Trump Hostile Takeover of GOP right on Schedule

Trump led a hostile takeover of the GOP.  The purge is right on schedule.   

I know a bit about these takeovers and purges, having been for 30 years an eye-witness to corporate takeovers.  I worked in the brokerage industry.  Corporate takeovers happened every two years.  

It goes like this:  Two lies, then the truth.   

Lie number one, by the new leader:  "We took you over because we liked what we saw.  I plan to work with you.  Your job is safe."

Lie number two: "Well, there are some problems with duplications and dead wood back at the Headquarters City, but all of you out here in the branch offices are safe."

Then, after about 6 to 9 months the truth:   Actually, we need to make some major changes so that we have the business aligned the way we want it.  Most of you in the branches are out.

[By the way, I personally was never that person on the way out.  I was an advisor who had loyal clients. I was the source of revenue.  I was the tiny part of the business the buyer actually wanted. What they got rid of was everything else, the overhead, in the legacy taken-over business.  They would have fired me and people like me if they could have figured out some way to get rid of me but keep my clients.]

 I watched the process.  It is happening right now in the GOP.

At the beginning Trump looked like he would work closely with McConnell. This was during the "Lie number one" phase. Trump was squarely doctrinaire on hating Hillary, on guns, on abortion, on appointing a conservative judge. In the stage one lie, I am one of you.  Former RNC head Reince Priebus was made Chief of Staff.

Stage two was happening during the campaign with criticisms of "the swamp" and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, but it was obscured within more general complaints about Democratic swamp dwellers   The swamp was not the GOP officeholders--Trump needed them--the swamp was the amorphous body of lobbyists associated with established interests who would fight repeal-and-replace.  Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and Sally Yates and James Comey were the swamp.  The "deep state" people were the swamp.  Someone would be kicked out--but not you.

Now the truth:  To align the Trump business with the right personnel Trump needed to make changes. Get rid of the legacy people with ties to the Reagan-Dole-Bush-Romney part of the party.   Get rid of Reince Priebus, move Bannon to where he can speak freely, and clean out the old legacy business lines, i.e. old-style Republicans. 

This means McConnell and the Senators who support him.

This is the Democrats' hope.

Trump had tried playing ball with McConnell and the GOP Establishment.  He had one big success: the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, back during the "we love you" stage.  Otherwise, working with McConnell was a failure.  No border wall.  No healthcare bill.  At McConnell's urging Trump backed the wrong Republican primary candidate in Alabama, but was saved by his own voters who picked the "Trump-ian" candidate Roy Moore over the McConnell-loyal guy.  

Trump was saved by his base.  Trump was reminded who his true friends are. That base.  The base Bannon understood.

Now it is cleanup time in earnest.  He and Steve Bannon are purging the GOP.  The main target is the centerpiece of the establishment GOP: Mitch McConnell.  They have to get rid of the McConnell's allies.  

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Breitbart.com is celebrating the rise of GOP primary challengers, powered by financial and media support.   It is no secret.  They have announced the goal and tactic.  And Bannon is openly saying he is doing it on Trump's behalf.  Beat incumbent Senators in primary elections.

Trump has already called McConnell a weak disappointment.  He has criticized Senator Conway, Senator John McCain, Senator Jeff Flake.  He attacked one of their own, Jeff Sessions, who gave up a safe seat to be his Attorney General.  The purge just getting started.  

Trump has the power to win some easy victories, with a mere threat.  Bob Corker is a classic and current example.  Corker feared an ugly primary fight.  Trump refused to promise he would support Corker.  Corker capitulated and Trump won the war without a battle, a classic case of good generalship.  It sets a dire warning for incumbents.  It isn't enough to surrender.  You have to lose and lose ugly.  Corker fought back so Trump carries out a humiliation program with tweets that are vicious and personal.  He calls Corker a hypocrite, a spurned supplicant, the author of horrendous policy, and a coward.   

A primary election purge is not an empty threat.  Alabama showed it.  Tennessee showed it. Trump has uncovered a powerful underrepresented body of voters in the Republican party. They were talk radio Republicans, Tea Party angry populist nationalists, frustrated by the perceived privilege granted to immigrants and the non white.  They are the Trump base.

Trump's constant appeal to that minority is not a mistake.  It is successful strategy.  Democrats and progressives take mistaken comfort in the fact that the Trump base is a minority.  It is a majority of the GOP and the GOP is unified as a brand.  That makes them a governing majority.  Trump is at work making sure that the kinds of Republicans will be Trump-style and Trump-loyal Republicans. 

He is doing what I watched businesses do repeatedly in corporate takeovers.  Consolidate the business, then purge.  Trump can do it because Trump's base wants a purge.