“A CULTURAL WAR”
by Don Fredrick, ©2016, author of The Complete Obama Timeline
(Jan. 21, 2016) — On MSNBC’s All In yesterday, the Republican establishment consultant Rick Wilson said, “Look, there’s a thing I’ve described as the ‘troll party’ which Trump has sort of energized and activated over the last six months. And what’s happened with the troll party element of this is they are very driven by the celebrity of Trump, and Sarah Palin is a reality TV star, celebrity, as well. She transformed from a political figure to a reality TV show figure. …I think there is definitely still a very significant portion of the party that is a limited government, conservatism-based faction of the overall coalition. Now, the screamers and the crazy people on the alt-right as they call it, you know, who love Donald Trump, who have plenty of Hitler iconography in their Twitter icons… who think Donald Trump is the greatest thing, oh, it’s something. But the fact of the matter is, most of them are childless single men who masturbate to anime [Japanese cartoons]. They’re not real and political players. These are not people who matter in the overall course of humanity.”
Wilson’s despicable comment oozes with contempt for the average American, but the Republican Party nevertheless pays him for advice. Of course, his remarks should not be surprising. In October 2015 Wilson told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes the Republican establishment “can’t just sit back on the sidelines and say, ‘Oh well, don’t worry, this will all work itself out.’ They’re still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump. And that’s a fact.”
Note how Wilson “generously” allows that there is a portion of the Republican Party that is “limited government, conservative-based.” That used to be almost the entire Republican Party, but Wilson seems eager to jettison whatever is left of that portion. Emperor Rick has decided what the GOP is and who should be in it, and those who dare to disagree with his decrees are “screamers” and “crazy people”—or deserving of assassination. At the same time GOP leaders whine about how the party must be more inclusive and must attract black and Hispanic voters (mostly by supporting watered-down Democrat-Socialist policies), Wilson and a fair number of others like him are busy doing their best to alienate the very people who voted to give the GOP control of the House and the Senate. Wilson now apparently has no use for them, so he eagerly taunts them with insults most people left behind in junior high school.
Wilson and hundreds like him in the Republican establishment are so busy sucking up to each other at New York and D.C. cocktail parties in an effort to keep the consulting fees coming that they have completely forgotten what America is and who lives in it. They are stunned that Trump is attracting huge crowds while Jeb Bush is being ridiculed. They can’t believe that Trump is popular while smooth-talking anchor baby Marco Rubio is not. What they do believe is that a candidate can be packaged and sold like a product. Of course, that belief is understandable. Obama was, after all, expertly packaged and sold in 2008. He may have destroyed the U.S. economy and America’s standing in the world—but Obama’s political consultants still made their money. So did loser John McCain’s. (Wilson is perhaps suffering from David Axelrod-envy. “If he could take an unqualified, Marxist, community-activist like Obama and put him in the Oval Office, I should be able to do that with Jeb or Marco!”)
The Wilsons in the candidate-selling world are completely confused by the Trump phenomenon. “How can he be in first place by wide margins without an expert like me guiding him?” “How come Republican voters are not swooning over Bush or Rubio?” “Why aren’t the peasants falling into line?” “What in Hell is going on here?” The answer is right in front of them, but they are unable to see it. The political pundits see everything from a Democrat- or Republican-strategy perspective. They do not have an American perspective.
Donald Trump is attracting huge crowds because he is running as an American, while everyone else is running as a conservative, moderate, Republican, Democrat, or Democrat-socialist. Millions of voters no longer trust politicians who wear any of those labels. They do not trust the Democrats because of what Obama and his comrades have done to the nation, and they do not trust the Republicans because they were given the House and the Senate and then not only failed to stop Obama, they surrendered to him. Trump understands that, and he knows the solution to the nation’s problems require taking on the political establishment and shaking up the political order. Trump is essentially running as a third-party candidate. He is only “borrowing” the Republican banner. He could have entered the race as a Democrat and still attracted most of the same supporters.
When media pundits ask, “How can Sarah Palin or the Tea Party people support Trump when he is not that conservative?” they fail to understand who is in the Tea Party. It is not a conservative party; it is not a Republican party; it is not a Libertarian party. It is an American party. That is why it is not inconsistent for a Tea Party activist to be opposed to big government while carrying a sign that reads, “Protect my Social Security benefits!” When pundits ask, “How can Republicans support Trump?” or “How can Democrats support Trump?” they miss the point that voters identify as Americans before they identify as members of a political party—and the disastrous governing of George W. Bush and Obama have further alienated people from party affiliations. Consultants like Wilson continue to look at the nation as if it consists only of die-hard Democrats and die-hard Republicans who will vote for whoever has the “D” or “R” after his name, and a few million people in between whose votes can be bought with the right bribe (amnesty, welfare, education loans, corporate subsidies, etc.). The consulting class has forgotten that most voters are Americans first. More importantly, the “consulting class” does not understand that average Americans—who believe they have been betrayed by the Democrats and the Republicans—are now trying to protect their nation’s culture.
That culture includes limited government which nevertheless can administer Social Security benefits.
It includes welcoming legal immigrants but not protecting criminals with “sanctuary cities” and not welcoming several hundred thousand Syrian refugees who have no interest in assimilating.
It includes avoiding ill-advised wars but decisively winning the wars that must be entered.
It includes help for the temporarily unemployed but not cradle-to-grave welfare benefits.
It includes the bold, brash skylines of Chicago and New York City but not the abandoned homes of Detroit.
It includes big, fast cars and NASCAR but not taxpayer-subsidized Chevrolet Volts.
It includes football but not 15-yard penalties for good tackles.
It includes glamorous movie stars but not Lena Dunham.
It includes John Wayne but not Zac Efron.
It includes deer hunting but not cop killing.
It includes taxes to fund the basic functions of government but not federal funding of studies of the sex lives of insects.
It includes helping Israel defend itself but not secretly arming Islamist terrorists in Libya.
It includes freedom of religion but not shutting down entire assembly lines so that a few workers can pray facing mecca.
It includes factories where workers can earn enough to support a family but not superstores where the majority of items on the shelves come from overseas.
It includes Medicare for the elderly but not the forced purchase of an insurance policy with a $7,500 annual deductible.
It includes trying to right the past wrongs of racism but not looting pharmacies or blocking traffic on bridges just to make a point.
It includes safety for students but not “safe spaces” so that their feelings are never hurt.
It includes tolerance of homosexuals but not men sharing bathrooms with little girls.
We are not engaged in a political war; we are engaged in a cultural war. Trump and his supporters—Republican, Democrat, and independent—understand that.