Name:   copperline - Subject:   Trump: the best the GOP has to offer Date:   5/4/2016 5:38:15 PM

Back from a camping trip & a bit surprised by Cruz/Kasich decisions to drop out.   Looks like I was wrong about the convention going into multiple ballots after all.   However, Trump’s lock-up of the nomination still keeps my opinions about a 3^rd party candidate coming out of the Republican ranks in play.  

After their last big loss, the GOP establishment confirmed a belief that they needed to become more inclusive, less divisive to be viable in future elections… in a written autopsy of Mitt Romney’s defeat.   I don’t think doubling down on a more divisive candidate will pay dividends at all, neither do they.   Far from it, this makes for a split that is deep & wide. 

Principled Republicans have great difficulty denying their dislike of Trump.   They have reason to be afraid of getting behind a candidate who is so edgy, unschooled in both foreign relations and domestic policy, and particularly one who is so very changeable/thin skinned & unpredictable.  

If you were a conservative who opposed Trump & feared what he would mean for your party, you are going to have a huge problem getting over all those concerns now.  

What is so very interesting is how half-hearted the new voices of support for Trump are.   And it will be very telling to see how many conservatives compromise their values to support him when they have made a big point of telling us for years that they were in no mood to compromise in any fashion, on any issue in the political arena.

Now they don’t have to compromise with Democrats, they have to compromise their own character to embrace a guy who is not above calling women “pigs”, Mexicans ‘rapists & murderers’, and inciting his supporters to be violent.     The GOP has come a long way since Reagan.

I’m still very pleased with Bernie’s success, he has achieved pretty much what I wanted to happen… he has pulled the Democratic Party platform to the left.   He won’t be our nominee, but he has made a great contribution to the political conversation in this country, making it OK to call yourself a Democratic Socialist and endorsing a position that says the government’s role is to protect the interests of the most vulnerable among us.

With Trump as your candidate, I’m afraid it’s going to be the ugliest & most hate-filled Presidential campaign we have ever seen.