The only accurate prediction in this bizarre presidential election is that most predictions are wrong. So here’s a popular one about which to be wary: If Trump is the nominee he won’t get the support of key GOP leadership.
Wrong. Already Republican thought-gurus are paving the way for what will eventually be Trump’s broad-based support. Rupert Murdoch, last of the truly powerful media barons, now says if Trump’s nomination “becomes inevitable,” the party “would be mad not to unify.”
And unify it will. Alex Castellanos, the political operative who tried unsuccessfully to raise money for an anti-Trump advertising effort, tells the Washington Post that his party should rally around Trump. Veteran GOP seed planter Newt Gingrich, tweets: “Trump’s shift toward inclusiveness, team effort and unity was vitally important. He has to build a Reagan-like inclusiveness to win this fall.”
To be sure, the stop Trump effort will continue, with good reason, down to the last gasp. Mitt Romney, once the party’s leader, is pretty much pleading with his followers to resist the tide, noting that Trump is “playing the American public for suckers.”
The issue isn’t whether Trump is an unqualified candidate whose very presence in the race should be an embarrassment to all Americans. He is that, and virtually all Republican leaders are well aware of it.
But what are they going to do, change parties? Vote for Hillary Clinton? Concede the 2016 election - the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court - to Democrats? Not a chance.
Many will stop short of fawning over Trump as Chris Christie has in his baldfaced attempt to remain relevant and perhaps land the job of attorney general if there ever is a Trump Administration. A few, such as the downtrodden Jeb Bush, will sit on the sidelines with Romney and Co. and refuse to endorse the buffoon atop the ticket.
The rest, however, will fall like dominos. They’ll speak of the good of the party. They’ll insist that this is a critical turning point for the nation (as, it seems, are all points).
They’ll note that Trump has toned down his rhetoric and demonstrated some semblance of reasonability in recent days. They’ll rail against the Clintons and proclaim that the nation can’t survive a third Obama term.
After a while they’ll cozy up even more. They’ll proclaim Trump’s choice for vice president - whoever it is - as the ingredient that will make the ticket greater than the sum of its parts. They’ll even hang it on the American public, saying that this is now what the people want.
And then, despite knowing full well that they are participating in the biggest fiasco in political history, they’ll support Donald Trump.
Then again, maybe Trump won’t get the nomination. But if he does, or appears to be unstoppable in the coming weeks, don’t expect the Grand Old Party to be any more eager to disavow him than he was to disavow the KKK.
Republican leadership will simply state that they have no choice. And that, in itself, is a damnable choice.
Peter Funt is a writer and speaker