I think that there will be a lot of Republicans who back Trump in the general election. I actually think that they should present a unified front to fight against the unified Democrat front backing Hillary. However, the issue is that I don't think that Trump will "play ball" with them if he gets elected. Generally you need do favors to get favors done in return, there is such a common and accepted practice that it has its own term, "logrolling." The issue I have with Trump is that I don't think he will participate in this (at least given his general demeanor and campaign rhetoric). Now, if Trump gets into office and acts like a normal person and falls in line, then I actually don't have a big issue with him, politically at least, being in office. However, if he tries to buck the system and just push policy that he feels needs to get done (as Obama did early during his time in office), then we are likely to see an even bigger shit show in Washington than we have been seeing. People aren't going to keep backing him if they won't get anything out of it.Actually the fact that he has no close ties to either party is one of his greatest dangers. If Trump gets into office we could face a likely scenario of a government shut down due to a total lack of cooperation between government branches. As it is right now, at least there are two sides of the battle...a Democratic president with a minority in Congress versus the majority Republican Congress. If Trump gets into office it will devolve into a free for all with the executive branch battling the entire Congress while Congress splits itself with its partisan divide.This thread has kind of gone off the rails. Let me address my OP to sum up:
I am sold...barely.
The thing that sells me is that he owes no allegiance to either party. He isn't bound by a party's ideology and therefor can act in a way that he thinks is best. It is my fervent hope that his ego is big enough that he wants to be the man that saved this country. This is very thin, and it is very easily destroyed by Trump with words and actions coming up during the general election run.
Thanks all for your input.
In fact, this is such a realizable danger that Trump's presidency is listed as one of the greatest threats to the economy recently...as dangerous as a large jihadist attack. The government is already barely operating...why people think that inserting a third player into the game is going to make it any better is absurd.
You seem to think a Trump presidency will be like a 3rd party president. You may be right but I have a sneaking suspicion there will be a contingent of Republicans who will rally around Trump as "their guy" and carry his water. Politicians are whores... you know that. As soon as he is elected, there will be a line of people who want to be on the bandwagon... in fact, I predict you will start to see that in the coming weeks before he becomes the official nominee.
So what you really get is a lose-lose situation here. Either you get the situation where Trump keeps being Trump and we have the potential for a real government shut down...or you get the situation where he plays ball and gets voted into office based off of this independent stance that he has no intention of holding.
Your assumptions have nothing to do with what will actually happen.