!
I was really surprised at how easily some people on this site are led into wholesale panic by the manufactured ‘Hillary Landslide’ narrative. I admit that this is a very clever ploy on the part of the Trump opposition. But the very fact that is narrative is based solely on ‘the polls say’ makes the narrative highly suspect.
You’re my man for intelligent comment. I applaud you once again.
Conservatives and liberals alike have been going from election to election in a state of constant crisis. “Four legs good, two legs bad” is what it has become. Now it is a mess. The only real solution is to head to our long term goals in a manner that informs our short term decisions.
Back to basics. Back to intent of the framers. Back to principles.
Not sure I agree with the premise that Trump will be a disaster, but it would be more disastrous if we were to change the rules to defeat him. He’s won the nomination fair and square. How can a change do ANYTHING but split the party further?
Unless Trump screws up really badly between now and the Convention–to an order of magnitude we haven’t yet seen from him–you’re absolutely right. It would destroy the party, and any chance of stopping Hillary.
How much worse can he get? With Trump as our nominee our party is already destroyed.
So you’re advocating throwing away ALL of our principles, including the core value of the rule of law? That doesn’t pass the sniff test, and would alienate many more than a more traditional nominee would bring to the party.
It’s not the ‘rule of law’. It’s simply a Republican party rule. Party rules are changed all the time.
Please don’t quibble, Jeanine; it’s beneath you. It’s the party equivalent of the rule of law, in the sense that all have been operating with the rules adopted in 2012. Flawed? Certainly. But changing them now — and I’m all but certain that even changing them will not relieve delegates from STATE-LAW obligation in primary states — would violate the covenant between voters and the corporate party, and the reliance which all have placed on them.
And “Party rules are changed all the time,” but PROspectively, only.
Let’s be specific. What rules would need to be changed to dump Trump? I assume it would be an unbinding of delegates on the first ballot. Is there any mechanism in place for unbinding delegates for cause? What if the presumptive nominee were convicted of a felony between reaching the magic primary number and the party convention. Would the delegates still have to nominate him under party rules?
Yes, the rules committee can change the rules the week before the convention and unbind all the delegates, telling them to vote their conscience.
Surely everyone agrees that sort of measure would be warranted if, for example, irrefutable evidence turned up that Trump was engaged in some sort of felonious conduct that undermined his fitness to serve?
How about hundreds of lawsuits from people he owed money to but never paid?
The Rules Committee can change nothing without the consent of the Convention, since my understanding is that all rules changes are merely proposals until voted upon. Do you really believe that the Convention would approve such faith-breaking with the plurality of Republicans who voted to nominate Trump. Now THAT would provoke an electoral disaster, probably preceded by a multiple-claim lawsuit by Trump and his supporters.
Yeah, lawsuits are the only thing deceiving don excels at. He’s going to lose. He’s alienated 60% of Republicans , then thinks all should just “get over it”. Oh, poor deceiving don! Life doesn’t work that way!! He’s the worse republican candidate ever. I didn’t particularly care for Romney either, but at least he was a man of character instead of being a character.
Actually, Trump threatens lots of lawsuits, but he gets sued more than he sues. And he frequently loses.
But, but, but,,,,,he says he NEVER settles!!! He is a lying, turd throwing chimp. He’s duped so many with anger issues, I’m kinda afraid of what they’re going to do when he loses.
What? So you can nominate a Canadian who is not eligible and have his entire whacko family in the white house?
The courts have ruled otherwise. Yes, I would prefer we nominate a conservative.
You’re showing your dumb lilywhiteazz.
Yes, drastic times call for drastic measures. If we’re going lose in a landslide, and we know it, we should do everything possible to prevent that from happening.
How do you want that crow served when Trump wins in a landslide?
“Drastic times call for drastic measures” seems to be an all too convenient way of saying “the end justifies the means.” Don’t like the outcome, just change the rules!
Secondly, I don’t understand why people are buying into the ‘Hillary Landslide’ narrative? This is just another twist on what the Establishment anti-Trump opposition was peddling all along. And yet Trump continued to win, win, win.
If the Rs unbind the first ballot, I would think that the party merely discredits itself further as a meaningless exercise.
The rules always have included selection of individual delegates through a process that is separate from the primary process. What’s the purpose of that? Perhaps it’s to allow the delegates to serve as a safety valve in case the general electorate (including lots of crossover democrats) do the unthinkable and choose an unsuitable candidate?
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world amenable to perfect solutions. As to crossover Democrats, I have met a few who say that cannot bring themselves under any circumstance to vote for Hillary in the general election. These will vote for Trump.
Also, I do not readily understand why folks are buying into the deliberately handcrafted ‘Hillary Landslide’ narrative. After all, Trump was the only candidate who demolished his opposition in the debates. He will do so again with a canned formulaic candidate like Hillary. Once the usual devices and conceits all fail, Hillary has no fall back position.
As to the rules, I’d be careful not to thwart the choice of the party base once again. Expedience over lawful process will destroy the party quicker than one can say ‘Jimmy Cricket!’
All of this said, I am not trilled by any of the candidates.
Thanks for writing.
I kind of doubt whether Hillary will debate Trump, and I doubt whether any (other than Trump supporters) would blame her.
I think you hint at the real issue here. If republicans want the party to continue to be basically a limited government party, then I think they have to dump Trump. You’re correct that the “alt right” then would depart the party, probably forever. The alternative is to acquiesce to the alt right takeover of the party. Then limited government conservatives would depart, perhaps forever. Two irreconcilable groups now reside within the republican party. I think we’ve come to the point of a permanent split, one way or the other.
The operative words in your comment.. .”and we know it”… The amazing Karnack are we?
Actually that is not true. In 2012 they were changed at the last minute to prevent Ron Paul from getting his name into nomination. They even held the VA delegation hostage on their shuttle bus for four hours to prevent Morton Blackwell from being on the Convention floor to challenge the changes.
Also, state laws that bind delegates are unenforceable.
And as I recall, many of us (even Romney supporters, like Morton) were up in arms about it. It is now a principle of convenience?
Just pointing out the precedent. Speaking as someone who will be there I can tell you that there are no plans to do what Hugh Hewitt and others are calling for, but it is an interesting topic for discussion.
In your opinion is there anything Trump can do or say that would make you favor changing the rules to deny him the nomination?
There may be no plans now but if Trump continues down the path he is on, that could change.
The entire complement of the Va. Ron Paul people walked out, taking their credentials with them and otherwise raised a big stink.
Wow! Thanks. I didn’t remember this.
And that change was incredibly destructive.
There are three possible election outcomes;
1) Trump wins,
2) Trump loses but no worse than Romney/McCain/Bush1/Dole, or
3) The blowout devastating loss you are predicting.
In the first case of Trump win, the party will be reformed and will evolve beneficially over 4 to 8 years. Honestly, I think the second case in the worst, a close loss in which nothing is resolved. We then slowly but continually descend painfully into furhter irrelevance. On the other hand, the third case in which Trump loses as badly and horribly as you fear, will certainly lead to intra-party blame and hatred like we have never seen before. In that case, I do believe the Republicans are doomed and we might as well go back to the Whigs and start over. I think our only chance is to unite behind Trump and try our best to win with him.
“In the first case of Trump win,” the country will suffer 4 years under the executive whim of a corrupt, authoritarian megalomaniac with no moral center. Basically, the same as a Hillary win. The only good options at this point are a revolt at the convention or, failing that, a third-party run that denies the majority to both parties, and a Congress willing to do the right thing and elect the alternative.
And your proof of that is? I see a number of “Chicken Littles” on here!
I’m afraid a convention revolt would pave the way to a Hillary landslide. I think an independent run might do less down ballot damage.
In the famous construction of Edwin Edwards, Steve, I think that magnitude of screwup would require that he be found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. And even them, that might win him some Democrat support.
I believe Huey Long coined that phrase but Edwards used too.
LOL!
That would only make his cultists love him more.
Let’s calm down a second. Aren’t the rules changed every year? Don’t the delegates get to set their own rules? I’m just asking because I don’t really know. If the republican party national delegates decide on their own rules that are different from past years, how does that “destroy the rule of law”?
That would be a desperate measure, but these are desperate times. Trump probably would run third-party and deliver a Hillary landslide. Maybe better to just support a third option and hope to throw the election to the House.
It’s difficult to know what is the better option at this point but more and more it appears Trump will lose and lose big. Some in the media have predicted Republicans will win only 4 or 5 states. Dismal.
If only somebody could have predicted this? The reality is that we’re looking at a 75% likelihood of a Hillary landslide. Forget about the Senate. Just have to hope to hold onto the House. Trump as the nominee with a viable third option to drive conservatives to the polls probably would be best case scenario. Trump would get slaughtered, but down ballot republicans should fare ok in that scenario. But without a third option to drive traditional conservatives to the polls, we’re looking at a down ballot bloodbath.
Yes, it’s a helluva mess. I agree we will lose the Senate. I expect to see more Republican Senators withdraw support for Trump in an effort to save their seats.
Yeah, it’ll be like rats off a sinking ship, but it won’t help unless there’s something to drive conservative turnout in November.
Why do you think he’ll lose?
You might not be allowed to attend the convention, Jeanine, because you don’t want to make America great again. That’s what Trump’s Social Media Director says.
https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/740647906621968384
Hugh is attending and will be broadcasting his show from there.
Could be. But, the media are not normally all that accurate when it comes to folks they dislike. And, they appear to really dislike Trump.
No, they don’t dislike him, they are tired of him. Watch a train crash once and you can’t look away, watch it 50+ times and it gets trite.
Wow! Well said!
Thank you.
The polls aren’t showing a win for Trump.
Exactly. Have you seen the Utah polling? He’s barely ahead of undecided. That was a solidly red state until this fiasco.
Let’s face it, if we can’t win Utah, it’s over. We’ll be lucky to take 4 states.
Yup. Utah, I think Georgia was listed as up for grabs a little while back. Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arizona, all either leaning Democrat or just not secure anymore. I’ve seen folks young and old, people I know who have been voting Republican since they were 18, saying they won’t vote for Trump under any circumstances.
Yes, Georgia has not been polling well for Trump. Even Texas is iffy. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/2016_elections_electoral_college_map.html
Texas is in play now??? Dang, that’s pretty much the Conservative answer to California, we lose that and the party is done for.
In the only Texas polling Trump was only up by 2 and that poll was in September.
Just great, the Republican party could be looking at results similar to Walter Mondale…
Yup. I fear you are correct sir. It’s going to be a bloodbath. I’d vote for anyone who could beat Hillary, but that’s not Trump.
The thing of it is, anyone who could beat Hillary was nearly everyone in the Republican primary besides Trump.
Yes, exactly. I said something similar earlier in the discussion. And if the Democrats had run anyone but Hillary they would easily win and probably still will. The only thing that could change the equation is if Hillary is indicted but we know Obama will never allow the Justice Department to do that.
Surely Trump will hold most of the South.
Trump is likely to deliver a Hillary landslide by running on the GOP ticket.
Trump is sailing along on the back of the GOP and down ballot candidates to fund his campaign as it is now. His meager staff is overwhelmed and many/most don’t seem to have the patience or aptitude to do what needs done to put him on the ballot in 50 states. I really don’t think Trump wants to be president. He’s just holding out for someone or something to dump face saving blame on so he can cut and run back to his fantasy life.