Bringing the most enthusiasm to the Republican Party since President Ronald Reagan swept into office in a landslide against former President Jimmy Carter in 1980, 69-yer-old real estate mogul Donald Trump knocks on the door of the GOP nomination. While not there yet but getting closer, Trump’s growing tidal wave of support can’t be denied any longer by dumbfounded GOP establishment. With 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney denouncing Trump in a speech at the University of Utah Hinckley Center for Politics yesterday, the old guard hoped to stop Trump’s momentum. Like the previous 10 GOP debates, last night’s Fox News debate was not different: Trump won by wide margins on all reputable Internet polls, including the conservative Drudge Report. Since caucus and primary voting began Feb. 1, the GOP has watched record turnout in the first 15 caucuses and primaries.
Opposition from the Party establishment stems largely from Trump’s brash denunciations of the GOP Party and media elites, especially lowly-rated GOP-controlled Congress, with approval ratings at 11%. Whether admitted to or not, Trump’s wide national appeal directly relates to Washington’s bitter partisan divide and gridlock, leaving the Congress paralyzed. President Obama’s recent attempt to get the Senate to act on a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is an example of how Democrats and Republicans can’t get anything done. Since Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law March 23, 2010 without one Republican vote, Washington’s dysfunction hit new lows. Whether it’s Democrats’ or Republicans’ fault, voters don’t care, turning to an outsider businessman like Trump to get the government working again.
Romney’s denunciation hit a new low in the GOP establishment’s attempt to upend Trump’s outsider campaign. If GOP officials listened to voters, they’d accept the will of the people to try something different. As former GOP candidate retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said, it’s about “We The People,” not Part elites trying to disenfranchise voters. With Romney expressing no interest in running for president now or at a “brokered convention,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said doesn’t anticipate a brokered conventions, accepting fully the will of GOP voters. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made clear he has no intent of running or getting drafted by the GOP. Former House Speaker and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told the Party establishment to face reality grow up and accept Trump’s inevitable nomination.
Presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) insist they’re staying in the race to save the conservative movement. Sounding unrealistic and grandiose, neither Cruz nor Rubio can save anything against the will of voters, disgusted with Washington’s gridlock, looking for Trump to get the government working against Ohio Gov. John Kasich, running last place in the GOP race, admitted his only path to win is a brokered convention. No sane GOP member wants to disenfranchise voters, except, as Kasich admits, for the most obvious selfish reasons. After trashing Trump as a con man and huckster, at the end of last night’s debate, all remaining candidates pledge to support Trump if he wins the nomination. Admitting they would support Trump as the GOP’s nominee undermines all the passionate arguments why he’s not fit for duty.
Republican turnout in the first 15 caucuses and primaries is up nearly 30% from 2012. Whether admitted to or not, Trump’s involvement in the race has inspired growing numbers of Democrats and Independents to vote in the Republican caucuses and primaries. Democratic participation in the 2016 presidential sweepstakes has shown a 25% drop in voting. No matter how much Rubio and Cruz insist Republicans want to nominate a true conservative, most of the vote by wide margins has gone for Trump. When Liberty University Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump Jan. 28 before the evangelical-rich Iowa Caucus, he said evangelicals were more concerned in 2016 about the nation’s survival than litigating issues like abortion, same-sex marriage or Obamacare. Trump’s backers look for less conservative ideology and more practical ways to get the government working again.
When President Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, his GOP rivals and former President Jimmy Carters blasted him for trying to destroy the economy, promote racism and cause WWIII. Reagan weathered the storm, going on to defeat Carter in a landslide Nov. 4, 1980. GOP Party officials must accept and get behind Trump’s 2016 Republican Revolution. Democratic operative Lanny Davis told Fox New that Trump’s reluctance to denounce the KKK in a recent CNN interview with Jake Tapper was a “disqualifier.” Democratic operatives aren’t stupid. They see Trump’s appeal to disgruntled Democrats and independents as a very real threat to Hillary’s election. Democrats want to dump Trump because they know he has a good chance of winning in November. GOP insiders need to stop whining, line up behind Trump and get ready to take back the White House.
