Summer is over. And Donald Trump is — still — at the top of the 2016 Republican primary field.
That makes lots and lots of Republicans with an eye on winning the White House in 2016 (or even 2020) very, very nervous. That unease — and its origins — are explained brilliantly in this paragraph, taken from a broader piece entitled “The GOP is Killing Itself,” by former Bush administration official Pete Wehner:
The message being sent to voters is this: The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The GOP is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return. “The American dream is dead,” in the emphatic words of Mr. Trump.
The Washington Post continues:
Trump is playing the GOP primary game better than anyone else in this race. But he is putting his party in a losing position — or taking them to the verge of it — when it comes to a general election in which we know a message like his will (or already has) turned off large numbers of people that the GOP desperately needs to build a national coalition.
The problem with all of this, of course, is that Trump could care less about what Wehner thinks. In fact, Trump would likely tout Wehner’s argument as evidence that the Washington party establishment is a failed, clueless lot.
The only person who can control or manage Trump is Trump. And he seems to have little of the party’s long-term interests in mind at the moment. Commence panic.
Response? I thought that once fall hit, the Dump Trump movement would be in full swing. Apparently not. Is it because our fall elections are making folks not focus on what is happening?
Most political realists understand that Trump cannot win a general election. Why waste the political energy taking the Trump Phenomena this far? I am bored with him now and want to see serious Republican candidates who might win a general election.
How about a nice, Republican lady or gentleman who is not an extremist? That would mean someone who didn’t propose to outlaw abortion, deport 11 million people, or mandate that all teachers strap on Glocks [appropriate eye-roll], or espouse creationism only textbooks.
Right now, Trump triples any other candidate in the polls other than Carson, who is equally unprepared for public national office. It’s time to get serious. we aren’t going to send the “Mexicans” anywhere.
Trump will lose by double digits if he ends up becoming the nominee. And the republicans wil lose the senate as well.