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For the Establishment
“Burn it down.” That’s the slogan of faux conservatives who now rejoice that the Republican Party is being smashed by a slick, howlingly transparent grifter. The urge to destroy has a kind of pornographic appeal to a certain personality – but it’s a shock to find it so widespread.
The Republican Party is choosing an odd time to commit suicide. Obama’s two victories were painful setbacks, but in the Obama era the Democrats lost 13 US Senate seats, 69 House seats, 910 legislative seats, 11 governorships, and 30 legislative chambers. All that stood between Republicans and real reform at the federal level was the White House – and the Democrats were sleepwalking toward nominating the least popular major player in American politics.
Republicans have managed to find someone who is even less acceptable. One-third to 40 percent of Republican primary participants are embracing a figure who not only loses the general election but who introduces an element of fascism to American politics, and thus demoralizes the Republican majority while delegitimizing the party in the eyes of others. It is Trump’s unique contribution to wed authoritarianism — threatening the First Amendment, promising war crimes, admiring dictators, encouraging mob violence, fomenting racial and ethnic strife — with Sandersesque leftism on entitlements, abortion, and a 9/11 truther foreign policy.
And what sin has brought down this despoiler upon the Republican Party? Why are so many self-styled conservatives complacent about his success? Failure to stop Obamacare? Please. That was never possible with Obama in office. It would have been possible, in fact it was probable, that it would have been replaced if Republicans held majorities in Congress and got an agreeable executive. Now? No. Failure to get control of the border? Illegal immigration from Mexico has slowed to a trickle and, in fact, more Mexicans are now leaving than coming. Failure to defund the Export-Import Bank? Yes, crony capitalism is disgraceful, but the irony of those who are offended by such things sidling up to Trump – who boasts of buying influence – is rich.
As Edmund Burke observed about the extremists of his day: “He that sets his home on fire because his fingers are frostbitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth.”
Here are a few words of praise for the Republicans. The Republican Party has become more reform-minded and more conservative over the past 30 years. The Arlen Specters and Bob Packwoods are pretty much gone. In their places are dynamic, smart, and articulate leaders like Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Cory Gardner, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Suzanna Martinez, and Marco Rubio. The party has become more conservative and more ethnically diverse.
Between 2008 and 2014, when Republicans were the minority in the Senate, they blocked cap and trade, the “public option” in Obamacare, and card check. Republicans declined to give President Obama universal pre-K, the “Paycheck Fairness Act,” expanded unemployment benefits, a higher federal minimum wage, varieties of gun control, mandatory paid sick leave, a tax on multinational corporations, higher taxes on individuals, and more. They passed bills authorizing the Keystone pipeline (which was vetoed) and trade promotion authority (the one issue Obama is not wrong about). They endorsed entitlement reform.
The American system is slow and balky by design. It requires maturity and patience to achieve your political goals. Democrats have been remarkably strategic, returning again and again to cherished objectives, whereas Republicans have told themselves that leadership treachery rather than Madisonian architecture accounts for their frustration.
Those who encouraged the “burn it down” mania and who popularized the narrative that a malign Republican “establishment” was responsible for the state of the nation may be many things but they are not conservative. Conservatives respect institutions and traditions. They understand that process is ultimately more important than policy outcomes because it guarantees legitimacy and political stability. Laws can be repealed. That is why Obama’s worst offenses were not Dodd/Frank, the stimulus bill, or Obamacare, as bad as those were. His worst offenses were against Constitutional constraints. He governed by executive fiat and got away with it, thus undermining the rule of law.
A plurality of Republicans seems to have accepted and adopted contempt for the Constitution. They will reap the whirlwind and look back longingly at the Republican “establishment.”
Published in General
Reckon I’ll be waiting quite a while.
His loudmouth crude crass bullying manner makes him almost the Anti-Romney, bank account or no.
Except that a governor/president has a hand in setting the game in a way that a businessman doesn’t.
Otherwise, is this supposed to be an admission that Trump is more like Romney than you’ve been letting on, or an admission that Romney was just as bad as Trump?
I don’t think either is the case, and as much as I don’t like either man I will vote for Trump just like I voted for Romney if it comes down to it. Only this time I think Trump has a better chance of winning than Romney did.
This isn’t just about Republicans messing up. That doesn’t explain Bernie.
This is about two parties who have both, for 30 plus years, failed to adequately represent the broader American public. It’s about political elites whose values do not reflect the values of the public, or at least a significant part of the public. Trump’s pull is not about policy positions, or liberalism or conservatism. It’s because they trust his values. And why not? The values of both Democrats and Republicans who have alternated power have led to massive declines and a failure to resolve anything. These people are right to rebel.
This is a very healthy process.
It’s also why so many thinkers on the Republican side are completely wrong about who Trump is. They have lost the ability to view him in a positive light because he is not of their culture and violates so many of their unwritten rules. I fear, Mona, this applies to you as well.
“It was obvious from moment one that Mona’s attacks on Trump did nothing but help Trump. Here we are nine months later and she still hasn’t clued in”….
This is obviously pure conjecture.
I didn’t say that Trump wasn’t elite. I said that elite was only part of Romney’s problem in 2012.
I could be wrong, but I think the Pew surveys rely on self-reporting, so are meaningless anyway.
Ben Carson is going to endorse Donald Trump.
Mona, the problem is a breach of trust. The Republicans championed ordinary Americans against the “stimulus,” Obamacare, and illegal immigration. They won two landslides — in 2010 and 2014 — and they did nothing, having ceded to the executive the power of the purse. Moreover, they turned on the party base and championed amnesty. And don’t tell people that it wasn’t really amnesty. They had been snookered before. Reagan secured amnesty and promised to close the borders to illegals. You can cheat people once, even twice. The third time they get angry . . . and it is anger at betrayal that is driving this election.
I am no more favorable to Trump than you are. But the fault does not lie with those who are enraged. It lies with those who betrayed them over and over and over again.
Good points. Thanks again for sharing it.
My buddies on the border aren’t tallying origin. They are just getting beat down.
Well said Mona. All true, and it would be persuasive to anyone not blinded by rage. Well said indeed.
Demanding accountability is hardly being “blinded by rage.”
No doubt because Trump has been so resolutely pro-life throughout his career. Go away, Ben.
[Ah–there’s a thread on this now.]
I think that you underestimate the importance of what Rubio did. He ran as an opponent of amnesty and then did a 180. Even if you do not think immigration the greatest issue of our times, that would make you a bit suspicious of the man. I would be happy if Rubio were the nominee, but I have misgivings . . . and suckering Floridians with regard to immigration was not the most disturbing thing he did.
Let me put it this way, however. Who is more at fault — the folks who fear that Rubio will say one thing and do another or the Senator who said one thing and immediately did another?
Amen.
And for political opinion makers to be berating the voters for not toeing the line, while failing to get behind the sole remaining conservative alternative is worse than unseemly.
I just feel so embarrassed for Ben Carson. What an ignominious conclusion to an otherwise stellar career.
Well, I guess we have to take into account the fact that the good doctor is hoping that an endorsement will mean his stellar career continues at HHS or as Surgeon General. I hate how politics makes one (me) cynical.
Indeed. However, being blinded by rage is a great deal like being blinded by wage.
“Forget” you too Mona.
Professor, your claim the Republican majorities have done nothing is simply false for all the reasons Mona listed.
Who is it you believe, turned on the party base and championed amnesty? There is one reason and one reason only that comprehensive immigration reform is not the law, that reason’s name is John Boehner.
I am not of his culture, no. I didn’t go to private school, grow up rich, learn my values in Manhattan real estate, or boast of bedding married women. My values might be more along the lines of, say, Scott Walker – Midwestern, cooperative, civil in discourse, and so on. My view of Trump comes from his behavior and his statements.
Brent,
You miss the point. The number of undocumenteds (no person can be illegal) is declining despite the influx and despite your friends not being run over by any heading south. Because they lack documents, they must also not be able to cross south through the normal checkpoints.
The only mathematically possible answer is the one we have refused to believe. The Mexican undocumenteds are being murdered by the millions. Who is capable of perpetrating this?
Yes, more good conservatives elected. Mostly with the enthusiasm and support of tea party types, while the GOP apparatus supported Crist-types, starved or disowned guys like Cucinelli, and called tea partiers “crazies.”
I’m very glad they didn’t give in on those Obama initiatives listed. But look at that list. Are there any that even a moderate Republican could support and not fear for reelection? E.g., gun control, universal Pre-K, unemployment benefits, were not tough choices, electorally speaking. It’s with the closer calls (e.g. purse power), where standing on principle might be difficult, they consistently ran and hid.
If Mona’s primary concern is Trump winning the nomination then I suggest her efforts would be more fruitfully directs at getting Rubio supporters to switch to Cruz.
If she were capable of converting the Trump faithful it would have happened already. Beating this dead horse isn’t going to accomplish anything.
Anyone serious about stopping Trump should be focused on getting Rubio supporters to switch to Cruz.
The man I have in mind is named Marco Rubio, and he is the one whom Mona has backed.
As for the Republicans doing things, the list of things that they are supposed to have done is a list of things they did not do. It is as if only the President has the initiative.
The power of the purse is in the hands of Congress. It can defund anything by refusing to fund it. But the power that the Constitution confers on Congress has been ceded by the Republicans to the President. He threatens a veto. He threatens to shut down the government, and they cave.
Two landslides . . . bigger than at any time since 1928, and they have nothing to show for it.
The voters are not stupid. Their anger was directed at the Democrats in 2010 and 2014. Now it is directed at the Republicans — and with reason.
This is apt to end badly. Rage and prudence do not go together. I do not blame those enraged — even if their rage causes them to be imprudent. I blame those who failed them and thereby earned their distrust.
How can such a man be viewed in a positive light?
Being a Virginian, I hear you. Great point.
The only objective I have to this is maybe those Republicans (moderate or otherwise) were only there in the first place because of anti-Democrat efforts. Going forward, don’t we have to recognize that “burn it down” is going to cost the party moderates as well as conservatives?
It’s not pure conjecture. Trump’s poll number increase each time McCain lays into him, Romney slams him, NR piles on, etc. There’s a consistent pattern, and it was apparent very soon after Trump announced. The whole “stop digging” advice applies here. Oh, and yes, Mona is just a small part, but perfectly exemplary.
So Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, etc … had nothing to do with this, nor did Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, or any other congressional leader.
Generally presidents do have the initiative. Newt learned we do not have a parliamentary system and Congress cannot govern the country.
The president and the congressional leadership understands the political reality of government shutdowns, Republicans lose them. I know there are those, you obviously among them, who do not accept this reality but it is reality.
Plenty to show for it. There are many policies we are not saddled with because of them.
Support for Donald Trump suggests otherwise. There is no reasonable justification for conservatives to support that immoral confidence man.
I think he counts as having has two distinct careers. His career as a doctor is stellar. His career as a politician is over and should be filed under “nice try, nice guy, not the right man for the job”. I admire his guts for trying. But I don’t think people’s opinion of his political career should in any way tarnish his reputation as a doctor.