After a week of awkwardly professing party unity in Cleveland, Republicans relished the opportunity to roast a less-than-smooth Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week.
They weren’t disappointed.
The Philadelphia convention began as WikiLeaks released Democratic Party emails exposing collusion to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
Dedicated Sanders fans exploded.
Meanwhile, Republicans looked over their shoulders wondering how the GOP will be affected by the refusal of Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to endorse Donald Trump.
Both conventions exposed foundational problems in each party as they fractured into liberals, progressives, socialists, conservatives, moderates, evangelicals, constitutionalists, libertarians and the disaffected.
“Both parties needed to unify their bases. And both parties had trouble doing that at their conventions,” said John Green, director of the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
Green said it’s typical for political parties to lose followers after bitter primary battles.
“No party is ever 100 percent unified,” he said, noting the infighting and high negative ratings burdening both candidates. “But it may be this year that the major candidates unify their parties less so than in the past.”
Disaffected voters, whether Cruz, Kasich or Sanders fans, say they’re looking for alternatives to the two parties, and some have tuned out.
“A lot of dissatisfied voters may stay home or not cast a ballot at all,” Green said. Democratic and Republican candidates up and down the ticket could suffer from lower turnout. “Suppose that 2 to 3 percent of the Sanders voters decided that there is just no good choice and they stay home. That could have a ripple effect on down-ballot candidates. The same goes for disaffected Republicans.”
The Beacon Journal interviewed more than two dozen voters whose losing candidate either appealed for party unity (as Sanders did on Monday), counseled followers to vote their conscience (as Cruz did before being booed off the stage in Cleveland) or snubbed the nominee by avoiding the convention and withholding endorsement (as Kasich did).
Crashing the party
There’s clear trouble for both major parties.
And the only clear winners at either convention may be third-party candidates Gary Johnson, a Libertarian, and Jill Stein of the Green Party. The two are waiting in the wings to offer disaffected voters another option to voice their frustration.
Many far-right and moderate Republicans in Ohio reject Trump.
Some, including fans of Kasich, question his tact and temperament.
One Kasich supporter, who works for the Summit County Board of Elections and asked not to be named because of his job, said he’s voting for Johnson because the fiscal conservatism of the Libertarian Party is more suitable than the big-government policies pushed by Greens. Others, who remain loyal to Cruz, question whether Trump is sincerely conservative.
Jim Herndon, a fundamental Baptist and retired truck driver from Louisville, Ky., said he’s skipping the presidential election.
Herndon isn’t alone. His wife and half his friends, he said, plan to ignore the race.
“They’re saying basically the same thing. They don’t like Trump,” Herndon, 68, said. “They don’t like his ideas. But some of them are going to vote for him anyway, instead of Hillary Clinton.”
That’s partly why Lois Arconti of Green will vote for, but not donate to, Trump. Using a phrase repeated often by Democrats and Republicans this year, she’s picking “the lesser of two evils.”
“At the ballot box, Trump has my vote. But I’m not going to go to his rallies,” said Arconti, 72, a lab technician and Cruz fan from Bath. “I will vote for Trump, but I will not support him.”
Arconti admitted she is “violating some of my conservative principles by voting for Trump. But the bigger picture right now is more important.”
That means electing a president who at least says he’ll appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court. But Herndon isn’t convinced.
“Here’s the thing,” Herndon said, “there’s no guarantee that Donald Trump will nominate a conservative, constitutional judge. If you go by his past records on abortion, marriage and morality, there’s no reason for me to believe he will do that.”
For others, party loyalty trumps any concern.
“I’m part of the team,” said David Szalay of Medina, a former Cruz delegate and member of the Ohio Christian Alliance. “It’s really simple: My candidate did not get enough delegates for the nomination, so I will go along with what the party decided, unless something really crazy happens.”
Sanders split
The loyalty of a Sanders fan runs deep.
Nationally, 90 percent of Sanders supporters were expected to support Clinton, according to Pew Research Center polling conducted through June, before the WikiLeaks scandal.
Interviews with Sanders fans who are upset by the leaked emails indicate a smaller percentage, at least anecdotally, still supporting Clinton. More than half of the 17 strong Sanders supporters who talked to the Beacon Journal last week said they will not vote for Clinton. And those who will aren’t happy.
“Even though Bernie endorsed Hillary, it’s kind of impossible to support her,” said Scott Smith, who gave up his day job to volunteer his time and video production skills to Sanders this year.
Smith said that paying to boost Sanders’ socialist message on Facebook and Twitter appeared to have less effect than doing the same for Clinton. He developed conspiracy theories, wondering why Google searches showed stories about Clinton and not Sanders, and then the leaked emails confirmed his suspicions that something was rigged.
“WikiLeaks just makes it that much more apparent,” Smith said. “We all view Bernie as a political prisoner of war.”
Smith won’t decide his vote until he walks into his polling location in Copley Township this fall. But he’s got an idea. “I probably will throw a vote for Jill [Stein] because the two-party system has allowed the oligarchy to take control of America,” the anti-capitalist said.
Some, like Jeanette Riffle of Cuyahoga County, will only support Clinton to keep the Sanders movement alive.
She and other supporters fear that if Trump takes the White House, all the progressive ideas Sanders pushed into the Democratic Party platform will die.
“If it will enable Bernie Sanders to be able to have a greater influence in the politics and policies of our nation, I will bite the bitter bullet and vote for her,” Riffle said. “[But] I will not campaign for her. And I will not donate to her campaign. She has enough dirty money to last her two elections.”
Some, however, will not convert.
“There is absolutely nothing that would make me vote for Hillary Clinton,” said Janice Deal, a Bernie fan from Florida. “I will not condone the actions of the DNC during this primary or give credence to any of Hillary’s ever-changing policy positions, or turn a blind eye to election fraud by voting for her. She is not a leader, she is a bully and she watched and approved as the DNC ate their young at the convention.
“I have resisted the Green Party for decades. It took this primary to push me over the edge. I guess I have the DNC to thank for that.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.