The GOP — ever able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Apparently, Donald Trump, with his soaring popularity in spite of his many controversial statements, has the GOP establishment running scared.
On Monday, December 6, 2015, the GOP establishment held a meeting to discuss the strategy of a brokered convention to discuss circumventing the will of the people as expressed in the upcoming Republican primaries.
Last week, Donald Trump said that he is preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention. Will he bolt the Party?
Recent political history in the United States tells us the following about brokered conventions and their outcomes:
Adlai Stevenson (of the 1952 Democratic Party) and Thomas E. Dewey (of the 1948 Republican Party) were the most recent "brokered convention" presidential nominees. The last winning U.S. presidential nominee produced by a brokered convention was Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932.
__ IT HAS BEEN EVER THUS __
ReplyDeleteThe nature of Establishment protects
Itself from upstarts seeking sweeping change.
A groundswell of rebellion projects
A threat to those whose dully narrow range
Will seek to serve itself with instincts feral
Concerned with naught but selfish interests bared
Caring not that Principle’s in peril
By selfish drones and not by those who’ve dared
To challenge each smug wasted senile oaf
Who’s long outlived his usefulness yet clings
To power as ‘twere a Divine Right to loaf
Thwarting those who hope that Freedom rings
Again to rouse the blighted land
‘Gainst tyranny once more to raise its hand.
~ FreeThinke (12/10/15)
Hear, HEAR!
DeleteThank you, Joe. It does help to learn that at least one person is listening.
DeleteJust one big happy family. How dare anyone break into their little club. The whole thing makes me sick. I don't know what the answer is, but we have one last chance of stopping this nonsense and I see it slipping away.
ReplyDeleteA tight little island, indeed! This happens, because those who have acquired power always want more and more of it.
DeleteThey get away with "murder," because most are too bury trying to make ends meet than to bother thinking about the quality of governance.
“As soon as any man [i.e. person] says of the affairs of the State ’What does it matter to me?’ the State may be given up for lost.”
~ Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
The DNC would never have allowed anyone to move in on the
ReplyDeleteHildabeast's territory
Yes, indeed, Lisa, but we should ask ourselves WHY that should be the case? There are a great many better qualified to hold the office –– even among the Democrats –– than Her Heinous.
DeleteThe true answer to the question of WHY and HOW such a charmless, graceless, humorless, abrasive, manifestly dishonest, intellectually vapid, undistinguished, desperately unattractive individual should hold such power might prove very interesting, indeed, if we could but know the answer.
The RNC is as corrupt as the DNC. Hard to imagine that anyone can argue the virtues of civics (voting) while at the same time attempting to manipulate the outcome of the nominating process. I agree with Bunkerville.
ReplyDeleteYes sir, Mustang. I agree with both of you, which is what I said in a fancier, more roundabout way in the poem above. We are being had by the Establishment of two parties. Both play all ends against the middle. It reeks. I've often thought the GOP Bigwigs want HILLARY to win. Sure looks like it anyway.
DeleteFACT: the RNC will readily sacrifice a win in 2016 if the establishment GOP cannot get the establishment's choice of GOP candidate.
ReplyDeleteIt might be instructive for a Republican outsider to win in order to demonstrate that not much will change.
ReplyDeleteChance for Americans to learn where the power lies.
Power LIES all right –– seemingly ALL the TIME.
DeleteThe very nature of Power is corrupt and corrupting.
Outside of natural disasters, entrenched, centralized Power is the deadliest force on earth.
What's wrong with a few good cigars, Kentucky bourbon, and a smoky back room included in deciding presidential politics? It is one of our best traditions. We don't need no stinking one-man, one-vote thing messing up good politics.
ReplyDeleteOK. Just kidding. I didn't like Trump's TV show, and I still don't like Trump. However, bumping Trump off would be kind of like impeaching Obama. Once the deed is done, you get a Biden, or (shiver) a Cruz. On the other hand, anything is preferable to Hillary. She's just ugly, inside and out.
Having said all that, I think a brokered convention is one way to resolve the "problem" of several candidates still in the game when the convention comes around. It's OK with me.
Bob,
DeleteI can't agree with the "problem" of several candidates still in the game when the convention comes around.
The PROBLEM is "the big boys" in the GOP. Among those big boys is Karl Rove, of course.
I actually like the fact that Trump has shaken the GOP establishment to its core. Better yet, he's talking about issues that the establishment candidates won't touch with a 10-foot pole.
The GOP establishment insisted on running McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012, and we know how those races turned out.
AOW: I understand what you are saying, but I believe Trump would be a huge disaster running against Hillary, and I also don't trust him as President of the United States. He is as narcissistic as Obama, maybe more. Plus, he seems to shoot from the hip whereas Obama can't get his gun out of his holster.
DeleteIf Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, it would be very hard for me to not vote for Hillary Clinton six times.
DeleteSome have far too much to say
DeleteWhile others say too little,
But those who merely want to play
Care not one jot or tittle.
~ Anne Animus
Republicans are red,
DeleteAnd Democrats are blue,
Hillary is a Dem,
And Donald is too.
~ Arthur Guilesock
It is rather funny to see Bernie Sanders carry the dropped Tea Party anti-TARP torch while the Tea Party rallies to hoist a guy that builds casinos with bailout money ;)
DeleteThe GOP is definitely in a tight spot. They either run with a brokered convention, which has just prompted Carson to threaten to leave....or they run the very real risk of an utter buffoon winning, and killing off the party completely.
ReplyDeleteCI,
DeleteIn my view, a brokered convention might well kill off the Party, too.
The Congress elected in 2014 helped to create the situation we're seeing right now.
Now, the compromise might be Marco Rubio, who appears, at this point, to be the one favored by the GOP establishment. I state this with absolute certainty: Rubio is the establishment's second choice; the first choice has been Jeb Bush -- even since the GOP lost the POTUS race in 2016.
I also say this again and know it with certainty...
FACT: the RNC will readily sacrifice a win in 2016 if the establishment GOP cannot get the establishment's choice of GOP candidate.
Yes, I do have some inside information, which I've been sitting on for several weeks now.
I believe you are basically correct, AOW, so why should it concern any of us on the Right if the GOP winds up committing virtual SUICIDE?
DeleteOnly a NEW BROOM could help bring about:
... challenge each smug, wasted, senile oaf
Who’s long outlived his usefulness, yet clings
To power as ‘twere a Divine Right to loaf
Thwarting those who hope that Freedom rings
Again to rouse the blighted land
‘Gainst tyranny once more to raise its hand.
Why would any sane voter want to perpetuate the self-serving reign of a bunch of "smug, wasted, senile oafs?" ;-)
TRUMPO APPEALS precisely because he is not afraid to SPIT in the ESTABLISHMENT's FACE, knee it in the GROIN, and give it a good swift KICK in the SHINE –– a long overdue treatment it richly deserves.
Anti-Trump, anti-Cruz sentiment distresses me, because those guys are EXACTLY what this country need –– provided they MEAN what they are saying, of course.
"MODERATION" –– a tepid, limp-wristed, pusillanimous approach –– is exactly what we do NOT need at present.
So, the Dems have pretty much ruined America in the last few years, and the Reps will ruin their party this coming year...
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think a brokered convention is MUCH more exciting than the ones where you know who's going to be nominated.
CI's right...Now Carson's threatening to leave...actually "it's not a threat, it's a promise"...he doesn't want to be part of a party which is going against the will of the people of their party.
LOTS can change in the coming months and I'm not getting my knickers in a twist every day anymore....I'm DONE with that.
Anyway, I think knowing that ISIS can now make fake passports is a little more threatening...don't you people?
SO...how do you all think a Trump/Carson ticket would look? Independent?
The very idea of a classless blowhard name caller like Trump being president is so obnoxious I keep having to take my mind off it
Z,
DeleteIt's not only the Dems who have brought ruination. The GOP has been complicit, too.
We're a long way till Election Day. More attacks on our home soil = game changers.
I would like to see some sort of combination with Fiorina and Rubio. If Christy could get some momentum, I like him, too.
DeleteTrump/Palin
DeleteCanardo, will you never cease being willfully obtuse and deliberately unhelpful in advancing what some of us hope might develop into a serious discussion?
DeleteYou seem to live for things things only incessant denigration, distraction and obfuscation.
Your desire to spark ill will, create distraction and spread confusion wherever you alight is unappreciated to put it as mildly as possible.
No, FT, it's merely a sarcastic way to find humor in a very sad situation.
DeleteThe fringe of the Republican party will choose the nominee (Cruz) and the fringe will get its collective head handed to it.
The saddest aspect is that one of our major parties is controlled by inchoate fanatics.
And the democrats are what? Fringeless?
DeleteLisa,
DeleteExcellent point!
Thanks AOW ,oy vey
DeleteBy the way...I don't think there's a chance in hell that Carson would in any way associate himself with Trump...
ReplyDeleteZ,
DeleteI'm not so sure about that. Politics creates strange allies.
Any independent run will put whatever dem into the white house. This needs to be avoided at all costs. Man the torpedoes. Keep those warp NA cells at maximum. Don't molest the yomen, Keep those dylithium crystals polished to a fine point. Never give up, never surrender !
ReplyDeleteHear! HEAR!
DeleteNevertheless , the GOP –– as it stands today –– is NOT worth the powder it would take to blow it to hell. The core of the organization has become so inbred, so corrupt, so uninterested in anything but preserving the perquisites that come with titular power that it has rendered itself useless in the Fight for Regaining Liberty and restoring Reliance on the limits on power spelt out in the Constitution.
Yes a third party WILL ensure a victory for Hillrod, but the destruction of the HOP, as it no stands, might be the very best thing for the country in the long run.
Opinion:
ReplyDeleteCarson will align with Trump if both are marginalized by dirty politics.
Tammy
_____ Sail On, O Ship of State ______
ReplyDeleteWhat the truth might be no one can find.
Hopeless is the quest on either side
Invested as they are in staying blind
To anything that points to Power denied.
Entrenched in battle lines made to endure,
Weapons drawn and ready to attack.
A motivating force that’s quite impure
Twists logic into seeing white as black.
Examining our leaders’ feet of clay
Removes us from confronting our own flaws,
While they decisive action can delay
On how to rid the Nation’s Face of yaws.
Electing pugilists who throw the fight
Scorches angels’ wings, yet sheds no light.
~ FreeThinke
NOTE: This sonnet was penned eighteen years ago in reference to the Clintons‘ Whitewater woes, but I see now that the basic sentiments apply to the way politics is conducted all the time. Proof once more that "The more things change, the more they remain the same.” - FT
A brokered convention will be the GOP's last, as a third party that doesn't broker its' convention will rise from the ashes, and the vast majority of Republicans voters will flock to it tranforming the GOP into something akin to the "Constitution" or "Green" parties.
ReplyDeleteDon't you really mean a BROKEN convention?
ReplyDeleteThe GOP sure is broken. I don't think it can be fixed.
...... Calamity-John Custerino
How many times have we read on Tea Party blogs that "Mr. Obama is a narcissist?" Too many to count. Yet here is a bonafide, raging narcissist, and the same people who were so sure Mr. Obama is a narcissist, don't see it in Trump. This is more evidence that the people who support Trump are driven by their rage and feelings of inadequacy, so a demagogue like Trump, who is the very definition of narcissism, is appealing to them. He doesn't reason, he rages. Rage is very satisfying in the short term; in the long term, it's destructive. People who know history understand what
ReplyDeleteYou don't want to "get" what you "gave" us in '08/'12?
DeleteToo bad! Should have taken your own advice.
Trump struck me as adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, unkind, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, and consistently wrong. He remains the most vain man I have ever met. And he was trying to make a good impression…
ReplyDeleteHe has no coherent political philosophy, so comparisons with Fascist leaders miss the mark. He just reacts. Trump lives in a fantasy of perfection, with himself as its animating force…
Apart from the comical ego, the errors, and the self-serving bluster, what you get from Trump are commonplace ideas pronounced as received wisdom…The ideas that pop into his head are the same ones that occur to any teenager angry about terror attacks. They appeal to anyone who can’t be bothered to think them through—can’t be bothered to ask not just the moral questions but the all-important practical one: Will doing this makes things better or worse? When you believe in your own genius, you don’t question your own flashes of inspiration.
Yep, that pretty well describes a lot of 13 year-olds I’ve met over the years.
Sounds like the makings of a GREAT President. Someone not in "synch" with of today's elite perceptions...
Delete"Perceptions" that gave us the financial meltdown of '08, followed up with "Obamacare" and a "hug a terrorist" immigration policy.
DeleteAYUP!
DeletePresident Trump is sooooo gonna tweet ISIS to death.
DeleteIs Bernie Sanders un-PC if he Tweet's Happy Chanukah wishes immediately following Obama's ISIS speech?
DeleteNot sure. Both believe they can change the weather with ink.
Delete