Joe Lane
[email protected]

Donald Trump is on the brink of receiving the Republican presidential nomination. It’s an almost unavoidable fact after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the race Tuesday night.

Joe Lane
[email protected]
Donald Trump is on the brink of receiving the Republican presidential nomination. It’s an almost unavoidable fact after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the race Tuesday night.
As FiveThirtyEight, the popular statistics site run by maven Nate Silver, outlines, Trump has reached 85 percent of the delegates needed to achieve the nomination. As it stands, Trump is just 190 delegates short of the nomination.
In fact, last week, the Washington Post’s George Will wrote an opinion piece titled “If Trump is nominated, the GOP must keep him out of the White House.” Crazy though the headline may seem, the column makes sense for many reasons.
For example, as Will wrote, “Trump would be the most unpopular nominee ever, unable to even come close to Mitt Romney’s insufficient support among women, minorities, and young people.” The point, however, isn’t that Trump is unlikely to win; it’s that if he does win, he could permanently tarnish the record of the GOP. In many ways, Trump’s very nature is in direct opposition of the conservative ideals his alleged party created.
Oddly enough, the responsibility to ensure Trump is never referred to as “Mr. President” may fall on the Republican Party itself.
As opinions writers — including members of this paper — and experts across the country have explained, Trump’s presidency could be disastrous for any number of reasons. However, the group of people for which it could quite possibly be the most disastrous is Republicans themselves. Given that Trump’s ideals do not necessarily agree with conservative ideals, Trump’s presidency could serve to diminish the overall attractiveness of the Republican Party.
If the GOP puts Trump in the Oval Office, the party is effectively saying that his principles are consistent with its own. The positions of xenophobia, hatred, and ignorance that Trump has used to rise to political prominence could infiltrate the White House and stain the 162-year history of the party.
While several news sources have tried to imagine “Trump’s America,” few have addressed what happens to the Republican Party in such a scenario — this is exactly what Will’s opinion piece does.
If Trump — by most counts a candidate who does not fit into any party besides possibly fascism — is elected through the Republican Party, he endangers its ability to persevere.
Yes, this may all be a bit drastic, but the truth is when a party elects a leader who doesn’t fit its platform, it runs the risk of losing what makes that party what it is. As long as the GOP is tied to Trump, it will have a difficult time attracting moderates and not just for this election. If Trump ends up in the White House, the Republican Party will forever be known as the party that put him there.
So unless John Kasich tandem can miraculously hinder Trump’s chances of candidacy works, the Republican Party may be running ads against its own candidate. In an election season that has already been one of the more bizarre in recent history, this scenario would fit right in.

As FiveThirtyEight, the popular statistics site run by maven Nate Silver, outlines, Trump has reached 85 percent of the delegates needed to achieve the nomination. As it stands, Trump is just 190 delegates short of the nomination.

In fact, last week, the Washington Post’s George Will wrote an opinion piece titled “If Trump is nominated, the GOP must keep him out of the White House.” Crazy though the headline may seem, the column makes sense for many reasons.

For example, as Will wrote, “Trump would be the most unpopular nominee ever, unable to even come close to Mitt Romney’s insufficient support among women, minorities, and young people.” The point, however, isn’t that Trump is unlikely to win; it’s that if he does win, he could permanently tarnish the record of the GOP. In many ways, Trump’s very nature is in direct opposition of the conservative ideals his alleged party created.

Oddly enough, the responsibility to ensure Trump is never referred to as “Mr. President” may fall on the Republican Party itself.

As opinions writers — including members of this paper — and experts across the country have explained, Trump’s presidency could be disastrous for any number of reasons. However, the group of people for which it could quite possibly be the most disastrous is Republicans themselves. Given that Trump’s ideals do not necessarily agree with conservative ideals, Trump’s presidency could serve to diminish the overall attractiveness of the Republican Party.

If the GOP puts Trump in the Oval Office, the party is effectively saying that his principles are consistent with its own. The positions of xenophobia, hatred, and ignorance that Trump has used to rise to political prominence could infiltrate the White House and stain the 162-year history of the party.

While several news sources have tried to imagine “Trump’s America,” few have addressed what happens to the Republican Party in such a scenario — this is exactly what Will’s opinion piece does.

If Trump — by most counts a candidate who does not fit into any party besides possibly fascism — is elected through the Republican Party, he endangers its ability to persevere.

Yes, this may all be a bit drastic, but the truth is when a party elects a leader who doesn’t fit its platform, it runs the risk of losing what makes that party what it is. As long as the GOP is tied to Trump, it will have a difficult time attracting moderates and not just for this election. If Trump ends up in the White House, the Republican Party will forever be known as the party that put him there.

So unless John Kasich tandem can miraculously hinder Trump’s chances of candidacy works, the Republican Party may be running ads against its own candidate. In an election season that has already been one of the more bizarre in recent history, this scenario would fit right in.