The #Trump2016 threat: significant, if not yet compelling. What will you do?

So National Review has its first bona fide this-could-happen piece on Donald Trump out today. Longtime Republican strategist Ed Rollins is quoted as finding the notion plausible, and he’s not the sort of fellow to allow a moment to overwhelm his judgment.

Has this bizarre exercise gone on longer than I expected it to? Why, yes. Yes, it has. I didn’t see him staying in the race even as long as Thanksgiving. He’s still leading a month out, so I’d say he’ll still be around then.

As close as we’ve been to right here during my lifetime was Ross Perot in 1992. The critical difference is that Perot stood in a third tent. Trump is running as a Republican.

Perot’s ultimate political legacy was/is to divide the electorate sufficiently to allow Bill Clinton to win twice. But if you don’t remember Perot as an initially serious threat to win, you’re shading history. It was getting out and getting back in that fatally damaged his chances, not anything he’d said or done prior.

As it turned out, 1992 was the first presidential election in which I could vote. It may well have been for Perot had he not exited and reentered the race. Instead, this 18-year-old with a skull full of mush voted for Clinton.

In 2016, I will commit to voting for the Republican candidate, no matter who it is. I would really like it to be Carly Fiorina. I would rather it be any other Republican in the race than Donald Trump.

But if Trump is the last person standing, which now appears to be a significant, if not yet compelling, threat, then yes, I will vote for him.

You might also like:

9 thoughts on “The #Trump2016 threat: significant, if not yet compelling. What will you do?”

  1. All political topics aside, I’m curious: Are all of you voting generically for the Republican candidate doing so because they’re a Republican, or because you’re voting against the Democrat. And if it’s the later, are there specific things about the two major candidates on the Democrat ticket that you already know you disagree with too much (I don’t need specifics, just an affirmation), or is it just that you’re voting against the Democrat no matter what they have to say?

    This is purely “political science” inquiry and not meant to actually draw up specific of any candidates’ topics or platforms or personal history. My biggest interest in how I think things should be reformed centers around everyone’s thought process for choosing a candidate to vote for. I think the current system leaves us with a very limited decision tree to work with and we rarely, if ever, really get the amount of choice and options we’d actually want.

    Reply
      • Voting against a party/platform, gotcha.

        Just a follow up yes/no, don’t need names: If you had the option to rank all of the candidates, regardless of party, would you be likely to have candidates (including independents) other than republicans in your top 5 if there weren’t so many R’s running? Or maybe to 10 since there are a bunch of R’s still running. Maybe even include some of those who have dropped out and/or may be considering running as independents.

        I’ve found that a large percentage of the time, people are actually voting against someone/thing/platform they don’t like as opposed to voting for someone they do like.

        Reply
        • I like Carly Fiorina very much. I liked Scott Walker.

          However, until Democrats cease aggressively fostering dependency of the citizenry as a primary philosophy of government, I will always vote against them.

          We also have to get a Republican in for foreign policy. This administration has failed in numerous ways, but it’s been a foreign policy train wreck for the ages.

    • I don’t want to say I’m warming to the idea, but I am less hostile to it than I was two weeks ago. It certainly won’t be difficult to outperform our current “leadership.”

      And I’m not sure I agree with myself above when I say I’d rather it be any other Republican in the race than Trump. I’d probably vote for Trump over Christie.

      Reply

Leave a Comment

CAPTCHA


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

BoWilliams.com