Inside the scramble to save the GOP from Trump

[mystery-ak]

 Inside the scramble to save the GOP from Trump

A portrait of a party in meltdown.

By Katie Glueck and Kyle Cheney

10/12/16 05:12 AM EDT


Matt Borges had had enough.

The Ohio Republican Party chairman had spent a crazed Saturday on the phone, inundated by demands to respond to newly leaked audio of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault, and by questions about whether Trump was even staying in the race. So early Sunday morning, Borges called the Republican nominee himself.

“Are you considering withdrawing from the race?” Borges asked Trump, fearful that there might be more devastating revelations about his party’s nominee still to come.

“Absolutely not,” Trump replied, a rebuke to the slew of spooked Republican lawmakers who were calling on him to quit. According to Borges, he warned Trump that he needed to “knock it out of the park” at the presidential debate that night to survive — and they hung up agreeing to talk after the contest.

But by Monday, Trump surrogates — and increasingly the candidate himself — seemed just as focused on tearing into the Republicans defecting from Trump as they did on talking up Trump’s debate performance. That prompted Borges to send an email to the other 167 members of the Republican National Committee.

“Those candidates and officeholders deserve the leeway to follow their conscience without fear of retribution from the party,” wrote the swing state party chair and former Kasich supporter. “And the criticism of these folks from our nominee, his campaign, and others within the party needs to stop immediately.”

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http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-gop-229653

[goatprairie]

We are now in the worst period of the Trump debacle. Not only is he going down in flames, he and his Trumpsters are  going to take plenty of down ticket Pubbies with him. All for spite. Which proves that many Trumpsters never were for the party...it was all about getting His Orangeness into the Oval Office and to heck with everybody else. Blow it all up!!!  they thundered.
Well they're getting their wish. The complete destruction of the Republican Party as a force in American politics is just about upon us.  Thanks to that supreme idiot Trump and his sycophantic followers.

[r9etb]

The complete destruction of the Republican Party as a force in American politics is just about upon us.  Thanks to that supreme idiot Trump and his sycophantic followers.

You can't blame the wind for blowing down a rotten tree... the tree falls down because it was rotten before the wind came along. 

[goatprairie]

You can't blame the wind for blowing down a rotten tree... the tree falls down because it was rotten before the wind came along.

The tree wasn't rotten....it had a few dead branches.  The Trumpsters decided the tree didn't need surgery, it needed killing. And they killed it.

[cato potatoe]

We are now in the worst period of the Trump debacle. Not only is he going down in flames, he and his Trumpsters are  going to take plenty of down ticket Pubbies with him. All for spite. Which proves that many Trumpsters never were for the party...it was all about getting His Orangeness into the Oval Office and to heck with everybody else. Blow it all up!!!  they thundered.
Well they're getting their wish. The complete destruction of the Republican Party as a force in American politics is just about upon us.  Thanks to that supreme idiot Trump and his sycophantic followers.

When I think to myself ... what could this flake do to make this situation worse?  One possibility is turning on his supporters.  He might unload on them in the closing days, and drop out. 

[r9etb]

The tree wasn't rotten....it had a few dead branches.  The Trumpsters decided the tree didn't need surgery, it needed killing. And they killed it.

Nah, it's rotten, at least for purposes of the metaphor. 

The point is that the GOP doesn't really seem to stand for much anymore -- at any rate, the party seems unable to articulate any particularly good reasons to vote for its candidates. 

The party's own lack of self-identity explains the presence of the manifestly unfit, not to mention un-Republican, Donald Trump at the top of the ticket.  This is a party that cannot even manage its own slate of candidates: it's difficult to imagine a healthy party falling prey to a candidate of this sort.

That said, it's nice to have a majority in both Houses of Congress, and it's true that this means that the worst excesses of a Democrat majority are held at bay -- which is why I will vote down-ticket for the GOP.  But from a party identity perspective, "keeping the Democrats at bay" is not a particularly compelling platform.

[Just_Victor]

We are now in the worst period of the Trump debacle. Not only is he going down in flames, he and his Trumpsters are  going to take plenty of down ticket Pubbies with him. All for spite. Which proves that many Trumpsters never were for the party...it was all about getting His Orangeness into the Oval Office and to heck with everybody else. Blow it all up!!!  they thundered.
Well they're getting their wish. The complete destruction of the Republican Party as a force in American politics is just about upon us.  Thanks to that supreme idiot Trump and his sycophantic followers.

It's funny, I stated to a private Facebook group back in Jan or Feb this year that the two outsider candidates, Trump and Cruz, were both going to remake the GOP.  The difference between the two was that Cruz would take the party, up-end it, and shake out the trash.  Trump was going to toss in a hand grenade and slam the lid.

[geronl]

We are now in the worst period of the Trump debacle. Not only is he going down in flames, he and his Trumpsters are  going to take plenty of down ticket Pubbies with him. All for spite.

part of the plan. I saw this coming from the start. He'll have his minions voting for Democrats before its over.

[Just_Victor]

part of the plan. I saw this coming from the start. He'll have his minions voting for Democrats before its over.

[Norm Lenhart]

part of the plan. I saw this coming from the start. He'll have his minions voting for Democrats before its over.

Considering his minions have adopted most of the Dem platform including funding for planned parenthood, Amnesty (via touchback but still amnesty), defense of sexual predators (Bill/Weiner and various other libs), Gun control, Homosexual 'rights' including the trannies in ladies rooms and homo marriage...I would ask why you think they weren't dems from the start? Their actions to date align them 100% with the left. None of the above is or ever has been part of conservative philosophy.