Because they sure seem ready to dump him.
What a fascinating Current Events lesson could be written about
today’s news concerning the presumptive Republican nominee for President. Due
to his many faux pas, to put it mildly, member after member of the Republican
leadership is spending more time reacting to Mr. Trump’s ill-considered remarks
than they are concentrating on winning the White House and keeping control of
Congress in the fall. Some Congressional Republicans are considering or
actually have rescinded their endorsements of their party’s candidate.
Mr. Trump’s response is that the Republican leadership needs to
sit down, shut up, and do as they are told, by him. Trump sees no reason why he
should change his tone. The tone he is taking makes him a hit with his Trumpist
base. As long as they keep cheering every word that Mr. Trump utters, the
candidate will never feel a need to change what he says or how he says it. If
the party leadership won’t support him, Mr. Trump says he will go it alone.
The current upheaval in the Republican Party would be a
wonderful opportunity to look back over the Presidential elections of the last
half of the Twentieth Century and have the students look for a similar
situation in those past contest that could be compared and contrasted with the
situation the Republicans currently find themselves in. Would the students even
be able to find one?
While the students would be able to find many instances of a
second place candidate launching in independent run for President when the
major party did not nominate them – Ross Perot jumps immediately to mind, along
with Ralph Nader and George Wallace – I believe they would be hard pressed to
find a time when the party had a presumptive nominee whom the party backed away
from.
I do not envy the Republican leadership’s position of having to
see Mr. Trump receive and accept the nomination to run as their candidate for
President all-the-while knowing they cannot honestly and earnestly support his
candidacy. I would ask my students, after they have studied past races, if they
had any suggestion for the Republicans. I imagine such a discussion would be
lively and full of interesting and innovative ideas.
I have not received my teaching assignment for next school year
yet, but if I could choose right now, I’d definitely choose Eighth Grade Social
Studies. I cannot imagine a better time to be teaching about civics, the
electoral process, and the Constitution than during this year’s Presidential
General Election Campaign.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
No comments:
Post a Comment