At this point I’m not sure what’s more pathetic. Those willing to defend Donald Trump no matter what he says and does, or those who think the way to drive an alpha-male billionaire out of a presidential race is to sanctimoniously whine about how “offensive” his comments are.
Newsflash for Team GOP: Nobody currently backing Mr. Trump cares about what disgusting things he says about John McCain’s war record or Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle. In fact, they take your pleas for heightened levels of politeness from Mr. Trump as a sign of weakness. They don’t believe you have the chutzpah to do what must be done.
Besides, anybody to the political Right of Sen. Charles Schumer is called a racist/misogynist/fascist/bigot by the Marxists on the Left every day before breakfast, and then the liberal media accuses them of everything short of the Lindbergh kidnapping by the time the dinner bell tolls.
So once more allow me to show Team GOP how to rid itself of its “Trump problem.” Not because I care about this political party anymore than it obviously doesn’t care about me, mind you. But because I just can’t stand to watch needless self-immolation from any source, no matter how feckless.
Uber-Left website Buzzfeed recently published a piece titled “a guide to the radical left wing ideology and flip-flops of fake conservative Donald J. Trump.”
That’s right, boys and girls. Team GOP has sunk so low it now needs its opponents on the Left to take pity on them and the path to victory. Buzzfeed documents years of Mr. Trump ideological blemishes and peccadilloes that would make “flip flop” Mitt Romney blush. If even half of what Buzzfeed documents is true, it appears that Mr. Trump decided to become a Republican about five minutes before he announced his presidential bid.
This, Team GOP, is how you defuse Mr. Trump. Yes, I know you’re not in this to advance conservative causes but most of your voters are. Wait, “who are these voters you speak of” you ask. Why it is they, Team GOP, and not your K Street pimps who put you in office. But I digress. In the end, most people are still Republicans because of values/issues and not identity politics like the Democrats.
As I wrote previously for The Washington Times, you can only defuse John Brown with an Abraham Lincoln. He was someone who also presented a paradigm shift but without Brown’s collateral damage. Make no mistake, Mr. Trump is the John Brown of the GOP Civil War, and this Civil War isn’t going to stop until it runs its course. The GOP has simply betrayed too many people too deeply for them to turn back now. The peasants will have their revolt come hell, high water or Mr. Trump’s potty mouth.
Now here’s a key. Notice I said “defuse” and not “defeat” Mr. Trump. You can’t defeat him outright because he can’t be executed like Brown back in the day (although perhaps Charles Krauthammer would like to try). Just as Brown was created by the system’s decades of lies and failure to sincerely confront slavery, Mr. Trump was created by two political parties that have similarly failed to credibly address the systemic and persistent problems in our country. However, unlike Brown, Mr. Trump is protected by his own currency printing press. He can therefore remain an indefinitely viable platform for those souls who have given up on the corrupt two-party duopoly altogether. They will channel their frustration through him regardless of any verbal raw sewage that would sink a normal candidate. This is why he has a base. People believe his wealth protects him from owing the system that has betrayed them time after time, so they’re going to ride that razor’s edge until it goes dull.
As long as Mr. Trump is willing to put up with what it takes to be that standard bearer, his loyalists won’t care how much he offends those not as fed up as them yet. That means a candidate must emerge who siphons Mr. Trump’s base down to the absolute angriest. As in those who can’t be reached with anything remotely conventional anymore. Once that happens, then you’ll see Mr. Trump step away on his own because he’ll figure out he can’t win – just as he’s started and stopped multiple political endeavors in the past.
Trust me. As someone who gets to know several presidential candidates and their staffs well, Mr. Trump has no interest in simply being a protest vote. He wants to win.
Someone established in the GOP cannot defuse Mr. Trump no matter how conservative or Christian they are. That’s because the GOP is going down, folks, just like the Whigs from whence it came. It’s just a matter of whether what comes next is a born-again GOP or something new entirely.
Ironically, the only way to save the GOP is to elevate a candidate it doesn’t want. Someone principled who is a loyal Republican but still represents an existential threat to its current feckless, failing leadership. Otherwise, Mr. Trump will at least be Ross Perot all over again, or maybe (gasp!) Jesse Ventura.
Many people want a third party, and they’ll only stop wanting one if we actually offer them a second party for once.
Remember when Ronald Reagan won a landslide in 1980 by not just beating a sitting president but also a credible third party challenge from a fellow Republican? How did he do it? By offering a paradigm shift.
The next GOP nominee must do the same, or he will not win – period. Mr. Trump has exposed there are too many potential Republican voters who have given up on the GOP as it’s currently constructed as well as all the traditional rules of engagement. It seems as if even I underestimated how many people the GOP establishment has betrayed, and that’s saying something. You’re only going to get those voters to show up on Election Day next year by nominating someone who isn’t the same old, same old.
Want to know where the rest of Rand Paul’s base is? It’s with Mr. Trump now. His daddy grew his base by offering a paradigm shift, not because there was a spontaneous renaissance of libertarianism among middle-age folks. And now those people don’t see the son as a paradigm shift after he got into bed with the establishment.
That’s why Rand Paul is toast, and that’s why the growing cult of personality is with Mr. Trump now. John Brown will not lose those people unless a Lincoln arises to lead a movement.
(Steve Deace is a nationally syndicated talk show host and also the author of the new book “Rules for Patriots: How Conservatives Can Win Again.” You can “like” him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow.)
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