Jeb Bush will not vote for Donald Trump. Neither with George W. Bush, nor George H.W. Bush. Mitt Romney and John McCain will sit this one out as well. Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the Republican Convention, isn't sure whether he will support Trump or not.
The Republican and Democrat elites have now established their own party. We'll just call it the Establishment Party.
The Establishment Party will vote for Hillary Clinton, a member of the Establishment. They may not all actually pull the lever for Hillary, but they might as well. None will attempt to block her candidacy. The Bushes, of course, are now terribly sorry that they played a part in forcing Trump to pledge his support, in writing, to the Republican Party. They now know they could've done much better. They could have forced Trump (and his anti-establishment, grass roots supporters, made up of blue collar miners and machine operators) to run as a third party. They know from their own family history that, while a third party Trump would divide the vote like Ross Perot did, they still would maintain their power and influence. Eight years later, another Bush could be President. It's just a waiting game for the Bushes.
And what will this new Establishment Party stand for? Well, we actually know what they stand for. They stand for themselves. They stand for maintaining their own influence, even if they have to sacrifice the nation to do it. They stand for higher taxes, and more spending, just as they've done, more or less, for three decades. They stand for the invasion of Iraq, nation building, limited war and globalism. They stand for free trade, even if that puts hard working Americans out of work. They stand for the federalization of education with Common Core and No Child Left Behind. They favor bank bailouts, "too big to fail," cronyism, and anti-abortion platforms that make no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. The Establishment Party believes that Democrats are mostly right, but their policies need to be tweaked - just a little. They prefer unsustainable debt and spending to fiscal responsibility and hard choices. The Establishment Party prefers cocktail parties in Georgetown to a beer with a miner at the end of his shift. They prefer cheap, illegal labor from Mexico to higher paying jobs for blue collar Americans. They prefer their buddies to the voters.
The Democrats are even worse, but at least they're honest about it. Everyone knows that Democrats are corrupt. They hardly deny it themselves. Hence the rise of Bernie Sanders. Between Trump and Sanders, a full 70%, yes 70%, of Americans want to Bern down the Washington playground. Trump's unfavorables are terrible. There is no doubt. But they are lower than the unfavorables of the Republican Congress. Think about that. The Establishment Party is lambasting Trump and calling him unelectable because of his unfavorables when theirs are even worse...
It's both a sad day in America and a great day. I did not vote for Trump. But, everything in my core tells me that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are the right messengers for this nation right now. As Peggy Noonan said today in an article for the Wall Street Journal, Trump was the spark, not the fire. http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-was-a-spark-not-the-fire-1462488099. It's a good read.
Trump was surprised today that Paul Ryan wouldn't support him. I'm not. After all, Ryan is a Wisconsin Representative, in a moderate district, in a liberal state, who ran as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential pick. He's a good man, but he's obviously still learning on the job. Donald Trump should run against Ryan and the Establishment Party in the general election. For starters, the Establishment won't support him, so why should he care what they think or say? Trump appeals to a broader cross-section of Americans, including service workers, blue collar manufacturing workers, entrepreneurs, miners, married middle class women, evangelical Blacks and, of course, a huge percentage of white men. White men alone made up nearly 37% of the actual voting electorate in 2012. By contrast, hispanics of both sexes only make up 14% of the entire population, and in 2012, hispanics made up only 8.4% of the electorate. African Americans of both sexes made up about 12% in total. It's very difficult to find statistical information about married white women because, I have to suppose, the media just ignores their importance in the overall electorate. A pew poll, however, indicates that white women made up about 40% of the electorate in 2012. It also appears that married couples basically voted the same, within one or two points of each other.
My point is this, building the wall is not unpopular, no matter what the media says. And no matter how unpopular it might be with hispanics, it probably will not the determinative factor in the election. For every one hispanic voter who wants illegal workers to have unfettered access to our country, there are ten miners, truckers, electricians, journeymen, autoworkers, and machine operators that are out of a job because of NAFTA or that illegal worker. If everyone in this nation votes his or her interest (which they will), the wall will be built. Period. This is democracy. The majority will rule, with exceptions spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
The Establishment Party doesn't want majority rule. Quite simply, they are in the minority, so they must use force of law to maintain their power and influence. The day there is a true populist revolution is the day they lose everything they've built for themselves and their families. Before you feel sympathy for these elites, however, consider how they got their wealth. The vast majority got it through influence peddling, trading favors, playing politics and making unfulfilled promises to the voters. Very few of these men and women built their own wealth. It was handed to them because of their political station. And they tend to forget that their power is granted to them by the people who they have willingly betrayed now for decades.
It is worth considering this: 535 representatives of our government are all there are for 325 million Americans. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, capping the number of representatives we have, the population of the United States was 154 million. The size of the country has more than doubled, but the number of politicians representing our interests has remained the same. I doubt this was our founders' intent. Each year as our population grows, our elected officials become more and more elite just by virtue of the fact that the number of representatives remains stagnant. It is an untenable model. Elitism is quintessentially unAmerican but unfortunately it has become the norm just by default.
The Establishment Party represents American elitism at its worst. The "Bush Dynasty" is the best example. Prescott Bush started the dynasty as a Connecticut moderate Senator. His son was Vice President and then President. His grandson became President and his other grandson was the anointed one by his party to become the next President. Bill Clinton came from nothing, but his wife is now running for President. No doubt his daughter will run some time in the future. Dynastic politics is anti-American. When George Washington was offered a crown, he declined. Jeb Bush had to have his crown taken away by the sullied masses.
There are many things I dislike about Trump. But there are a lot of things I do like. I like his willingness to say out loud that Americans should come first. That security should come first. That jobs make everyone happier and better off. "How will you win the Black vote, Mr. Trump"? "That's easy," he responds, "they want jobs, and I'll get them good jobs."
It's the same with any demographic or balkanized group in our country. For my liberal friends, Bernie Sanders represents the same singular focus. And I like Bernie, a lot, even though I totally disagree with his position on the issues. At least he tells it like it is. And that's what Americans want.
For the Establishment Party, the last thing they want is to have the truth exposed. That would mean that they are exposed as the power mongers and elitists that they are. I say, expose them all. Sanders vs. Trump is a fair fight for the hearts and minds of Americans. The Clintons and Bushes can stay home.
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