That’s the headline at The Hill (via Instapundit) – and I do believe that the Establishment is in full disarray (and anger) over the developments in the 2016 Presidential Primary races. No, not all are expressing it, or if they are, it is in words that have a heavy, heavy veneer over them. Yet, there are a lot of Establishmentarians that are full in revolt – and if you watch Fox, you have watched George Will have as much of an emotional meltdown as he ever has.
It’s like they believe they own the Party or something. They DO believe they own your votes – that is clear. What did The Hill have to say (reformatted, emphasis mine)?
Outsiders who have never before held political office are dominating the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
If you look at the most recent poll, I would say that fully 5 of the top 7 are certainly either non-politicians or non-establishmentarians: Trump, Carson, Cruz, then Bush (Est.), Huckabee, Walker, Fiorina. Am willing to quibble on Huckabee and while Cruz is a sitting senator, he is certainly outside of the DC Repub clique and the Establishment one.
Donald Trump is the GOP front-runner, while businesswoman Carly Fiorina is surging after a strong performance in last week’s debate. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is also showing strength, and is a candidate to watch in the Iowa caucuses, where he is outperforming former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Conservatives are thrilled with the developments.
“This is a paradigm shift,” conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace told The Hill. “The base of the party is in open revolt. We’re watching a political party dissolve. It’s a civil war and the GOP as it’s constructed may not survive.”
I agree with that – there may well be a paradigm shift going on (or, perhaps, a projection for one by a significant part of the base which may become a self-fulfilling prophecy). As I keep saying, you have brought us upon yourselves. We gave you the chance by giving you our votes and giving you the majorities you wanted. And you have squandered it. Years, nay DECADES of doing exactly that, along with the disruption by the use of the Internet and social media, those that have been so underwhelmed with the “professional politicians” results (and fed up with their whining), they are using the political arena as if it were just another marketplace – they no longer, so it seems, are willing to spend their dollars votes on substandard value-added. I, along with others, keep repeating this. What I hear back from the Republican Republicans for the sake of the Republican Party is “you’ll come back to us – you have no where else to go”. Yup, they are in denial over that one as well – they are not taking into account that people may well NOT go ANYWHERE.
They’ll just stay home either logically (won’t vote in that race) or literally (“why bother”).
Others think Republican voters will eventually coalesce around a more traditional GOP candidate — perhaps Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
They believe Trump’s rise is a product of his celebrity and a media frenzy that will ultimately fizzle. They doubt that Carson and Fiorina will be able to compete in the fundraising fight, or pull together the political operation to make a deep run through the primaries.
But for now, the anti-establishment wing of the GOP is on the upswing.
And here’s the deal – there IS a lot of anger against the Establishment part of the Party. What they are even more angry is the lack of results from those that promised such – and haven’t for many years. Japanese cars took a lot of the share of the US marketplace because American companies kept turning out a shoddy product. A lack of results desired by consumers.
Am watching This Week with Georgie Staphanopoulous and one of the ordinary folks when being interviewed (about the 25 minute mark), one said “Trump won’t back down”. All they’ve seen is the pros in DC “cave in” to the Dems and Obama.
I’m not backing Trump by any means although if one takes a quick read of the posts I’ve been writing it may seem that way; truth be told, I have Ted Cruz at the top of my list right now (so there’s my “bias” in all that). But as I said above, the establishment Republican Party has brought what they consider to be a real mess and really scared this may keep up. Remember one thing…
…it is ALWAYS about the power. Always. Even in the same Party. And yes, I have heard that those in the NH GOP Party would be happy to go Left and end up with a smaller party as long as they were still in charge. Given some of the things I’ve seen and experienced, I have no doubt that there is a lot of truth in that (and certainly a lot share that perception). If one of the “outsiders” wins, they understand that they didn’t – and unlike the coup that threw Jack Kimball out of the NH GOP Chairmanship and denied some good people afterwards that same position, this would be irreversible.
And I think of it as “progress”.
