Credit where credit is due: The Republican establishment deserves credit for repudiating Trump

Unfortunately, the second most popular Republican running is at least as bad as Trump and possibly even worse. Cruz frightens and disgusts me.

It seems a little bit insincere. They decry Trump's call for no muslims being allowed to enter the US but then back Cruz who calls for patrolling muslim neighborhoods.

The Republican establishment are no fans of Cruz either, and saw his candidacy as a danger to their party. At this point he's unfortunately a useful tool to help deny Donald the nomination.

Things like Donald being dumped by Red State after his comments about Kelly or Romney standing up to say something seem to me to be sincere repudiations of Donald.

It's not a good time for sane Republicans insofar as representation, that is for sure.

+1 on that

Not a good time for sane anybodies as far as I can see.

But yes, go Republican Trump condemners

Darn those Republicans for not running someone indistinguishable from a Democrat!

I'm rather cynical about this. I believe that if the Republican powers that be thought Trump had a good shot at winning, they'd be lining up to kiss his . . . to shake his hand.

But many (many, many) Republican leaders have said that though they don't support Trump in the primaries, they will support him in the general election. I certainly praise the few who say they will vote their conscious in the general as opposed to those who say they will follow their party even if Trump heads the ticket.

And it is. No democracy is any better than its demos.

Are you just trying to cheer us up, you old charm school dropout?

Daily, I see a small group of users bitterly exasperate themselves to the people that say that they want Sanders to win the Democratic ticket and won't vote for Hillary should she get the nomination.

Do you equally praise the few Democrats who say they will vote their conscious in the general as opposed to those who say they will follow their party even if Hillary heads the ticket? I've not seen that expressed much here.

Yes, I'm good with Democrats who say they will vote their conscious in the general. I think that everyone should vote their conscious in every election. I'm a bit less ok with those who say they will vote for a third party as a protest vote. I consider that the same as not voting and different than voting for a third party because of a passionate belief in that candidate.

I do have some reservations about fervent Sanders supporters who say they could never support Clinton because Clinton's and Sanders' positions are so similar to each other and so dramatically different than the Republicans. For someone advocating for Sanders to ignore someone 90% in tune with Sanders in the general doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but if there was a third party candidate that really captured their imagination, I can't argue with that.

Clinton's and Sanders' positions are only similar in campaign rhetoric, because Clinton copies Sanders' words for votes. Other than that, there is little similarity.

This thread is about Republicans. Sorry for the diversion.

This is not a good comparison.

First of all, as one of the fervent Sanders supporters I feel confident in saying that most of us will come around in the general election. I will get good and drunk before I vote for Hillary, but I will vote for her (or should I say I will vote against Trump or Cruz).

Trump's unfavorability rating is much worse than Hillary's, both within his own party, and in the country at large.

I disagree. Look at their time together in the Senate. Their voting records match almost exactly. For all that Sanders voters what to paint Clinton has a completely different beast, the record just doesn't show that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/upshot/the-senate-votes-that-divided-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders.html?_r=0

Trump is the best hope for the Republican party's self destruction.

Now if only we could find a Democratic Trump.

That's a bogus argument. Voting records aren't a representative sample. They only show differences on legislation that has made it through committee. The 93% figure includes naming of post offices.

There are significant differences between Clinton and Sanders that are important to me. They include.

- Foreign policy, interventionist wars and policy in the Israel/Palestine conflict.
- Single payer health care (which in the next decade will be a huge issue).
- Wall Street reform and regulation.
- Criminal justice.

These are all very big differences in their records and in their current policy. These are real reasons that I will be deeply disappointed in a Clinton nomination. Incidentally there are a couple of areas where I disagree with Sanders, for example free trade.

As a whole I believe that a Sanders administration will be far better than another Clinton administration.