we keep calling it their <u+201c>last, desperate gasp for air<u+201d> before sinking to the surface, never to rise again. 




but rise they do <u+2013>over and over again. 




i<u+2019>m speaking about the <u+201c>nevertrump<u+201d> movement that tried desperately to get anyone besides donald trump at the top of the gop ticket and failed. 




we last heard from them right before the gop national convention, when they suggested the electors might commit what amounts to mutiny and vote for someone other than trump as their nominee. 




now that the election is just days away, they seem to have come up with one last ditch <u+2013> and certifiably insane way to keep donald j. trump out of the oval office: 




elect, then impeach. 




that<u+2019>s their big plan. elect trump as president of the united states, then turn around and have him impeached, tried and booted from office, leaving us with a much more palatable mike pence as president. 




our friends at the federalist first floated this idea tuesday and while they acknowledge it<u+2019>s a near impossibility, it shows just how desperate they are to keep mr. trump from the white house. 




there is a way out of this mess. it is a desperate plan, but desperate times, desperate measures: elect-and-impeach. elect the ticket. impeach trump. 




the republican party does have an attractive candidate on its ticket. socially conservative. economically conservative. conservative on national defense. morally and religiously impeccable. the trouble is, that man is the republican candidate for vice president, mike pence. 




but if trump were impeached immediately after he took office, the republican candidate for vice president would become president in his place. further, if republicans take the lead in removing trump from office, the party might regain some of its lost credibility in parts of the electorate that it is anxious to attract. 




jonathan asbach , who is a phd student at the prestigious hillsdale college, thinks that while this would be a difficult plan, it<u+2019>s not impossible. the gop is at odds with its own nominee. if enough of them are willing to cross party lines to vote for impeachment, it could be done. 




then there<u+2019>s the problem of what to charge trump with. he must be guilty of <u+201c>high crimes and misdemeanors,<u+201d> according to the constitution. asbach argues that <u+201c>if trump is half as corrupt as we have been told, surely some charge could be made to stick<u+2014>especially if the recent allegations of sexual assault prove to be more than empty propaganda.<u+201d> 




elect-and-impeach offers conservatives precisely what they want: a solid conservative president far better than either of the two major-party candidates. he<u+2019>s far better, for that matter, than either of the two leading third-party candidates who have attracted attention as magnets for protest votes. 




there are two steps for this to actually happen, he writes. first, the gop would have to grow a spine. <u+201c>republican congressmen and senators must pledge to take on the unsavory job of impeaching their own candidate the moment he becomes president,<u+201d> asbach writes. <u+201c>as this is by far the least-bad option that republican leaders have, they should be willing to step up to the plate. 




second, all the gop voters who have abandoned the party because of trump would have to return to the flock, actually vote for the candidate knowing that <u+201c>it is not really him you are voting for, then<u+2026> lobby your senator and congressman to do their part and remove trump from the head of it.<u+201d> 




there is a potential for dawn after the dark night of the 2016 electoral season. there is a very real possible future in which pence is the president of the united states, in which the country is in safe, responsible, conservative hands. it would also be one in which the supreme court is saved from the lawless ruffians who want to rewrite the constitution as they see fit. 




but for that future to be realized, republicans have to work together, and they have to do so quickly. inertia is our greatest obstacle. this has never been done before. that makes it seem like it cannot be done. but america cannot afford our complacency. this is our last chance to prevent impending electoral catastrophe. 




so this is a plea to conservative leaders and conservative voters: do your part. make the pledge. cast the vote. help make elect-and-impeach a reality. 




just when i thought the #nevertrumpers had quieted down, they come up with this plan. 




i have to hand it to them <u+2013> it<u+2019>s certainly different . 




it will never, ever, work. but it shows the complete desperation that some folks have about the prospect of donald trump as president of the united states.
the #nevertrump<u+2019>s final plan: <u+2018>elect and impeach<u+2019>
robert gehl