By Barry Hastings
Several months ago, in a piece written for this column (The ticking time-bomb), I said, “I think this guy (Trump) just might be the fatal blow to the GOP.”
Developing events make me more (and more) comfortable with the statement. On Friday, Jan. 22, the ‘stuff began hitting the fan’ when establishment conservatives launched a heavy, concentrated attack on the Donald through pages of the deceased William F. Buckley’s more or less intellectual journal, National Review. Buckley established the magazine (1963/64) just as Barry Goldwater’s attempt to gain the presidency was being battered against the nation’s political rocks and shoals.
Republican Party old-liners have declared Political War on Trump. You can bet it will be war “to the knife.” Trump hates being Trumped. It all began with a multi-missle attack through pages of the conservative magazine. This month’s edition offers articles by 20 (twenty) very prominent conservative authors, all calling for concerted Republican efforts to reject Trump. The battle has been growing louder, nastier, more mean-spirited, with every passing day. (So much for “thou shall not attack other Republicans.”)
Trump (of course) is not a Republican, and he’s not a Democrat. He’s an Opportunist. Witness the way he sucked-up to Sarah Palin (a proven nit-wit), the worst political rabble-rouser since Huey Long, until Trump came along.
What else can be expected from the party that unleashed the ‘Swift Boat’ twits on John McCain (as he battled Shrub for the GOP nomination in 2000), fully four years before they were unleashed against Silver Star winner (in Vietnam), John Kerry. It was a trial run, and proved effective. We elected a coward, and coke-headed idiot who couldn’t resist opening Pandora’s Box in the middle East. Most of this dirty stuff is funded by people like the Hunt and Koch brothers (though there are many, many more).
Trump demeaned, then openly scorned, National Review’s role in current Am
erican affairs, claiming “It’s a dying paper.” (He mixed up his media — it’s a dying magazine.) Throughout a long day, his body language was saying, “Who hit me with that ax?” This is the beginning of the battle for the GOP. They must get rid of Trump, or he’ll get rid of them.
He’s thinking about a whole new kind of government. He has a long memory. He appeals to a very unstable part of the electorate; the easily excitable, and easily mis-directable, rabble. I believe observers can expect a bloody brawl, but don’t think it will last long. One side or the other will soon lose out. If it’s Trump, you can expect a third party effort on his part. If main-streamers, they’ll have to be content with holding control of the GOP, because a Republican split means victory for Democrats in 2016.
Main-streamers, as ever, have a lot of big money, but where will the Hunts ‘n Kochs go? It’s those quadrillionaires who’ll decide the thing. I think they’ll opt for the thieves they’ve long known and worked with. . . not a loose cannon like Trump. They’ll have to beat him, or break him, They will not willingly allow him (and the angry rabble supporting him) to own the Republican party. The mainstream will have to fight him for power and control. The “rabble” is angry, tho they don’t know at what, whom, or where to direct the anger. It’s aimed at everything afflicting the struggling, marginal, almost hopeless, lower-working-class white citizenry.
Whatever, he’ll go third party. He’ll say, “I had no choice, I was beatin’ the hell out of ’em, but they ganged-up on me — had me surrounded, and I had to attack them, somehow. . . The people want me.” The war between Trump and mainstream conservative Republicans will be driven by strict time-limits. If they let Trump gain much more momentum, they’re finished, and so is their (lucrative) control of the GOP.
While the current GOP establishment turns its guns on Trump, they’ll take advantage of many opportunities to bash Ted Cruz, as well. He’s proven to be a real pain-in-the-ass to GOP leadership in the Senate. He’ll not be successful in efforts to stay clear and “clean.” Watch for it. Most main-streamers see Cruz being as big a threat to orthodox conservatism as Trump, though not quite as popular with the rabble. (Maybe it’s the ‘skinny-jeans’ and $500 hand-made boots, which make him look like he hails from San Francisco, or some such goofy place.)
It’s a “golden opportunity” for Democrats, though Bernie Sanders is doing all he can to waste it. He’s a (too) old man, who’s painted himself into a corner marked “Socialist” over the years. It’s a term with which Americans have clearly demonstrated “No Sympathy” over many years, many candidates, and many elections. (Why couldn’t he have eased his route by using terms such as Liberal, Progressive. . . , or just plain Democrat? Because he likes the fight!)
Republicans have brought this mess down on themselves, playing off the rabble in their midst against President Obama. Now Trump has captured (and captivated) the rabble, and turned it against those who nursed it to coagulation. Dirty politics (and the GOP has played in dirt for a long, long time), only leads to to dirtier politics, and Trump is a man who will say anything, do anything to gratify his unbelievable ego. He acknowledges no limits in his quest for what he wants.
Bernie should get the hell out of this race, contented he’s moved Hillary a bit to the left, and knowing he’ll gain a powerful spot, where he can do some good work, in her administration. If he screws this opportunity up for Democrats, he’ll end life both hated, and a laughing-stock, by his (former) supporters and admirers (and they’re legion). But he’s not going to win the nomination of Democrats, and has enough experience in the party to know I’m correct. (He should always remember he’s the one who built the “Socialist” cage holding him back, not the mass of Democrats.) We love him, and the good works he’s accomplished, and tried to accomplish, but if Democrats don’t win this election, America, as we know it can be, is finished.
If Democrats want the nation back (from the abyss), they’d best urge Bernie out, rather than stir-up a murky pot, only Republicans can (hugely) profit from.
Thank you very much, ladies, gentlemen, (and rabble).