(H/T: WMUR). Heck, I’ve been writing about this for years now – and now he seems to be surprised. This has been slow rolling since the start of the TEA Party movement 8 years ago. Anyone inside that movement, who thought about what was happening, thinking about what its principles were (e.g., Free Markets, Fiscal Frugality, Government staying within its Constitutional mandated boundaries), sees what is going on as part of that natural progression. Why?
- Again, if the Republican Party had hewed to its Principles and done its job right, there would never have been a TEA Party movement.
- Add to that – if the Republican Party had hewed to its Principles and done its job right, there would never have been a Donald Trump.
But the Elites in the Party, bound up in their all too insular bubble, can’t see it. In fact, I don’t think they WANT to see it in the light in which they should – that not only haven’t they seeing, they haven’t been listening either. And now the “outsider” movement is making sure it is being heard whether folks like former Gov / NH GOP Chair John Sununu want it to. Look at the vote totals from last night – the remaining “Establishment lane” candidates (Rubio, Kasich) are now only a small part of the vote totals.
I know John Kasich said something on one of the morning shows like “the Party is a reflection of the nominee”. I’ll check that in another post (I have it DVR’d). IF that is a true recalling, it exemplifies the utter cluelessness and disconnect between the Party and its voters.
And this has been going on for eight years plus?
“You know quite frankly, I think the Republican Party is on the verge of a civil war”
Sorry Mike, the Civil War has been going on for quite sometime but now it has gone from a small insurgency to a hot war. Sorta like what Obama has done in the Middle East (and soon, perhaps in the South China Sea). The Establishment thought it could wait things out and pooh-pooh’d the first wave insurgency (the TEA Party). It welcomed it as they knew the TEA Partiers would vote for them – and then figured that either they’d dissipate like many other movements or could be (as Trent Lott infamously said, be co-opted). Short term gain with no long term downside. How’s that working out in this Presidential race so far – the Vulgarian and the Hate-the-DC-Republican-Squishes now having all but vanquished all of their Lane’s wannabees? Include and especially Jeb Bush, the formerly all-but-crowned?
Again, the Establishment saw itself at the top of the hill, controlling all it surveyed. And now, we see that trap it set for itself – like all other entities that thought they knew how to outsmart everyone else – and has outsmarted itself with a wholly created GOPe man-made disaster of its own.
It Black Swan’d itself (at least for this race). It never saw it coming even though it was in plain view for years (sorta like our national debt is about to do as well. And remember, Republicans had the chance to slice the budget to within a “Balanced Budget Amendment” level – but caved in to THEIR political well-being instead standing up for what is best for the American People).
Civil War. Perhaps a good thing – just like a fire CAN be good for a forest long term. Perhaps, just perhaps, it might force the Party to really look at itself properly (instead of that silly “autopsy”) and get back to its roots – which are as close as its Platform. The problem is that the GOPe really doesn’t believe in it – think of it as a modified and updated Roman “bread and circus”; only for the plebes.
And now the plebes are showing that we are having none of it anymore. Just like Batista in Cuba, they’ve ignore the insurgency for far too long and now they have been overrun. Now, am I suggesting that Act II is going to follow like the Cuban Revolution?
Course not, it’s more like the old Whig Party’s demise at the beginning of the GOP one – it just flamed out because it refused to stand for what it should have and didn’t listen. Nothing has a claim to last forever and if the GOP withers, well, it only has its own rearview mirror to look at for the primary reason.
And yet, funniest of all, is what I hear from the GOPe – that perhaps it should break away and form a third party: Hahahahahahaha! Derision abounds as just a short few years ago, they swaggered about saying “You won’t win” when a number of TEA Party folks were thinking the same thing when the GOP started beating on the TEA folks that wanted to have a seat at the table after what was delivered by them – and were rebuffed (think Jack Kimball here in NH).
The moral is that there is no “power sharing” – and now we see OUTRIGHT they are willing to do anything to keep their own Party as to diss Donald and do the #NeverTrump movement is telling its own voters that they are too dumb, too ignorant, too unsophisticated, unable to see the big picture, and all but call them the great unwashed and unfit to have votes. Yeah, how’s that working out for you.
“We may not win but you will surely lose” – and now we see the GOPe reversing that on themselves if they go third Party. For they haven’t learned the real lesson: “Winning is merely a precurser; what you do afterwards is most important”. Their problem is that for quite sometime, they have only concerned themselves with that first word and have forgotten that their main purpose is the second clause of that statement.
Viva la Revolucion!
UPDATE: this says what I have albeit shorter and more directly:
At the core of Donald Trump’s political success this year are the grievances of a sizable and now vocal block of disaffected voters, many of them white and working-class, and a Republican Party that has sought and benefited from their support while giving them almost nothing tangible in return.
