GOP Battle with Trump May Backfire

It is understandable that mainstream Republicans should hate Donald Trump, and it has little to do with the fact that he is a politically incorrect self-aggrandizing bloviator, that he is not a true conservative, or that he is unlikely to beat Hillary Clinton in this year’s Presidential election. They hate Trump because they know they are unlikely to control him and based on his rhetoric he is someone likely to buck the system. That may be the best reason for “we the people” to consider voting for him.

Trump is a true political outsider and poses a threat to the Washington political class’s clubby way of life, the one that allows them to keep their jobs regardless of poor performance, allows them to enact laws for us that do not apply to them, and even break other laws with apparent impunity.

Trump is also self-funding his campaign, which means that he will not accept funding from lobbyists whose special interests have customarily guided the national political agenda. That means that under a President Trump we might expect congress to enact laws that are popular with the American public and even stand up against the special interests that often work against the needs of ordinary Americans. That, coupled with Trump’s pledge to rid the Federal Government of “waste, fraud and abuse,” must terrify certain members of the establishment and the special interests they serve.

Trump’s straight talk and no nonsense manner are also likely to expose the major shortcomings of the people who currently run the government. His brash aggressive candidacy has already revealed the real people behind the media-created facades of the other candidates in the race and some well known Republican Party stalwarts, and while enlightening it has not been pretty. In their desperate efforts to compete with and derail Trump’s momentum, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have damaged their career images. Trump has even managed to expose the true colors of Mitt Romney, former Presidential nominee. If he gets the chance, we can bet Trump will expose all of Hillary Clinton’s shortcomings.

Heretofore staid and steady Mitt Romney recently came out of his comfort zone in order to trash Trump’s candidacy. Romney raised some legitimate issues but also impaired his own credibility by exaggerating and mischaracterizing Trump’s candidacy. For example, he said Trump’s success was founded on inheriting his family’s business and that he was not a successful businessman. Really Mitt? Nobody is buying that. Romney also misrepresented Trump’s economic policies, especially for trade and immigration. He called him greedy and predatory in his business practices, which ironically was the way he himself had been labeled by critics during his own Presidential bid in 2012. Really Mitt? You knew it was baloney when critics accused you of dirty practices, yet you turn around and accuse Trump of the same thing? It was a vicious speech unprecedented in scope and scale, the type of tough talk that if directed at President Obama four years ago might have propelled Romney to the Presidency in 2012. One can only deduce that Romney sees Trump now as a bigger threat to America than Barack Obama was then; even so much of a threat that Romney is willing to trash Trump and hand an easy victory to Hillary Clinton, who Romney said would make a horrible President. Really Mitt? That makes some of us wonder about your own judgment and temperament to be President.

Romney and others do not seem to understand that a large plurality of Republican voters do not care about conservative principles or the traditions of the Republican party, they want a President with the resolve and even audacity to take the necessary action to shake up the status quo and change the way business does (or doesn’t) get done in Washington.

The Republican Party needs to tread carefully at this juncture. It promised Trump it would support his nomination if he won fair and square, which seems likely if not inevitable at this moment. If it reneges on that promise and attempts to subvert the will of the people by undermining his candidacy, it likely will fracture the party and hand Hillary Clinton a victory in the general election. That would be unfortunate and prove that preserving the conservative integrity of the party (and its feckless approach to governing) is more important than saving our nation from another failed Democrat Administration.