"Stop Trump" had its chance. The public said "no"
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| Less government, more prayer, trickle down wealth |
There are a lot of Republicans very uncomfortable with Trump. Reagan supporters. Dole supporters. Anyone who voted for Romney/Ryan. Those voters should all want to stop Trump because he is a rejection of their own philosophies and careers, the Reagan Republican ethic.
The standard GOP platform was that government is the problem, that taxes are too high, that entitlements including Social Security and Medicare are too expensive and should be cut, that regulations on business are bad, that wealth will trickle down to the average American if we just empower the job creators, and that the problem for people in poverty was their lack of work ethic. Plus, he pulled in traditional Christians with a values agenda that is anti abortion and anti gay.
The standard GOP platform was that government is the problem, that taxes are too high, that entitlements including Social Security and Medicare are too expensive and should be cut, that regulations on business are bad, that wealth will trickle down to the average American if we just empower the job creators, and that the problem for people in poverty was their lack of work ethic. Plus, he pulled in traditional Christians with a values agenda that is anti abortion and anti gay.
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| Reagan complaint: "welfare queen" cheater |
Trump fundamentally disagrees. He said we need strong government to counter strong enemies and do good trade deals, that Medicare, Social Security and even wide access to health care are good and necessary, that the rich are screwing the average American by pushing immigration and trade policies that hurt American workers, and that social issues are secondary.
Trump was like traditional GOP in linking poverty to racial minorities, but while Reagan, Romney, and Ryan said the problem was character (criminality and laziness incidentally associated with ethnicity) Trump says the problem was nationality, and he says it in an in-your-face non-coded way. For Trump it wasn't that shiftless blacks an brown people wouldn't work hard, it was that brown immigrants and people in foreign factories would work long hard days for low wages. They weren't resented for being here and gaming the system (like a Reagan shiftless black person), they were resented for gaming the system by getting here, and then taking American jobs. This made their race and nationality central.
In the old GOP formula, criminality just "happened to" be associated with white pride, white resentment, xenophobia, and racism. So euphemisms worked. No need to say one disliked blacks; simply say you disliked lazy urban people. Voters who wanted to "get it", heard it. Trump said the problem isn't just incidentally linked to nationality or religion, the problem is the foreign nationality and the scary Muslim religion itself. This offends the old guard stylistically--Trump says things that come across as racist and openly unconstitutional--but it also embeds a policy change. Trump says the fault is who they are rather than what they do.
Many voters like Trump's version of the problem. The big surprise to the media, the punditry, and the leadership of both political parties is that the lack of pushback and backlash against Trump saying things they consider outrageous on their face. Many voters agree with Trump. They don't like Mexicans, they don't like non-English speakers, Muslims scare them, and they are tired of not being able to say aloud. They felt constrained by political correctness. Trump liberated them.
They resent having to "push one for English". The resent, not admire, Hispanic laborers working in the hot sun on construction jobs. They don't thank heaven their kids aren't working for minimum wage slaughtering chickens, like in the photo below. Trump gives them voice.
In the old GOP formula, criminality just "happened to" be associated with white pride, white resentment, xenophobia, and racism. So euphemisms worked. No need to say one disliked blacks; simply say you disliked lazy urban people. Voters who wanted to "get it", heard it. Trump said the problem isn't just incidentally linked to nationality or religion, the problem is the foreign nationality and the scary Muslim religion itself. This offends the old guard stylistically--Trump says things that come across as racist and openly unconstitutional--but it also embeds a policy change. Trump says the fault is who they are rather than what they do.
Many voters like Trump's version of the problem. The big surprise to the media, the punditry, and the leadership of both political parties is that the lack of pushback and backlash against Trump saying things they consider outrageous on their face. Many voters agree with Trump. They don't like Mexicans, they don't like non-English speakers, Muslims scare them, and they are tired of not being able to say aloud. They felt constrained by political correctness. Trump liberated them.
They resent having to "push one for English". The resent, not admire, Hispanic laborers working in the hot sun on construction jobs. They don't thank heaven their kids aren't working for minimum wage slaughtering chickens, like in the photo below. Trump gives them voice.
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| Trump: The problem is Hispanics doing hard, miserable work |
Frequent Guest Poster Thad Guyer observed that Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is hoping to use the Republican Party as his tool, and that like Trump, they want its loyalty, but do not offer their loyalty--a one way street that party loyalists resent. Guyer wrote:
"Sasse and Trump are "brothers by different fathers". Unlike Ryan who is trying to come to a deal with Trump to lock in some conservative policy commitments, hence staying beneath his party's tent, Sasse has proclaimed enmity and rejection of Trump unequivocally and irrevocably. That is, Senator Sasse says in effect "I'll use the Republican Party however I want, it's me first, my party second". This, of course, is exactly the position of Trump. The Bushes and Romney are not actively seeking or even holding any office, so as post-election politicians, they are not the same as Sasse and Trump. They are not "using" the party. Sasse and Trump are the new self-serving activists in the Republican Party, but there is one big difference-- Trump has the rank and file with him, whereas Sasse was just roundly rebuked today. "Nebraska Republicans Reprimand #NeverTrump Senator Ben Sasse" reportedly on a 400 to 8 vote, (Gateway Pundit, http://goo.gl/SGNhOC). I don't think his political career is going anywhere if Trump wins, but if Trump loses, he should be well-positioned to assume the mantle of "maverick" left vacant by John McCain."
Trump has a powerful trump card that the Stop Trump crowd does not: GOP voters.
Ben Sasse, the Bush family, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and every other Republican who actually cared about the principles underlying their votes and political efforts for the past 36 years have to deal with the reality that their voters rejected them. GOP voters had every opportunity to support Jeb Bush, Kasich, Rubio, or Cruz but a plurality liked Trump instead. Then when voters in Indiana and New York and a number of other states had a head-to-head chance to vote for the traditional "real thing" establishment-endorsed spokesman for Reaganism, Ted Cruz, or a milder version in Kasich, they rejected them in favor of Trump.
Ben Sasse, the Bush family, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and every other Republican who actually cared about the principles underlying their votes and political efforts for the past 36 years have to deal with the reality that their voters rejected them. GOP voters had every opportunity to support Jeb Bush, Kasich, Rubio, or Cruz but a plurality liked Trump instead. Then when voters in Indiana and New York and a number of other states had a head-to-head chance to vote for the traditional "real thing" establishment-endorsed spokesman for Reaganism, Ted Cruz, or a milder version in Kasich, they rejected them in favor of Trump.
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| The Party is Closing Ranks. Support Trump OR ELSE. |
Incumbent GOP politicians are overwhelmingly coming aboard to support Trump, thereby abandoning the very principles on which they spent their lives, reputations, and careers. Better red than dead.
It isn't because they love Trump. They love being in sync with their voters, so they are scrambling to re-join the voters who rejected their policies. The current scramble is a litmus test. Which politicians actually cared about policies and principles they had said were essential for a free and just America, and which ones are loyal first to voters, who just switched directions. It is also a litmus test of who wants to be around through another election cycle.
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| Springfield, Oregon last week |
GOP voters think they have been bending over backwards to be fair to women, blacks, Hispanics, and immigrants, and they like Trump's tough talk. Voters are more xenophobic and fearful than establishment Republicans had realized, and voters are happy to shake off "political correctness" and express their white identity as openly as blacks express black identity. Trump made it safe to express white pride and admit openly to their resentment of black, brown, foreign, and gay people.
It is no longer a libertarian constitutionalist party. It is Trump's party.
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