Trump: The Candidate the GOP Deserves
So here we are: A basically non-ideological populist nativist nationalist reality TV star with zero political experience, running the most aggressively and comprehensively anti-establishment and anti-elite campaign in generations, is the undisputed leader of the GOP presidential primary.
Why is that? What do Republican leaders really think is happening out there? Do they really believe none of this matters? Do they really believe Trump is merely another creation of Conservatism, Inc. – the outside groups, talk radio, Fox News, and all the other anti-establishment holdouts that exist to pull the party further to the right? Do they really look at him and see the Rorschach blot of the same foes they have tussled with in the past - those intransigent conservatives who will not let them govern?
The poll data tells us otherwise. The top issues for the Iowa voters who have given Trump such a boost are two things that have been low on the agenda for the Tea Party and its organized components - immigration and trade. Trump is given the highest mark of any issue by likely Iowa voters (88 percent) on his "Buy American or not at all" trade position, one that is foreign to the vast majority of the conservative community and is entirely dismissed by GOP leadership.
Here, as with immigration, the expression of views by those who back Trump has less in common with the libertarian-leaning Tea Party fiscal conservatives and more in common with the populist protectionists of the past. It's an interesting thought experiment to consider the possibility that if the Pat Buchanan of 1996 was in today's field in lieu of Trump, he might be performing just as well if not better – he’d likely be cornering the social conservatives, too.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/08/trump-the-candidate-the-gop-deserves.html
"What do Republican leaders really think is happening out there?" I doubt they have a clue.
= new reply since forum marked as read
