http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/29/donald-trump-republican-party-elections-2016-third-party-column/81102918/As Trump rises, consider a 3rd partyRandy E. Barnett 3:23 p.m. EST February 29, 2016
A Trump nomination would destroy the GOP unless Republicans can find a replacement.
Is it time for a new third party? Not yet. But if Donald Trump gets the Republican nomination, then a new third party will be an imperative — and the time for organizing it is now.
I have long vocally opposed third parties as irrational in our two-party system. They inevitably drain votes away from the major party closest to them, thereby benefiting the major party that is even worse. But strategies must adjust to circumstances. If Trump wins the GOP nominations, one of two things will happen, either of which would be disastrous for the Constitution and for the country.
If Trump wins, he’s made clear he cares nothing for the constitutional constraints on the president, or on government generally. His ignorance of our republican Constitution — to match his ignorance of much else — and his strong-man approach to governance would make Trump’s election a political cataclysm second only to Southern secession in its danger to our constitutional republic.
For this reason, millions of patriotic Americans who would ordinarily vote GOP — including most conservatives and all constitutionalists — will never vote for him. Yet were he somehow to win without them — say by moving to the left of Hillary Clinton to capture the Sanders vote — a Trump presidency would doom America as an exceptional nation.
Far more likely, however, once the Republican nomination is in his grasp, the media who have been irresponsibly reaping the ratings whirlwind will lay waste to Donald Trump in conjunction with the Democrats. His presidential campaign will be reduced to a few million die-hard Trumpies and little more. Down-ticket Republican candidates will flee him like poison (as Mitch McConnell has already suggested). But to what end?
Here is where a new third party comes in: as a lifeboat for anyone aboard the sinking GOP ship — first and foremost patriotic voters, but also GOP candidates and office holders throughout the nation. They will desperately need another vessel they can support in good conscience.
And let’s be frank. By refusing to credit the legitimate concerns of ordinary Americans, the GOP establishment created Donald Trump. And many K Street Republicans will rush to embrace him because they know he has no principles and will be happy to deal.
What the nation needs is a new party that is expressly dedicated to upholding the Constitution of the United States, however it may cut politically — a party that can attract principled conservatives, but also any American who is tired of crony capitalism, runaway government and rule by an out-of-touch political class.
Should such a party split the GOP vote and throw the election to Hillary, this beats a Trump presidency, which would inevitably remake the Republican Party in the Donald's own image. And, if Republicans hold onto Congress, divided government under Hillary beats one-man rule by a demagogue and his party.
But if the Democrats succeed in collapsing a Trump campaign — as I believe they can and will — then GOP voters can seamlessly shift to the new party. And, if this happens, such a party can either actually win outright or throw the election into the House, which is allowed to pick from the top candidates, in this case, three. Win or lose, such a new party can even sweep away the existing out-of-touch national Republican Party. The U.S. has a two-party system, but it does not have to be these two parties.
Parties die. The Whigs died because they could not bring themselves to stand against the Democratic Party that overwhelmingly supported or, at least, tolerated slavery in the South and its extension into the territories, thereby threatening the North. So a new Republican Party very quickly arose to replace it. Now the national GOP establishment’s failure to listen to the people is on the verge of giving us Donald Trump. If it does, it deserves to be replaced by a party that puts the Constitution first and politics second.
It is (almost) time for an American Constitution Party.
