This Has Festered Long Enough

By Erick Erickson
We have arrived at the time where everyone who does not want Trump to be the GOP nominee must unite. And we may not be able to unite behind our candidate preference to do it. But for the good of the country, we must agree that we must stop Trump.
Tomorrow is the SEC Primary. In a number of states where Ted Cruz should be doing very well, he suddenly finds himself in third place behind Marco Rubio.
But in other states, Cruz has rebounded and he does have Texas. Nonetheless, in Texas, Rubio may perform well enough to take some delegates away from Cruz.
All of this is to say that no one knows who will come out with the delegate lead on Tuesday.
What I do know to be sure is that talk of a brokered convention could be ruination to our fortunes in November and bitterly divisive. What I also know is that there is such a strong anti-establishment current in the party and nation right now, a nominee from a brokered convention has the potential to be seen by even the anti-Trump base as illegitimate.

I think the time has come to stop letting egos and Trump fester. I think the candidates must now consider that whoever comes out of Tuesday with the most delegates behind Trump be the Presidential nominee and whoever is third be the uniting Vice President.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush put aside their egos and attacks at a time of Soviet threats and a rising Iranian menace. If Cruz and Rubio are unable to do the same and unite in the face of an ISIS threat and a rising Russian menace, they will be men who failed to rise to the challenges of their age.
Now is the time for the partisans of both candidates to be willing to unite against Trump. We cannot wait till March 15th. That is a fool’s errand. The unity ticket must form after Tuesday in order to shake up the race and unite in concentrated fire against Trump.

For the good of the nation, not just the party, the second and third place delegate count winners after Tuesday need to agree to a unity ticket. We have waited too long, we have delayed the attacks on Trump, we cannot wait to see how March 15th turns out or wait for a brokered convention. We absolutely must unite to shift the race.
The only fair way is to use the delegate counts after Tuesday and set aside the egos and the preferences. We must stop Trump.