Trump signed a loyalty pledge to the Republican Party in September – vowing to support the Republican nominee and not run as an independent – but has since insisted that that pledge was contingent on the GOP treating him “fairly”.
Advertisement
None of the other 13 declared candidates has been able to gain comparable traction in the major public-opinion polls. Though it did stir some of his 2016 rivals like Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham and Chris Christie to voice their dissent, they fell short of saying they would not support him if nominated. At this time four years ago, former congressman Newt Gingrich was tied with eventual nominee Mitt Romney on the Republican side. In 2007, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton led the polls – and neither of them ended up winning their parties’ nomination. Giuliani and Clinton eventually lost.
Donald Trump is one of the most extreme presidential candidates to gain widespread support in contemporary American politics. It’s disingenuous of them to now pretend shock – horreur! – at Trump, who simply refuses to speak the coded language that party elders prefer. Only Lindsey Graham, who probably has the least chance of all but makes the most sense, dared take Trump on directly. And assure them that Bernie Sanders will make a fine president. So what has happened is that they’ve mobilized sectors of the population that have been around for a long time. “It’s just the another example of the fascist direction this country is taking”, said Myers, who wore a black head scarf as she walked across campus. A popular perspective thus attributes Trump’s success to a “right wing fringe” of GOP voters. Sure, some of them tut-tutted their disagreement with the ban on Muslims.
“I hate to see the Republican candidates continue to go after each other”, George said. Seven percent named Ben Carson as the party’s best general election candidate. Trump remains the front-runner, arguably as strong as he’s ever been, but he’s alienating a huge chunk of swing voters. He enjoys 4-to-1 leads over the nearest candidate on strength and changing Washington and a 3-to-1 advantage on who can win. Apparently, some Republicans finally are and are trying to find words to let Americans know that Trump is risky.
The GOP’s early voting contests, which begin with the Iowa caucuses in less than eight weeks, tend to feature the party’s most passionate voters, who have been excited about Trump’s candidacy. He modestly condemned them, and I thought it was sort of inappropriate that he condemned them, but that’s OK. Half also say they would trust him to deal with immigration. What they do want is politicians to represent the contents of their own mixed bags of views. Following the California attack and Trump’s threat, some Muslim students fear they could become targets of violence, said Ahmad Shqeirat, an imam and member of the Arizona State University Muslim Students Association ” There is concern and fear for the backlash of the San Bernardino shootings and Mr. Trump’s statement”, Shqeirat said, adding that he was advising Muslim students to walk in groups and avoid out-of-the-way corners, “especially the students who wear the hijab. Then Bush said Trump said “ISIS is not our fight” on September 30.
But as righteous as it is to call out Trump’s ugly racism and xenophobia, there is something suspect about the assertion heard in many quarters that somehow now this outlier has “gone too far”.
Advertisement
Still, is Cruz so much more acceptable? Meanwhile, Rubio has held steady in Post-ABC polls over the past two months. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
