NeverTrump’s 3rd-Party Dilemma

Ever since Sen. Ted Cruz suspended his campaign and Donald Trump essentially secured the Republican nomination, certain elements of Conservative Inc. have been flailing about attempting to promote the idea of a third party challenge to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that would more precisely reflect movement conservative pieties. So far, their efforts have not exactly caught fire.

There are many reasons for this that I don’t have time to cover in a short essay, but one of them is clearly logistics. It is incredibly difficult and expensive to run nationally as a third party or independent candidate. Some important state deadlines have already passed and some states have extremely difficult barriers to overcome to get on the ballot as an independent or third party candidate. The crucial state of Texas is an example of both of these problems. You almost have to use paid professional signature collectors in some states and at a couple of dollars a signature that’s not cheap. The #NeverTrump third party advocates have also indicated that they are prepared to mount expensive legal challenges in states were deadlines have already passed, and there is no guarantee that these challenges would even succeed.rides in on.  Without it, the rationale for an “outward looking” internationalist party rather than an inward-looking and self-interested nationalist party is lost.

And there you have the “major” “rightish” third party options unless #NeverTrump plans to hijack the Green Party. See what your Establishment efforts to quash third parties have wrought? There are some state level conservative parties, such as the American Independent Party in California, but they do not have a national presence. There are also some alternative conservative parties that exist mostly as internet websites, but they are almost always non-interventionist as well. Since foreign policy interventionism so dominates the Republican Party, it makes sense that outsiders who are dissatisfied with what the GOP has to offer would disproportionately be non-interventionists. There just isn’t any movement conservative but more so party out there for #NeverTrump to latch onto. Movement conservatives have generally been happy with the Republican Party because the Republican Party has more or less, at least rhetorically, supported their agenda.

Given this existing third party dynamic, #NeverTrump appears to be left with attempting to initiate a de novo third party or independent campaign as their only viable option. Perhaps they could call this new party the Phone Booth Party, because, from the looks of things, that’s where they’ll be able to hold their convention. And good luck with that “big name” candidate recruitment.

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