Battling for the hearts-and-minds of the Republican Party, 69-year-old GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has begun to remake the Grand Ole Party. Hijacked during the presidency of Bill Clinton, the now moribund GOP was re-engineered in 1996 by former President George H.W. Bush’s communication directior Roger Ailes, creating the media wing of the GOP AKA the Fox News Channel. Ailes grew the Fox News brand [fair-and-balanced news] by leaps-and-bounds, developing on national TV what conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh built during the 1980s during the presidency of GOP icon Ronald Reagan. Former Clinton Education Secretary Robert Reich wrote Feb. 17 in Salon “The GOP Died in 2016.” What Reich and other liberals haven’t fathomed yet is that it’s exactly the opposite. Trump has, like a mighty New York skyscraper, reconstructed the GOP.
While Reagan reinvented a new brand of conservatism in 1980 smashing all expectations on his way of a landslide against former President Jimmy Carter, Trump has taken a broken GOP and found the magic once owned by Reagan in what was known as the Reagan revolution. Right wing media led by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and a growing bevy of conservative clones on TV and radio, diverted a once solidly principled Republican Party to peripheral issues like abortion and prayer in public schools. Conservatives ran wild on Reagan’s coattails, not realizing they’d gone so far to the right they upended the GOP, leading eventually to President Barack Obama’s two terms. Entrenched interests inside the GOP, led by the Republican National Committee Chairman 43-year-old Tea Party guy Reince Priebus, haven’t yet embraced Trump. Party insiders have a rude awakening in 2016.
When Trump decided to jump into the 2016 race June 16, 2015, the Party establishment thought they could sabotage his candidacy, giving him zero chance of success. By sheer charisma and will, Trump overcame every obstacle thrown in his path, especially by the Fox News Channel, hoping, with the Party establishment, to upend his campaign. When the first Fox News debate aired Aug. 6, 2015, Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly was ready with both guns blazing, accusing Trump of misogyny, speaking disparagingly about women. Trump’s debate performance surprised the GOP establishment, excelling in his first contest against some of the GOP’s best politicians. Trump built his brand for 40 years as an icon real estate developer, best selling author and reality TV star, giving him the success, self-confidence and media savvy, preparing him well for a presidential run.
Before Iowa held its Caucus Feb. 1, Trump weathered the storm of a party and, more importantly, a media establishment determined to upend his campaign. After eight grueling debates, Trump’s led the GOP pack since last August, only hitting a small pothole in the Iowa Caucus, losing to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) by only four percent [44% to 40%]. While expected to win, Trump was written off again by the GOP and media, despite his remarkable showing with largely evangelical voters. Had Cruz not pulled the shenanigans or packed the precincts with thousands of workers, Trump would have won Iowa. When Trump eclipsed the field in New Hampshire Feb. 8, beating Cruz by nearly 20%, he headed to South Carolina with momentum. Expected to win South Carolina’s rough-and-tumble primary by a wide margin, Trump defies all odds, knocking at the GOP’s nomination door.
Writing about the demise of the GOP, liberals don’t see what Trump’s brought to the Republican Party. When Trump took on 75-year-old Fox News President Roger Ailes for snarky Tweets, refusing to attend the Jan. 28 Fox News debate before the Iowa Caucus, something big was happening. Calling the shots in the GOP since 1996, most, if not all, GOP politicians, genuflect before Fox News. Trump stood up first to Kelly and then to her boss, proving he was taking the party in a different direction. During the eight years of George W. Bush, Fox News did its best to define conservatism, turning it into an un-sellable right wing brand. Trump’s recent success hints at the same kind of national crusade that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980. Trump’s politics hark back to Reagan but moves the GOP into a new direction, re-establishing a lost American exceptionalism, not seen since Reagan left office.
What liberals fear most is that Trump has rejected the Fox News and right-wing radio conservative brand, mired in petty cultural wars like abortion and same-sex marriage. After Bush-43 hit the GOP with wrecking ball, Trump’s in the process of reinventing the GOP into the engine of world leadership and prosperity that once fueled the Reagan revolution. Despite all the bombast, Trump’s started his own revolution, ending Fox New’s and right-wing radio’s stranglehold on the GOP. Already attracting independents and cross over Democrats, Trump poses a real problem for any Democratic candidate in the general election. GOP voters have responded to polls showing Trump the mostly likely candidate to land a Republican back in the White House. GOP Party officials and the mainstream media hasn’t yet caught up what looks a lot like Trump’s new GOP revolution.
