Notwithstanding their supposed pledge not to leave the party, I think it is possible, and maybe even likely, that Donald Trump and Ben Carson will leave the Republican fold. They will do so in order to form their own ticket, with Trump the nominee for president and Carson for Veep.
Of course, if Trump continues to remain in the lead and continues as well to be given a pass by the other GOP nominee wannabes for his inane and offensive statements, he’ll have neither the desire nor need to take off. As time goes on, though, I predict that either his lead or the public display of tolerance exhibited towards him by the Republican leadership will come to an end. And then we’ll see the new party.
The name of their soon-to-be party? Lots of possibilities there (and coming up with some might even make for an enjoyable ‘party game’). How about:
The America Party
The American Way
The Free America Party
The Let’s Put the ‘Us’ Back in the USA Party
More seriously, does anyone else see a non-Republican Trump-Carson ticket as a possibility?
(I seldom visit this forum and although I did a quick search, I may have missed a similar thread - you get a lot of hits for the names Trump and Carson. If so, I do apologize.)
If Trump starts to fall behind one of the other Republican candidates, I could see him running as a third party. If he can’t win, he may want to shoot for the distinction of being the independent candidate who got the most votes. “The Republicans are losers, so I started my own party, and it was the biggest and best third party run ever. I got way more votes than either Perot or Teddy Roosevelt!”.
It would be called one of the following: the Make America Great Party; the Trump Party; the Terrific Party; or the Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party.
At this point the only thing that would make the 2016 more entertaining is for Hulk Hogan to announce a late entry and challenge Trump to a cage match to determine the RNC nominee.
To complement his appeal - between the two of them, they would attract a huge swathe of erstwhile Republican voters, as well as a slew of right-wing independent types who might otherwise not have even voted.
Well, ths hinges on a key question; does Trump want to be President?
Of course Trump is a liar and his pledge meant nothing, but this could still be a giant PR stunt, in which case he gets his martyrdom when the RNC finally gets rid of him and he can go back to making Apprentice shows and ripping off real estate investors.
No. A Trump running as Independent would be much less likely to actually win even than a Trump nominated by the GOP. No matter what, Trump victory in November is impossible and Trump knows it. All of his activity is just publicity stunt.
The idea of a Trump-Carson ticket is, I think, singularly absurd. Some people like Bozo the Clown, some people like Frosty the Clown. But I’ll guess even the few that like both Bozo and Frosty would find the idea of a Bozo-Frosty ticket too absurd.
Yeah, I don’t think he would last a week in The Oval Office before quitting. I suspect that being president is a LOT less glamorous and LOT more tedious and nerve racking than most people think.
Not a chance. The Religious Right and the Trump fans have almost nothing in common. I mean, does ANYBODY really think Trump is anti-abortion or that he gives a rat’s behind about gay marriage?
For that matter, do you think Trump hates Muslims?
Hell, no. I don’t think Donald Trump has any particular opinions about Muslims at all. What he does know is that saying mean things about Muslims gets people to attend his rallies and causes him to get PR. The moment it stops getting him attention his opinion of Muslims will return to the blank page it was before.
I mean, there are people who aren’t Trump who think he can win. I’ve spoken to some myself. Now how likely is it that Trump himself has a more objective view of his own chances?
What’s his motivation, though? I don’t see how being widely perceived as Hitler With Better Hair is going to help the ratings of his TV show or make people more likely to want to do business with him. If he’s silly enough to think otherwise, why couldn’t he be silly enough to think he could be elected?
Someone like Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich might make noises about running for President as a way of getting publicity for their real job of writing books and appearing on talk shows, but Trump already had a real job before he started his campaign.
If Trump loses the nomination, then he is a luuuser - running as an independent will put it off until November. If it is a publicity stunt all the more reason to drag it out.
But I doubt Carson would run for Veep. Politically he’s so stupid that he doesn’t know how stupid he is, but he is beginning to learn. I don’t think he’d want more months of abuse as a sidekick.
Trump running as an independent has less chance of winning than Trump running as a Republican. Neither has a good chance. However, Trump running as an independent makes him into a kingmaker and gives him a shit ton of power and leverage over the GOP.