Mike Holmes writes:
Lew,
How quickly things can change in politics. With respect to political pledges, it is more like “that was Then, this is Now.”
As a December Politico article noted [http://fusion.net/story/242607/donald-trump-republican-loyalty-oath/] way back in August 2015 the very first question in the Fox News GOP presidential debate asked all the candidates to raise their hands if they wouldn’t pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee in 2016. Donald Trump was the only candidate to raise his hand.
Of course, back then the conventional wisdom was that Trump might go independent if he failed to gain traction in the GOP race. Most political pros and media pundits viewed Trump’s impressive poll numbers last summer as the fleeting fancy of a fickle public.
In subsequent months, most of the other candidates in the race made hay over Trump’s lack of public fealty to the eventual GOP nominee, in contrast to their own proclaimed endless love of all nominated candidates Republican.
That was Then.
Now, as of the close of polls on Super Tuesday, March 1, both major Trump challengers have done little but denounce the now heavily favored front-runner as a “con man” and someone whose success with primary voters signals the “end of the Republican Party as we know it.” Marco Rubio had a very public Super Tuesday night TV meltdown, showing more unscripted emotion in his fevered denunciation of Trump than he had in any prior public appearance. He made it clear he wouldn’t support Trump as the Republican candidate. Trump is the political equivalent of Satan, in his view. Or maybe he is Satan.
Ted Cruz took a windier turn in his Super Tuesday Trump denunciations but made it clear that Trump was a GOP “wrecker” and that his candidacy would put the conservative movement (whatever that is today) and the Republican Party out of business. While it isn’t clear that he was joining Rubio in the Trump election boycott, it’s clear he’s okay with it.
Of course failed primary candidate Senator Lindsay Graham is leading the dump Trump Republican brigades, along with House speaker Paul Ryan and recent defeated GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain. Presumably, they alone hold the secret of Republican presidential election success in 2016.
Trump wisely declined to pledge unfailing support for the eventual primary winner in the first debate, unlike all the other candidates. Now that he is the frontrunner with momentum, the “loyalty pledgers” are deserting the GOP ship as fast as they can garner some TV time. Some supposed conservative mandarins claim they will vote for Hillary if Trump is nominated. If their “conservative movement” will be saved by electing Hillary, what does that say about them and their movement?
Former candidate Gov. Chris Christie is a notable exception to this mutinous crew of formerly self-pledged loyalist Party leaders. Christie is actively campaigning for Trump. Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL) is one of the few prominent Republican officeholders to publicly endorse The Donald. But the list of Trumpist Republican big shots is still very short while the Trump “enemies list” is getting longer. Very interesting, the reverse of the usual bandwagon jumping. Let’s hope Donald is keeping track.
Meanwhile, the mainstream respectable opinion-mongers are falling over themselves to gleefully report anti-Trump voices of GOP officeholders or self-proclaimed guardians of conservativism. The only people in the Trump camp are Republican primary voters. Like my neighbor across the street who put up a “Trump” yard sign on Super Tuesday. The only political sign on my block.
Party loyalty is a lot like a spider’s web. Easily torn asunder in the slightest unfavorable breeze. Whatever Cruz and Rubio said or didn’t say last August, that was Then, this is Now.
