At the end of the day, politics is a numbers game and it is a very simple equation. Who has enough votes to win?
Politicians, news agencies and pundits spend a lot of money and time analyzing data to tell everyone before the election who is going to win. The conventional wisdom, even without numbers, is that the 2016 election is the Republican Party’s to lose. President Obama is a very unpopular president with many unpopular policies that are coming back to haunt Democrats.
Yet the Republican Party is doing its best to commit political suicide and hand the White House to Elizabeth Warren and the Democrats.
In January, the Des Moines Register did a poll that showed Donald Trump with a favorability rating of 27 percent and an unfavorability rating of 63 percent. For a politician running for office, those kind of numbers are the death zone. Yet something funny happened on the way to political oblivion for Donald Trump. Just a week ago, the same paper did another poll. Mr. Trump’s ratings have changed. 61 percent now view him favorably and only 35 percent unfavorably.
Those numbers are beyond stunning. They are unprecedented. Politicians don’t turn their fortunes around like that.
How did Mr. Trump do that?
He started talking about the biggest issue American voters want confronted and no one is talking about. Mr. Trump showed bold leadership and talked about illegal immigration. His message is resonating with the American people and what is the response of the Republican establishment? Instead of listening to their base, they want to sideline Mr. Trump.
A new Quinnipac University poll released another stunning number. Only 12 percent of Americans approve of the Republican Leadership in Congress. Almost 90 percent disapprove of the Republican Leadership!
Why?
It is probably because Republican Leadership is an oxymoron. As that poll came out, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he was going to cut a deal so there would be no government shutdown on Oct. 1.
The big hang up for the budget process, which must be passed by Oct. 1, is funding for Planned Parenthood. The abortion industry is one of the biggest funders of the Democrat Party. The Planned Parenthood scandal, in any rational universe, would be a boon for the Republicans. This scandal is not about abortion. This scandal is about Planned Parenthood’s ghoulish practice of selling the parts from aborted babies. When a Planned Parenthood executives joke about selling baby parts so she can buy a Lamborghini, 90 percent of Americans are appalled. When someone who worked for Planned Parenthood talks about having to cut through the faces of aborted babies to get intact brains, 99 percent of Americans want to vomit.
Mr. Obama is threatening to veto any budget bill that does not fund Planned Parenthood. And the Republicans in Washington are immediately capitulating instead of fighting for what they allegedly believe.
Mr. Trump’s rise is due to two things. First, he is addressing an issue that is crucially important to millions of Americans. Second, he is showing how to lead and fight. Mr. Trump is the alpha male in a political sea of nothing but beta males, metrosexuals and wimps.
The Republican leadership should learn from this and learn quickly. The base is demanding a leader who fights and a leader who will address their issues. If the Republicans push someone like Jeb Bush or even Mitt Romney on the base again, the base will walk.
And then you will see a Republican Party with a zero percent approval rating.
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