One adviser to major Democratic Party donors said they were texting from a meeting of donors in Atlanta on Thursday night, some writing “wtf.”
“Our only hope is that he bows out, we have a brokered convention, or dies,” the donor adviser said. “Otherwise we are fucking dead.”
Oof.
Ultimately you’re voting for the nominee from a particular party rather than the individual as a person. If one were elected and died before inauguration the party will be able to put someone else in via the electoral college and the same electors. If after Congress counts the votes, then the VP becomes president.
And this is precisely why no Republican should ever be allowed to win an election anywhere. Their whole party has been pro-racism and anti-democracy since they ran Goldwater on an anti-civil rights laws platform, and whenever the pressure is on the Adam Kinzingers and Liz Cheney’s and Mitt Romney’s of the world will always cave to the most heinous people and ideas within their party rather than accept some kind of political or policy defeat.
Technically, that only really applies for the Presidential election, largely because of the Electoral College. But still, you should never vote for any Republicans anyway, because even affiliating with that den of snakes at this point tells you all you need to know about that candidate.
I disagree strongly, this is actually more of an issue with lawmakers because working in the legislature is all about building political coalitions and cutting deals. Republicans’ political coalition since the 1960s has been economic conservatives (who I think are extremely misguided but I accept will likely be a part of any representative government) and klan members (who should never ever understand any circumstances ever be allowed anywhere near the levers of power). Even if Mitt Romney is a good person in the abstract, when he wants to get a bill gutting Social Security over the vote margin he’s going to be partnering with the Louis Gohmerts and Gym Jordans and MGTs of the world, who are going to expect something in return. Moreover, the Mitt Romneys of this world are capable of learning a lesson, and the lesson the electorate should teach them is that partnering with nazis and klan members leads to crushing political defeats.
There are no good Republicans for any elected office, period. Conservatives can spend a generation or two wandering in the woods asking themselves how they ended up where they did and come back with a new political party, but it’s about forty years past when the grand old one should’ve been thrown on the ash heap.