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The Bushwhacking of Trump
National Review Online ^ | December 18, 2016 | John Fund

Posted on 12/19/2016 7:15:37 AM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect

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The 'money quote" from this article nails it:

"It’s clear that the gulf between the “Bushies” and the “Trumpsters” isn’t likely to be bridged anytime soon. That is a good thing(emphasis added). Any other Republican president-elect would have been under enormous pressure to bring in former Bush officials to staff cabinet agencies with safe, don’t-rock-the-boat appointees."

Trump was elected to "drain the swamp." His cabinet picks are almost all experienced individuals, but who have had little to do with policy making. From all appearances, for good, bad, or indifferent, he intends to make good on that promise.

However, as Mr. Fund points out, he has to have significant policy successes to deter an establishment counter-attack in 2020.

1 posted on 12/19/2016 7:15:37 AM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

GA, AZ, and TX have been overrun by illegals and liberals escaping the hell they created in other states. That’s why Trump got a smaller % of votes. Poor analysis.


2 posted on 12/19/2016 7:18:49 AM PST by gr8eman (Don't waste your energy trying to understand commies. Use it to defeat them!)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect
Well, it has taken Obama 8 years to nearly wreck this country. But, with an adult, alpha male in charge with others of the same temperment it can be reversed.

He isn't formally President yet and already some sectors have come to heel.

3 posted on 12/19/2016 7:19:20 AM PST by Parmy (II don't know how to past the images.)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

The supreme irony of the Trump versus Bush feud is that Bush views Trump as some intolerant Philistine, with the implication being that Bush is part of the “moderate” more reasonable part of the GOP. Yet one of the major themes of Bush’s 2004 campaign was opposing gay marriage. Trump didn’t raise the issue at all and said he was OK with the Supreme Court ruling on the issue. Now that’s not to say that we should or shouldn’t have gay marriage. But it always amazes me that the Bushes view themselves as these tolerant, moderate types when their campaigns were filled with cultural wedge issues. Remember when Bush Sr. won? A lot of people said it was because he made black crime a wedge issue.


4 posted on 12/19/2016 7:20:44 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

duhhhh....since DJT won without those elitist globalist ‘pubs in the wealthy suburbs this time, shouldn’t we assume he doesn’t need them? Who writes this idiocy?


5 posted on 12/19/2016 7:20:47 AM PST by grania
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

Ain’t gonna be no Bush Counterattack in 2020.

Ain’t 3% of us who will EVER vote for a Bush again under ANY circumstances.

They’d get more votes running O.J. Simpson.


6 posted on 12/19/2016 7:20:49 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

Just my hunch, but I always believed Barbara Bush was the Valerie Jarret for HW, W and Jeb. She has that ‘bossy’ demeanor.

I have commented before that W would probably have been happier flying planes, riding a horse on his ranch and enjoying a private life, but ‘Barbara’s family business’ was a duty.


7 posted on 12/19/2016 7:20:54 AM PST by sodpoodle (Life is prickly - carry tweezers.)
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He may not have won the election if he didn’t attack the Bushes.

“But one shouldn’t forget that Trump’s temperament cost him upscale Republican voters in key suburbs. To solidify his reelection chances, he will have to overcome their doubts with policy successes that assuage their concerns about his rough edges.”

They’re already talking about his reelection?


8 posted on 12/19/2016 7:21:02 AM PST by TakebackGOP
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

It’s really fascinating how often NPR quotes McCain. Just related...


9 posted on 12/19/2016 7:22:24 AM PST by Mr. Douglas (Today is your life. What are you going to do with it?)
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To: grania

[Who writes this idiocy?]

GOP-e sympathizer


10 posted on 12/19/2016 7:23:58 AM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: sodpoodle

Regarding W, I agree.


11 posted on 12/19/2016 7:24:38 AM PST by Mr. Douglas (Today is your life. What are you going to do with it?)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect
Any comparison between the 2016 election results and the performance of prior candidates like Romney and McCain is completely irrelevant and misses an important point.

There was no Republican candidate in this election. This was a race between a Democrat and an independent who hijacked the Republican nomination process to get on the ballot.

If anything, Hillary Clinton was the Republican in this race. Her administration would likely be nearly identical to what we saw with George W. Bush in office ... which explains why so many of the @ssholes who polluted his administration were comfortable supporting her.

12 posted on 12/19/2016 7:25:02 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

We may never again have an opportunity such as this for a “Fresh Start” in our lifetimes.

Drain the swamp?

It’s more like “Pump the Septic Tank.”


13 posted on 12/19/2016 7:26:40 AM PST by Peter W. Kessler ("NUTS!!!")
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect
"It’s clear that the gulf between the “Bushies” and the “Trumpsters” isn’t likely to be bridged anytime soon."

My spin on this is - there are no "Bushies" outside of a few bitter-clingers in Texas and within the DC Beltway. The voters simply do NOT care about any Bush "faction" and the Bush family power is going to disappear entirely within 90 days of Trump being in office.

14 posted on 12/19/2016 7:26:43 AM PST by PGR88
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect
But one shouldn’t forget that Trump’s temperament cost him upscale Republican voters in key suburbs.

"Upscale Republican voters" translates to "Elitists who sneer at the Middle Class as trailer trash"....

15 posted on 12/19/2016 7:28:54 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

If thosebin these “key suburbs” don’t get it yet, they will have to face the reality that they really aren’t key any more. They lost.


16 posted on 12/19/2016 7:29:34 AM PST by bigbob (We have better coverage than Verizon - Can You Hear Us Now?)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect
I still maintain that had the Bushes come out and endorsed Trump during the general campaign - Trump would have lost.

A Bush endorsement would have been the kiss of death for Trump. A lot of the Rust Belters would have seen him as just another Republican and would have stayed with the Democrats. I think Trump knew that and that's why he went out of his way to insult and alienate them during the campaign.

17 posted on 12/19/2016 7:33:26 AM PST by SamAdams76
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

“But one shouldn’t forget that Trump’s temperament cost him upscale Republican voters in key suburbs. To solidify his reelection chances, he will have to overcome their doubts with policy successes that assuage their concerns about his rough edges.”

I don’t agree with this statement. Trump won this election without the so-called upscale Republicans. My guess is that increasingly more Democrats may come to see the light as the economy recovers, and Trump may win in 2020 by a larger margin.


18 posted on 12/19/2016 7:33:32 AM PST by MNGal
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

The Bushes were obviously not alone in their antipathy toward Trump.
***************************

Fund never addresses the real reason for the Bushes and their allies antipathy towards Trump.
He broke the stranglehold of the Cheap Labor Express on the GOP.
In every election since the last amnesty, the GOP has nominated an amnesty candidate.
This has effectively blocked the citizens from stopping the illegal alien inundation.
The Cheap Labor Express Republicans were committed to keeping the citizens from retaining the rule of law and their country.
This time they got Trumped and that is why they are so steamed.


19 posted on 12/19/2016 7:37:07 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents)
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To: gr8eman

Actually, it was a good analysis. Trump ran poorly in many more heavily Republican suburban counties populated by upscale, white collar “moderate” Republicans such as Loudoun in Virginia, Chester and Bucks in Pennsylvania, Morris in New Jersey, Gwinnett and Cobb in Georgia, among many others. Part of this was the photo of the ancient leering Bush Sr. with RFK’s daughter, having “endorsed” Clinton (really disgusting for those of us who knew he wasn’t any good but held our noses to vote for him in 1988 since he had been Reagan’s VP) and his dolt son, GW, who did his best to wreck the Republican Party and supposedly left his presidential ballot line blank. No, Bushes, we don’t need you, stay with your friends, the Clintons, you are finished with the base of this Party or at least enough of us that you will never win another primary for a national election.


20 posted on 12/19/2016 7:37:41 AM PST by laconic
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