Its time to take responsibility and stop blaming the other side.
A Trump victory is very unlikely. I guess anything is possible. I will cast my vote praying for such a miracle. But assuming the polls are even close to correct, that Donald will continue to sabotage his chances at every turn and no fatal revelation about Hillary will emerge, she will win. His primary vote supporters need to do some soul searching about the terrible candidate they burdened the nation with. I pray this piece will become moot on November 8, 2016 but the odds are it will not.
If after his defeat his followers attitude is that ‘America is over’ then nothing positive will follow. In fact I believe it is exactly that attitude over the last eight years, among his followers and many others on the right that produced a Republican candidate whose irreverence and indecency trumped (pun intended) his politics. He does however satisfy an appetite for raw red meat populism. Just as Bernie scratched the itch of envy, Donald scratches the angry itch.
We need to be honest with ourselves. Donald did not earn the nomination by attracting the votes of moderates; mainstream Republicans or those dreaded RINO’s (whomever they are). The pejorative term RINO has morphed to include many conservatives voted in as Tea Party celebrities. Once they were in the position of actually governing, as opposed to pontificating, they were thrown to the curb like garbage. Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Kelly Ayotte, Tim Scott and Nikkei Haley are among fallen Tea Party stars that have since been deemed sell-outs. All of who are life-long conservatives, with conservative track records and could have beaten Hillary.
Angry people, mostly residing on the far right, were and are Trump’s base. I am in accord with the reasons these people are angry. The nations abrupt move to the left under Obama that manifested itself in international disaster, Constitutional violations, churning of racial animus, economic stagnation, higher taxes, regulation excess and mistreatment of Israel are more then infuriating stimuli. There is a long list of reasons to be angry. But nominating a loose canon, demagogue with zero conservative credentials is not the way to solve those problems. What this anger induced choice has produced is the only guy who can lose to an incredibly weak Hillary.
The ugly irony is that the media and the left played the angry right like a Stradivarius in the hands of conservatory valedictorian. While the far right was obsessed with imperfect Republicans, the mainstream media led them down a treacherous path. They knew that Trump would be the weakest of the 17 and that he would reinforce every fear about the right wing that leftists promulgate. Hence they gave Trump exponentially greater visibility then any of the other candidates during the primaries.(Why Sean Hannity participated is still a mystery for me).The media knew Trump would rev-up the angry right so as to marginalize anyone who could actually win a national election. With Cruz failing to criticize Trump for months, hoping to get the angry vote when Trump implodes, Trump secured 35% plus and got the nomination. The real implosion will occur on November 8, 2016. Champaign bottles were uncorked at the DNC, CBS, NBC, ABC, N.Y. Times, and L.A. Times when Trump won the nomination.
Without an appreciation of how we got here there is no way we can plot an effective path back to power. If after his loss, our mantra is to blame the other side or RINO’s, then we will continue to play to the left’s tune. No question the media, academia and the left put him at a great disadvantage after the primaries. We can’t change those realities. Moaning and groaning about the obvious things we can’t change might be emotionally purging but are self-defeating. With a pathetically unpopular opponent like Hillary we could have won big despite all the built-in disadvantages had we nominated an emotionally stable, practical conservative who knew how to attract more then a very limited demographic.
Theoretically, if the post election numbers reveal that the Donald has garnered a smaller percentage of white women, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, and young people than any Republican since Goldwater, will those who voted for him in the primaries take responsibility for a horrendously poor choice?
If Trump loses or barley wins traditionally Republican states like Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Utah will they exhibit a smidgen of introspection?
How about if we see the loss of the Senate based on a reverse coat-tails affect thanks to Mr. T.?
Conservatism is all about liberty and it’s inseparable twin, responsibility. One dies without the other. My dear friends, who is most responsible for this candidate? Will they acknowledge a mistake and learn from that mistake? Will they in the future be able to support a candidate who radiates a broader appeal? I am fearful from the conversations I have had with his most ardent supporters, most of whom were big Tea Party advocates, that personal responsibility is not something they are prepared to assume in this matter. The anger persists.
If instead of reassessing their role in the disaster that is Trump, they scapegoat “fraud” and a rigged system” with Donald egging them on as he also sees defeat around the corner, we are in even bigger trouble. Then the conservative movement will continue to die and guarantee Hillary’s damage will have even longer legs. Even in a frumpy pants suit.
I know there are many like myself who see Trump as the lesser of two pending disasters. We need to influence Trumpites that anger is not a politically viable road to success. Mr. Trump has become the embodiment for all that the left has misrepresented about conservatism. It doesn’t matter that the left is distorting conservative values. We need to better representative for our values. Pining on about how terrible the other sides is will have little impact, if most Americans don’t like or trust us. Trump’s angry; insult infused name-calling, largely content free core proves this in spades. We need an appealing team led by a person who can resonate beyond the far right. Doing that job well will do far more to discredit the other side then all the screaming talk show hosts, angry blogs, bizarre Hannity Trump partnership and conspiracy theories put together.
Check out Paul Ryan on TED Talks if you’d like to see someone connecting to a needed demographic in one of their venues and with great skill. He represents conservative values in an appealing manner. What a concept.
One more note:even if I am wrong about who nominated Trump and his self-inflicted wounds as reason for an anticipated massive defeat, his election management skills have proven to be dismal. He has virtually no ground game. His promise to “self-fund” (no one has bought me) was a fraud from the beginning. At first he loaned money to his campaign. When caught he forgave the debt and started taking donations. If he were nearly as smart a businessman as he claims to be, he would have known that he needed to come up with at least a billion dollars to create a nationwide network of activists to get out the vote. Since he didn’t want to liquidate a major portion of his exaggerated fortune it was a deception from the beginning. But it is exactly what the far right wanted to hear.