https://www.mediaite.com/politics/top-gop-senators-back-romneys-call-for-one-anti-trump-candidate-to-emerge-quickly-to-stop-former-president/
“I think that’s a pretty practical recommendation,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said of Romney’s suggestion
Well, good luck with that. It's going to be a bit tough since you all went back to kissing his ass after he attempted to violently overthrow the government
Imagine telling someone in 2012 that Romney would end up being one of the (very, very relative) good guys
If you deem Romney a good guy, then the GOP succeded in shifting everything to the right. Romney is trash, not a relatively good guy.
Legitimately, I may register as republican for the primaries if they are somehow able to push a non-Trump, non-Desantis candidate just to help prevent either one of those baffoons from having any chance.
Will they find one? Probably not.
Oh, Mitt, I wish it were that simple. No, the problem isn’t the lack of alternatives, it’s that your base is solidly under his spell and doesn’t want an alternative—they genuinely want him. Because he’s a strong man, and the rest of you are liberal-loving pussies.
Sorry, but your soil is salty. Doesn’t matter what crops you plant.
Yet, I support his quixotic effort, because an anti-Trump candidate in the primaries could land some punches that prove helpful to the (checks notes) non-Fascist, pro-(small "d")-democracy voting bloc in the general election.
Republican voters vote on the basis of 1 metric and 1 metric alone:
"Who will anger my many, many enemies the most?"
Trump is an absolute moron, and thankfully proved too inept to be effective at pushing legislation, but he does have one instinctual skill that is his superpower, spewing hateful and cruel rhetoric effortlessly, like water. It makes him giddy like a child. It made his voters giddy to witness, too.
For this reason and no other, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee again. DeSantis just isn't as good at being a completely shameless asshole on stage.
Go wayyyyyy back and Remember the event that took Trump from having to hire extras to fill his crowd for the 2016 primary (look it up), to what made him the bar none favorite.
That's what modern republicans vote for. Not policy, they're cowards that want someone to thump their chest and attack their enemies, and the dirtier the better, everyone outside their increasingly monolithic in-group. It's practically impossibly to out Trump Trump in this regard without promising to "nuke leftist cities" if elected.
He sounds like your racist uncle that consumes nothing but Fox and Facebook. The second he started talking shit about Mexicans it was all over.
So for many people he's just like ME frfr despite actually not.
Well put. They're a dying breed and they know it. Principles are long out the window, now they just want to burn it down.
They are not dying. They are dead and lying on their backs.
If you still represent yourself with an R in this day and age, you are at minimum tacitly endorsing what the party has become. And are likely doing a lot more than tacit.
Joe Manchin's a more reliable conservative than Mitt Romney, but he still caucuses with the Dems because that still makes more sense than being with the GOP.
It’s not that they want to burn it down because they’re a dying breed. They’re trained to hate and be angry the other side and that’s all that motivates them.
Mr. Trump has already disqualified himself for the position of president under section 3 of the the Fourteenth Amendment.
This doesn't require a criminal conviction; an insurrectionist is simply not a valid candidate, just as a non-native-born citizen or a 16-year-old isn't a valid candidate. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't have to be convicted of anything to be an invalid candidate for US president; he's that because he was born an Austrian. And Trump doesn't have to be convicted first either; he made himself invalid through his involvement in the January 6 insurrection.
However, the Constitution is not magically self-enforcing.
It is up to the states to refrain from listing invalid candidates on the ballots issued to voters. If the states incorrectly list an invalid candidate on their ballots, it is the job of Congress to disqualify any electoral votes for an invalid candidate.
That is the means by which GOP senators can act in this matter: make it clear that he's constitutionally disqualified for the office for supporting a violent attack against Congress — and that, therefore, electoral votes for him will not be counted.
It is unlikely that they will do so, but that's the means available to them already.
While this strategy obviously understands game theory and (sort of) how he got nominated in 2016, it's clearly not really addressing the root issue.
Yes, Trump will have more trouble if he is only facing one or two competitors. I think we can all agree on that.
But as others in this thread have already noted, 30% of Republicans LOVE him and don't care about electability, propriety or democracy. The other 70% doesn't really agree on what they want. Maybe they or tepid or cold on Trump, but many of them won't vote for a black man, a woman, a Mormon RINO, or will find some fault with any other compromise candidate.
The only way some Romney pick beats Trump is if the 70% of Republicans wake up and get vocal about how Trump is ruining the party and the country, and they just need to put their tax/gun/racism/sexism/abortion fetish aside and pick some horrible Bush-type compromise candidate.
But that's never going to happen. Having a couple idiots drop out of the race just leaves the vote 55% trump, 24% DeSantis and 21% Mitt's pick.
No, 30 percent of Americans LOVE him. That's closer to 60-70 percent of Republicans. He has it in the bag.
I'm not so sure. 30% voted for him. But some portion of that is independents and Republicans who might prefer many options that are not a Democrat.
If only they had done something in 2015 they wouldn't be in this mess. Oh well. They happoly rolled in the mud with a pig and now they are complaining they are covered in dirt.
The 2015 anti-Trump candidates: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, and John Kaisch.
Aside from the one "literally who?" candidate (John Kaisch), every one of these men eventually beat the drum for Trump. Every one of them a bigger idiot than the rest. Every one of them representing the same ilk (maybe) slightly better-contained.
Romney's the one who is wrong here. Any Republicans that do not 100% embrace and love Trump and what he represents need to leave the party. Trump is a correct and proper representation of the GOP's values and goals and these credulous buffoons need to stop pretending he isn't.
"Someone needs to run against him! Not me, but someone!"
Witness the craven nature of the modern Republican Party
When you set a field on fire to burn your enemy's land, and you make no effort to put it out when it burns the village, don't be surprised when the fire gets out of control and comes for your land.
They had their chance. They're not interested in doing what's right, only what gets them more power.
Third place is the guy calling out second place while his campaign donations are filed into companies registered to the inside of a Staples.
And who wants to prohibit anyone under 25 from voting (at least unless they've passed a GOP loyalty test).
I think all but the former VP Pence and one other rich guy that doesn't have a chance should skip SC's primary. And when Pence wins, everyone else besides Trump should drop out sighting Pence's strength with the traditionally republican African Americans instead of trying to expand the base. And when Trump tries to stage a comeback, the entire country should shutdown due to the first wave of COVID-23.