{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Blame the voters for choosing Trump - The Washington Post
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Blame the voters for choosing Trump
Donald Trump walks out to speak during a campaign event on Sunday at the Savannah Center in West Chester, Ohio. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)Remember the days when the GOP was riding high, dominating all levels of government with high hopes of controlling both houses of Congress and the White House? Well, gosh, you have to go all the way back to … 2014. Yup, 18 months ago, the GOP won commanding majorities in the House, Senate and statehouses of the type that had not been achieved since 1928. It had a field of superb, young presidential candidates while the Democrats had cranky old Hillary Clinton lugging around her foreign policy baggage and a socialist — even older and crankier than her — in what was expected to be more of a Clinton coronation than a Democratic nominating process.
Fast forward to today. Whether the nominee is Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or someone to arise out of a bloody (we hope that is metaphorical) convention fight, the chances are high that the GOP will be shut out of the White House, lose the Senate and lose the chance to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia with a like-minded justice. It is tempting to ask how the GOP screwed this up so badly.
If you go back a couple years before the 2014 victories, the Republican National Committee, in recovery from President Obama's reelection, undertook an "autopsy" that included many technical, financial and organization recommendations but also called for a new message:
The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue. Instead of driving around in circles on an ideological cul-de-sac, we need a Party whose brand of conservatism invites and inspires new people to visit us. We need to remain America's conservative alternative to big-government, redistribution-to-extremes liberalism, while building a route into our Party that a non-traditional Republican will want to travel. Our standard should not be universal purity; it should be a more welcoming conservatism.
Well, they got the ideological flexibility part right but little else. Moreover, high-minded calls to "make sure that the government works for those truly in need, helping them so they can quickly get back on their feet" and to reach out to "engage" and show "sincerity" toward minority and women voters.
Contrast that with the GOP's front-runner, who offers little in the way of tangible ideas to improve people's lives, spews anti-women and anti-minority venom and seeks to amplify popular resentment bordering on rage. That hefty RNC report sure did not work out as planned.
To be clear, a positive, inclusive message was directly taken up by leaders such as now-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and a gifted Senate class of freshmen in 2014. They were and are inclusive, bubbling with ideas. They won races across the country outside of deep-red enclaves. Even without a hope of passing legislation with Obama in the White House, Republican policy-designers are attempting to, as Ryan likes to say, "set the table" for the 2016 election. They did not do all this because an autopsy report told them to do it, but because savvy, brainy pols figured out that the GOP was headed for extinction if its base continued to shrink and it remained unceasingly negative.
And then came the presidential race. It should not be surprising that the RNC's hopes never got much traction in 2016, when there were 17 or so candidates and one very able demagogue. Political parties these days have very little power to ensure its presidential candidates adhere to their desired message. They have very little power to decide how many candidates run and little institutional power — other than the bully pulpit and a more rigorous criteria for debates — to do anything about an errant candidate who embraces a message inimical to its values and to little-"d" democracy itself.
To be candid, neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party was institutionally prepared for the populist revolt of 2016. No one expected Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to be alive and kicking at this stage in the race, and few even as late as January thought Trump would have won 15 of 27 primary/caucus contests.
To be sure, the RNC could have denounced Trump early and often, could have raised the debate thresholds faster to help narrow the field and could have resisted falling over itself with the pledge to keep Trump in the fold. But, in fact, the tornado ripped through both parties. It was born of extreme political polarization; economic stagnation; a president and opposition equally willing to denounce the other for not succumbing to its will; a harsh new media environment; a crass culture; long-term trends that pose structural challenges for less-educated workers; niche media outlets happy to induce anger and perpetuate self-serving narratives; and a decayed educational system. It has shredded the best-laid electoral plans of both.
It is not as though there were no GOP candidates who embraced a more inclusive, problem-solving message. One after another, however, they lost. You cannot fault the GOP for a lack of choices. There were experienced governors (current and former), a pro-immigration reform freshman senator with a panoply of creative ideas, a female former CEO and so on. The voters have rejected the vast majority of them. Were they all bad candidates with inept campaigns? It is hard to imagine so. Is it all the doing of one evil genius who is destroying the party and ruining its chances for electoral domination? Trump is clever but no genius; he merely saw what was there and seized the opportunity.
In short, you can blame the often spineless RNC, the other candidates, the media and a dozen other factors, but in the end the GOP voters (or the voters choosing to cast ballots in the primary contests) repeatedly have chosen Trump — after hearing his rhetoric and getting a full look at his ethical and intellectual shortcomings. No, it's not a majority of the GOP who are embracing him, but it sure is a healthy plurality of voters. You want someone to blame for the GOP's dilemma:Blame the voters.
As John Hart explained, the seek-and-destroy mentality that afflicted conservatives is not without historical precedent:
In the famous cartoon depicting the futility and tragedy of the French Revolution, the ringleader of the "Reign of Terror," Maximilien Robespierre, is shown putting the executioner in the guillotine because there is no one left to behead. The inscription on a monument behind him reads "Herein lies all of France." For Republicans, after Tuesday, the inscription may as well read, "Herein lies our party" because there may be no one left to purge.
For conservatives, 2016 is a waking nightmare. Donald Trump, a demagogic authoritarian strongman posing as a Republican, has a chance to take over our party. And the hard truth is that in spite of the complex causes of Trumpism — globalization, wage stagnation, the collective failure of both parties to solve problems, etc. — we, as conservatives, are partly to blame. The sooner we confront our role in the rise of Trump the sooner we can get on with the business of defeating him and washing away the shame and disgrace he has brought to our movement and party.
The Founding Fathers knew the dangers of the "mob" and the need to check its impulses by mechanism such as checks and balances and individual rights embedded in the Constitution. For generations, we had strong institutions (schools, churches, families, political parties) that cultivated civic responsibility and knowledge that are basic for an informed citizenry. These have faltered and with it the safely latch to protect ourselves from our own worst tendencies.
At some point, one hopes that before it really is too late, GOP voters will come to their senses and reconsider entrusting vast power to a know-nothing bully. If not, they will pay the price at the ballot box just as Republicans did in 1964 and Democrats did in 1968 and 1972. Ultimately, though, voters get the candidates and parties they deserve. Republicans have a once-admirable party with a rich tradition, but only if they can keep it. They might not. We will get a clue as to its fate tonight.
Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
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