The Republican Party and the conservative movement – which are not necessarily the same thing – share the same problem at the moment. They can’t seem to control the people. And they’re convinced that if they don’t find a way, it will lead to their demise.
That’s the only way to explain the desperate “secret meetings” we keep hearing about, all designed to find a way to stop Donald Trump’s march to the Republican presidential nomination. Apparently no amount of hectoring from National Review or the GOP establishment have dissuaded primary voters from supporting Trump in primaries all across the country.
So I guess our betters have decided it will be necessary to develop some sort of clandestine strategy that will save themselves and the rest of us from the horrors of a Trump nomination.
Let’s be clear about a couple of things here: I know there are some genuine concerns based on polls that Trump would not run as well against Hillary as other candidates remaining in the race. But a lot of this has to do with the establishment’s fear that they can’t control Trump. It’s the same reason you’ve seen so much reluctance among Beltway types to get behind Ted Cruz as the seemingly obvious alternative for the #NeverTrump people.
The fundamental problem, though, is the massive disconnect between the political class and the people. That’s why you see massive numbers of people doing one thing and the political class in Washington holding secret meetings in search of a way to stop them. This really isn’t even about Donald Trump. He’s just the conduit for what’s happening. It’s really about the fact that the people do not trust party or political leaders, and do not believe they are interested in their concerns.
There are a lot of examples that demonstrate this. Ordinary citizens recognize that we need to stop running up debt immediately. The political class shows no urgency whatsoever to do this. Ordinary citizens can tell you horror stories about the mess that is the tax code and the awful experience of dealing with the IRS. The political class is content to tinker at the edges but make no real serious changes. Ordinary citizens recognize that we need to do more to exploit our own domestic energy resources, while the political class cancels drilling leases and threatens to shut down coal mining companies.
So the voters are looking for someone who won’t just talk about changing all this, but who shows the fire and the nerve to actually do it. It’s true that Trump doesn’t have a long history as a conservative, but of those who do, when have any of them made progress on these points? They haven’t. So the people have stopped trusting the political class in large numbers, and that represents a threat that goes far beyond who might win the 2016 presidential election. If the political class can no longer present the public with a limited series of options and have the public simply swallow these options, then much of the political class’s power has been destroyed.
When that happens, it’s panic time. What Trump has done is shown the way to ignore all the pundits, ignore all the consultants, refuse to play the game of the mainstream media – and still have success. When others realize this is possible, it’s game-over for the people who usually control the terms of the debate.
So here’s a better idea: Instead of having secret meetings to thwart the will of the people, how about coming up with a way to actually address their concerns. Because if the political class had any interest in doing that, I don’t think Donald Trump would be winning. In fact, I doubt he would even be running. There’d be no need for him to do so.
The Republican Party and the conservative movement – which are not necessarily the same thing – share the same problem at the moment. They can’t seem to control the people. And they’re convinced that if they don’t find a way, it will lead to their demise.
That’s the only way to explain the desperate “secret meetings” we keep hearing about, all designed to find a way to stop Donald Trump’s march to the Republican presidential nomination. Apparently no amount of hectoring from National Review or the GOP establishment have dissuaded primary voters from supporting Trump in primaries all across the country.
