GOP: The Massive GOP Failure by making Trump their Presidential Candidate

http://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2016/5/4/11592958/massive-republican-failure?utm_medium=social&utm_content=ezraklein&utm_source=facebook

The recent withdrawal of Ted Cruz and John Kasich from the Republican presidential nomination race makes Donald Trump the party's assured nominee for 2016. This represents the most colossal failure of an American political party in modern history.

I am taking the view that the primary function of a party is to select nominees for general elections. As political scientist E. E. Schattschneider said, "He who can make the nominations is the owner of the party." In performing this function, it will tend to seek nominees who represent party priorities well but are also competitive in the fall election.

This is a delicate balance, and parties will approach this differently in different years and political environments. In 2008, for example, the fundamentals looked bad for Republicans, who were saddled with a recession and an unpopular war. Democratic insiders felt freer to nominate someone a bit more liberal and outside the mainstream than they did four years earlier, when they were challenging a moderately popular wartime incumbent. The perception of who is loyal enough to the party and who is electable will vary from election to election.