All-out war on Donald Trump’s candidacy is being planned by the Republican leadership. You may as well ponder the alternatives to Trump they offer. Well, there’s really only one: former Texas governor Rick Perry. Only this time Perry is sporting glasses … horn rims that make him look like an aging James Franco after a bibulous weekend.
This distancing of Grand Old (senile? demented?) Republicans from the actuality of their Party is funny, sad, and ludicrous. Most of all it’s a waste of time. After years of clown-car antics, destructive behavior, and outright nastiness, they resemble assorted Russian regimes dating back to early Bolshevik days more closely than anything like a player in a two hundred year old democratic republic. The clown car is racing its motor loudly, but the noise is coming from the ditch.
Recognizing that Mr. Trump has seized a formidable advantage in the race, they say that an effort to block him would rely on an array of desperation measures, the political equivalent of guerrilla fighting.
There is no longer room for error or delay, the anti-Trump forces say, and without a flawlessly executed plan of attack, he could well become unstoppable. …NYT
And if that attack fails? Oh right. A third party.
…Leading conservatives are prepared to field an independent candidate in the general election, to defend Republican principles and offer traditional conservatives an alternative to Mr. Trump’s hard-edged populism. …NYT
Of course, “traditional conservative” can mean anything a floundering reactionary wants it to mean at any given moment. It can come down to whether you prefer to leave the toilet seat up or down. How Rick Perry fits into the Party’s safety zone is what makes one wonder whether they’ve acquired any self-knowledge at all.
Another leadership choice is Ted Cruz, the Republican who’s so awful that even fellow Republican senators hate him. Ohio’s Kasich gets some respect for being a grown-up, or at least looking like one from a distance. (Ohioans may have varying views of their governor.) Then, too, some committed delegates may stand between “leading conservatives” who want Trump outta there like yesterday …and reality. Trump has a following that has turned its back on Washington’s so-called “traditional” conservatives. And, anyway, those conservatives haven’t even reached clear agreement among themselves.
About two dozen conservative leaders met Thursday at a private club in Washington, where some pushed for the group to come out for Mr. Cruz to rebut the perception that the stop-Trump campaign was an establishment plot. “If we leave here supporting Cruz, then we’re anti-establishment,” said one participant, who could be heard by a reporter outside.
But the group failed to agree on an endorsement, instead pleading for Mr. Kasich and Mr. Cruz to avoid competing in states where one of them is favored. “They’re going to have to come to terms and lay off each other,” said Erick Erickson, an influential conservative commentator, who convened the meeting.
Yet in a sign that there is no such détente, Mr. Kasich ran ads and campaigned in Utah this weekend, angering aides to Mr. Cruz, who hopes to reach the 50 percent threshold needed to claim all the state’s delegates. Mr. Kasich also refused to participate in a one-on-one debate, without Mr. Trump — denying them both considerable media exposure and an important online fund-raising opportunity. …NYT
There are some very happy campers out there, though — libertarians and other independents, not to mention Democrats. But Clinton doesn’t seem to be any kind of alternative safe haven for right-leaners. So we’re back to Rick Perry, clown-car old-timer.
Cross posted from Prairie Weather