IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TO RONALD REAGAN’S REPUBLICAN PARTY

...Trump: The QVC Pitchman?

 

The RNC today is a shadow of its former self.

 

Well, as of this week, I think we can finally say that the fabled “GOP Establishment Party” has disappeared.  The GOP organization that Ronald Reagan developed 40 years ago might as well be placed alongside Nancy Reagan’s casket as she is laid to rest at the Reagan Library in California, next to Ronald Reagan’s grave.

 

This week, the Republican establishment spent $30 million in attack TV & radio ads against Donald Trump in Mississippi, Hawaii and Michigan, and Trump still won all three in double-digits.

 

As Ron Fournier, the political journalist for the National Journal has stated, “The people that voted for Trump aren’t stupid.  They are Americans fed up with their government and with those that they put in office that are not doing their jobs.  They don’t trust the politicians….they don’t even trust themselves today.”  The average American today is against all traditional politicians and that’s why Trump and Bernie Sanders are doing much better than anyone expected. 

 

And Mitt Romney’s rant against Trump last week went absolutely nowhere.

 

Yes, a New York City billionaire, married three times, that was once a liberal and that donated to Hillary Clinton ten times, who still supports Planned Parenthood and believes in health care for all, he easily won over the blue-collar working class, including white evangelicals in Mississippi.

 

This sometimes foul-mouthed white bigot and racist won over these working class voters and Reagan Democrats that had abandoned their president, their government and their former establishment Republican Party.

 

Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe” stated that it was time to say, “So long to ‘Morning in America’. Say hello to Tuesday Nights at QVC.”

 

What he was referring to was that with Trump’s victory speech after winning the Mississippi and Michigan Republican primaries, Trump acted like he was the underdog, despite having led in the polls for months. Trump then complained about all the negative ads from the competition as he continued to sound totally insecure in his victories. 

 

Then things got really weird. 

 

Midway through his victory speech, Trump started rattling off a list of Trump products: He talked about Trump Steaks and the Trump Magazine; he talked about Trump Vodka and Trump Wine and Trump Water, and he showed samples of all of these items, just like on QVC.

 

This was all a shot at Mitt Romney’s speech against him where Mitt has listed all of Trump’s failed products and companies.  This latest list of items were only brought up by Trump to prove the point of Trump’s campaign that he is a successful businessman who can be a good American president by doing successful trade negotiating.

 

The only problem with all this is that most of these products don’t even exist anymore. Trump Steaks folded in 2007; Trump Magazine hasn’t been published since 2009. Maybe the campaign trail is starting to wear on Trump, revealing his inner QVC pitchman.  The products he had on display were manufactured by other companies, not those Trump companies that no longer exist.

 

All this support for Trump is truly strange as the conservative bible-thumper Sen. Ted Cruz should have won Mississippi and Ohio Gov. John Kasich should have won nearby Michigan. Sen. Marco Rubio should have finished as a runner-up in some of these same states.  However, Rubio and the others in the GOP were left watching in horror as Trump crushed all the other comers. 

 

Trump used that victory speech to hawk his bogus steaks, wine and according to him, “the most fabulous magazines you will ever read”, all of which no longer exist.  It was all a kind of out-of-body experience.

 

Rubio’s campaign has now basically collapsed with only one week before the Florida winner-take-all primary.  It’s probably the worst timing that Rubio’s campaign could have had by coming in last in these latest primaries.

 

Originally, Florida’s winner-take-all primary was supposed to provide a firewall for Jeb Bush or Rubio, but that was back when GOP’s so-called wise men spoke knowingly of an “establishment lane”.

 

But as usual, the masterminds of the Republican National Committee (RNC) have once again blown it, and the Florida firewall has disappeared.  Now the only GOP politician who has any chance of stopping Trump is the most hated Republican politician in Washington, Sen. Ted Cruz.

 

I have previously quoted the comment from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) where he likens the choice between Cruz and Trump as having to choose between death by firing squad, or drinking poison.  I have to say I agree.

 

It is appearing that after the ceremonies this week where we all say goodbye to the former First Lady, then the country can start sorting through the wreckage that was once Ronald Reagan’s proud Republican Party.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016