The "Republican Meltdown" --- OMG !!! The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling

With things looking like Donald Trump might lock things up tomorrow, or more likely, within a couple of weeks, lots of Establishment GOPers want to knock over the GOP game board and march out of the party in a huff

ALL OF A SUDDEN   —   It’s beginning to look like the GOP is in danger of breaking apart  —   They say the reason is Donald Trump  —  BUT  —  The “BAD GUYS that are pushing this "breakup" are not the pro-Trump folks, it’s the types identified as "ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS” that are “OPPOSED TO DONALD TRUMP – NO MATTER WHAT”

There is no shortage of stories on the topic of the coming Republican meltdown or breakup over the probable inevitable nomination of Donald Trump.  The articles and reports are coming from the left wing media, the right wing media and the main stream media (See, e.g., "Republican Meltdown" Google Search, 2/29/16, Google [https://www.google.com/search?q=Republican+Meltdown&oq=Republican+Meltdown&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.13109j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8]; also, "Republican Party Breakup" Google Search, 2/29/16, Google  [https://www.google.com/search?q=republican+party+breakup&oq=Republican+Breakup&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0j69i60.13549j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8]).

In fact, there is at least one so-called Republican conservative anti-Trump commentator that is willing to entertain the possibility of a GOP “breakup” as a good thing (See “The benefits of a Republican Party breakup” by Jennifer Rubin, 2/29/16, The Washington Post/ Opinion/ Right Turn [www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/02/29/the-benefits-of-a-republican-party-breakup/]).  Ms. Rubin's article is an interesting intellectual exercise, but I'm not prepared to address it here and now.  I suspect that I might never be inclined to talk very much about it.

Tonight, I am going to look at only two of the pieces that I found; and my discussion follows below.

A VIEW FROM ACROSS THE [NORTHERN] BORDER

Let’s start with a real outsider’s view  —  and it goes like this:  “It’s an existential crisis. With Trump sailing toward victory, the Republican Party appears to be heading toward a historic crackup....  ‘We are on the verge of a tipping point in the Republican Party where it could actually split for the first time,’ prominent right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt said on ABC on Sunday. He added:  ‘We are at the verge of a real meltdown...  it might happen Tuesday.’...  That would be ‘Super Tuesday,’ the most important day on the primary calendar, when 11 states vote in each party’s nominating contest. On the Democratic side, front-runner Clinton has a chance to take a big enough lead to make the race against Bernie Sanders boring. On the Republican side, front-runner Trump is leading everywhere but Texas. But his party is at war....  On one side: Trump’s devoted fans, plus non-fans willing to support any Republican over the reviled Clinton. On the other: people unwilling to countenance this oft-odious Republican. And there are a lot of them. Despite Trump’s electoral dominance, he has the current support of just a third of Republican voters....” ( See “Republican Party on the verge of meltdown” by Daniel Dale, 2/28/16, Toronto Star [http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/02/28/republican-party-on-the-verge-of-meltdown.html]).

Now, that’s a Canadian paper.  However, their take on things is not out of step with a lot of what’s being said by the MSM  in the USA. Just this evening, Chris Matthews unequivocally said that the GOP appeared to be “...coming apart at the seams...” over what looked like Trump’s unstoppable move toward the Republican Presidential nomination.

A RIGHT-ISH OUTLOOK

Meanwhile, right wing sources are even warning about stuff like this, which they predict are most likely  to happen:  “With Donald Trump set for a YUUGE VICTORY [caps mine] in tomorrow's Super Tuesday slugfest - oddsmakers see 80% chance of Trump being the nominee - tensions are mounting dramatically within the Republican establishment.  ... [M]any  mainstream Republicans believe Mr Trump would struggle to beat Hillary Clinton and are urgently rallying around their man Rubio with some senior Republicans saying privately that they might consider voting for Mrs Clinton if Mr Trump were to end up as their party nominee as one conservative commentator exclaimed ‘we are on the verge of a real meltdown in the Republican party.’...” (See “"The GOP Is On The Verge Of A Meltdown": Senior Republicans Threaten To Vote For Hillary” by Tyler Durden, 2/29/16, “ZeroHedge” [0 H] Blog [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-29/gop-verge-meltdown-senior-republicans-threaten-vote-hillary]).

HILLARY MORE WARLIKE THAN TRUMP ? ? ?

It is at least a little interesting that the “ZeroHedge” article ended with this provocative prediction: “....  With Trump’s ascendancy, it’s possible that the parties will re-orient their views on war and peace, with Trump moving the GOP to a more dovish direction and Clinton moving the Democrats towards greater support for war.”  I don’t agree, because I think there is much too little in the way of hard evidence to back that up. However, it is an interesting look into somebody’s crystal ball on the topic.