Before I begin, I want to let my readers know that I started out as a Perry supporter who switched to Cruz after Perry’s withdrawal. I consider myself TEA Party and evangelical. I have also been active in politics at state and local levels for decades, generally on the conservative side of the fight. Have had a great time watching the revolt of Flyover Country against the Beltway Party, and am trying explain what is going on and why.
So I will synthesize a number of arguments and descriptions I’ve run across over the last couple weeks and see if I can come up with something a little better than the 12 blind men describing an elephant.
Best description I have seen of the Republican Party is that it is composed by three groups.
The top group with most power is called the enterprisers. They are not particularly religious. They are nationalistic and pro-military. They tend to be fiscally conservative. Most of the establishment (Beltway) Republicans are enterprisers. Over the last decade or two, they have developed a real taste for the candy (cocaine?) of crony capitalism along with the free money and power that come along with it. This has moved them significantly away from a small government worldview and they have acted accordingly.
The second group is the evangelicals. They are not quite as fiscally conservative but are very socially conservative. They are looked down upon and all but despised by the enterprisers. They hold little power in the party at the national level but are powerful members at the state and local levels. Mostly they stay home when they are disappointed with their leadership.
The third group is the old Reagan Democrats or Nixon’s silent majority. These are generally lower middle class working people, generally (but not exclusively) white. They are the ones being ground into dust by the big, predatory, regulatory, crony capitalism state. They have been ignored by the national party since the 1988 election, though Perot and now Trump were able to appeal to them. These are the people who no longer are able to see a way up, see a way to better themselves, and who see the same fate for their children and grandchildren. These are the people who are a massive part of the 94 million unemployed who want to work.
Trump is appealing to the second and third groups, which by themselves provide enough people to win the next election. Cruz’ initial theory of his campaign was to expand the base by encouraging Christians who do not vote to do so. With Trump’s entry and appeal, that theory has been blown up, as Trump is getting more of them than Cruz currently is. Limbaugh believes Cruz has a larger appeal than that and it looks like he is expanding that appeal.
So what is Trump’s appeal? The first and most important appeal is that he literally destroys political correctness. He is vulgar, profane, nasty, and never, ever backs down – not unlike our favorite democrat. It is pleasing to many of us to finally see the pocket Stalinists of PC getting their just deserts.
Trump’s second appeal is that he plays the media like a fine Stradivarius. Cruz does the second appeal well also. While the media is doing a lot of chortling and the Beltway Party is doing a lot of breast beating, wailing, rending of clothing over the rise of Trump and Cruz and the utter failure of their chosen candidates, the explanation is pretty clear.
We out here in Flyover Country busted our backsides to give them a majority in the House in 2010 to stop Obama. That majority didn’t do squat. So we did the same thing in 2014 with the Senate, a victory new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell flushed down the toilet less than 12 hour later when he summarily gave up the power of the purse to fight Obama. So nobody in Washington stops Obama.
OTOH, in the rest of the country, the very same Republican voters have put together solid governing majorities in over 30 states most of whom are doing a decent job fighting Obama, overreaching feds, and opening a future. And those same voters are about to do the same thing to the cowards in charge in Washington DC.
Consider this a hostile takeover led by both Trump and Cruz. It may not happen this year, but it is incoming just as certain as a downhill freight train.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
