* * *
As the returns came in from South Carolina Saturday
night, showing Donald Trump winning a decisive victory, a note of nervous
desperation crept into the commentary.
Political analysts pointed out repeatedly that if all of
the votes for Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson were
added up, they far exceeded the Trump vote.
Why this sudden interest in arithmetic?
If the field can be winnowed, we were told, if Carson and
Kasich can be persuaded to follow Bush and get out, if Cruz can be sidelined,
if we can get a one-on-one Rubio-Trump race, Trump can be stopped.
* YEP. RUBIO IS THE ESTABLISHMENT'S "PLAN B,"
JUST AS I'VE NOTED ALL ALONG.
Behind the thought is the wish. Behind the wish is the
hope, the prayer that all the non-Trump voters are anti-Trump voters.
But is this true? Or are the media deluding themselves?
* THE MEDIA... AND THE ESTABLISHMENT... ARE DELUDING
THEMSELVES.
Watching these anchors, commentators, consultants and
pundits called to mind the Cleveland Governors Conference of 1964. Sen.
Goldwater had just won the winner-take-all California primary, defeating Gov.
Nelson Rockefeller, assuring himself of enough delegates to go over the top on
the first ballot at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. But with polls showing
Barry losing massively to LBJ, the panicked governors at Cleveland conspired to
block his nomination.
Michigan Gov. George Romney and Pennsylvania Gov. Bill
Scranton were prodded to enter the race.
(Scranton would declare his availability in San Francisco
with a letter accusing Goldwater of hostility toward civil rights — Barry had
voted against the 1964 bill — and of excessive tolerance toward right-wing
extremists such as the John Birch Society.)
And what became of them all? Goldwater won his nomination
and went down in a historic defeat, but became a beloved figure and the father
of modern conservatism.
Of those who turned their backs on Goldwater that fall,
none ever won a presidential nomination. Of those who stood by Barry that fall,
Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, both would win the GOP nomination twice, and
the presidency twice. Which brings us back to the anti-Trump cabal.
While their immediate goal is to deny him the nomination,
do they really think that if the party nominates Rubio, things can be again as
they were before Trump? Do they not see that America and the West are
undergoing a series of crises that will change our world forever?
Bernie Sanders is not all wrong. There is a revolution
going on.
Late in the last century, when Robert Bartley was
editorial editor, The Wall Street Journal championed a constitutional amendment
of five words — “There shall be open borders.” Bartley, who told colleague
Peter Brimelow, “I think the nation-state is finished,” wanted U.S. borders
thrown open to people and goods from all over the world. To Bartley and his
acolytes, what made America one nation and one people was simply an ideology.
* SILLY, RIGHT?
But what was silly then is suicidal today.
Whatever one may think of Trump’s talk of building a
wall, does anyone think the United States is not going to have to build a
security fence to defend our bleeding 2,000-mile border?
Given the huge trade deficits with China, Japan, Mexico
and the EU, the hemorrhaging of manufacturing, the stagnation of wages and the
decline of the middle class, does anyone think that if Trump is turned back,
the GOP can continue on being a free-trade party financed by the Beltway agents
of transnational corporations?
Absent some major attack on the homeland, do our foreign
policy elites believe the American people would support new U.S. interventions
to defeat, occupy and tutor Third World nations in liberal democracy?
* THE PROBLEM IS... WILL ENOUGH AMERICANS ACTIVELY OPPOSE
SUCH FAILED POLICIES TO THE EXTENT WHERE THEY CAN STOP THE TWO-PARTY NEOCON
ESTABLISHMENT FROM CONTINUING TO BLEED US DRY IN NO-WIN FOREIGN NATION-BUILDING
ENTANGLEMENTS?
(*SHRUG*)
Trump is winning because, on immigration, amnesty,
securing our border and staying out of any new crusades for democracy, he has
tapped into the most powerful currents in politics: economic populism and
“America First” nationalism.
(*TWO THUMBS UP*)
Look at the crowds Trump draws. Look at the record
turnouts in Republican caucuses and primaries. If Beltway Republicans think
they can stop Trump and turn back the movement behind him, and continue on with
today’s policies on trade, immigration and intervention, they will be swept
into the same dustbin of history as the Rockefeller Republicans.
Trump is not only a candidate - he is a messenger from
Middle America. And the message he is delivering to the Establishment is: We
want an end to your policies and we want an end to you.
* YEP!
If the elites think they can not only deny Trump the
nomination, but turn back this revolution and re-establish themselves in the
esteem of the people, they delude themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment