{UAH} IT GETS FUNNY HOW A SINGLE MAN ENDS AMERICA'S 2 BIGGEST POLITICAL DYNASTIES IN ONLY 18 MONTHS

Donald Trump just ended America's 2 biggest political dynasties in 18 months

·        Allan Smith

 

Donald Trump.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The conventional wisdom entering the 2016 presidential campaign was that the 45th president of the US would be either Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton — the heirs of America's two most powerful political dynasties.

Early Wednesday morning, a real-estate mogul who starred in an NBC reality-TV show, Donald Trump, became the nation's president-elect and the all-but-certain successor to President Barack Obama.

The process of upending the predictive favorites began roughly 18 months back, with Trump taking on Bush, a former Florida governor, in the Republican primary. He made Bush his primary fodder in a crowded field, labeling him as "low-energy."

The moniker stuck. And seemingly, there was nothing the vast amount of money supporting Bush from the donor class could do to change that when Republican voters went to the polls.

Most important, Trump was able to paint Bush as the ultimate member of the establishment, an out-of-touch elite, the exact person whom the voters Trump courted were so vehemently against. And Trump's voters proved to make up a large bloc.

The frontrunner when Trump entered the fray, Bush quickly fell behind. He was out of the race after three states' primaries. Bush's father and one of his brothers were the 41st and 43rd presidents of the US, and against Trump he barely made it through the onset of primary voting.

It was a sign of things to come.

After the "low-energy" designation, Trump's repeated use of nicknames for his opponents proved effective against others — whether "Liddle" Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who was another early primary favorite, or "Lyin'" Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who came closest to Trump but still fell short.

And it kept working.

Winning the Republican nomination, Trump turned toward a head-to-head matchup with Clinton, an overwhelming favorite. She was a former senator and secretary of state who was married to the popular 42nd president of the US. She had nearly every advantage on her side.

But Trump went on to paint her as "Crooked" Hillary. "Crooked," as in she was bought and paid for by donors and had their interests at heart first — a member of the the same establishment elite as Bush. Trump painted himself as the ultimate outsider, someone who he insisted was not beholden to anyone.

She was also someone who, like Cruz, could not be trusted, Trump argued. That, more than anything, insulated Trump from being overcome by his litany of controversies, such as when a leaked tape showed him boasting of being able to make unwanted sexual advances on women because he was famous.

Trump's message won over enough people by early Wednesday morning to secure him the presidency while defying polls, forecasts, and all of the conventional wisdom. In doing so, he defeated both the Bushes and the Clintons, two of the most powerful forces to ever appear in American politics.

 

 

EM

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