David Harsanyi Wants the GOP Establishment to Stop Whining About Primaries

Although the specifics are still
hazy, The New York Times reports that a group of
deep-pocketed Republican donors and bundlers has hatched a plan to
clear the GOP field of all insurgents to make room for a favored
“establishment” candidate—preferably Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or
Mitt Romney. But there can only be one. Republican powerbrokers
intend to get ahead of the intraparty squabbling that accompanies
the long primary season because, in the end, they think all of that
ugliness would only help elect Hillary Clinton.

David Harsanyi finds this strategy dubious. For one, there’s
scant evidence that bypassing crowded primaries enhances a party’s
chances of winning a national election. In fact, sometimes a
primary makes the candidate. What’s more, after seven years of
functioning as the opposition, Republicans may actually have to
sort out some substantive differences on policy, writes Harsanyi.
And coronations do not lend themselves to self-examination.

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