“Party Unity My Ass,” or as it was stated in 2008 on the website Pumapac.org, “People United Means Action,” was a movement that had some traction in the Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama battle for the 2008 Democratic nomination. I was contacted by PUMA activists who saw their party being hijacked to the far left by Obama and by progressives. I did what I could to help them. But the movement did little, if anything, to blunt Obama’s run for the presidency.
Are some Republicans now bent on committing political suicide in similar fashion? The answer is yes.
{mosads}While any person or group has the right to join the #NeverTrump movement, to shout it from the rooftops and into the microphones and cameras of a media vying for the next headline story, we really shouldn’t spend too much time on it. Jeb Bush never resonated and Lindsay Graham never mattered with Republican voters in the primary, so their stance on the GOP presidential nominee now is just as meaningful. For the record, the reality in politics is that pledges are taken to make a candidate or elected official look like the good guy. But pledges are often broken, be it outright or in part.
Here is an example of why we should pay attention to suspended campaigns. Ted Cruz said Tuesday on Glenn Beck’s radio show, “the reason we suspended the race last week is with Indiana’s loss, I didn’t see a viable path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.” Of course the words “respond accordingly” are open to interpretation — and deliberately so. I received a robo-call on behalf of Cruz on May 5, after he had suspended his bid. This could simply be failure to stop the program from running, but if I were Donald Trump, I would watch carefully for behind-the-scenes Ted Cruz operators looking to deny him the 1,237 delegates needed to go to Cleveland as the Republican nominee.
The party does not belong to the elected — or unelected — party leaders, as they would have you believe. It belongs to we the people. Mitt Romney couldn’t win the general election in 2012 with the largest block of Republican voters in recent history. Trump is right to reach beyond the party faithful. We need them to win.
Here’s the good news. Republicans are more united than the echo chamber of party elitists on the right would have you believe. Democrats have an advantage in the Electoral College that we need traditionally non-Republican, libertarian, independent and crossover Democratic voters to counter, but Americans who live their stagnant or degrading economic reality on a daily basis no longer buy the pure left-right dynamic offered in our politics. They are looking for and severely need solutions to existing problems.
On the Democrats’ side, Clinton, even if indicted, can still run for office. It’s the way our system works — until a conviction on any of the multiple allegations against her occurs, she is the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Her rival, Bernie Sanders, is now the leader of a movement. But the fact is, he wouldn’t live to see his socialist dreams fail as they did in Venezuela, Greece and everywhere else they’ve been attempted. In Venezuela, starving people are as you read this hunting dogs, cats and pigeons for food. Where’s the left-wing PETA on this? Sanders will leave the socialist movement under his faux populism to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or a politically uneducated or dishonest group of Americans who think that, this time, socialism will work. Be wary of the threat of committed fools. They are dangerous in their ignorance.
The nonpartisan Tax Foundation analyzed Sanders’s tax plan in January. You can read it for yourself, but here are key points: His plan would raise taxes by $13.6 trillion over the next decade, including a 2.2 percent income tax on middle-income households amounting to an average of $4,700 per year. It is estimated that this plan would lead to a 9.5 percent decrease in gross domestic product because of increases in marginal tax rates. This could result in a loss of 5.9 million jobs or more.
This so-called moral economy argument is immorally waged and factually wrong. A truly moral economy results in growth at the macro and micro levels. The only economy in world’s history that is truly moral is a properly functioning free market where the opportunity to earn and grow exists for all without limits.
It’s time for a coalition of Americans to unite behind #NeverHillary. American unity is needed.
Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.