Recently, political pundit, author, and radio host Hugh Hewitt compared presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump to “stage-four cancer,” and called for the GOP to replace him at the upcoming convention with a candidate more to Hewitt’s liking.1 Hewitt feels he is entitled to issue this edict because he remained neutral until the primary was over. In essence, Hewitt is saying that because he waited to see if he would get what he wanted, and didn’t; he is entitled to demand that the GOP hit the reset button that will supersede the will of Republican voters.
Hewitt cloaks his disdain for rank and file Americans, poised to elect a representative president who puts America’s interests first, in the supposed threat that “we’re going to get killed with this nominee” against Hillary Clinton. Hewitt, however, did hedge his bet by extending a poisoned olive branch. If Trump would undergo a “personality transplant,” Hewitt would touch his scepter to Trump’s shoulders.
Translation: If Trump would assent to becoming an establishment tool in Professional Republicanism, where incumbents and pundits alike profit in season and out of season (weather the people win, or the people lose), the gravy train Hewitt rides might welcome Trump aboard.
What this self-anointed super-duper delegate is missing is there exists now a critical mass of Americans tired of the rigged systems in both parties; that enriches insiders at the expense of decimating the American worker. Nothing probably better points this out than the Golden State’s presidential primary vote.
The California primary results show 1,174,892 votes cast for Trump. And while Hillary garnered 1,940,616 Democrat votes, her Democrat opponent Bernie Sanders, who leads a sizable rabble of disenfranchised voters, got 1,502,043 votes.2 That’s a million and a half voters with a sizable number of them ardently opposed to crooked Hillary, and business as usual.
What this means, and what a reliable political pundit would be pointing out, is that those two factors clearly put California in ‘play’ for the Republican party. The last time a Republican candidate carried California was 1988 with George H.W. Bush (and that by virtue of Reagan’s shadow). That was 24 years ago.3
While it’s not easy to forecast the percentage of crossover voters from Sanders’ camp who will vote Republican in the general election, Trump has been ingeniously courting those voters for months. At his rallies, Trump has been highlighting the singular issue on which he and Sanders do agree: The economy. And that message is what resonates loudest with most Sanders supporters.
Specifically, the banks are allowed to play by rules that let them commit fraud, rig markets, and steal from depositors without a single banker going to jail. That portion of Sander’s people holding a piece of the 6 trillion outstanding, non-dischargeable, student loan debt are looking for a leader who will get them a fare deal.
Another economic polarizing point the two candidates agree on is the view that American trade deals favor everyone but the American worker; who has seen a horrific decline in manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton’s NAFTA (soon to be outdone by TPP).
Finally, Americans need jobs to return; weather you’re looking for an entry level manufacturing job to start a career, or somewhere to put that degree to work so you can get out of your parent’s basement.
So, it is very likely that after the emotional discharge of disappointment runs its course for Sander’s supporters, one very important reality will set in. Between establishment-Hillary and outsider-Trump, only one of them stands a chance of making real changes that will benefit the average American. That’s successful businessman, Donald Trump.
With California still as our example, lets look at those 1,940,616 Hillary Democrats. Even if her criminal activities don’t catch up to her in the form of criminal charges before November, she has Donald Trump to face. The scrutiny he is going to put her under for her criminal record and her failed service record will create many clear headed Democrats who will put America first.
While the foregoing is considerable, there are other allowances to be made in our Golden State scenario.
If we allow for the 176,620 votes cast for John Kasich, and the 144,125 cast for Ted Cruz, and the 54,145 cast for Ben Carson to contribute to Trump in the general election; that’s another 774,890 voters in play, and they will probably side with Trump instead of Hillary.
And in all these numbers, there is one bigger number yet to be considered.
California has 17,915,053 registered voters.4 At press time, over 10 million of them didn’t vote in the primary, but could be energized to vote in the general election in November. And if the Trump campaign has shown us anything, it’s that Trump is probably the most energizing candidate in the history of American politics. At this point he has earned 1.4 million votes more than any other Republican candidate in history.5
It is this phenomenal rise of an American populist that has Professional Republicanism beneficiaries melting down. They have profited by, and enjoyed their preen as, purported oracles of the Republican Party. As paid mouthpieces utilized by the ruling class to placate the masses with a false narrative of struggle and accomplishment, they have successfully insulated themselves between voters and representatives to become unelected rulers over isolated souls commuting from toil to increasingly regulated respite.
Mercifully, the tether was finally drawn too tight. The resulting trickle of blood carries in it the latent taste of liberty, and the body is waking.
In light only these sobering observations, I will answer Hewitt’s prediction of Republicans getting “killed” with Trump as our nominee with one of my own: When the Trump landslide takes place in November, the most significant residue that will be left of Hewitt’s prognostication, and perhaps Hewitt’s career, will be the punctuation mark at the end of his last sentence.
Notes:
1 “Hugh Hewitt: GOP Should Change Convention Rules to Dump Trump,” Breitbart (June 9, 2016). http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/06/08/hugh-hewitt-gop-change-rules-dump-trump-let-convention-decide/
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/06/08/hugh-hewitt-gop-change-rules-dump-trump-let-convention-decide/
2 “California Primary Restults,” New York Times (June 8, 2016). http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/california
3 Whenwasthe.com (February 27, 2015). http://www.whenwasthe.com/last-time-california-voted-republican-in-the-presidential-election/
4 “California’s registered voters hit high ahead of Tuesday presidential primary,” Los Angeles Times (June 9, 2016) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-california-new-voters-voter-registration-primary-htmlstory.html
5 “History! Trump Shatters Republican Primary Vote Record by 1.4 Million Votes,” Gateway Pundit (June 7, 2016), http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/trump-trumps-wins-historic-race-record-fashion/
