Within the span of one week, both Donald Trump and Ben Carson made nuanced references to leaving the Republican Party in retaliation for what they perceive to be the establishment’s attempts to marginalize them.
Carson made his comments on the heels of a report that said GOP establishment leaders conducted a closed-door secret meeting to discuss, among other things, what to do with Donald Trump.
And while the GOP insists the meeting was to discuss convention protocols, I can’t help but think that once the whiskey and cigars started flowing, Trump’s name was mentioned a time or two.
(I’m just assuming there were whiskey and cigars. That’s what I always envisioned powerful and rich men doing behind closed doors.
Maybe they will let me into the club one day, and I’ll find out for myself.)
But honestly, I don’t blame them for conducting a secret meeting because I am starting to wonder if the GOP can survive this election intact.
Should They Leave?
Both Ben Carson and Donald Trump have attracted a swell of supporters that are loyal and very much anti-establishment.
They view traditional leaders like John McCain and Jeb Bush as sellouts to the pure conservative vision.
And while Carson made it explicit that he would not run against the party as an Independent, he did say that he would no longer want to be part of a party that subverts the will of the voters back to the establishment.
Meanwhile, once establishment leaders led an assault on Donald Trump in the wake of his most recent comments on Muslims, Trump sent out the ominous tweet that said the GOP better treat him nicely because 68% of his supporters would follow him to a third-party or Independent run.
Which leads me to the question of whether or not the GOP can survive this election.
Certainly it won’t just fade away into the night, but will what remains of the party resemble anything like a viable alternative to liberalism? Then again, perhaps this is the carnage it must endure in order to adapt to the future.
Rather than wait out Donald Trump and hope he doesn’t win the nomination, maybe they should just let him leave now as opposed to continually suffer at the hands of his threats.
Like a Phoenix From the Ashes
Think of it as a death and rebirth of sorts. Because let’s face it: Donald Trump is going to run as an Independent.
The billionaire negotiator has not come this far only to say, “Darn I didn’t get the nomination, so I guess I’ll go home now.”
For Trump, failing to get the nomination is a setback to his vision, not a finality.
He is in it to win it, and nothing short of a loss in the general election will stop him. But even then, I could see him negotiating with the Constitution itself to find another way in.
So why not just get it out of the way?
Yes, it will cost the GOP the White House in 2016, but I don’t know what can be done to save it at this point.
It does seem like the GOP in its current form, with Trump on one end and establishment guys like Bush on the other, needs to die the necessary death in order to be reborn into an opposition party that can stop the left from having its way with America.
The sooner, the better in my opinion, because there is this kooky old man from Vermont stirring the hearts of younger voters towards a more socialist America than we have ever known.
So can the GOP survive this election? I don’t know, but I am starting to wonder if they should just get on with it and die.
