GOP SERVE DONOR CLASS--IGNORE REAGAN COALITION=TRUMPISM

GOP abandons working class voters for rich donor class...Trump takes them up.

December 9, 2015

The most recent polls give Donald Trump a huge double digit lead over his closest rivals nationally as well as in the early state races. The GOP establishment is frantic. It looks like this guy can, and probably will, win the early GOP primaries. The latest "Louisville Slugger" the Republican establishment has been swinging at Trump"s head is emblazoned with: "He wants to close the border to Muslims". Though the "talking heads" on TV and the print media are enraged, and seemingly mortified by his pronouncement, I can't find anyone in the real world locally who finds that idea too objectionable. So it is likely that "The Donald" will not suffer in the polls for this latest bid of anti-establishment rhetoric.

But what makes Mr. Trump so appealing?

Since the 2014 Supreme Court Citizens United decision, the GOP establishment has been firmly in the grip of the powerful and politically active "donor class" and their unlimited contributions. That change in the political dynamic has caused a lurch rightward for the party of Lincoln into a new role as specialty "service group" for the wealthy. The consequences of that major shift away from reality politics, has left a big vacancy in the political landscape for the entry of a man who can speak the language, feel the pulse, and nurse the resentment of the mostly white, male, middle class and worker-class voters of a major sector and critical mainstay of the Republican Party. That man is Mr. Trump. The modern GOP has abandoned the coalition of the Reagan 1980 landslide and taken on a new vastly more wealthy, but far fewer in numbers client group. That decision, it seems now, may turn out to be an existential threat.

But how and why is Mr. Trump so popular.

The GOP is in the grip of the big donor class. Focused like a laser on the needs and money of the Adelsons, Singers and Koch brothers, the Republicans have forgotten the lessons of Reagan. They left the door open for Donald Trump. Since the Reagan landslide election of 1980, the Republicans have had a hold (though a weakening one) on the votes of white, male, blue collar, average-guy workers..often by using wedge issues of race, religion, abortion, and economic resentment, as well as slogans like " a rising tide floats all boats", etc. etc. The truth and the actual economic manifestations of GOP policies have been far from successful for working class Republicans. So called "small" government, deregulation, shredding of our modest entitlement programs, and "low" taxes, targeted at mostly the wealthy and superwealthy often mean that government expenditures which serve the average American must be sacrificed. While for the workers, the policies of lax border control, heightened competition for jobs from immigrants, a struggling economy, increased burdens of more regressive taxes and declining opportunities for advancement in income and education for working class children, and massive wealth and income inequality all increased the simmering resentment of a critical class of supporters. Donald Trump has seized on to these voters without representation.

The GOP has made it crystal clear whom they serve...it is not the American workers, the middle class, or the small businessman. The GOP is firmly controlled by the one percenters.