Should Republican delegates go nuclear and dump Trump at the convention?

[Ronnie]

The latest polls show Hillary comfortably ahead, and she hasn't even fully consolidated the Democratic Party yet.  Trump hasn't shown that he has the discipline to be a decent general election candidate, or president.

I used to think dumping Trump was the worst thing the delegates could do, but I'm not so sure anymore.  It's looking like Republicans will lose badly up and down the ballot regardless of what happens, so perhaps they should consider going for broke to preserve whatever integrity the party has left.

Discuss.

[Illiniwek]

Oh god yes please. Even if I was a republican I'd think they should do it.

[Dr. Arch]

Oh god yes please. Even if I was a republican I'd think they should do it.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

No. Trump has based his campaign on being a winner. He needs to be given the opportunity to lose in November.

[Penelope]

As a Democrat, I'd love to have super-majorities in the House and Senate, so, yes. It'd be such an awful strategy.

Leaning yes at this point, but only if they could get someone other than Cruz through the convention.  Let's see where things are in early July.  It's far better for them to parachute in Ryan or Romney, lose by 3-5 and hold the house with a tied senate than to lose by 15 with Trump and give Democrats 2009-10 style majorities in congress.  But Trump could easily have this thing back to Clinton +3 by July, so we have to wait and see. 

I can't imagine the congressional races playing out anything other than worse if the GOP goes nuclear on Trump at the convention. At least if he were the nominee, incumbent politicians could disavow him to save face if things continue to go poorly. If Trump is nuked, suddenly every incumbent GOP politician has to decide how to spin "we thought half our voters were simply too stupid and racist to handle the responsibility of picking the nominee this year."

[Seriously?]

Seriously?

Ridiculous question. And ridiculous yes votes from the red avatars on here. If the Republicans replace their fairly elected nominee, there will be a civil war within the party from which they will never recover.

Trump got 1,550 or so of the roughly 2,600 delegates. To deny him the nomination would not jive well with the base. Nor should it. I'd openly revolt and not be the only one that does.

[Green Line]

Yes, absolutely.  We don't need the poorly educated Trumpistas.  In fact, it's likely at this point.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

They should seriously persuade him to go voluntarily (and I think if he stops enjoying the process he would be fairly easy to dislodge) but this method would end in disaster, and quite possibly the end of the Republican party, if Trump decides to push back.

[Higgs]

Gosh no, that would be an affront to the will of the voters. I would prefer just about every other Republican who ran this year to Trump, but this would forever destroy the trust in the system. You kill Trump this way and his ideas will gain more popularity and another will spawn. Republicans need to accept he's the nominee this year and try again next time.

[Wisconsin+17]

How is it an affront to the voters? A majority voted against Trump.

[Seriously?]

How is it an affront to the voters? A majority voted against Trump.

You have a process in place. Trump masters the process and wins, following the rules, receiving millions of more votes than the guy in second and about 1,000 more delegates. He wins a larger percentage of delegates than any candidate before him and has 1.4 million more votes than any previous Republican nominee.

The party elite follow by saying "to hell with the process" and void the votes of 13.4 million of your most hardened loyalists.

Do you expect them to stay with the party? Hell no.

I wouldn't. I'd change my registration and protest against every single Republican candidate down ballot. They would simply lose me as a voter. The party would cease to be functional and split in two.

[Xing]

Please try and take it away from Trump, Republicans. Your party hasn't screwed up nearly enough this year.

[Deblano]

If they do that, Cleveland will be a pile of ash and rubble with rioters running around on top of the rubble.

And I say this as someone who UTTERLY DESPISES Trump.

[7,052,770]

At this point, probably. They're not going to win either way, and while dumping Trump would probably make their 2016 losses a little worse (potentially a lot worse downballot), they'd be better off in the long run dumping all of the Trumpistas and rebuilding.

[IceSpear]

If they want to completely destroy their party, yes.

They're much better off letting the Trump poison run its course.

[Hermit For Peace]

No. Let this thing play out. Let the GOP "establishment" learn how to listen to the will of the people for once.

[RFayette]

At this point, probably. They're not going to win either way, and while dumping Trump would probably make their 2016 losses a little worse (potentially a lot worse downballot), they'd be better off in the long run dumping all of the Trumpistas and rebuilding.

Disagree. Trump supporters would be even more agitated (and likely to vote for Trump-like candidates in the future) were he denied the nomination forcibly.

I think the best course for the GOP is to keep Trump at a 4-6 point loss (by keeping his media appearances few and relatively scripted, to the extent of their abilities) and persuade GOP voters in 2020 to be more judicious.  Dumping Trump would be the equivalent (from a #NeverTrump perspective) of not allowing a fever to run its course and trying to go back to work early.  It might seem to be financially better in the short-run, but it just exacerbates the problem.

[Fuzzy Bear]

They should not dump Trump.  If they try, it'll make the Chicago Dems in 1968 look like a weekend cruise.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

If they actually have someone that can win vs Hillary.  I'm not sure who that would be at this point, so probably no.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

As a Democrat, I'd love to watch the world burn. But that would only cause the death of their party, so they shouldn't.

[BuckeyeNut]

As a Democrat, I'd love to watch the world burn. But that would only cause hasten the death of their party, so they shouldn't.

FTFY

[Fargobison]

I kind of want to see this because I loathe the orange buffoon that much but I would also love to see him get destroyed in November as well. Honestly it is probably best long term for the party that Trumpism gets destroyed.

[Mister Mets]

Yes.

If there are any protests, say that part of the reason is that he was encouraging maniacs.

[Adam Griffin]

How is it an affront to the voters? A majority voted against Trump.

You have a process in place. Trump masters the process and wins, following the rules, receiving millions of more votes than the guy in second and about 1,000 more delegates. He wins a larger percentage of delegates than any candidate before him and has 1.4 million more votes than any previous Republican nominee.

The party elite follow by saying "to hell with the process" and void the votes of 13.4 million of your most hardened loyalists.

Do you expect them to stay with the party? Hell no.

I wouldn't. I'd change my registration and protest against every single Republican candidate down ballot. They would simply lose me as a voter. The party would cease to be functional and split in two.

Seriously? What exactly do you think they're going to do?

The vast majority of Republican voters are not motivated by love for their party, love for their candidates or even principled ideological beliefs. They're motivated by their hatred of Democrats. It is shown all the time, and the manifestation of Trump really drives that point home; the Democrats are moving in that direction but they are nowhere nearly as far along in the process. It's been this way for at least 20 years now.

For all the talk of "rebellion" and whatnot in the Republican Party, Republicans are still remarkably disciplined when it comes to one thing: the voting tendencies of the bulk of its members. They're practically robotic in this regard. They're going to keep turning out in every election and voting for Republican candidates up and down the ballot. They're not going to start voting third party and they're sure as hell not going to stay home or vote Democratic. They'll bitch, they'll moan, they'll say they've left the GOP, but at the end of the day...functionally...nothing will change because they'll keep stuffing the ballot box with votes for the GOP (because Democrats are literally the Devil to them).

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

As a Democrat, I'd love to watch the world burn. But that would only cause hasten the death of their party, so they shouldn't.

FTFY

True, actually.