Some in the GOP elite like Mitt Romney seem more determined to see Donald Trump fail than to see Hillary Clinton fail in the presidential race. Apparent competitors to Trump are offered, but are they really what they seem?
One is David Evan McMullin, a longtime Republican now running for president against Trump even after Trump won the Republican nomination. The effort goes under the Romney-funded campaign slogan "Better for America" with the apparent aim to give voters a third alternative.
According to Thomas Knapp at the Garrison Center, "The conventional wisdom says that he’s there to keep Trump out of the White House — even at the cost of a Hillary Clinton presidency — by giving anti-Trump Republican voters somewhere else to go."
However, Knapp sees Republicans in fact plotting to use Trump to win the White House, no matter how much they actually dislike the man. The goal is "to help Trump get elected, but with plausible deniability so that the GOP wins the White House without #NeverTrump leaders having to lose face" considering their earlier opposition to Trump.
In his commentary addressing this issue, Knapp concludes, "The most likely purpose of the McMullin campaign is to fragment the anti-Trump vote in New Mexico, Utah and perhaps other states, allowing Trump to win those states with smaller pluralities than he’d need in a race with fewer significant opponents — and to contain the threat of a third party breakout that might carry over into, and expand in, future elections."
While it is unlikely that third party candidates will be elected to the White House in the current polarized election, for a candidate like the Green Party's Jill Stein to win widespread support would certainly embolden American voters to consider third parties the next time they vote.
Two years of posts end at Beliefnet: Harry J. BenthamMy work for the L'Ordre blog held at Beliefnet is at its... https://t.co/McQmIkClJE— The clubof.info Blog (@ClubOfInfo) August 9, 2016
