I'm sure if one were to go back through my Facebook postings, previous blog writings, talk to my friends, or even spend 5 minutes discussing politics with me it would become very obvious what side of the aisle I tend to lean towards. Thus, it is of complete objectivity that I would like to comment on the Republican Caucus and my esteemed colleague Mike Skunes can comment on the Democratic Caucus so our party bias can hopefully be removed.
What is now common knowledge is this: Donald Trump is the front runner. Not only that, but he is crushing his opposition. He has almost 100 more delegates than Cruz and over 200 more than Rubio after Super Tuesday. He has won 10 of 15 states and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Which begs the question: how? How is an independent businessman that has histrionic personality disorder tendencies and is drawing consistent comparisons to Hitler continuing to win the GOP primary?
Here's my opinion, he's winning not because he's a great candidate, but because the GOP has failed during the Obama presidency. Obama was a shoe-in during the 2008 election because of the disaster we call the GWB presidency, so it wasn't a surprise that McCain lost, even though I admire him and think he would have been a fine president. The GOP's real mistake was their reaction to this loss. The GOP split with the dawn of the tea party in 2009 which had basically one mission: stop Obama. This was the beginning of the decline for a party that previously had roots in fiscal responsibility and conservative values/rights. So eventually they put forth a Romney/Ryan campaign four years later trying to bridge the two sides of the party. It failed and they haven't recovered since.
Since that time the party has become less about ingenuity and improving what we have and more about repealing what's already in place. The most prominent idea the party has put forward in the last eight years is the Keystone pipeline. An issue that really resonates with millennials because of the consequences and implications it will have on climate change. Other than that the only thing we get from the GOP lately is rhetoric, fear mongering, and sound bites. Yes, individual republican minded people can be very smart and have great ideas, but the party leaders and the face of the GOP has not shown that. Thus, this leadership has caused one undeniable fact: their loyal voters aren't putting up with the candidates that have put them in this situation over the last eight years.
Cue Trump.
In all reality Trump isn't saying anything different than the other candidates. More fear mongering about refugees, more rhetoric about fixing the country with no actual plans, and the premise of kicking people out of our nation and surrounding us with an impenetrable wall. Oh yeah, and we can keep our guns...ya know, the things that the democrats haven't really ever waged war against, but republicans pretend there's a war on our second amendment rights to get votes in the south. So why is he winning? Because he's not associated with the system. It's as simple as that. The long time republicans (and to a large extent Americans in general) are sick of what's happening in Washington, so they're THIRSTING for anything different. It's a perfect storm and Trump is capitalizing.
If the GOP really wanted to fix this "Trump problem" the solution is simple: throw a libertarian into the mix *paging Justin Amash* - Libertarians present solutions for the future that have roots in history and statistics, they respect and understand science, and they're basically the conservative equivalent of Bernie Sanders and look how much he's stirred up the Democratic Caucus...oh wait, that's not for me to talk about it...okay Mike, I guess that's your cue.
What is now common knowledge is this: Donald Trump is the front runner. Not only that, but he is crushing his opposition. He has almost 100 more delegates than Cruz and over 200 more than Rubio after Super Tuesday. He has won 10 of 15 states and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Which begs the question: how? How is an independent businessman that has histrionic personality disorder tendencies and is drawing consistent comparisons to Hitler continuing to win the GOP primary?
Here's my opinion, he's winning not because he's a great candidate, but because the GOP has failed during the Obama presidency. Obama was a shoe-in during the 2008 election because of the disaster we call the GWB presidency, so it wasn't a surprise that McCain lost, even though I admire him and think he would have been a fine president. The GOP's real mistake was their reaction to this loss. The GOP split with the dawn of the tea party in 2009 which had basically one mission: stop Obama. This was the beginning of the decline for a party that previously had roots in fiscal responsibility and conservative values/rights. So eventually they put forth a Romney/Ryan campaign four years later trying to bridge the two sides of the party. It failed and they haven't recovered since.
Since that time the party has become less about ingenuity and improving what we have and more about repealing what's already in place. The most prominent idea the party has put forward in the last eight years is the Keystone pipeline. An issue that really resonates with millennials because of the consequences and implications it will have on climate change. Other than that the only thing we get from the GOP lately is rhetoric, fear mongering, and sound bites. Yes, individual republican minded people can be very smart and have great ideas, but the party leaders and the face of the GOP has not shown that. Thus, this leadership has caused one undeniable fact: their loyal voters aren't putting up with the candidates that have put them in this situation over the last eight years.
Cue Trump.
In all reality Trump isn't saying anything different than the other candidates. More fear mongering about refugees, more rhetoric about fixing the country with no actual plans, and the premise of kicking people out of our nation and surrounding us with an impenetrable wall. Oh yeah, and we can keep our guns...ya know, the things that the democrats haven't really ever waged war against, but republicans pretend there's a war on our second amendment rights to get votes in the south. So why is he winning? Because he's not associated with the system. It's as simple as that. The long time republicans (and to a large extent Americans in general) are sick of what's happening in Washington, so they're THIRSTING for anything different. It's a perfect storm and Trump is capitalizing.
If the GOP really wanted to fix this "Trump problem" the solution is simple: throw a libertarian into the mix *paging Justin Amash* - Libertarians present solutions for the future that have roots in history and statistics, they respect and understand science, and they're basically the conservative equivalent of Bernie Sanders and look how much he's stirred up the Democratic Caucus...oh wait, that's not for me to talk about it...okay Mike, I guess that's your cue.
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