Now that Donald Trump has hauled in his third straight victory — this time in Nevada, with 46% of the vote, beating Ted Cruz with evangelicals and Marco Rubio with Hispanics — many Republican are left scratching their heads asking, how the heck did we get here?
Entrance polls showed voters were overwhelmingly angry, dissatisfied and partial to a political outsider. This voter angst, as we all by now can see, has thrown conventional wisdom out the window for the entire presidential campaign.
John Boehner, wherever you are, this is all your fault. Mitch McConnell, you’re to blame also.
The American people voted Republicans back into the majority of both houses of Congress specifically to stand up to President Obama’s big-government, progressive agenda. Many voters were concerned about trillions in additional debt, the burdensome Obamacare mandates, executive overreach on immigration and an anemic economic recovery on Obama’s watch.
Where has the pushback been? Republicans may have regained Congress, but Republican voters feel betrayed. They perceive a lack of action to stop the President’s agenda, GOP leaders wheeling and dealing with Obama on budget compromises like the “cromnibus,” and their tendency to roll over anytime they are challenged by the President.
All this has led to this moment: An electorate so angry, they are willing to vote for a conservative of convenience who has spent the majority of his adult life pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-single payer health care and as a financial backer of Democrats.
When people are this fed up, rational thought goes right out of the window. Clearly. Trump has managed to score wins with groups that should have rejected him. He’s ridiculed women, pandered to evangelicals, insulted Hispanics and military POWs, yet they still voted for him. It defies logic.
Support for Trump is a series of contradictions. Trump is hardline on immigration, building the wall, mass deportation, banning Muslims, changing all things Washington. These are all hallmarks of his campaign. Yet, he’s donated money to help elect Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, people who have all dedicated their political lives to transforming this country in ways diametrically opposed to what the Republican electorate stands for.
At least used to stand for before Trump’s entry into this race.
In a world where the cult of personality is fueled by a social media celebrity culture, it should really be of no surprise that so many could be taken in by Trump. It is unsurprising that a reality show profiteer would be able to capitalize on the lowest common denominator of the voting public to create a veneer of strength and leadership based on nothing more than repetitive concepts of winning and insulting detractors.
Anger is a powerful motivator, but it can also be a dangerous one. Yes, large swaths of the electorate are fed up; we get it. But now what? The GOP is supposed to hand over the keys to the kingdom to someone who has co-opted a century of limited government, good stewardship of the Constitution and pro-liberty principles for his own narcissistic need to bask in the manipulated adulation of the pitchfork crowd?
Are Republicans seriously ready to cede the party of Lincoln and Reagan to a real-estate mogul-turned-reality TV star whose faux conservatism is the byproduct of political expedience? After seven years of Obama’s feckless arrogance, many voters are so starved for strong leadership, they are willing to gravitate toward someone purely based on bombastic rhetoric, not his record. Past behavior be damned.
It’s like the woman who’s been mistreated during prior relationships but is so desperate to get married, she falls for the first guy who sweet talks her and takes her out to a few fancy restaurants. She’s been warned repeatedly that this new guy has a history of serial philandering and lying, but she ignores all of the evidence because he makes her feel special and she’s deluded herself into believing he’s changed and not like the others.
Until she finds out he actually is everything she was warned about, and by that time, it’s too late. Luckily, you can end a bad marriage with a divorce or even an annulment. But there’s no such mechanism to cut ties when electing a president. You’re stuck with him or her for the next four years, and the consequences could be irreparable.
Words, actions, temperament and behavioral patterns should matter when deciding who is going to occupy the Oval Office. I hope Republicans do not make a costly mistake by choosing Donald Trump as the nominee. It could lead to the ultimate demise of the once Grand Old Party of Lincoln.