The Nevada caucuses are over for both parties, and the Republican primary has been run in South Carolina.<\/p>\n
There is much angst in the hearts and minds of the establishment members of both parties.<\/p>\n
Let us first take a look at the big hot mess the Republican side is.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump is winning, and winning big.\u00a0 He is ahead in the delegate count. Not just in this race either.\u00a0 He is head of where Romney and McCain were at this point in the last two election cycles.<\/p>\n
The Republican “leadership” is clutching their collective pearls and asking how in the name of a merciful God is this possible.<\/p>\n
My advice to them is to take a long, hard look in the mirror.\u00a0 The Republican “leadership”, especially in Congress has been destroying their brand value for decades.\u00a0 They have worked long and hard to completely alienate their conservative base.<\/p>\n
Speaking of that conservative base, in a rare instance of agreement with the party leadership, they are as confused over this whole Donald Trump thing as the leadership is.\u00a0 Not for the same reasons though.\u00a0 The “establishment” leaders of the GOP put a lot of money behind former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.\u00a0 In past Presidential elections, this would have been enough to give Jeb a pretty good shot at winning the primary battle.\u00a0 Not this time though, remember that whole alienating their voter base thing?\u00a0 So the people who think they run the GOP have had their candidate shot down in flames.<\/p>\n
The conservative base is scratching the collective heads because they don’t consider Trump to be an actual Republican.\u00a0 Take a look at his record.\u00a0 He has self-identified as a democrat in the past, and has supported a lot of democrats. As I have pointed out before there are some strong similarities between some his policies and those of the admitted socialist Bernie Sanders.\u00a0 Their policies on legal and illegal immigration for example<\/a>. There is another reason to believe that Trump is not a Republican. \u00a0He knows how to handle a hostile press.<\/p>\n So why is Trump so far ahead?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 He is perceived as a “Washington outsider.” \u00a0The voters are sick and tired of “business as usual” inside the Beltway.\u00a0 They don’t want to throw away a vote on the same old, same old once again.\u00a0 Look who is second place, Texas Senator Ted\u00a0 Cruz.\u00a0 He is not just hated by the congressional Republican leadership, they actually fear the concept of him in the Oval Office.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t \u201cplay ball\u201d and cozy up to the democrats. He actually tries to keep his promises to the people who elected him, which makes him a renegade maverick in Washington, regardless of the letter after his name.<\/p>\n I’m not a Trump fan, but his run for the Presidency is fascinating for a political junkie.\u00a0 Not only is he appealing to pissed off GOP voters, he has actual cross party support.\u00a0 Polling has consistently shown that 20% of his supporters are Blue Collar democrats.\u00a0 What used to loyal democrats who have been thrown under the bus by their party over the past seven years. He is also doing better than the typical GOP candidate in traditionally democrat demographics.\u00a0 Namely hispanics, blacks and women.<\/p>\n To see why Trump is doing well with those traditional democrat groups, just look at how the democrats have been treating their base since they started the Occupy the White House Golf Tour in January 2009.<\/p>\n