No dumping Trump
Published July 15, 2016
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, July 15, 2016.
The “Dump Trump” movement, if it can be called a movement, is an undemocratic fantasy. Donald Trump won enough votes in primaries and caucuses to claim the Republican presidential nomination at its national convention next week.
North Carolina voters helped. The New York businessman scored a clear plurality victory in this state’s Republican primary March 15 over active rivals Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio. He is due a proportionate number of the state’s delegates in balloting at the convention.
Any delegates who are bound to Trump but don’t vote for him betray Republican voters. They have no right to substitute their own judgment for that of the people they’re supposed to represent.
Some don’t like the prospect of Trump as their candidate. Plenty of Democrats aren’t happy with their presumptive nominee, either. Hillary Clinton’s irresponsible handing of State Department emails while she was secretary is just one cause for concern about her judgment and honesty. Yet she, like Trump, emerged from a long nominating process with a majority of delegates. She, too, was a winner in North Carolina. Tar Heel State voters of both parties contributed to the state of politics in our country — a presidential election between two flawed candidates. There’s no going back.
But some will try. Some Republican delegates hope to change the convention rules and turn the first ballot into a sort of free-for-all where everyone’s governed by conscience or who knows what — persuasion, arm-twisting, inducements?
Party rules try to avoid the old ways that let powerful insiders choose the candidates. The primary and caucus system is far from perfect. Some state primaries are open to independent voters or to anyone, no matter their registration; some are closed. Caucuses work by their own baffling sets of rules. But the people choose. The nominating process has become more democratic.
What Republican dissenters have in mind would return the party to the days of smoke-filled rooms and spark anger among voters whose voices would be negated. Given that Trump already appeals to voter anger and distrust of insiders, this revolt could have ugly consequences.
It’s evident why many Republicans are unhappy with Trump. His public statements are offensive, his promises are unrealistic and his background is troubling. His unfavorable ratings among the general electorate are sky-high. While his mainstream choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as running mate might help, he still seems likely to lose an election that many Republicans feel should be easy to win. Republicans may suffer losses down the ballot, too. They could do better with another candidate.
Democrats find themselves in a similar position. Their candidate should be miles ahead of Trump in the polls, except that their candidate is Clinton. At least she has the endorsement of rival Bernie Sanders; some of Trump’s former opponents won’t back him. Neither will former Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush; nor will 2012 candidate Mitt Romney.
But Republican voters wanted Trump, and they will get him.
July 15, 2016 at 9:06 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Wrong prescription. Political parties should be totally responsible for the process of selecting their candidate for the general election. No government funded primaries or conventions. Let the parties and their membership make the rules, run the process, and pay for it. The mainstream support for the two major party monopoly fully on display in your editorial must end.
July 15, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Thayer Jordan says:
Trump, unfornately, is a very poor choice for the Republican party. Maybe next election, Republicans will do better.
July 16, 2016 at 10:08 am
Richard L Bunce says:
... and yet he won the most delegates in the caucuses and primaries with no party support. In four years the State parties may (hopefully) move away from primaries and implement a nomination system for party members not run and paid for by government.
