Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow —  The primary season for the Republicans has become a disaster and it is getting worse by the week.

Now with Ted Cruz and that orange haired fellow playing National Enquirer gutter style politics by throwing one another’s wives under the bus, it is apparent:

The Republicans don’t have a viable Presidential candidate to bring to voters this November.

This is why, the national Republican Party “establishment,” those who truly love the party and have been there forever, needs to simply take over, much like irate parents do with their fussing, fighting children.

Let’s put Bob Dole on the stand and nominate someone different.

And come July, the Republican Party elite should open the convention by trotting up some stanch Reagan-era Republican like Bob Dole, who will step to the stage to open the convention and announce:

“Enough is enough. Trump, go home. Cruz, go home. Kasich, maybe you can stay but shut up. Now this is what we are going to do. We are picking someone else. Someone with a brain, someone who is reasonable. Someone who hasn’t embarrassed himself. So are there any nominations? OK, since there are no nominations, I nominate Paul Ryan as President and Mitt Romney as Vice President. Do I hear a second? (Some old fart in the audience yells a second).

“I now pronounce the nominations close. All those in favor state ‘eye.’ (few yell) All those oppose say ‘nay’ (many scream). Motion passes. Ryan is our nominee for President, Romney is our Vice President. I now proclaim this Convention over! Now let’s go drink beer.”

It would be great. Trump and his supporters will scream and holler and start a third party campaign. Cruz will simply scream and holler. There will be mass chaos and it will be fun to watch.

And come November, the inevitable will happen: Hillary Clinton will be elected.

Hillary Clinton

The thing is: Clinton is already going to the White House. The Republicans made sure of that this primary season. Had the Republicans been the crushing bores they have been in years past, they would have captured the White House in 2016 with someone who could  bore everyone to death. I’m thinking Jeb Bush would have been the ideal candidate.

It is unthinkable in a year when there is so much voter discontent, where so many people are wanting change, America will elect the most Inside-the-Beltway politician in U.S. History. Hillary Clinton is so ingrained in Washington D.C. that she was the first woman to greet Abraham Lincoln back home after he delivered his Gettysburg Address. And surely there is a top 20 Internet list somewhere that lists Hillary’s most exciting scandals of the last Century.

The thought that Bill will back on the prowl in the White House seems a little scary. Maybe we should ban the sale of Viagra in Washington D.C. for the next four years.

So my Dole-nominating-Ryan proposal, is a great idea. If the Republican Party is going to lose this election anyway, then why not right the ship, and take back the party? Maybe, the Republicans can send a message:

“Hey, the rest of America, we really are not as crazy as you think we are.”

That way the Republicans can leave with some self respect, and sharpen their knives for a successful run in 2020 when a very unpopular President Hillary Clinton – is seeking re-election.

Teddy Roosevelt

But what about the voters?

Now I hear people screaming, that nominating anyone other than Trump, will be going against the will of the voters. I say hogwash. If you look at American history, our forefathers didn’t actually trust the will of the voters anyway, and the U.S. Constitution doesn’t even address party politics.

When our nation was first started, only property owners, who were white and male, were allowed to vote. And the U.S. Senate was selected by state legislatures. There were several reasons for this, but the conventional wisdom by our forefathers, were that only those owning land were intelligent enough to vote.

Of course, that has given way to the role of the American voter today. We no longer own slaves, we’ve figured out women should have a say in election matters and not everyone is a farmer.

Even so, the U.S. Constitution has never addressed how political parties should select their nominees. That’s because when the U.S. Constitution was drafted, our forefathers, especially George Washington, had no desire to have a political party system.  Of course, not having political parties lasted about two minutes thereafter after a group of senators got upset over a bill that would allow the cultivation and smoking of marijuana and two factions were formed. I made that last sentence up.

Eventually, there was the U.S. Civil War and the Republican and Democrat Parties took over and have been in power ever since. How the two parties have selected their nominees have changed, but one thing is constant. The U.S. Constitution has never gotten involved in that part of the electoral process. Essentially, the national parties can make up any dang rule they want to at any dang time.

In the early 1900s, Presidential candidates were nominated by delegates who went to the political convention with no stipulations. There was no such thing as a Presidential primary.

But that led to infighting. Former President Teddy Roosevelt, who had left office four years earlier but wanted to return, proposed a primary, and a few states decided to hold them.  He won handily. But Roosevelt was as popular with the Republican establishment as Trump is today, and they nominated President Howard Taft instead. Roosevelt left the Republican Party in a huff and started his own Bull Moose Party. That’s how Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat, became President in a three-way race.

Primaries grew in popularity, but were still mostly beauty contests, until the 1968 Convention when after nominating Hubert Humphrey at the National Democrat Convention, who had never won a primary, the party establishment decided that primaries and caucuses would be the means of designating delegates for a convention.

Basically, it ended the importance of the political conventions since everything was decided beforehand.

But how a candidate secures enough delegates to get the nomination still varies from state to state, even though the process that is mostly now in the voters hands.

Delegates have always been choses in unique ways.

Delegate chaos

There is no conformity to how delegates are secured. Some states, like Kansas, have caucuses where you have to go to a designated spot and vote much like a town hall meeting. Other states hold primaries which are like normal elections. Some states have  “winner take all” primary delegates, while others designate delegates proportionally based on a vote. Then there are these “Super Delegates” which I don’t quite understand. And still there are delegates who go to the convention uncommitted and vote the way they used to – on their own accord.

Some states allow Republicans to vote in Democrat primaries and vise versa. Other states vote strictly by designated parties.

The point I’m making, when it comes to the Republican and Democrat nomination process, there are no consistent rules. So why not make up another rule? For example, adopt this resolution at the Republican Convention:

“If the leading primary/caucus vote-getter is an idiot, you can override the primary and caucus vote, and allow party leaders to nominate someone who could actually win the general election.”

The convention ahead…

When the Republicans convene in Cleveland in July, it is most likely going to be a mess. I really can’t wait. You can have your Kardashians, I want to see convention chaos.

Trump is threatening that if he doesn’t secure the nomination, there will be riots in the street. Cleveland officials are gearing up with beefed up security.

Donald Trump

But Trump does a lot of threatening. That is what Trump does.

The big question this next three months is whether or not he can secure 50 percent of the 2,472 delegates or 1,237 needed to win.

He is currently at 739 about 500 short of the required number. Whether he can pull it off depends on what his competition will do. Here is an interesting article here about what Cruz and John Kasich will have to do to stop Trump’s nomination.

The best scenario for the anti-Trump forces is for him not to get the required delegate count. That would lead to throwing a new name out there. Someone who might appeal to general election voters.

The prospect of a Trump nomination is a losing one. Polls are showing that 67 percent of the voters view Trump unfavorably, including 34 percent of registered Republicans.

There is conventional wisdom that the best thing that Republicans can do now is nominate Trump and let him lose big time in the general election to Hillary. That way the party could cleanse itself for the next time around. If Trump comes into the convention with the most votes and is denied the nomination it would disenfranchise a number of voters from the Republicans for an eternity.

There may be some truth to that.

But I’m under the impression especially in this social media age, people forget all too soon. Heck, when Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican party in 1912, he was back in the fold in 1916 and the Bull Moose Party was subsequently dissolved.

Since 2016 appears to be headed for disaster anyway, the Republicans should do the honorable thing and draft a candidate against Clinton. Someone, who can actually give her a run for her money.

There is no reason that the Republican leaders, those who have worked diligently for the conservative principles espoused by Ronald Reagan for decades, to turn the party over to a loud-mouth mean-spirited candidate who is catering to the disenfranchised with social media soundbites. Besides, he is on average just garnering 40 percent of the vote in various Republican primaries and caucuses anyway.

The Republican Party is a mess made by children. Perhaps, it’s time for the parents to clean up the mess.

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