On Meet The Press this morning, Chuck Todd had two Establishment Republican insiders on: Alex Castellanos and Charlie Black. A couple of things caught my ear:
- “Only 20-25% of the party”
They kept on saying that it is only a small part of the Republican electorate that is going for Trump Gosh, what makes them think that this clump of voters will vote Republican in the end? Once again, I hear this “entitled” viewpoint – those votes are OURS. What is it that makes these insiders believe that they have a lock on these voters? Do they view them like the Democrats view the black vote? As word gets out on this way of looking at THEM, these THEM may get the idea of “sticking it to the Man” politically is not such a bad thing to do. Why?
Charlie Black goes right into it:
In some ways, Jeb is the front runner although not in the polls right now…wait til they learn he’s been a Democrat longer than a Republican,that he’s advocated for things like partial birth abortion, universal healthcare run by the government and that you can’t trust him on issues”.
How’s that “Act of Love” doing there, Charlie?
It is not your “class” that is taking it on the chin, it these voters, the middle class. It’s that last part – lately, and certainly here in NH, I certainly can’t trust the Republican leadership either in the Party, the NH Senate, or the NH House. So, as Hillary has said, what difference does it make for these voters? Trump exists ONLY because these voters already aren’t trusting Black and the other Establishment Rs. And these declared Smart People are already making final pronouncements about Trump EVEN THOUGH they self-admit they have no idea why and how Trump is still in this primary.
You know what the biggest surprise of this Primary is for me? How all these “live and breath politics” at the top folks have gotten it so wrong for this long already. And even as they admit it, they make these silly pronouncements as if they were etched as part of Moses’ Tablets. Look, am I smarter for them for disagreeing? Absolutely not – I’ve said for years that I’m just an ordinary schlub from central NH. But I can watch and listen – and this really cocked my head to the side when Castellanos said this:
At the end of the day, he IS a Big Government Republican. He doesn’t fit our Party.”
Really – did the Govert get smaller under any of our modern era Repubs? Nixon was an R – and one of the biggest expanders of Govt ever. did either of the Bushes make govt smaller, cheaper, and less intrusive? What has the Establishment been doing, Alex and Charlie? Who among the “Not Conservative Republicans” have actually been governing that way? The Establishment is fighting the conservative wings of the Party BECAUSE the latter has been advocating FOR a smaller government and they are castigated for their fighting for such (right Kelly Ayotte, who infamously screamed at Ted Cruz for doing just that – getting a smaller government)
Certainly Black was there to say “Trump is not suitable to be President” – heck, they say that about ANYONE that isn’t Establishment.
