A Lesson in Hystery (sic)
By Growltiger*
The garden party was proceeding beautifully. All the right people were there. Sweet tea, punch, cookies and whiskey sours were being served on the lawn. Strings of soft, greyish-green Spanish moss trailed down from the live oak trees. Ladies bedecked in gauzy skirts and pearls sipped mint juleps with gentlemen wearing white linen suits and open-collared shirts. Violins played in the background. A soft, summer breeze wafted up from the lazy river. It was all so very civilized. The Democrats had their chosen candidate; they had theirs.
And then the skunk showed up.
Donald Trump's entrance into the Republican primary has given the Republican Establishment, Wall Street and the Chambers of Commerce a terminal case of heartburn. Initially they consoled themselves by assuring each other that the skunk wouldn't stay. It was only out for a lark. Their pundits (1) began making noise, hoping the racket would scare the interloper away.
Donald Trump is not the first skunk to spoil an Establishment garden party. Fifty-two years ago, Barry Goldwater threw a monkey wrench into the party's plans to crown nominate Jeb Bush Nelson Rockefeller. When it appeared the voters didn't want Rockefeller, the Establishment turned to Marco Rubio Governor Scranton of Pennsylvania. Though Rockefeller dropped out and endorsed Scranton, Goldwater won the nomination anyway.
Senator Goldwater was soundly defeated, due in no small part to the Establishment's lack of support (2).
Twelve years later, another skunk appeared in the form of Ronald Reagan who challenged sitting president, Gerald Ford, for the nomination. Ford prevailed, but four years later, Reagan won the nomination over Establishment candidate, George H. W. Bush, prompting Establishment Republican John Anderson to run a third-party candidacy (3).
Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter, was reelected, and in 1988, his vice president, George H. W. Bush, was elected in what is generally considered Reagan's "third term". It didn't take President Bush (pere) long before he returned to Establishment governance which then prompted another insurrection in the form of Ross Perot, who ran a third party candidacy in 1992 and garnered 20% of the vote. Republicans blame Mr. Perot for President Bush's loss to Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, but the cool cat wonders whether Mr. Perot would have run had President Bush followed Ronald Reagan's policies.
What goes around comes around. Donald Trump is leading in the polls. The Establishment heir apparent, the third Bush, hoping to go the Adamses one better, has not resonated. Personal attacks disguised as debates have not yet undermined Mr. Trump's support. There's always hope, however. After each debate, the pundits (1) have chosen a new standard-bearer (Fiorina, Rubio, now Cruz and perhaps Christie). Fox News and the Wall Street Journal have not missed any opportunity to demean or attack Mr. Trump, going so far in the case of the latter to insult the candidate's supporters (4). The latest meme is that the vulgar Trumpians (4) who pack halls, stadia and coliseums are just there for the noise and won't show up to vote, but if they don't stay home, and Mr. Trump wins the nomination, there's always the chance the Establishment will run a third party candidate. See John Anderson in 1980. As Yogi Berra might say, "it's deja vu all over again."
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(1)Steve Hayes, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Juan Williams, Charles Lane, Kirstin Powers, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fox News, MSNBC, etc., etc., etc.
(2) The GOP did the same thing to William F. Buckley, Jr., four years later, when he ran for mayor of New York against Establishment candidate, John Lindsay.
(3) Republican Establishment luminaries are threatening to do the same should Donald Trump secure the GOP nomination in 2016. So much for any pledge to support the party's nominee.
(4) Bret Stephens and the Vulgarians
