The Republican National Convention will not have a clear winner in July.
There will be floor fights. There will be blood, perhaps.
But at the end of the convention, someone is going to be drinking someone else’s milkshake.
Deal with it.
Of course, the vain-scream media will go on about the impending demise of the Republican Party, for the fourth time this week in this month. The destruction of the conservative movement, coupled with the propping up and promotion of every illiberal cause under the sun, is the clear and convincing modus operandi of the press.
They finally stopped trying to hide their eminent disdain for Republicans. Of course, none of this matters.
Republicans faced a contested convention in 1976. The campaigns up to the eleventh hour did not make or break the Republican Party then, and they were not responsible for incumbent appointed President Gerald Ford’s unsettling loss later than year. Let’s not forget that the national nightmare had ended two years prior, with the first resignation of America’s chief executive ever.
Ford did the unpopular—yet principled thing—in the long run, pardoned Richard Nixon. The Republican brand was hurting badly. Conservatives were trying to bring fiscal restraint back into play. Former Governor Ronald Reagan had pushed a strong primary game. Then he took on a pro-union liberal Republican as running mate, and solidified Ford’s nomination—and nominal victory.
Twenty plus years before that, Republicans had another brokered convention, with the final battle between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Robert Taft. Despite the ruminations of the press dissecting Republican conflicts and losses, the convention was an open, heated process. The delegates ended up liking Ike, and so did the rest of the country in 1952 and 1956. A consummate general and fiscal conservative, Eisenhower sparked a conservative revolution in his own right.
So, Republicans and conservative-leaning Independents and Democrats (yes, they are out there, and growing) should not fear a brokered GOP convention.
In fact, I say “Go for brokered!” since 17 candidates, all qualified and well-connected, had launched their respective bids. Even the weakest or most implausible of the bunch would serve as better commanders-in-chief than four more years of failed Obamanomics and Apology Tour foreign policies.
I am not a bit worried about a brokered convention. Not one bit.
Whoever takes the nomination will be taking back the Republic from the evil empire of special interests, cultural cronyism, and the Big Business-Big Labor phalanx, which has been looking out for itself and at the expense of the law-abiding American body politick.
Yes, even Donald Trump would suffice as the standard-bearer, however below the standard he may fall for conservatives across the country.
And yet …
Trump, the supposedly-inevitable nominee, is stalling in the middle of the primary cycle. On the Democratic side, so is Hillary Clinton, to everyone’s amazement.
What’s wrong, Donald? I thought you had mastered the art of the deal? He has not shown himself to be much of a winner over the last series of primary contests.
He lost Wisconsin, and he will lose Indiana. If Cruz connects with the conservative grassroots in Upstate New York, and Kasich makes his case to a plurality of voters in liberal, urban regions, Cruz keeps Trump from a Big Apple sweep and ensures a convention fight.
The Donald, the one who hates losers, has turned into quite the whiner.
For the past week, he exclaims that the convention rules, the RNC, anyone who has done better than he this far is stacking the deck against him.
Let’s take Colorado.
The Trumpsters all over the blogosphere have fired at the Republican Party leaders in the Colorful State. Allegations of backroom deals and outright denials of the right to vote are dragging down the outcome. Now let’s consider those who have won elections there. Cory Gardner, the junior U.S. Senator from Colorado, set the record straight. The rules were laid out well in advance for all candidates to learn and follow. The right ground game and organization would have benefitted any candidate who took the time to reach out and work the different delegations to get the delegates. Why? The state GOP decided to reorganize their primary process to better ensure their influence in the nomination process.
Lo and behold, Lyin-in-wait Ted Cruz followed the rules, and swept the Colorado representatives. He is working hard to line up potential second ballot supporters in other states, too. It’s called “working.” It’s called “the art of making the deal when you know how to play.” Gardner offered two pithy insights of his own: a dark-horse Darryl Glenn, U.S. Senate candidate to replace Michael Bennett, leapt into the top spot, followed by two others. The well-monied Colorado establishment picks tanked. Oh, Gardner also pointed out the following: if a presidential candidate cannot navigate the simple delegate rules for one state convention, what makes anyone think he can lead an army or develop a plan for a balanced budget?
Gardner is worth listening to. His operations halted the left-wing takeover of his state, and his ongoing efforts will ensure blue Colorado goes to purple and red again.
As for Donald Trump: Sorry, Mr. Apprentice, but you’re fired! After the Colorado conniption, one California conservative told me that he now supports Cruz. Why? Donald’s Trumper-tantrum. Boo hoo!
The same Ted Cruz pattern of strategy and direct targeting worked in his favor again at the end of the week, this time in Wyoming. Major conservative sites outlined that Trump was all but giving up those delegates, anyway.
A brokered convention is coming, Republicans. Why should anyone be surprised? It’s not as if any one candidate has scored a decisive majority of delegates, or ever could with the large crowd and diverse body of Republicans in play.
In the meantime, two old, white socialists are climbing over each other for the Democratic nomination, and one of them will lose the other’s voting bloc in the general. Republicans are going for brokered, but the Democrats will be broke—and broken—come November.