[vienna]

Originally Posted by August

As opposed to being the Democrat candidate? Well for one thing the Republicans don't have super delegates that decide who wins and who looses. No way was Bernie Sanders going to be allowed to win. A power i'd bet the GoP establishment wishes they had.

If you're asking how he could have beat his competition for the nomination it points to the republicans greatest weakness; failed expectations.

As one conservative columnist put it:

It would be nice to at least put in a source or link to a quote; however, I easily found it:

http://www.newsmax.com/Freind/gop-od.../11/id/728298/

Some other interesting quotes from the same opinion piece:

But accolades and party nominations don’t win general elections, especially when the baggage Trump carries is the highest of any candidate in history.

While Trump successfully tapped into a massive vein of discontent, labeling him a brilliant political strategist, as some have, is going overboard.

He won because he told a disgruntled conservative base, in blunt, politically-incorrect language, what it wanted to hear; he was the only candidate, past or present, to do so; and the competition was weak.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Trump’s ascension is the unapologetic about-face executed by many conservatives, who jettisoned their normal “purity” litmus test to support someone who had no history of walking the walk.

For decades, the conservative wing held candidates to such stringent standards that a bipartisan vote cast twenty years prior was more than enough to disqualify the “offender,” earning him condemnation as a moderate.

Yet Trump earned a free pass, with many conservatives looking the other way on Trump’s personal life, insults, prior liberal positions, and his past support of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.

In reality, Trump had virtually no “conservative credentials,” so the $64,000 question is whether he has “evolved” into a true conservative, or is simply an opportunist who utilized his TV skills to whip an angry GOP base into a frenzy.

...

If that continues, will those who gave him the nomination feel betrayed and abandon him? “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” may become the mantra of disaffected conservatives who took a chance on The Donald and got burned.

Trump also got lucky by competing in a very weak field (a GOP problem for decades). Granted, it wasn’t easy, but if not Trump, then who? Who was the bona fide standout contender? There was none.

The lower tier ran to make a point. The next level had name recognition, but no base.

...

EDIT: It should be noted the quoted piece was first published May 11, 2016, three months ago and before many of the more egregious utterances and actions of Trump in his campaign...




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