In early 2009, the Republican Party was on the political endangered-species list. It had lost the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Things were so bad that the Democrats were on their way to a super-majority in the Senate.
Judging by the actions of the Washington Republican establishment, the Grand Old Party wants to go back to the bad old days.
The Establishment is going crazy because the two hottest names in the presidential race now days are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Both men oppose amnesty, illegal immigration and birth right citizenship. In the deluded world of Washington Republicans, Jeb Bush should be sweeping toward his coronation, with adoring mobs demanding amnesty, crony capitalism and that big corporations cut their wages.
Instead, Mr. Bush has no support outside of rich Republican donors. Mr. Trump is filling football stadiums with crowds measured in the tens of thousands. Real Americans are listening to his message and the Washington Republicans are beside themselves.
Alex Castellanos, a Washington Republican insider appeared recently on TV and promised that Mr. Trump would fail and there would be a “cleansing that will go on” in the GOP.
A “cleansing?” Is he talking about a purge? Has the GOP suddenly gone Stalinist on everyone?
Mr. Castellanos, like most of the Republican establishment has no clue what real Republicans believe anymore. How dare the GOP masses disagree with their masters! His answer is, the GOP will just throw the dissenters out.
Mr. Castellanos apparently believes real Americans are running to the shelter of the Republican Party while screaming, “Get your hands off of me you damn, dirty Democrats.”
Politics is an exercise in mathematics. You win with addition and you lose with subtraction. Mr. Castellanos seems to forget that the Republicans have lost four of the last six presidential elections. Even the two the GOP managed to win were close. The four Democrat victories were not.
Conservatives have long complained about how out of touch the Republican establishment and their consultant class have been. After taking the Senate back from the Democrats this year, what was new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s first priority? It wasn’t repealing Obamacare as the GOP had promised repeatedly. It was rescuing Barack Obama’s legacy and passing Trade Promotional Authority for the really bad Trans Pacific Partnership free trade treaty.
The real problem the Republican Party has is that it despises its base. The base now despises the GOP leadership as well. This is a situation that is not going to end well for the party leadership.
Either Mr. Cruz or Mr. Trump will win the Republican nomination or a moderate acceptable to the party leadership will. If the nominee is someone other than Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz, the base will be finished. If the Republican leadership forces a moderate nominee like Mr. Bush on the party, Mr. Castellanos will get his wish. Only it won’t be a purge.
It will be the conservatives heading to the exits. Then, the Republican Party will become a third party in American politics.
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