There have begun to be serious suggestions that members of the traditionalist wing of the Republican Party, which represents many if not most of the Republican leadership, may bolt to form their own party in 2016. If this happens it would not be the first time there has been a split in a major political party. The last time there was anything significant of this nature was in 1968 when George Wallace ran an independent campaign for the White House and won 46 electoral votes. The election was not thrown into the House of Representatives that year.
To my knowledge the last time this happened was in 1824 when the Democratic-Republican Party failed to unite behind a single candidate for President.
Jeff Greenfield, in a forward-looking article this past week-end, reported Republican Party leaders are aghast at the prospect of Donald Trump as their candidate. In order to protect some semblance of a viable party for the future there is talk of forming a third party. At least one expert believes such a party's candidate could beat Trump in several states.
That prospect leads to speculation no candidate would command a majority of Electoral Votes, throwing the decision to the House of Representatives. Whether that would be the current House or the House elected in the fall of 2016, I am not sure.* I will research this and report back later.
For now, things are getting interesting behind the Christmas lights and beneath the tinsel.
*Up-date: See comment below
To my knowledge the last time this happened was in 1824 when the Democratic-Republican Party failed to unite behind a single candidate for President.
Jeff Greenfield, in a forward-looking article this past week-end, reported Republican Party leaders are aghast at the prospect of Donald Trump as their candidate. In order to protect some semblance of a viable party for the future there is talk of forming a third party. At least one expert believes such a party's candidate could beat Trump in several states.
That prospect leads to speculation no candidate would command a majority of Electoral Votes, throwing the decision to the House of Representatives. Whether that would be the current House or the House elected in the fall of 2016, I am not sure.* I will research this and report back later.
For now, things are getting interesting behind the Christmas lights and beneath the tinsel.
*Up-date: See comment below
According to Wikipedia as shown on < Sourcewatch.org >, it is the newly elected House of Representatives which would cast votes for President in the event described above. As of this writing, such an event is a real possibility.
ReplyDeleteAfter further reflection: unless the Democrats also split, a right-wing third party would split the Republican vote, allowing for an almost insurmountable Democratic lead. Thus there would be no sending the election into the House of Representatives. In the event the Democratic convention were to split, however, all bets would be off. At the moment this seems quite unlikely. Still, we have already seen a completely unqualified person (Trump) being seriously considered for the Presidency. This campaign needs to be watched very carefully.
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