With time running out until the first primary votes are cast, establishment Republicans have begun a ferocious round of finger-pointing over who is to blame for the party’s failure to stop Donald Trump.
The chiding, once limited to private conversations, is now erupting in public view — with campaigns, operatives, donors, party officials and conservative intellectuals arguing over why something hasn’t been done to stop the man who has been leading nearly every state and national poll since August. Trump, many in the GOP’s upper ranks are convinced, would lead the Republican Party to an epic defeat in November, with consequences all the way down the ballot.
“This whole thing is a disaster,” said Curt Anderson, a former Republican National Committee political director and veteran operative. “I think I’ll write a book about it.”
Receiving much of the blame is Right to Rise, the cash-flush super PAC that broke records when it announced last year that it had raised more than $100 million in support of Jeb Bush. The group has directed relatively little of that sum toward attacking Trump — instead focusing its efforts on taking down Bush’s establishment rivals, above all Marco Rubio. To date, the group has spent about $5 million on TV commercials going after Trump, while dropping four times as much in negative ads against Rubio.
Yeah. The blame can be based on Bush’s PAC.
That’s crazy.
Here’s how Trump happened.
There was this political party, see, called the Republicans, and it embraced radical rhetoric from AM radio jocks and fire-and-brimstone preachers, all of whom showed a disdain for the government. It started with the election of a very kind and genial man, who said that “government is the problem”, and continued deeper and deeper into the abyss with more radical anti-government rhetoric (all while wearing a flag for “patriotism”). That party’s base grew ever more hateful toward the mere idea of government, even the best one in the world. To keep this base in line, and whipped into a foam, a strategy was developed — a strategy wherein people who had pale skin would be the good guys who loved America and hated the American government…. were pitted against the minorities of all types (women, gays, and anyone who did not have pale skin) who posed a threat to the good guys and would take their stuff and change their way of life. From then on, the loudest and craziest candidate who spoke this nonsense would rise within the party, and even get elected to local or state positions. Maybe even Senator. This paved the way for Trump, who now can rise to great heights by mimicking the radical right rhetoric and anti-government stance whether he believes it or not.
Bush’s PAC. Puh-lease.