If GOP steals nomination from Trump, what will happen?

[NOT gonna be banned soon]

Lets say the GOP gives the nomination to someone else, and besides rioting and besides a possible independent ticket, will the GOP survive in 2020 if they do this?

[LLR]

They'll set themselves up for a failure in the general...


But, hey, the Republicans won in 1968, the Democrats won in 1960 and 1992 - landslides can quickly reverse.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Lets say the GOP gives the nomination to someone else, and besides rioting and besides a possible independent ticket, will the GOP survive in 2020 if they do this?

I can envision delegates who walk out and place Trump as the nominee on their states' ballots, ala the 1948 Democratic convention (is this still possible?).  Even in that nuclear scenario, the Democratic Party survived, however, and the GOP will survive this.

If the Berniecrats have a significant role in shaping the platform and leadership of the DNC - and I suspect they will - the GOP will re-coalesce as basically the party that stands against everything the Berniecrats are for.  And that will be quite a large, if unruly, tent.

[PeteB]

Lets say the GOP gives the nomination to someone else, and besides rioting and besides a possible independent ticket, will the GOP survive in 2020 if they do this?

The better question is "Will the GOP survive if Donald Trump represents them in 2016"?

[Hermit For Peace]

They won't. They already had 15 tries at nominating someone else and Trump beat them all. Who are they gonna find at this late hour?

[skoods]

Not going to happen. Too late in the game and they had over 50 nominating contests to stop him and couldn't.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, likely can stop him.

[Human]

The GOP would lose in a historic landslide if the nomination was stolen from Donald Trump. A significant portion of Donald Trump supporters would stay home, thus ensuring a Democratic landslide.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

The GOP would lose in a historic landslide if the nomination was stolen from Donald Trump. A significant portion of Donald Trump supporters would stay home, thus ensuring a Democratic landslide.

This is true, but the party would stand a better chance of surviving in its current incarnation if Donald Trump is not elected President.

Seriously, where does the GOP go if Trump is elected?  Does it reset in 2020 and become a coalition of libertarians, right-populists, and social regressives, funded by business interests?  Because that fell apart.  Does it embrace Trumpism, whatever that means?  Does it reform to counter whatever direction the Democrats take?  How does it do this with a guy like Trump as the party standards-bearer?

If Trump OR a replacement candidate does down in defeat, the GOP still has 99 problems, but Trump ain't one of them.

[President Johnson]

The GOP will nominate its last nominee.

[RogueBeaver]

Long-term, not much. No more than if the Dems had swapped McGovern for HHH in '72.

[TomC]

The GOP will nominate its last nominee.

Agreed

[DS0816]

Lets say the GOP gives the nomination to someone else, and besides rioting and besides a possible independent ticket, will the GOP survive in 2020 if they do this?

The GOP won’t screw with this.

[Chief Justice Keef]

The GOP will lose the general election, and the party will fracture in two; the moderate Republican establishment will continue albeit on a much less dominant scale, and the populist Trump crowd will form their own party.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

The GOP would lose in a historic landslide if the nomination was stolen from Donald Trump. A significant portion of Donald Trump supporters would stay home, thus ensuring a Democratic landslide.

This is true, but the party would stand a better chance of surviving in its current incarnation if Donald Trump is not elected President.

Seriously, where does the GOP go if Trump is elected?  Does it reset in 2020 and become a coalition of libertarians, right-populists, and social regressives conservatives,  funded by business interests?  Because that fell apart.  Does it embrace Trumpism, whatever that means?  Does it reform to counter whatever direction the Democrats take?  How does it do this with a guy like Trump as the party standards-bearer?

If Trump OR a replacement candidate does down in defeat, the GOP still has 99 problems, but Trump ain't one of them.

Trump is the problem.

[Fuzzy Bear]

If the GOP actually does this, they'll lose in the landslide they will say Trump was going to lead them to.

Think of how unsavory such an event will appear to the average voter, then tell me if this is a non-starter.

[Wisconsin+17]

Trump is gonna lose in a landslide anyways, so what's the harm in nominating someone who could actually beat Hillary?

[Mister Mets]

The GOP can be expected to lose in a landslide with Trump, so the alternative isn't clearly worse.

There can be some arguments that if Trump loses the GE, it makes it easier for Republicans to repudiate what he stands for later ("We tried this, and it didn't work") whereas changing the rules gives Trump supporters reasons to be pissed. One interesting development is that Trump supporters have really only focused on the top of the ticket, so pissing off Trump voters might make them more active in future local  primaries.

[Sir Mohamed]

They will/would lose the election anyway.

Drumpf supporters would riot in Columbus what will produce scenes simluar to these of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.