by saying that he’s speaking for the Tea Party, blue-collar worker who feels disenfranchised by a Republican Party that’s worried more about protecting the top 1% than jobs, Medicare and Social Security for real folks, I just may throw up!!!
Whether you’re watching CNN, MSNBC, PBS or the networks, this is the common wisdom being spouted by the talking heads trying to explain Mr. Trump’s continued triumph in the polls (I left out FOX, because they have no wisdom, common or otherwise). According to David Frum, senior editor for The Atlantic, the Tea Party is made up of decent, hardworking folks who just want to see the government working for them. They despise the establishment Republican party that doesn’t care about them, they want someone who understands their needs and will really represent the concerns of their everyday lives. You know, someone like billionaire Donald Trump.
Honestly? If that were so why did the Tea Party elect the people they did to send to congress to represent them in 2010 and 2012? Those geniuses now sitting in the halls of congress believe that the best way to run a country is to default on the debt and then shut the government down. Each time they fail to accomplish either of those goals, their Tea Party supporters go ballistic. Not one single Tea Party elected official has proposed a serious jobs plan. Other than voting to repeal Obamacare or defund Planned Parenthood, all the Tea Party supported reps want to do is block Obama appointees and bring the government to a screeching halt. Oh yeah, and privatize Medicare and Social Security.
Starting back with Lee Atwater in George Bush the First’s campaign in 1988, the Republican party establishment has ramped up its use of fear and loathing to broaden its voting base and get its candidates elected. Since then each election cycle has only gotten uglier, more hate-filled and fear driven, until we have a large part of the Republican party who aren't just content to disagree with our current president’s policies, but also to loudly and vocally declare their hatred of him because of his race, insist that he’s a secret Muslim, and fabricate a thoroughly disproven birther issue that challenges his right to be president. To say that establishment Republicans have gleefully promoted and encouraged this sad state of affairs is to grossly understate the matter. Which of course, brings us to Mr. Trump.
So busy have the Karl Roves, Roger Ailes, Koch Brothers, et al been in fueling the deep distrust, and raging terror of the white, male, blue-collar voter, they failed to notice when they lost control of it. The powers that be thought that by priming the pump of hatred, bigotry and fear it would always be theirs to use at their will, but instead it’s turned on them making them supplicants in their own party. The Tea Party and the rest of the Republican base are not going to settle again for an establishment conservative panty waist. They want a guy who is not afraid to say their worst, most despicable and deeply held beliefs out loud. That’s why Donald Trump’s (who is beginning to resemble Triumph the Insult Dog) poll numbers climb higher with every outrageous and offensive thing he says.
So to David Frum and the other pundits who euphemistically tries to explain the appeal of Donald Trump to Republican voters, take another look. This is today’s Republican Party — angry, scared, intolerant, ignorant, hateful and worst of all, proud of it. Congratulations GOP, I believe this falls under the category of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.