Finally, aggrieved Blue collar, Tea Party and middle-class conservatives have found their savior.
Trump is so rich that Koch influence-buying means nothing. The other snivelers were compelled to come cap in hand to kiss the Koch-Adelson ring. Say what you want about Trump, he, unlike the rest of the candidates, has no respect for the Koch funding machine, nor is he beholding to the string of ideas that are attached to the funding.
In 2012 the Koch branch of the Republican party could support Romney who was also one of their wealthy elites and someone who travelled in their circles complete with his own millions, car elevators and show horses. To them he wasn’t an embarrassment and was welcome and at home in the Club House, the Board Room, or the Ball Room.
Trump, by contrast, travels in a circus, with a make-up retinue for his entire entourage, and who welcomes every person who seeks to be entertained while screaming their grievances and looking for someone to blame. Trump is his own man, beholding to no one (Not even himself if one judges the cognitive dissonance on continuous display).
With Trump’s ascent we are seeing a Republican world rocked by an entertainer and minor celebrity. It is coming down to a down and dirty battle between entitled right-wing rich folks and an unworthy interloper. It is a modern day clash of the very wealthy Titans. It is the gentry versus the boor. In much the same way that Joe Meth or Beth Lipton would be the unwelcome, crude, unwashed, diabetic beer-guzzlers in their midst, “The Donald” would be a constant reminder to the Conservative gentry that money does not, by mere possession, create value in a person. Hence the pending Clinton landslide of Reaganesque proportions.
The phenomenon that is “The Donald” came about because the 2016 establishment candidates were all found to be lacking. The Republican Presidential hopefuls all toadied up to the wealthy donors (Thanks Citizens United) with the full expectation that the working, Tea Party, Evangelical and middle-class knee-jerk Democratic haters would fall in line when they presented any one of their preferred candidates.
However, the establishment’s preferred guys (Jeb!, Rubio, Christie, and Kasich) were pummeled mercilessly and compelled to step aside after being adjudged irrelevant to most primary voters. The preferred establishment candidates were spanked at every turn by the rank-and-file who rose up, threw off their chains and chose “The Donald” as their savior.
And yet, when the battled whittled down to two, the best alternative turned out to be no alternative at all. Cruz was, and is, reviled by Planet America. And now that Toady Ted Cruz has misunderstood what God told him, the religious right need also needed to find someone else to get in line behind. It appears they too will need to hold their sanctimonious noses and support the hedonistic, thrice-married, narcissist with weird ideas about hair.
Trump is now the Republican king, the last candidate standing. Even if not many can stand him, or what he stands for.
So, with his victory almost assured, the Republican elites, the wealthy donors, and the Republican political operatives will now, if they choose to support the popular nominee, be compelled to chew slowly and then swallow what they know to be a horrible shit sandwich.
Blessedly, many are refusing to do so. We are seeing that there is a refreshing cadre that wish to remain true to their “conservative principles” and cannot accept the joke that is a Trump candidacy, which is making a mockery of their Grand Old Party. That is fine too. I don’t expect them to cast a vote for HRC, but by sitting on their hands or staying home, the net result is equally good.
Nonetheless, it does appear that many are willing to back Trump to display a vestige of loyalty to the process, and probably out of pragmatic political necessity. However, we know that they know what everyone else knows; that is there is now no Republican in 2016 capable of beating Hillary. Even a third party candidate would only assure what is already a given: that HRC will be the next, first woman, and second President Clinton. That is going to sting and leave a mark on the GOP psyche. I am sure it is a scar they will wear proudly.
What Ross Perot did for Bill Clinton from the outside (split the conservative vote to give Slick Willy the job) Trump will now do from the inside. Trump is splitting the Conservative vote just as effectively as Perot and tearing the Republican party to shreds from the taint to the top. Ultimately the Trump candidacy will, having followed Bill’s supposedly wickedly wise counsel to enter the race, give the other, arguably better, Clinton the nation’s top job.
