Martin Eden Mercury
VIP Member
- Nov 2, 2015
- 897
- 107
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It is the conventional wisdom that today (Tuesday, the 15th of March), GOP voters will be deciding whether to give Donald Trump a public spanking, or a 'yuuge' embrace. I tend to be a little more critical and nuanced. I see today's elections as more of a choice between the devil they know, and the devil they think they know, than as a choice between rejection, and an embrace of The Donald. The devil they know being the establishment, which guides the coalition formed during the Reagan years; and the devil they think they know, being the candidacy of Donald J. Trump,
On one side we have the devil they know. So far, an average of 65% of Republican primary and caucus voters have chosen to support other-than-Trump. Since at least December of last year, Trump's 35% voter preference has stayed steady. It has stayed steady even as a dozen others have dropped out of the race. The overwhelmingly majority of the of Republican voters (65%) are split between, or have voted for either -- Senator Marco Rubio, who is claiming Republican primary voters will be choosing "between optimism and fear." -- Senator Ted Cruz who is claiming his extreme, right wing views represent conservatism -- and Governor John Kasich, the only true Reagan Republican in the race. Governor Kasich's campaign is an interesting study in that it is mixing facts, with myth and metaphor. Kasich does this in order to make the case, that a vote for him is a vote to go back to either the mythical glory days of twenty-five years ago, or the mythical glory days of thirty-five years ago. With Kasich on the ticket, voters can go back twenty-five years ago -- to the glory days of Newt and his contract; or go back to thirty-five years ago, to the older glory days of Reagan and his revolution. A revolution whose reputation was so tarnished, it needed the Reagan Legacy Project to rescue it from the toilet.
On the other side we have the devil they think they know; Donald Trump, reality tv star and celebrity, who commands the stage and demands that the media and everyone else play by his rules. He bullies the media as much as he's bullied most anyone in his sights. This is a reality documented throughout a long lifetime of public mockery and bullying of individuals, institutions, and groups. No one is left off of this man's radar. His appetite for public attention is insatiable. I might also add, contrary to Trump's claims, there exists a long lifetime of documented bullying through lawsuits threatened, settled, and lost. Trump berates, scolds, and attacks anyone in sight, but especially the media. He savors any chance opportunity to bait the media. Yet, without the media feeding the Trump narrative, and Trump's ego; Donald J. Trump would be nothing more in myth, than what he is in reality; just another tired, old, garden variety celebrity, gone crazy old birther.
The mechanics of the race have receded into the background, and the race has become all about Donald J. Trump. It has become all about Donald J. Trump, simply because he tells us so. He tells us so by using incendiary and outrageous remarks to keep himself in the headlines. From the beginning, the media and Trump have been in a sadomasochistic dance, and we the public -- the public that the *Forth Estate uses as a shield, are a captive audience. As it keeps the Trump narrative front and center, the Forth Estate sells the American public short, simply because it sells. 'Follow the money.' It is said that 'if it bleeds, it leads.' If it bleeds and leads, and it sells; and evidently nothing bleeds, leads, and sells as much as Trump's self-promotion; the American public gets to sit back and watch the political process turn into a republican, carnival freak show. It bleeds, and it's as if an artery has been severed.
Trump has been demanding the party establishment get on his side. Trump has been meeting with them. He has lent his own campaign money. Lent. Who do people think would be paying that back if Trump were to somehow win? The establishment wing of the party holds the coalition together. Funding, logistics, strategy -- none of this can be done without the establishment. Populist movements rise and fall with the fortunes of the personality who pretends to be leading it. The Reagan Legacy Project dealt with that in an ingenious way. But make no mistake about it, either way the GOP voter goes in 2016, they are being sold a bill of goods. We now resemble a banana republic, more than we do the kind of republic the founding generation envisioned leaving us. The founding generation and their immediate offspring left us a healthy, two-party system. We have squandered away an inheritance. Shame on us.
On one side we have the devil they know. So far, an average of 65% of Republican primary and caucus voters have chosen to support other-than-Trump. Since at least December of last year, Trump's 35% voter preference has stayed steady. It has stayed steady even as a dozen others have dropped out of the race. The overwhelmingly majority of the of Republican voters (65%) are split between, or have voted for either -- Senator Marco Rubio, who is claiming Republican primary voters will be choosing "between optimism and fear." -- Senator Ted Cruz who is claiming his extreme, right wing views represent conservatism -- and Governor John Kasich, the only true Reagan Republican in the race. Governor Kasich's campaign is an interesting study in that it is mixing facts, with myth and metaphor. Kasich does this in order to make the case, that a vote for him is a vote to go back to either the mythical glory days of twenty-five years ago, or the mythical glory days of thirty-five years ago. With Kasich on the ticket, voters can go back twenty-five years ago -- to the glory days of Newt and his contract; or go back to thirty-five years ago, to the older glory days of Reagan and his revolution. A revolution whose reputation was so tarnished, it needed the Reagan Legacy Project to rescue it from the toilet.
On the other side we have the devil they think they know; Donald Trump, reality tv star and celebrity, who commands the stage and demands that the media and everyone else play by his rules. He bullies the media as much as he's bullied most anyone in his sights. This is a reality documented throughout a long lifetime of public mockery and bullying of individuals, institutions, and groups. No one is left off of this man's radar. His appetite for public attention is insatiable. I might also add, contrary to Trump's claims, there exists a long lifetime of documented bullying through lawsuits threatened, settled, and lost. Trump berates, scolds, and attacks anyone in sight, but especially the media. He savors any chance opportunity to bait the media. Yet, without the media feeding the Trump narrative, and Trump's ego; Donald J. Trump would be nothing more in myth, than what he is in reality; just another tired, old, garden variety celebrity, gone crazy old birther.
The mechanics of the race have receded into the background, and the race has become all about Donald J. Trump. It has become all about Donald J. Trump, simply because he tells us so. He tells us so by using incendiary and outrageous remarks to keep himself in the headlines. From the beginning, the media and Trump have been in a sadomasochistic dance, and we the public -- the public that the *Forth Estate uses as a shield, are a captive audience. As it keeps the Trump narrative front and center, the Forth Estate sells the American public short, simply because it sells. 'Follow the money.' It is said that 'if it bleeds, it leads.' If it bleeds and leads, and it sells; and evidently nothing bleeds, leads, and sells as much as Trump's self-promotion; the American public gets to sit back and watch the political process turn into a republican, carnival freak show. It bleeds, and it's as if an artery has been severed.
Trump has been demanding the party establishment get on his side. Trump has been meeting with them. He has lent his own campaign money. Lent. Who do people think would be paying that back if Trump were to somehow win? The establishment wing of the party holds the coalition together. Funding, logistics, strategy -- none of this can be done without the establishment. Populist movements rise and fall with the fortunes of the personality who pretends to be leading it. The Reagan Legacy Project dealt with that in an ingenious way. But make no mistake about it, either way the GOP voter goes in 2016, they are being sold a bill of goods. We now resemble a banana republic, more than we do the kind of republic the founding generation envisioned leaving us. The founding generation and their immediate offspring left us a healthy, two-party system. We have squandered away an inheritance. Shame on us.
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