Last updated on 2016-06-11
The GOP spin machine remains frightened of Stace Nelson. Presented with rumor that the two-time District 19 legislator and 2014 GOP U.S. Senate candidate is circulating petitions to run for the State Senate seat Bill Van Gerpen appears to be vacating, Dakota War College offers its regular GOP establishmentarian reminder that Nelson refused to support his party’s U.S. Senate nominee after he did not win the primary.
Should backing your party’s preferred candidate be an absolute? Are there conditions under which backing away from your party’s pick and supporting someone from a different party is necessary, or even acceptable?
Nelson chose not to back Mike Rounds because he agreed with me that Rounds was dishonest and corrupt. Nelson instead backed independent candidate Gordon Howie, whom Nelson viewed as a true Christian conservative and more consistent advocate for the Republican platform. Does that mean Nelson should never again be allowed into a GOP meeting?
Powers party-loyalty critique seems less a matter of principle and more a convenient club for his personal animus. As eagerly as Powers cites Nelson’s renunciation of Rounds as a moral and political failing, Powers indicts my moral and political character for the opposite, for sticking with my party’s preferred candidate in the 2010 District 8 Senate race. After a petition snafu, Democrat Clark Schmidtke ran as an independent against then District 8 Republican Senator Russ Olson. After DWC published court documents showing Schmidtke had an ugly court record in Minnesota, I reported that both Schmidtke and Olson had court records. I declared Schmidtke damaged goods and said I would not blame fellow Democrats for abandoning Schmidtke on Election Day, yet I maintained my endorsement of Schmidtke, contending he’d still make better policy decisions than establishment crony Olson. Schmidtke lost and died in ignominy the following year for further misconduct at the assisted living center he tried to run in Trent.
In Schmidtke’s case in 2010, I stuck with the man my party was backing, despite clear evidence that he had wronged people in the past. Am I now allowed to say I was wrong, or does renouncing Schmidtke make me a traitor to my party just like DWC says Nelson is to the GOP?
Powers and his party are facing their own choice between party loyalty and rejection of a candidate unfit for office. Their Presidential frontrunner is a demonstrable fascist. Will Powers cower like Mike Rounds behind blind partisanship, cave like Carson and Christie, and salute Il Duce at the convention? Or will he apply the Schmidtke rule to himself and join the courageous Republicans who recognize that we must not give Donald Trump the nuclear button?
Stace Nelson refused to endorse a fake. I stuck with a felon. What should Republicans do about the fascist they have created? When is party loyalty trumped by greater moral concerns?
I thought you were heading for a joke such as: a fake, a felon and a fascist walk into a bar and the bartender says what’s up Donald.
“When is party loyalty trumped by greater moral concerns?”
A great question Cory and one that’ll be interesting to see how Powers answers when Trump is nominated.
Here is a great story by Rachael Maddow last night. It shows how Trump is inciting these people.
The question? Putting party politics aside, do we really want somebody like Trump leading this nation? Have we sunk this low?
http://on.msnbc.com/1pe7zUq
Trump’s a man? I figured he was a victim.
First, Ive never voted a straight ticket in my life. If your not voting for the person, your an idiot.
The Blindman
I have a confession to make. I once voted for Mike Rounds for state senate because … his opponent was a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat who had called Bill Janklow a nazi. (Say what you want about Janklow – he was not a nazi). Though the legislature needed more Democrats it didn’t need THAT Democrat.
Had I known at the time that Rounds himself believes that even the most vile, deceitful, race-baiting, fascist demagogue is acceptable as long as they are a member of the party you prefer – then maybe I would have adopted Rounds’s own position to vote for the Democrat in that election.
Naw. I’m not like Rounds. I have some standards.
Blindman,that is good advice since it is hard to distinguish wingnuts like Trump and Cruz et al, from non-human species. Those “people?” tear this nation apart and then blame it on Obama.
Mr. Howie overgodded on us and is insaner than most. Young Mr. Nelson too.
A loon is a loon. Ben Carson endorsed Trump Friday.
“There are two different Donald Trumps,” Carson said at the billionaire’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “There’s the one you see on the stage and there’s the one who is very cerebral, sits there and considers things very carefully. You can have a very good conversation with him. That’s the Donald Trump that you’re going to start seeing more and more of.”
But consider physician Carson thinks Darwinism came from Satan, against women’s right to choose, etc.
Do you have to lose your conscience to become a Republican? Stace kept his and they do not like him. Schoenbeck kept his and got blocked out of a Republican causus. If conservatives think they are right but scorn their own who vote as they see is right, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Rounds thinks that backing Trump(a former democrat) is party loyalty, then he is not thinking this through. He thinks Trump is better than any democrat and he thinks no Senator is for the KKK and Sanders is a Senator who is not for the KKK but Rounds thinks Trump is better than Sanders. That is proof that Republicans have thrown out the idea that we have to think through what is right. If Trump is only from New York and knows nothing else about America then we might be fooled into thinking that he would not understand what the KKK is. But any half knowledgeable American knows what the KKK is and would not take an endorsement from them. Overlooking such a lie that Trump said proves that Rounds does not have the discernment to know a lie from the truth if it is told by a Republican.
Fake + felon + fascist = Marion Rounds. I don’t know what those other two guys’ photos were up there for.
Roger, if you’ve lost your conscience, it makes you a good Republican. Not just a Republican these days. Don’t worry, PP will soon enough be “on his knees,” as Trump says, willing to put on a French maid’s outfit and perform duties to get a couple banner ads from The Donald.
Everyone, just keep in mind the first one “on his knees” in South Dakota was Marion. And Owen, the issue isn’t party loyalty. It’s a warped interpretation of “doin’ business.” These guys expect to get something back monetarily in return for their support. When they’ve restored the Fourth Reich in America, they anticipate some form of largesse in a new Global Era of Corporate Feudalism.
Can we now spell feudalism few-duh-lism? For the few,the proud,the 1%.
Do you have to lose your conscience to become a Republican? Uh-no,but you will. You will hand it over for reasons you can’t even fathom. Wingnutism is about all that was bad in this country and will be again.
We have now confirmed, Chicago is the city of love. At least it’s not all Bush’s fault anymore. Mark Levin said it best to a caller on his show who complained about no compromise in DC. Show me no compromise. Both parties are complicit.
Rounds a fake think Rounds is nothing but a one term senator who wants his pension,South Dakota loses on this guy.He cares more for himself than anything.
Mark Levin? I just threw up in my mouth a whole bunch. Boths side aren’t complicit. Dems haven’t gotten started on payback obstructionism and there aren’t enough years before the sun melts in 5 billion years for Dems to get even.
The Sdgop backlash stace experienced is the same sd lawyers and other candidates face choosing to run as democrats. Bad for business.
Never ever did he call on Russia to hack a computer. That is an outright lie, but I realize you Dems have gotten used to lies and now feel they are okay I guess!
The end justify the means for Dems, which is why Hillary is operating like she is. Trump could just sit back and watch everything implode. Any candidate with integrity would have already won it for the Dems. Instead, they picked someone who could be comparably equal when it comes to corruption. Just think about it, Hillary is currently losing votes to Trump and the Dems aren’t even going to try and fix that. They just keep trying to guilt trip voters in saying their sh!t smells better than the others so they have to vote for HRC. Bernie Supporters are ready to watch Hillary lose because they know that will send a message to the Dem party to stop the BS and they know Trump will never last longer than 4 years which will almost guarantee a Dem president in 2020.
According to Poltifact- Drump is the biggest liar and HRC is in the top 2 most honest, based on claims made since 2007. Gawd that has got to hurt.
BTW- Russia hacked the DNC emails and turned them over to Assange to release. Assange just released more and HRC’s goose is rilly cooked now-not.
Don’t know why we bounced back to this thread, but even if we accept the excusifying, which requires again taking Donald Trump’s words as something other than what they mean, we still have a GOP nominee uttering statements that are unacceptable for a President of the United States.