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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Trump and the Holy War Brewing in God's Party

The Evangelicals are now talking tough. They aren't going to get behind Trump unless they like his VP pick.

"Donald Trump’s primary run left him with few friends among evangelical leaders, who are now weighing sitting out the general election entirely. But there is one way, they say, to win them back: picking a vice presidential candidate socially conservative enough to compensate for Trump’s many heresies."

"Several of the country’s top socially conservative leaders, from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council to Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, said Trump’s choice of running mate would be among the most important factors in deciding whether to activate their extensive grass-roots networks on on the real-estate billionaire’s behalf."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/evangelicals-to-trump-vp-is-the-key-222987#ixzz48FMcuVFb

Well we know who it won''t be: Marco Rubio.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/rubio-trump-vp-222980

Or Joni Ernst:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/joni-ernst-veep-trump-222985

The Holy War in the GOP will center around those who will support Trump and those who will not. There are two dimensions on the question.

1. Conservatives

2. Republicans
Among conservative pundits most were for Ted Cruz, and many have said they can't vote for him or support him. Some like Red State's Ben Howe have notably said he'd phone bank for Hillary Clinton and National Review has had writers argue that Hillary is the lesser of two evils as Trump is not qualified, full stop.

There's really not much impetus for conservatives to support Trump ideologically. And what they can't abide is he's completely destroyed their standing. They were supposed to be the arbiter of what it means to be a conservative. Obviously, Trump's landslide primary win shows their influence is not what it once was.

Jennifer Rubin was pretty piqued when Trump pointed out this is the Republican party not the Conservative party. For her it's not just about winning but ideology.

For Republican elected officials and other operatives it's about winning. But you see most high ranking GOPers either saying they don't support Trump-the Bushes and Romney say they won't vote for him-or at least staying away from the Convention.

McCain says he will vote Trump but is not going to the Convention.

There are a few things going on here.

1. The top Republicans don't believe Trump can win.

2. At this point they are just trying to limit losses in Congress.

3. Many don't want him to win anyway.

Some legitimately understand he's not qualified to be President. Hillary is pitching to such Republicans.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/08/hillary_clinton_a_lot_of_republicans_are_reaching_out_to_my_campaign.html

Conservatives really don't want him to win as that too would be a real body blow to conservatism as George Will as argued. Will has said conservatives should root for Trump to lose al 50 states.

Again, this election is just amazing with all the strange bedfellows it's leading to. I'm on the same side as George Will now.

2 comments:

  1. Ah, but will George Will volunteer for an HRC phone bank?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... maybe George should lead by example, and show that conservatives can do more than just "root for" the 50 state catastrophe for Trump: they can go door to door to make sure that happens.

      Whatever the case, I hope the Trumpsters (or "Branch Trumpidians" as Erickson puts it) come after George and the #NeverTrump crowd with literal pitch forks in the aftermath.

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