The Horse Race
As “[a] pro-choice Republican who supports same-sex marriage, [Richard] Hanna has long been a maverick known to roam off the party reservation, particularly on social issues,”[1] so he apparently cannot be taken as a voice of the Republican Party establishment. That’s unfortunate because it really isn’t enough for the Republican Party establishment to worry about Donald Trump or Ted Cruz’s electability, particularly if, indeed, they would support either of these candidates in the general election.[2] In exploiting the social conservatism of authoritarian populists, neoconservatives, social conservatives, traditionalist conservatives, and sometimes even paleoconservatives, they have conferred legitimacy on extreme views and, although I mostly blame Democrats for this, helped to push the range of acceptable political discourse in the U.S. ever farther to the right, which enables the very candidates they now complain about.
Joe Mahoney, “Hanna: GOP’s extremism will make it lose,” Oneonta Daily Star, April 20, 2016, http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/hanna-gop-s-extremism-will-make-it-lose/article_e88ad354-bdef-5c81-aaf7-cb6fc76b430d.html
Donald Trump
How about that round of Kumbaya?
Andrew Prokop, “For leading Republicans, #NeverTrump is often paired with ‘unless he wins the nomination,’” Vox, April 21, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11471650/trump-republicans-general-election
Footnotes
- [1]Joe Mahoney, “Hanna: GOP’s extremism will make it lose,” Oneonta Daily Star, April 20, 2016, http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/hanna-gop-s-extremism-will-make-it-lose/article_e88ad354-bdef-5c81-aaf7-cb6fc76b430d.html↩
- [2]Andrew Prokop, “For leading Republicans, #NeverTrump is often paired with ‘unless he wins the nomination,’” Vox, April 21, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11471650/trump-republicans-general-election↩