Before all fifty States have weighed in on nominating a Republican Nominee, all anyone is talking about is whether or not “the party” is going to steal the election from Donald Trump. For the Republican Party to steal the election from Donald Trump, two things would have to happen. Donald Trump would have to have received a majority of Delegate votes at the national convention and the Republican Party would have to nominate someone else.
This is impossible. It is impossible for the Republican Party to steal this nomination from anyone. Nominations aren’t stolen, they are won. They are won through the popular vote and delegate accumulation. A candidate must have both the support of the party and the people. With so many Democrats voting in our Republican Primaries this year, it is absurd to talk about Republicans stealing an election from Democrat voters.
If a Republican Candidate, even with strong Democrat voter support, still cannot reach 50% of the vote, then such a candidate cannot be said to have won anything, nor be entitled to anything. Furthermore, there is no sense in fighting with each other over a scenario that has not already taken place. Every day that this bickering continues, we become increasingly (and more emotionally) divided. The anti-establishment crowds, which have cast over 75% of the votes in the Republican Primary, and just less than half of the votes in the Democrat primary, has already caused irreparable damage to a great many alliances. Why? Because we all think we can see the writing on the wall?
If Donald Trump wins 1237 delegates before the convention, then all this vitriol and nastiness was for nothing and all we’ve accomplished is turning more Republican voters off to the Republican Party in November. If Donald Trump does not win 1237 delegates before the convention, but wins enough delegates on a second, third, or eighth vote, then again, all this vitriol and nastiness was for nothing. If someone besides Donald Trump wins, we will still have our nominee, and that nominee will be going up against Hillary Clinton in November.
If Donald Trump wins the nomination and if supporters of any one of the other 16 Republican Candidates decide that they will not support Donald Trump in November, then Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States. If one of the other 16 Republican Candidates win the nomination through an open convention, and Donald Trump’s supporters will not support them, then Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States.
All this “only Trump” or “never Trump” nonsense is going to accomplish is electing a Democrat who is quite possibly worse than the one we’ve been suffering for the last eight years. If this is really where we are as a Party and as a country, I can accept that and I can move on. Yet, everyone seems to want everyone else to rally around their candidate at the end of the day, but no one seems willing to rally around anyone else’s candidate. This situation is the best possible way to lose an election in November.
And maybe that’s what everyone secretly wants after all. As incredibly dimwitted as this whole circus seems to have become, I still prefer all you Republicans to the Democrat Party.
Remember, the Republican Party is a collection of much smaller minority parties. No one faction can defeat the Democrats without the support of all the other factions. If you are backing a candidate still running for President, the last thing you want to do is to behave in such a way as to make the supporters of every other candidate hate you, your candidate, and everyone else associated with you, your candidate, and your faction. While I’m not calling for “unity” (whatever that is), slightly less irrationality wouldn’t hurt our collective cause as a unified front against tyranny.
Previously published on PendletonPenn.com
