The GOP's Authoritarian Frontrunner

Slate ^ | 02/24/2016 | Jamelle Bouie

[goldstategop]

Trump was winning handily with more than 45 percent of the vote and nearly 90 percent of the results counted, to about 23 percent for Rubio and about 22 percent for Cruz. Trump won with every demographic, exceeding Cruz with evangelicals and beating Rubio with more moderate Republicans.

It was a complete rout, and once again, Trump showed he was the only candidate with a coalition that can carry him through the entire primary, bringing working-class whites together with conservative evangelicals and Republican moderates. Indeed, Trump is poised to dominate in next week’s Super Tuesday primaries, where he leads in eight of the twelve contests. By this time next week, Trump could have a commanding lead in votes and delegates. And while it’s possible that this slips away in the face of party opposition, it’s unlikely.

Or, put simply, Donald Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Period. Yes, Rubio is the favorite of the GOP establishment and Cruz is the candidate of conservative activists, but neither is close to overcoming Trump or turning this multi-candidate race into a one-on-one contest. Absent a major shift in the primary, Trump will reach escape velocity, and for the first time in the modern era, a genuine outsider will win a major party nomination, throwing his host—the Republican Party—into complete disarray. Or, as former Cruz spokesperson Amanda Carpenter said on CNN on Tuesday night, “I’m really struck in thinking about what a Donald Trump nomination would actually mean. I really think it’s the end of the Republican party."

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


The only thing worse than Donald Trump's LIES, Flipp-Flopping, "Brown-Shirt style" threats of physical violence against protestors ...

is the genuinely pathetic excuse-making by his followers, such as "USAFA92's".

This is HOW Rev. Jim Jones persuaded his followers to drink the poison cool-aide.

Donald Trump "starts" a lie about Ted Cruz leaving Nevada ... and his cult-fans LOVE it ...



Donald Trump deserves congratulations after winning NH, SC and NV. It's politics.

But sometimes, as in NFL-NBA sports, the "winners" turn out to be complete @ssholes.



If "anyone" at Free Republic publicly threatened to punch the lights out of a guy standing across the street (exercising his first amendment rights) ...

"We" would be arrested and have our @ss thrown in jail.



Not The Donald, or Hillary either (funny how they both LOVE Planned Parenthood).

Draw your own conclusions.

Maybe some animals are INDEED more equal than others ...


.

[Stentor]

LOL.

[Wallace T.]

The better parallel to the rise of Donald Trump and the possible downfall of the bipartisan political establishment is what happened in the Eastern European satellite states and later the Soviet Union itself 25-30 years ago. Then and now, a well entrenched control group loses the confidence of those they rule. The dominant media is looked upon with contempt by a large majority and the public regards politicians on the same level as drug dealers and prostitutes. The GOP opposition appears, and is, weak and impotent, and the opposition media (Fox News, talk radio, and mainstream web sites like NRO) too often apologize for Republican shortcomings. Keep in mind several of the Warsaw Pact countries had a weak opposition party or two to compete with the Communists and maintain a facade of democracy.

Unfortunately, Ted Cruz, whom I support, has been unable to exploit the discontent, and has shot himself in the foot with the dirty tricks his campaign has employed.

Trump could be the American Lech Walesa, or the American Boris Yeltsin. He hoped to be Reagan's second coming.

[Leto]

Yup. Trump is a strongman.

But definitely a populist strongman.

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Constitutional conservatives oppose strongmen left, right or populist.