Establishment Republicans and Trump

Last updated on: September 16, 2015 at 11:20 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Establishment Republicans and Trump 2015-09-16T11:20:13-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Establishment Republicans are on the ropes: Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the leading Republican candidates.

I have no love for any “establishment” anywhere. Is there any doubt that money and influence corrupt many of our leaders in the evil marriage between big business and big government? And yet this is where I do not understand the appeal of Donald Trump. Isn’t he the epitome of the man who has prospered all his life on just such contacts? What makes Mike Huckabee establishment? I see no respect for him from the mainstream punditry and a great deal of sneering about his Baptist college, his time in ministry, and his Evangelical faith. He is not a favorite of Wall Street. How is Mike Huckabee the establishment when Donald Trump is not?

Donald Trump is not attacking Wall Street. Donald Trump is not attacking the connections between Wall Street and Washington. He is attacking GOP candidates like Jeb Bush. If planning not to vote for Jeb Bush makes you anti-establishment, then there are fifteen anti-establishment candidates.

Of course, the theory exists that many of those candidates exist to clear the way for Bush by splitting the anti-establishment vote. This makes sense for Graham and a few other of the no-names, but does it make sense for Kasich, Walker, and Huckabee? Kasich is a popular governor of Ohio. If you need to know why that matters, you need a political knowledge intervention. Walker was the darling of the conservative movement for taking on the establishment of both parties by busting the unions and the sacred state university system. He did all of this without having a wealthy background or a college degree! Huckabee was an effective two-term governor of Arkansas who gained millions of votes the last time he ran. These are ambitious men with plausible resumes.

Let’s accept that Huckabee is running just to boost his value as a pundit or media host. That is at least plausible. What of Walker and Kasich? Kasich is a Bush style center-right-candidate. He is to the left of Bush, so let’s assume that from a conservative point of view he is “out.” This still leaves Walker amongst the mainstream contenders and I see no way he fits the establishment model. He is no “strong man on horseback” and is not particularly charismatic, but then neither is Ben Carson and Ben Carson is soaring in the polls.

Dr. Carson is a good man, brilliant, accomplished and has mainstream conservative views. He has no particular qualifications to be President, but if one wishes for an outsider, he is polling better against Clinton than any Republican candidate. He is a good man, decent, and self-made fitting the Lincoln model for a successful Republican candidate.

So I am back to the mystery that is Trump. Why does a third of the party wish him to be the nominee? He comes from mainstream media, Wall Street, and inherited wealth. He has not spent his career attacking any of the pieties of the establishment and has a mixed record of business success. The man was born rich and has performed worse than if he had done nothing in terms of his finances.

Other than anti-immigration, where he is never more specific than a bumper sticker, he takes few public policy positions. What is the appeal? He admits to buying politicians as a way of showing he cannot be bought, but I don’t want to avoid one vice by rewarding the other. The pimp may not be a John, he knows the business too well, but he is not a good man.

To be honest, I think some form of amnesty is inevitable. The human tragedy that would result from deporting eleven million people from the United States would stop the action in its tracks and should not even be contemplated. Rubio strikes me as a decent man, who ran for the Senate as anti-establishment. His only policy “deviation” is on immigration. If I must believe that all illegals should be deported to avoid being in the establishment, then I am establishment.

But I warn Christians: real the Bible on the stranger or the alien and see how they were to be treated. Apply the same (good) hermeneutics we apply to sexuality issues. Can you support mass deportation consistently? I cannot make it work and Trump is for deportation.

All of this leaves aside Trump’s many offensive statements (and actions) toward women and minorities. The Trump supporters must assume they are part of his bluff persona or an attack on political correctness. Political correctness stifles true debate, but insults are not debate. Slurs are not positions. Rudeness is not a policy. Where is Trump attacking the pieties other than being boorish or “outspoken” about personalities? In fact, if anything fits Trump’s background, it is that he is the stalking horse for the establishment to roil the Republican Party and (at worst) nominate the weakest possible candidate against Clinton.

What does Trump want to do in office that is worth my vote? He seems to be running as a man, but the man is not very appealing to me. Why should I vote for Trump? I do not understand.

Which leads me to ask this question: if Bush and Trump would both drop out would that satisfy his voters? Would that free the party from the fear that (as was allegedly true with Romney) the” fix” is in? Let’s all agree the GOP has let us down in Washington. Congressional leadership is ineffective to the point of stupidity. I would not trust John Boehner’s endorsement for a pub, let alone President of the United States.

Carson and Walker seem “outsider” candidates without the taint of the establishment or the baggage that is the Donald: the only candidate running less popular than Clinton. Carson polls better than Trump and Walker is more qualified. Why not Carson or Walker?

I see no “establishment” that is rigging the nomination of either man, though I see plenty of us willing to reconsider Carson in order to avoid Trump. I have spent the last few weeks trying to be fair and listening to Donald Trump. I have examined his record and his policy proposals. There is nothing there other than the promise of every demagogue that he personally can solve our problems. Demagogues become like Jesse Ventura, ineffective clowns, at best, I r tyrants like Huey Long, at worst.

America does not need a rich kid Huey Long.

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