Does the Republican field have the sense to change tactics when the very nature of the party and country are at stake?
Ted Cruz, who bears some responsibility for the rise of Trump, keeps aiming his Jimmy Swaggart-style pitch to the choir. Cruz encouraged them to destroy the “Washington cartel” and boy did they listen — except not to his benefit. Irony: The greatest crony and corporate Democrat in America is alive and Ted Cruz’s campaign is nearly dead.
Unlike Cruz, Marco Rubio didn’t spend months praising the semi-fascist joker in hopes that the “anti-establishment” vote would one day drop into his lap, but he didn’t attack him frontally either. He hopes that clearing the field of competitors will permit him to defeat Trump one-on-one.
Those hoping that Trump will say or do something to disqualify himself have surely seen by now that we are in a new world. His gaffes — I don’t need to list them, do I? — have not hurt him. The more he vomits venom, the more free press he gets. While Cruz keeps pounding Rubio as insufficiently harsh on immigration, Trump — a corrupt, on-and-off-again Democrat promising trade wars, universal health care and war crimes — is winning.
If ever there were a moment for a Republican establishment — a powerful cabal of donors, officeholders and power brokers — to intervene, this would be it. Because if Trump is the Republican nominee, it spells the end of the party as a conservative vehicle. Deluded voters who imagine they are getting the anti-Obama by voting for Trump are in for the biggest disillusionment yet.
But, of course, the “Republican establishment” is not going to ride to the rescue, because it is itself mostly a shell. Money doesn’t buy elections (see “Bush, Jeb”).
I believe Rubio to be the most viable non-Trump candidate left. But above all, he and the others must abandon the strategy of fratricide. The winner cannot rely on anti-Trump votes alone; he must undermine support for Trump.
Trump is not strong; he’s frighteningly weak. He arguably suffers from narcissistic personality disorder; his wobbly self-esteem needs constant, mantra-like invocations of his own fabulousness and endless affirmation from others. He goes ballistic when suffering even the smallest slight. He’s an ignoramus. Ads should remind voters, for example, that he doesn’t know what the nuclear triad is. His whole foreign policy experience is being on a TV show with Vladimir Putin, who he praises. Putin said something nice about Trump, and Trump praised him in return. What’s a few murders between amigos?
Trump is a Clinton-class liar. Split screens ought to clarify that. He didn’t oppose the Iraq War; he was for it. He’s not self-funding his campaign; he’s collected millions in contributions. He evaded the draft and then offered that sleeping around and risking STDs was his “personal Vietnam.”
Unlike, say, Mitt Romney, who Democrats effectively caricatured as a cruel business tycoon, Trump really is one. He has a history of paying off elected officials to get special treatment, stiffing business associates and abusing those who work for him, such as the “Polish brigade” of illegal immigrants who helped build Trump tower. He ran four businesses into bankruptcy. He’s not a self-made man who “built a great company”; he inherited millions from his dad. He’s almost certainly vastly exaggerating his net worth. He donated more to the Clinton Foundation than to veterans’ charities. And how much of the money he collected for veterans at the Iowa stunt has been distributed?
That’s a start, gentlemen. There’s plenty more. The con man must be unmasked.
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