Jonah Goldberg pronounces time of death for the GOP:
Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better.
Denial has been Trump’s greatest ally. Republicans and commentators didn’t believe he would run. They didn’t believe he could be an attractive candidate to rational people, no matter how angry with “the establishment” voters said they were. They — which includes me — were wrong.
The denial lasted longer for some than others. Long after many observers had come to the realization that Trump was the front-runner, Jeb Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise, believed Bush’s real rival was Marco Rubio. It spent $35 million trying to destroy Rubio before it dropped its first $25,000 attacking Trump.
Over the weekend, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus showed the first public signs of acceptance about what’s in store for the party. He finally acknowledged that the Republican nominee was probably going to be determined on the convention floor in Cleveland.
La, the drama! This is just the butthurt talking. Jonah is still in modest denial. I’ll make three predictions:
- Donald Trump is going to acquire the necessary 1,237 delegates before the Republican National Convention
- Donald Trump is going to be the Republican candidate for president
- There will be no GOPe third-party candidate. The GOPe will, however reluctantly, fall in line behind Donald Trump.
I’m not saying every neocon will; Bill Kristol may well lose it and announce that he is supporting Benjamin Netanyahu for president, but once the big money guys realize that Trump is not only going to be the nominee, but beat Hillary Clinton handily, the small fry will obediently fall in line, however much they might grumble.
There are going to be more Islamic State attacks. Some of them may be in the USA. And every single one is going to drive more support to Trump. Remember, these guys have no principles. Once the Trump Train looks sufficiently inevitable, they’ll all be scrambling to avoid being the last on board.