When Donald Trump swept the Indiana Primary, it was all over. Senator Cruz suspended his campaign on Tuesday night & John Kasich suspended his campaign on Wednesday afternoon. RNC chief Reince Priebus tweeted that Donald Trump was the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. It was all over. And then it began again.
On Thursday Speaker Paul Ryan stunned Republicans by saying on CNN that he was neither willing nor ready to endorse Donald Trump. The best question of the day was asked by Gloria Borger on CNN that evening – “Why didn’t Ryan wait until they met next week?“
The answer is simple. Ryan had no intention of discussing anything with Trump & then deciding. He had already decided that Donald Trump was not worthy of inheriting what Paul Ryan had inherited – the mantle of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and, above all for Ryan, Jack Kemp.The absolute reality is that Paul Ryan is dead set against everything that Donald Trump wants to do, everything that the Republican voters want & support.
- Voters & Trump want a less interventionist foreign policy, Ryan wants a more interventionist one;
- Voters & Trump want to protect Social Security & Medicaid, Paul Ryan wants to restructure it (with
enthusiastic support of Bill Clinton); - Paul Ryan wants globalization of trade; Voters & Trump know the American people have been damaged by globalized trade.
Michael Steele, a previous RNC chairman, said about voters on MSNBC Hardball on Thursday:”what they want for the first time is for the party leadership to get behind them instead of them having to get behind the party leadership”
Speaker Paul Ryan said NO to the voters on Thursday This means, as Laura Ingraham said on Hannity on Thursday, “they are going to war with the voters”.
1.Republic vs. Democracy
Before Trump’s sweep of the Northeast, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd had declared emphatically “we are a republic not a democracy”. This difference goes back to the founding of America – the belief is that exercising a government is too important & too difficult to be left to the people who vote.
- “It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person: in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, must be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.” —James Madison
Voters merely suggest in this system; they can help choose delegates to the party convention and these delegates, with guidance, support & needed coercion from party leaders, select the standard-bearer of the party. This was suitable when large numbers of people could not “meet” in one place. As technology allowed more & more people to “meet” in one place, the structure of government & political parties began gravitating towards a democracy from a republic. The social media revolution has now allowed everyone to “meet” in one place at the same time. Television networks understood it and adapted. That is why we saw so much of Trump & Sanders coverage on CNN, FOX & MSNBC.
And that is why the 2016 campaign is really about democracy and the voters taking control of their own destiny. Donald Trump built his movement on it and Paul Ryan refuses to accept it. That is why Trump tweeted:
- Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn’t inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!
2. Wave, Sandbags & Hot Stove
If MSNBC’s Chuck Todd is the voice of the “republic”, CNN’s Van Jones is the passionate voice of “democracy”. Read what Van Jones said on CNN on Tuesday after Trump’s sweep & Cruz’s exit:
- “Get the sandbags ready, Democrats, there is a wave coming … this is just like Obama for Democrats in 2008 … winners of globalization are diffuse & losers are clear, mad as hell & coming … it is a rebellion based on pain & suffering “ .
In another outburst, Van Jones described the American people as “sitting on a hot stove in their homes“.
Chuck Todd is a good guy but his life & career has been with the powerful in Washington DC, the inheritors & defenders of the mantle. In contrast, Van Jones at heart is still the guy who protested against globalization in Seattle as he admitted on CNN. He may have been appointed by President Obama, he may, because of
party loyalty, voice support for Hillary Clinton, but he is a Sanders guy (actually a Michelle Obama guy) at heart. You can see from his passion that he thinks the Hillary Clinton wing of Democrats are positioned wrong in their fight against Donald Trump.
3. Bush-Obama Presidencies – Mirror Images
We have saying since May 2008 that the Bush & Obama Presidencies are a mirror image of each other A mirror image simply converts right to left & vice versa but doesn’t change the essential reality. We have pointed to this weird similarity at important points of the Obama presidency (November 2014, December 2013, November 2012).
There is a simple way to see the essential similarity of the Bush & Obama administrations – Look at the winners & losers in these two administrations They are the same. The winners are think tanks, party intellectuals; finance & Wall Street, big corporations, TV anchors; The losers are salaried workers,
savers & middle-class Americans. Yes, the Neocons made it bigger in the Bush administration and the Neolibs made it bigger in the Obama Administration. But that is a question of orientation like a mirror.
This is why the rebellion of 2016 is against what has happened in the last 16 years under Bush & Obama. Both Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders have understood it and thanks to them the silent majority is silent no more.
This is why the Democratic party “leadership” is just as opposed to Bernie Sanders as the Republican party “leadership” is opposed to Donald Trump. This is why Paul Ryan & his “leadership” wing are far more aligned with Hillary Clinton than they are with Donald Trump.
4. Wouldn’t It Be Lovely?
What would be a true electoral fight on core beliefs & commitment? It would be between champions of the two totally different sections in America. What would the two tickets look like? Hillary Clinton & Paul Ryan vs. Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders. The inheritors of mantles vs the fighters for a movement. It would be
for the believers in a republic vs believers in a democracy.
All of America would be galvanized by such an election. No one would or could stay uncommitted. All false loyalties & affiliations would disappear. It would be a true civil war for the soul of America.
Van Jones would campaign actively for Trump-Sanders & Chuck Todd would go all out for Hillary-Ryan. And if family loyalties weren’t involved, the real Bill Clinton would campaign against Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush would campaign against George H.W. Bush & Jeb Bush and if, Van Jones is right, the real
Michelle Obama would campaign against Barack Obama.
Wouldn’t it be lovely?
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