Monday, July 11, 2016

Flying Blind: The Case for Never Letting Trump Get the Nomination

There is a good-natured debate among #NeverTrump Republicans: Is it better to oust Donald Trump at the convention or let him go on to get flattened in the general election?
Last week the former senior adviser to Mitt Romney, Stu Stevens wrote:
The other day waiting to board a plane, I was attempting to reassure a friend—solid Republican but not a Trump Republican—that Trump would not win. “What are the odds he can win?” my friend asked. “Twenty or 25 percent max,” I said. He thought about it for a moment and then asked a question I really wish he hadn’t: “Would you get on this plane if it had 20 percent chance of crashing?”
Hell no. Who would?
So the first and most important reason not to send Donald Trump into the general election is concern that he’d get to the Oval Office, where he is manifestly unfit to serve. Few people (including its backers) expected Brexit to succeed. Hillary Clinton despite her thrashing by the FBI remains the favorite. But the risk Trump might win is not insignificant while the potential danger is immense. (Republican foreign policy guru Kori Schake in deciding to support Hillary explained, “He’s not only damaging to our country in foreign and defense policy, he’s damaging to the social fabric of our republic, which relies of creating one out of many—e pluribus unum.” Indeed.)
But won’t he and his followers cry foul, wreck the GOP’s chances in 2016 and come back for blood in the 2018 and 2020 elections? Remember, the race is likely lost already. Moreover, it’s not clear how many Trump voters really would stay home if he is not on the ballot, in part because we do not know the alternative. The reason many give for supporting him — opposition to Clinton — will still motivate Republicans to turn out.
Read the rest of Jennifer Rubin's op-ed HERE.

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