Who Will Be Blamed If Trump Implodes?
BY: BEN SHAPIRO AUGUST 4, 2016
For The Daily Wire
Donald Trump’s poll numbers across the country are collapsing. A new Fox News poll puts him down 10 points to Hillary Clinton. He’s now trailing by 9 percent in Michigan. He’s down 15 percent in New Hampshire. He’s down 11 percent in Pennsylvania.
That means it’s time for Trump supporters to find someplace to cast blame: anywhere but on themselves and their candidate. Their first choice: the #NeverTrumpers who always said Trump would be a turd tornado of a candidate, and who maintained that support for Trump would poison the conservative brand for decades to come.
Thus, #NeverTrumpers are being blamed for doing damage to Republicans down-ballot if they note that they were right about Trump, and that Republicans ought to disassociate from his disastrous candidacy. Instead, they’re being told to shut up about Trump entirely and instead focus on Hillary Clinton, as though that will prevent the brand damage to come with Trump’s Hindenberg-esque explosion.
Here’s the problem: the only hope for a conservative future beyond Trump lies in untethering the lifeboats from the Titanic.
Now.
First off, there are Senate races in which Republican candidates are significantly outperforming Trump. Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania would be better off distancing from Trump than tying themselves to him.
Second, untethering is long overdue. How long could the Republican establishment stand by and grin awkwardly, like Mike Pence at a Trump press conference, as Trump spouted morally outrageous nonsense, without damaging Republicanism? How long could the Republican establishment pillory those who refused to jump on the Trump Train – a train whose engineer is an unstable, vitriolic and vile big government bully -- without splitting the conservative movement?
After this is all over, if Trump continues to implode like a star becoming a black hole, sucking down Republican Senators in his wake, Republicans should be grateful there will be conservatives able to answer the question, “Why did you support a nutjob stealth Democrat who slandered Gold Star families, Mexican judges, POWs, disabled and female reporters, and who went soft on Vladimir Putin, Planned Parenthood, and the KKK?” this way: “We didn’t.”
But then again, Republicans may do what they’ve always done before: shoot the messenger.
They could pretend that they were Stabbed In The Back™. They could lie that Trump was on the verge of victory, even after he gets shellacked, if it hadn’t been for those #NeverTrumpers snipping at his heels. They could lie that Trump was a change agent who simply couldn’t be tolerated by the elite, even though the elite (Reince Priebus and Co.) backed him to the hilt, only to be told by Trump that they hadn’t done enough. They could whine about Party Unity™ even after smirking as Trump refused to endorse the Speaker of the House and orchestrated the political assassination of his chief rival for the nomination, Ted Cruz. They could claim (in August!) that the election was Rigged™.
That would be a tragic end to a tragic episode.
But make no mistake: Trump losing will be Trump’s fault, and the fault of his ardent supporters. And two years from now, when Republicans wonder where they ought to turn to fight back against President Hillary Clinton, we can pray they don’t turn to the people who insisted on nominating a Hillary Clinton donor and supporting him through a pathetic run that handed her the White House and poisoned Republicanism for a whole new generation.
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