Posted on 02/04/2016 9:54:05 AM PST by Kaslin
In Monday's Iowa caucus, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the man most hated by the Republican establishment, came from behind to nab front-runner Donald Trump. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the supposed establishment favorite, came in just a point behind Trump. According to conventional wisdom, this should set up a battle royal among anti-establishment Cruz, anti-establishment Trump and establishment Rubio. If Rubio emerges victorious, the pundits explain, the establishment will have lived to fight another day, and put those rowdy conservative grass-roots anti-establishment types in their place.
This is nonsense.
Cruz is the most conservative person in the Republican race. Trump, up until he became the establishment's baton against Cruz, was a thorn in the side of the establishment. And the new establishment darling, Rubio, is arguably the second-most conservative person in the Republican race (the only other contender is Senator Rand Paul). There's a reason the establishment backed then-Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist over Rubio in 2010.
In fact, there's only one reason the establishment can tolerate Rubio, who is ardently anti-abortion, thoroughly hawkish, and consistently pro-free markets (outside of his bizarre support for sugar subsidies). They support Rubio because he backed the Gang of Eight amnesty bill in 2013. Rubio has been soft on immigration since his days in the Florida state legislature. He briefly adopted Mitt Romney's self-deportation platform in 2012 before flipping left in 2013; then, after serious blowback, he abandoned that position. That's obviously problematic, and a reason for conservatives to question his credentials on that issue. But leaving amnesty aside, calling Rubio "establishment" does a true disservice to the conservative grassroots who elected him in the first place.
So, what does that mean? It means that in the Iowa caucus, openly anti-establishment candidates -- from Trump to Cruz to Rubio to Ben Carson to Rand Paul -- received 88.9 percent of the vote. Jeb Bush, the original establishment favorite, received just 2.8 percent of the vote. John Kasich clocked in at 1.9 percent. Chris Christie received just 1.8 percent.
The story is no different in New Hampshire. There, establishment candidates amount to just 27.6 percent of the electorate, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling averages. All the talk of the tea party's death was greatly exaggerated -- the tea party took over the Republican Party. The establishment's newfound enthusiasm for Rubio represents a desperation play, an attempt to latch onto the least worst option they can find. But that doesn't mean that Rubio is establishment.
So, conservatives should cheer the results of the Iowa caucus, regardless of which candidate they supported. That doesn't mean the establishment can't rise from the grave - they co-opted tea partyer Rubio once, and may be able to do so again. But it does mean that for the moment, default successful national Republicanism is conservative. And that's a big win for the grassroots.
Cruz is one of them?
The lengths you have to go to reach that assessment are worthy of the X-Files or Ancient Aliens.
That doesn't mean the establishment can't rise from the grave...
There's no grave. The establishment will cede ground only where it has to in order to remain the establishment. They are still very much at the levers of power, the latter are simply pushing back a little more than they used to.
It isn't about the candidates. It's about the ability to (1) influence the selection of the candidates, and (2) affect the behavior of the selectee once in place.
A case in point: Paul Ryan, one-time putative savior of the Tea Party wing who is now...without using pejoratives that will get me banned, no longer a savior of anything except the established powers that be. There is absolutely no guarantee that any candidate, Cruz or Trump or Rubio, cannot be turned from their stated positions if the correct pressure is found. People who place their trust in the unbending virtue of individual politicians are kidding themselves.
Lewandowski is Trump’s guy. Does that mean that he will flip Trump?
TRUMP: Undocumented Workers Can Stay ... BUT ONLY IF THEY WORK HARD
Yeah, I like Shapiro, but what is he smoking?
This is all playing out PERFECTLY for the establishment. Trump melts down and 28% think Cruz is Canadian.
As long as the staffers and bureaucracy of Washington are alive the establishment is alive. You can’t kill it but you have to restrict it’s access to power which they now have and will not relinquish willingly. It has to be taken from them and they have to be brought down a notch or two in their own estimation. Some prosecutions and serious jail time for the bureaucracy and elites would go a long way in reigning in these thugs with white collars.
He is one of them. He is just not liked because they think he used the Senate for his own personal gain.
Cruz has some of the same donors as they all do and he will owe those donors.
They didn’t give him that money for nothing.
The Titanic done sunk. Only the deckhands appear to be oblivious. The revolution is here and now.
You might find the la Raza forum more to your liking.
“He has never stood up for a cause or an idea”
Sure he has. He stood up for amnesty.
You know there was a man named Ronald Reagan who actually signed into law what you call amnesty....blame it on the Democrats at the time or say Reagan got “taken” in the whole thing...Still Reagan was in charge when it happened
i don’t see anybody hating him.
I don’t hate Reagan but I sure do hate what that amnesty did to California.
Not to mention that neither GHW Bush nor any of his successors ever implemented the punishments that were part of that amnesty bill. Which was one of my first clues as to how duplicitous and corrupt the GOP is.
Reagan signed a very destructive amnesty bill. Those who want to repeat it, like Marco Rubio, put the desires of lawbreaking foreign nationals ahead of Americans. They are no better than Obama, and to hell with them.
Im in New Mexico and a lot of old Mexicans and old New Mexicans and even some younger ones are around here.
I have different view of politicians and how they wrangle with all this probably cause Im in the thick of it.Rubio is young, he’s hispanic and wanted to make a name for himself...I think it burned him real good and i think he learned something from it...I guess Im more forgiving because I don’t have many expectations
“Rubio is young, he’s hispanic and wanted to make a name for himself...”
He was just doing what he had always been doing.
Rubio as Speaker of the Florida House killed any bills dealing with illegal immigration.
He’s someone who sees no problem with rewarding mass lawbreaking by foreign nationals if he thinks he can benefit from it. He’s corrupt.
The fix is in. I think I’m gonna be sick.
The label CONSERVATIVE has been hijacked by GOPers. I am a NATIONALIST. Conservative doesn’t work for me anymore. Kasich, Rubio, Bush, Fiorina, Christie, Ryan, McConnell, McCain, Graham, Will, Krauthammer, National Review, Weekly Standard, Red State, FNC, etc, call themselves Conservatives. I hold very different views then these people, publications, networks. They are GLOBALIST. I am anti-globalism/NWO. I am for America First. I am for American Sovereignity. I am anti-illegal immigration. I want the borders closed. I am anti-TPP. I am against Muslim refugees entering the country. I am anti-neo-Con Foreign policy. I am a NATIONALIST! These are my priorities.
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