Cede the middle? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But, either way, as Sanders even getting this far has demonstrated, the party by moving left would also pick up a hitherto-unmobilized-and-unregistered and surprisingly large base to the left. And that’s enough to win a whole lot, with or without the center, because there is no such base remaining unmobilized on the right.
Not quite so much as you think.
Don’t listen, Pubs! Emulate it! You shall overcome! The whole world is watching! 
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Or they nominate Cruz and lose, then say they ignored what the people were excited for and were crying out for, and the next presidential cycle will be no better. There will be no one candidate that will convince them they’re on the wrong track. It will be a trail of failures that do it, and when enough years have passed, younger folks with new perspectives and ideas will bring change. Until then, they’ll tweak this, move right, tweak that, and bemoan the lack of the ‘right’ candidate to present their ideas, rather than question those ideas.
Normal politics would have enough delegates from losing candidates getting behind the front runner in order to have a clean convention which looks good on television. Even if Trump loses the nomination according to the rules, he is sure as hell going to say it was stolen. I think enough of his supporters are going to stay home to have the Republicans lose big. But I agree that they’ll survive. But Trump might try to kill the party - what does he care about it long term?
If Trump wins a big percentage of non-Trump Republicans have said in polls that they will stay home, vote third party or even vote Democratic. That plus the platform he’ll create might destroy the party.
If they nominate Cruz, and get creamed, and stay the course, then they’ll die in the long term if not the short term.
Indeed, there are those who think that was always his goal. Not because he was put up to it by the Clinton’s but because he thinks the tedious grid lock of a Democratic President and an obstructionist GOP congress has played out long enough.
I’m beginning to think Trump is like Littlefinger in Game of Thrones, “Chaos is a Ladder”
Trump just wants to tear down the GOP system, confident he can somehow emerge ahead out of the game.They’re conspiracy theorists. Trump isn’t smart enough to have a master plan. He got in for his usual reason, ego gratification. Then it mushroomed beyond his expectations, and he was vexed most egregiously by the GOP; and so now he must do what he does to any adversary, attempt to destroy it.
I have an image of him in his office, laying on his back on a Persian rug, beating his fists and feet against the floor, yelling “It’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair!”
The most dangerous thing you can do about someone like Trump is under-estimate them. Trump is a showman and he plays to the crowd, there’s little doubt he doesn’t believe half of what he says. Apparently in private he is very different to his public persona.
Oh, I don’t underestimate him. I think he’s one of the most dangerous people alive, specifically because of his ignorance.
Not quite so little as you think.
As to your belief that Sanders getting this far has demonstrated that there is a “hitherto-unmobilized-and-unregistered and surprisingly large base to the left” can “win a whole lot, with or without the center” … also not so much as you think.
Sorry to be such a cynic but all it demonstrates is that nearly every presidential cycle (like, forever) there is a large cohort of people who prefer what’s behind door number three, the unknown something different. This cycle that’s a bunch of people across the political spectrum. The unifying ethos is not leftist principles, it’s dissatisfaction with whatever happens to be the status quo, and they rarely bother to show up at midterms. When the candidates they prefer do sometimes get elected and deliver at most incremental change, because that is the real world, they blame the leader they voted for.
But in any case, Sanders has mobilized and registered and excited far fewer than Obama did … maybe more McGovern level. And even Obama was only able to leverage that group into victory because he was able to join them with the rest of the Democratic coalition, the growing demographics of this country, who are not overwhelmingly leftists.
The current GOP is doubling down on a “win with Whites” tactic, and it is doomed, especially over the long term. The aftermath of this cycle may get them out of that rut and lead them to an approach that actually appeals to centrist Hispanics, Blacks, women … etc. - of which there are quite a few who are currently at home in the Democratic party and who are repulsed by the current GOP. Meanwhile many Sanders supporters think that they can win with young White voters pretty much alone, and think that one primary season of getting decent turnout of those young Whites such that together with a smaller fraction of other groups they can get to 42% of the Democratic primary electorate raw vote, indicates a winning approach of power.
I don’t think so.
I’m not sure that they are, technically, bound. As I understand it, I think they could vote for anyone they wanted. Still, they ran on a platform of support for Cruz, and they will vote for him. I agree, I’m not sure that’s quite what the intent of the change was, and I expect the rules to be different in 2020.
I am neither smart enough nor erudite enough to contribute to this thread, but I wanted you to know that this made me smile. I wonder how many readers are not old enough to immediately catch the reference.
A phrase that somehow simultaneously sounds bathetic, ominous, and like a title for an ill-conceived Escape from New York sequel.
I only regret that Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman will not be covering this convention.
One, at least. And I can still recall the deathless proclamation of hizzoner, Richard Daley:
Given that mission, I think they fulfilled it admirably.
Fear and Loathing on the Shitshow Circuit?
Oh yes, what the good Doctor Thompson would have made of this current cycle… Here’s a WaPo reporter also bemoaning that loss.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/if-only-hunter-s-thompson-could-have-lived-to-take-on-this-election/2016/02/18/53694b1a-d4bd-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html
Cannot some younger member of the National Gonzo Press Club come forward to fill the void?!
There will only ever be one Gonzo journalist. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
(That amount of drugs is no longer so readily available.) 