Enough braying
Great Post Bray!
Good read bray.
I am pretty sure I read this 4 years ago Bray after Willard blitzed Newt with a ton of nasty negative ads in Florida. He turned the election around and Newt couldn’t muster the dough to fight back. Your forecasts proved correct and while I wanted to remain upbeat about the impending election, I realized that Romney would not come close to inspiring the troops the way that Gingrich could. We all got a glimpse of Newt’s brilliance in S. Carolina during the debate. Pity he couldn’t stand toe to toe with the cash needed to stick a dagger in Mittens.
Romney ALREADY lost. More than once, the latest being his 3rd party Never Trump effort. He has become a serial loser. Not quite to the despicable level of Lyn’ Cruz, but close.
Here is the thing about Trump: he does not have the Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan/Bill Buckley handbook understanding of conservatism.
Instead, he has an intuitive and instinctual grasp of what EMBODIES most of what I call “American Conservatism.” That is, national self preservation (like Washington and Hamilton and Lincoln and TR) which is not Reagan’s ideological war on communism. However, in contrast to Reagan, who did not “get” the Islamic threat until 1986 or 87, Trump got it immediately. He may not be able to philosophically elaborate what is wrong with Islam, but knows it’s a threat and that we need to stop it “until we figure out what’s going on.”
Trump is a true “free trader” like Washington and Lincoln and TR in that the RULES applying to both sides must be equal. I could go on.
What is clear is that the remaining “neverTrump” holdouts fall into one of two categories: 1) the big government at-the-trough guys who see their very livelihood, access, and social position in jeapordy and 2) the hard line social conservatives who deep down resent Trump’s divorces and wealth and status and think such a Philistine who cites “Two Corinthians” can’t possibly lead a serious counter-revolution. (Here I think mostly of David Limbaugh).
The first group needs to just be crushed and flushed. They will never help achieve any lasting change.
SOME of the second group need to be convinced by actions, though unfortunately most will just be vindictively waiting for the “SEE? I told you moment.”
The new Trump coalition must be big and strong enough to overcome both of these subgroups.
That race convinced me that plain-vanilla country-club Republicans who run non-offensive "nice guy" campaigns will get beat by Democrats just about every time.
With Trump, we have a fighter and we are about to see just how energized his voting base will be in November. Not since Reagan has a GOP candidate really stirred the pot as Trump has.
The Democrat race is getting very interesting. The Dem establishment was trying to get Bernie to drop out a la Cruz but it backfired. Now Bernie is determined to fight on to the bitter end. As he should. He is much closer in won delegates to Crooked Hillary than Ted Cruz ever was to Trump. The apportionment of delegates in each of the states is just not right. For instance Bernie blew her away in West Virginia by double digits but only got 19 delegates to her 18.
Also, if Crooked HIllary does get indicted or otherwise forced out of the race, Bernie will stand to get the nomination in her place. The idea that the Democrats can just insert Joe Biden is now preposterous now that Bernie has kept it so close. Had Bernie been easily dispatched as was expected, then yes, Biden would be a real possibility as it looks like Crooked Hillary might not even make it to the convention.
GOPe’s strategy for winning elections is to position a chameleon who can blend into the background, and hope people will accidently vote for him. And he can then slip into office by the side door.
Of course, once in office he has to continue to blend into the background if he hopes to be reelected.
So, when we unite behind such a man, we find that we have won nothing and accomplished nothing. Because he dares not stand for anything.
Oregon bump — past and future.
Outstanding. I just take issue with this sentence, as I think you’re being generous:
“With Mittwit we are heading down the path of destruction of the Party. Not only will it further divide the Tea Party from the Country Club as it did in Oregon it has almost zero chance of succeeding.”
Perhaps word it like this in the future:
“With Mittwit we are heading down the path of destruction of the Party. Not only will it further divide the Tea Party from the Country Club as it did in Oregon it has ABSOLUTELY zero chance of succeeding.”
Very well done.