We said we’d have something more to say about the debate Thursday, specifically concerning the “Pledge” gimmick Brett Baier started off the Fox “Get Trump”evening with.
The newspapers and pundits’ columns this weekend are filled with analysis, commentary, and wistful perhaps, Trump political “obituaries”. Many of the gleeful pronouncements of The Donald’s campaign’s demise are related to his refusal to pledge his eventual support to whichever candidate becomes the GOP nominee.
Besides being “personally shocked” and, of course, appalled, the usual suspects are saying, words to the effect, ~~ Not even the members of the base who have avidly supported him will tolerate such disloyalty to the party!
And there is where we may disagree with such conventional wisdom.
It is our contention that Trump’s support has derived out of something the Republican establishment is unwilling to acknowledge and may even be oblivious to.
With their considerable bankroll, Karl and Reince and the US Chamber and big money guys are confident they can successfully run the same old scam one more time.
Jeb has already announced he believes he can get the nomination without the base. If the “dynamism” Jeb has shown so far should happen to fail him, pious John Kasich, the number 2 establishment darling, will step in.
Here’s the catch. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner demonstrated so blatantly following the 2014 repudiation by voters of the Obama agenda that the will of the people means nothing to the establishment . To list the promises these two betrayed should not be necessary: full funding of the Obama agenda for a year, superficial and ineffective opposition to executive action, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood defunding…you name it. To make sure the nation and Obama understood, Mitch has already announced he won’t allow the president to “shut down the government” however petty the issue might be.
These two make the Keystone Kops look like Seal Team 6.
Add that to the officially certified losers the establishment foisted on Republican voters the past two presidential elections and Donald Trump’s refusal takes on ominous proportions for the GOP.
Trump, in essence, said that if the eventual nominee is not someone he cannot respect or believe could win, he’d be foolish to make a promise to support them at this time.
But worse yet for the Establishment GOP is the not so veiled threat that he may lead a 3rd party effort. Perhaps doomed to failure, that prospect is possibly still an attractive prospect for more than a few deeply disaffected conservatives. For many of them, the question is, “what does it take to get the attention of the Republican Party leadership?”
Maybe we’ll find out. DLH
