A quick look at an active Republican’s social media account will usually yield four types of political posts: GOP candidate support, GOP competitor bashing, Hillary Clinton bashing, or Bernie Sanders ridicule. In between selfies and pictures of our lunch are posts about the Presidential election and it’s only going to heat up from here until election day.
One of the popular posts, the ridiculing of socialist Bernie Sanders, should probably be put on hold if you’re a Republican. At this point, Bernie Sanders is a Republican’s best friend. Rather than helping to push him out of the race, we should be cheering him on to compete with Hillary Clinton. With Joe Biden out and not much of a challenge put up by Martin O’Malley, Sanders is an important piece to the puzzle if the goal is to get a Republican in the White House in 2017.
Here’s why…
Keep Clinton Focused on Primary States
Once Clinton gets the nomination wrapped up, she’ll no longer have to do much travelling, campaigning, or money spending in the inconsequential primary states. Before the nomination, the order of the primaries and caucuses helps determine where a candidate is going to spend time and money. Once the nomination is in the bag, the candidate can shift attention to the swing states.
This is why unchallenged incumbents have such a huge advantage even if they aren’t popular. President Obama didn’t have to spend much time in or money in Oklahoma because he knew that he wasn’t going to win it and didn’t need to win the primary there. Clinton and Sanders will likely be fighting for the Democratic vote there, assuming that Sanders is still in the race on March 1.
Manipulation of the Republican Nomination Process
Republicans are going to take longer to find their nominee and Clinton will be able to affect that decision based upon her actions once she’s no longer focused on beating Sanders. Let’s say that Donald Trump is in a heated race with Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz in May while Clinton already has the nomination secured. She’ll most likely want to face Trump in the general election, so she’ll be able to have her teams attack the other candidates in hopes of helping Trump secure the nomination.
It’s not that she can influence them much, but every little bit counts, particularly in the primaries that aren’t winner-take-all.
Cash on Hand
The moment she feels like she has the nomination locked in, two things will be able to happen. First, she’ll be able to save money instead of focusing on winning primaries. Second, she’ll be able to spend more time fundraising and less time winning primary voters.
As sad as it may sound to some of us, the amount of cash a candidate has available has a tremendous effect on the outcome of a general election. Tracing back over the decades, we can see that those who were financially strapped approaching the general election almost always lost. This is going to be an exceptionally expensive campaign year for the Republicans because so much of the early money is being split by a multitude of candidates.
The Hope that Bernie could Win
We’ve always considered Clinton to be an extremely weak Presidential candidate, but Sanders might be even weaker. His performance in the first debate was decent, but Clinton did better. Both have areas that the Republicans can attack, but there’s something that we must remember about Clinton: she knows how to manipulate the perspectives of American voters.
We cannot trust that voters will be swayed by Benghazi, email servers, ineffective public service record, lies, scandals, or any of the other things that go on Clinton’s resume. After all, more Americans now believe that the Benghazi inquiries are more dishonest than Clinton herself. Yes, the left-wing media and the ignorance of many voters can never be underestimated when it comes to spin.
Socialism, on the other hand, is something tangible that the GOP nominee can utilize. It may not be as compelling as the case against Clinton, but it’s easier to quantify. I’m hopeful that America is not ready for a socialist President. Perhaps I’m being naive, but I find it unimaginable that Americans would elect Bernie Sanders. I could be wrong, but I’m still hopeful.
Whether you like Sanders or not, the worse thing that can happen to the Republicans is a quick and tidy Clinton nomination. We need her to be weakened by Sanders as much as possible before she takes on the eventual GOP nominee.
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