I don’t know what’s more insane — that the GOP establishment is contemplating schemes to deny Donald Trump the GOP presidential nomination or that they’re talking openly about those schemes eight months before the convention (and before any states have selected delegates to said convention).
If this were coming from the media, I wouldn’t be surprised. The news media talks about brokered conventions and floor fights every presidential cycle. They want drama, and the party conventions are wholly lacking in drama these days.
But this scheme for a brokered convention and floor fights is coming from highly placed GOP sources. People like Reince Priebus and Mitch McConnell seem to think that inciting anarchy on live television is preferable to nominating Donald Trump — and they’re not afraid to say so (or, at the very least, leak it to trusted Washington reporters).
What’s especially baffling about this is the timing. We’re a month from the Iowa caucuses. The Republican convention isn’t until August. No one has voted. We have no real idea what the delegate scenario will look like a month from now, let alone August.
All the GOP establishment has done is to give Donald Trump a talking point. The argument he and Tea Party firebrands like Ted Cruz have made is that the political class isn’t listening to the people — and here we have the GOP establishment, the literal definition of the political class, publicly saying that they’re looking for a way to not listen to the people, in this case, the GOP base.
This is just bonkers. This is the political equivalent of an unforced error, an own goal.
This may end up being the most fascinating presidential election of my lifetime.