Guest Post by Patrick Buchanan
The first four Republican contests — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — produced record turnouts.
While the prospect of routing Hillary Clinton and recapturing the White House brought out the true believers, it was Donald Trump’s name on the ballot and his calls for economic patriotism, border security, and an end to imperial wars that brought out the throngs.
The crowds that continue to come out for his appearances and the vast audiences he has attracted to GOP debates testify to his drawing power.
Moreover, Trump has now been endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie, ex-chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the most respected conservatives on Capitol Hill.
Yet, with polls pointing to a possible Trump sweep on Super Tuesday, save Texas, his probable nomination, and a chance for the GOP to take it all in the fall, is causing some conservatives and Republicans to threaten to bolt, go third party, stay home, or even vote for Clinton.
They would prefer to lose to Clinton than win with Trump.
A conservative friend told this writer that Trump, unlike, say, Ted Cruz, has never shown an interest in the Supreme Court, which, with Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat vacant, hangs in the balance.
Yet, surely, a President Trump, hearing the clamor of those who elected him to find a Scalia, would be responsive.
With President Clinton, the court is gone for a generation.
We hear wails that the nomination of Trump would mean the end of the conservative movement. But how so?
If Trump won and conducted a conservative government, it would validate the movement. If Trump won and turned left, it would inspire an insurgency like Ronald Reagan’s in 1976, when the Ford-Rockefeller-Kissinger administration moved too far toward detente.
If Trump ran and lost, the conservative movement would have President Clinton to unite and rally the troops against.
One recalls Barry Goldwater’s historic wipeout in 1964. But, in 1966, Republicans made the greatest gains in a generation, and went on to win the presidency for 20 of the next 24 years.
Undeniably, a Trump presidency would mean an end to the Bush and establishment policies on trade, immigration and intervention.
But those policies have already been repudiated in the primaries, as they have proven to be transparent failures for America.
As long ago as the early 1990s, populist conservatives were imploring George H. W. Bush to secure our Mexican border, as tens of thousands poured across in the San Diego-Tijuana corridor. Gov. Pete Wilson turned near-certain defeat into a stunning comeback victory in 1994 by promising to send the National Guard.
Why did the establishment not respond then to the electorate? Why, instead of trashing Wilson for imperiling future party prospects with Hispanics, did the establishment not do what the people had demanded and move decisively to secure our southern border?
What is conservative about uncontrolled borders?
Why, as trade deficits with China and the world rose from the tens of billions to hundreds of billions, did the establishment not wake up and see the shuttering factories, the lost jobs and the ghost towns arising across America — and react?
Could they not see that, as we celebrated globalization, Beijing and Tokyo were practicing ruthless mercantilism and protectionism?
At the end of the Cold War in 1991, many Americans urged that, with the Soviet Empire dissolved and Soviet Union disintegrating, it was time to bring our troops home and let the rich fat nations that had been freeloading for half a century provide the soldiers and pay the cost of their own security.
Instead, the establishment opted for empire, for expanding old alliances, dumping over regimes, crusading for democracy, sending our soldiers out to remake Third World countries in the image of Iowa and Vermont.
Who now thinks all these wars were worth the cost?
Whether Trump wins or loses the nomination, the immigration, trade and foreign policies pursued by the elites since the end of the Cold War are dead letters. The nation has declared them to be so in the primaries.
Who is campaigning, in either party today, for open borders, or passing The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or sending troops back to Iraq or into Syria?
The Bernie Sanders insurgency appears to have been turned back by the vested interests of his party. But like the George McGovern insurgency in ’72, which also relied heavily upon the enthusiasm of the young, Sanders’ socialism may be the ideological future of his party.
The same may be said of the Trump insurgency. Whatever happens at Cleveland, the returns from the primaries look like the passing of the old order, the death rattle of an establishment fighting for its life, and being laughed at and mocked as it goes down.
As in 1964 and 1980, a new Republican Party is taking shape.
Defections are to be expected, and not altogether unwelcome.
Sayōnara GOP …sorry to have ever known ye.
http://afr.org/collapse-gop-establishment/
Out of the Blue
Often in history, revolutionary reform appears out of the blue in a way that is totally unexpected. We at AFR believe such a revolutionary reform may now be upon us. The radical transformation of the Republican Party appears to be underway, and the dramatic catalyst is the political campaign of Donald Trump.
If this is so, then the old, established Bush-Dole-McCain-Romneyized GOP is going to collapse with the slash-and-burn, attack-style campaign that Trump has launched. We welcome such a collapse because we know that just as nature abhors a vacuum, so too does society’s established politics, which after all are part of nature and the humans who operate within it. Thus the vacuum will be filled with a new paradigm, a new coalition of American voters. We believe this new coalition will be comprised of patriot conservatives, libertarians, and disgusted independents, bolstered by millions of blue-collar Democrats who will permanently depart from their traditional home on the left.
This epochal migration will make life unbearable for the old guard Republicans – the Bush-Dole-McCain-Romneyized mindset. They will find themselves without a home and will gradually over the next decade slide over to the Democrat Party. It will be done without a lot of fanfare, but it will be done because the Party of Liberalism is what this mindset is truly about and has been about for over 50 years. But the Democrat party will hemorrhage even larger numbers of defectors who will slide over to the new Republican Party, and herein lies the revolution.
The issues fanning this revolt are numerous, but the primary catalyst is “open borders” and the perfidy of Washington’s egregious toleration of illegal immigration. The blue-collar Democrats who have always cast their vote with the party of FDR out of loyalty to their parentage will never again vote so uncritically. It has finally dawned on them that their party leaders care more for ideology than jobs, more for multiculturalism than patriotism, more for power than principle. This realization will drive massive numbers of these disenchanted Democrats into the “new Republican Party” that Donald Trump tells his followers he will fashion should he win the presidency.
The new Republican Party, unlike the present pretender, will be a party of low taxes and freedom, sanity and productivity, military strength and peace. It will be a party that begins the long return to what the Founders intended this country to be. It will be a party of the past in principle and a party of the future in hope. It will transcend what the administration of Ronald Reagan brought about (and then lost so quickly) because this time the crisis of the country has reached earthquake proportions where it was only a series of tremors in 1980. Thus the voters are quite a bit more steely-eyed this time around.
More like the old GOP, the traditional one, is trying to be reborn than a new one born.
But you still have more people living off, or hoping to live off the government and a compliant press who believes in big government and statism along with an academia who would vote for Stalin over any republican, and gladly. The slide towards overwhelming government and insolvency will continue.
BULLSHIT!!!
As long as “GOP” remains part of the name it’s THE SAME OLD SHIT … regardless of the modifiers used …. “new and improved!!” ….. WTF? … sounds like a commercial for laundry detergent.
Pay attention Stucky..was the Democrat Party of today , the same one of 1865? Thank you.
“Moreover, Trump has now been endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie …” ——- article
An endorsement from a fatfuk asshole? And this is good?? THAT is the way to defeat Trump.
The Powerful People and Big Organizations beat on the Donald like a rented mule. Criticize. Mock. Belittle. Berate. Humiliate. And what is the end result? Donald only gets stronger.
The enemy needs to endorse him with vigor and enthusiasm. Established insider politicians, big business, Big Banks, etc etc. In other words, they should make Trump “ONE OF US”, with all those endorsements. In due time, the people will say, “Hey, he’s one of THEM!” …. and then the Donald’s days will be numbered.
flash
Pay attention …….. do have a fuckin’ hundred years to wait for change??
Stucky,
It’s the message he carries not the endorsements he gets.
Compare it to the message of Hillary, who actually and verifiably is “one of them” in every sense of the word, to see what the issues driving his supporters really are.
I am mentally and physically(more ammo &TC) preparing for the Clintons return to the WH. Last night on Faux News Lynch avoided the questions about Hil’s email problems. This indicates to me that there is no way she will be indicted.
Stuck dear boy, the Democrat Party of 1960s are the Republicans of today. Didn’t you know?
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This is get real Political Biology. We aren’t going to just chop down the invasive destructive Rockefeller-Bush-NEOCON-RINO tree and then see it grow back! Trump is going to fire the SOBs, rip out the roots and burn the Evil Empire Beast like Old Hickory did. Then replant something Politically and Economically great all over America to benefit all Patriotic hard working Americans like a Dunstan Chestnut that is hybrid, hardy, robust, produces tons of good fruit, wood, shade and habitat. Eat dirt Communist.
I agree that endorsements from C.Cristie are kind of a waste.
@Stucky
“The enemy needs to endorse him with vigor and enthusiasm. Established insider politicians, big business, Big Banks, etc etc. In other words, they should make Trump “ONE OF US”, with all those endorsements. In due time, the people will say, “Hey, he’s one of THEM!” …. and then the Donald’s days will be numbered.”
Reverse psychology at it’s finest…Stuck, that is the best!!
“Trump is going to fire the SOBs, rip out the roots and burn the Evil Empire Beast like Old Hickory did.”————- rhs jr
That’s one of the problems with Trump-eteers. You think that ONE MAN — even if he is POTUS — can do whatever the fuck he wants. As if there is no Congress. As if there aren’t powerful interests. As if the POTUS is the REAL power behind the shitfuk shit we the people suffer.
OTOH, there are countries led by a Supreme Leader who CAN do whatever-the-fuck-he-wants. We call those leaders …. Dictators.
But, that’s what Trump-eteers want. Good for you. You will live to regret it.
Suzanna
Did I ever tell you ……… you are BRILLIANT !!!
I have nagging suspicions about the Donald. However, I am pretty sure about Republicans and Democrats not being good for the country. If it sounds to good to be true it probably is. How is that for being indecisive ?
Careful Suzanna, Stucks head might explode.
@Stucky “That’s one of the problems with Trump-eteers. You think that ONE MAN — even if he is POTUS — can do whatever the fuck he wants. As if there is no Congress.
I say this not in defense of Trump so much but to remind you what ONE MAN has done as if there was no Congress. TPP, DAPA, Iran Nuclear “deal”, Fast and Furious and so forth and so on and so it goes.
Trump is doing a fabulous job of dividing us in half. Mission accomplished.
I can’t believe I may have to vote for Trump. I have to give some credence to the deep, dark conspiracy theories that swirl around the Clintons, and there is ZERO trust there. I am worried that if we elect the Donald, he will become what we feared Obama might be — the guy who is determined to take over and rule for life. Even ‘The Bern” would be preferable to having to deal with all that!