By Mark Rhoads
Does Donald Trump think that Republican Party unity is important? Trump said to George Stephanopolous on ABC News Sunday,“Does it have to be unified? I’m very different than everybody else, perhaps, that’s ever run for office. I actually don’t think so. I think it would be better if it were unified, I think it would be — there would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.”
In the first GOP debate on Aug. 6, 2015, Fox News moderator Brett Baier asked if all candidates on the stage would agree to support the nominee of the party and Trump was the only one who raised his hand to say no. He later changed his position and now other former candidates are going off in different directions.
The two most recent Republican presidents and the 2012 nominee and the Speaker of the House have not yet endorsed Mr. Trump and he does not seem to think that matters to his campaign.
I can't vote for Trump because I am convinced he is not a conservative, but I still think he is right about the irrelevance of "party unity" because it will make little difference in the fall unless the race is very close which does not seem likely now.
So I wish the supporters of Mr. Trump who do like him well in your own lives, but let the rest of us go our own way in peace. We might see you again in 2018 or 2020, or maybe not. But in either case, chances increase that Hillary and Trump will likely be gone from politics by then because Trump at age 70 would be the oldest president ever inaugurated next January if he were elected and Mrs. Clinton would be the second oldest.
