WI - Marquette University: Sanders up 4, Cruz up 10

[Badger]

If Trump isn't able to get a majority of delegates, he has to deal with the consequences. The party can't afford to nominate a Dixiecrat-style bigot.

Ummm...so we go for Ted Cruz instead?

[Badger]

Seriously?, you seem pretty young, but you do understand that Dole and McCain were both very prominent opponents of the "Bush wing" of the party, right? The TP/establishment divide is a product of the Obama era that was not visible prior to ~2009, and _trumpist personal movement dates all the way back to 2015.

McCain ran against Bush, however, he was never a true credentialed conservative. So if you want to claim he was an opponent of the Bush wing, I'll accept your premise only to that narrow point in 2000. By the time he ran in 2008, McCain was NOT a conservative by any means. In fact, Palin was put on the ticket to balance out his "maverick" record a/k/a liberalism.

As far as Dole goes. He's also not a conservative in the mold of Reagan. He was Ford's running mate in 1976 (anti-Reagan) and at the time of his run against Clinton in 1996 was as establishment as you can get as the Senate Majority Leader. While he may have been good at building consensus between the conservative and moderate wings of the party, Dole never had a conservative voting record.

The fact of the matter remains that in this cycle, the establishment/Bush wing of the party has been rejected by the voters. If a contested convention happens and someone from the establishment wing like Paul Ryan -- or even worse -- Mitt Romney ends up being the nominee, the party will be destroyed from within.

All i can say is your screen name is aptly chosen......