Devil’s Advocate

Allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment.

When Ted Cruz first threw his hat in the ring, I was over the moon. I thought to myself, “Finally! A conservative – and a constitutional conservative at that”. Knowing full well that the GOP would seek to pack the clown car with as many would be pretenders to the throne as possible to dilute the vote and pave the way for their chosen middle-of-the-road squish (I assumed Jeb), I was not the least bit surprised to see a total of 16 challengers crowd their way in.

What I did not anticipate was the level of ferocity that the “establishment” would see fit to unleash at the senator up to and including, IMHO, the almost to-a-man endorsements of Donald Trump, a man who, in my eyes is wholly unfit for the highest office in the greatest nation on earth.

That’s why I am looking with bemusement at the groundswell of the faithful who are hoping against hope on two fronts.

Front Number One: that the delegates will see what a dangerous incredibly stupid move it would be for Trump to be the GOP standard bearer and somehow magically realize that they can abstain from voting for him on the first ballot at the convention and, on a subsequent ballot, give the nomination to someone more suitable. In tandem with that hope is the not too farfetched theory that Trump will continue shooting his mouth off and somehow his campaign will totally implode before July and “something must be done”.

And yes, all one has to do is turn on the news at any given time for the mouth shooting theory to be validated because saying something racist, demeaning or abjectly stupid comes as naturally to Trump as breathing for the rest of us.

And yes, I read the stories on an almost daily basis detailing how Cruz has managed to do an end run around the Comboverlord with delegates and is, presumably, still amassing delegates who are favorable to him as we speak.

As much as it would be a welcome bit of sanity in an otherwise all too insane primary, let’s take a moment and explore what would happen with that outcome:

First, there would be all out civil war and scorched hell on earth if anyone but Trump The Deserving gets the nod. He’d no doubt take immediately to Twitter (or wherever) screaming that the nomination had been stolen from him. His mindless minions as well as the press (who loves a good cat fight above all else) would resurrect the “Lyin’ Ted” mantra immediately. His thugs have already promised riots if there are shenanigans not of their own making at the convention, and I have no doubt they’d make good on those threats.

Second, the “Only Marco” faction of the party, many of whom were all too happy to join in with the Branch Trumpidians in putting forth any stories that they felt might damage Cruz (The Carson Iowa flap springs immediately to mind), would join in the revolt because they’ve been breathlessly hoping for Rubio to swoop in on his white horse and save the day. The chances of them accepting a Cruz nomination are somewhere between slim and none (and slim’s gone to lunch).

Third, do I really have to detail what utter crapweasels the GOP hierarchy really are? The spineless, feckless party leaders are no way going to sanction anything that would bring them negative publicity (well, except Trump, of course) – and a full out riot at their July soiree is not part of their entertainment plan. Honestly as opposed to Trump, I could even be talked into Jeb at this point if need be, but I will guarantee the GOP doesn’t have the stones to do it. The two schools of thought on the higher ups are that (a) they think they can somehow control or manage Trump should he actually win and he’d let them continue their entrenched ways unabated; and (b) they’re secretly hoping for a blow out in November because that will once and for all purge what they see as the “hard right” from the party ranks. Either of those scenarios is far more likely given their history than intentionally bringing a modern day version of 1968’s democrat debacle to Cleveland.

That brings us to Front Number Two: the “Write in X” campaign for November. (“X” being either Rubio, Cruz or, who knows – Pat Paulsen, maybe).

Only 43 states allow a write in to begin with, and all but eight of those require that candidate has to register before their name can even be considered as a write in. No registration – no vote counted. Period. As in tossed in the trash. As good feeling as a protest of that measure might be, it’s not going to do you any good unless Marco, Ted, Jeb or whomever has registered – and I haven’t seen any signs that they’re going to.

That would be the ultimate in “throwing away your vote” as many Trumpkins love to throw out as criticism.

So no, gentle reader, no way in hell would a write in candidate be able to win – especially when said write-in is going to be pretty evenly split between the two warring factions to begin with.

One of my favorite people to follow on Twitter opined today that “Maybe Fairy stories help (them) sleep”.

Unfortunately, this is the fairy story where the wicked witch actually gets Hansel & Gretel into the oven and enjoys a hearty meal.

There’s gotta be a third option. One that ensures that Trump will never get his tiny grubby raccoon hands on the nuclear codes.

Anyone who has read my blog for any time knows that I favor the third party option, if for no other reason than as a guarantee (insurance, if you will) to keep Trump away from the presidency. While my preferred warrior on that front has not officially announced that he’s willing, that’s where I prefer to hold my hopes.

One comment

  1. totlth1 · June 5, 2016

    Reblogged this on I Am #NeverTrump.