By Frank J Biga III -
I was watching Bloomberg the other night and caught an interview of former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. In it, among other barbs at Donald Trump, she stated that she would probably vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election if Trump gets the Republican nomination. She definitely will not be supporting him in the general election.
Now I don’t think this is going to change many minds in New Jersey (or anywhere else for that matter), but it is symptomatic of how selfish some in the GOP establishment are.
Because, as we conservatives know very well, when a moderate or supposedly electable centrist candidate wins the primary, we conservatives are expected to get with the program and vote for their moderate for the good of the party. You know, we have to have a "Big Tent."
I’m sure Governor Whitman benefited from this conservative support back in 1993 in her race against Jim Florio. But I guess that now, when a conservative with different more middle-class priorities appear poised to take control of the GOP at the national level and nominate someone who actually campaigns on those issues, the elites like Whitman will apparently turn their back on their party’s nominee. This, back in the old days, was called apostasy.
Now not too many Republicans come out and say what Whitman did publicly, but one hears it in less overt ways, too.
Like Marco Rubio’s most recent assertion that he is in the race to the end because “I know that Donald Trump will not get the 1237 delegates needed to win…..” Oh really? It sure looks like he has a more than even chance of doing this. If Marco gets swept on Super Tuesday, is he staying in the race just for spite? He hasn’t won a state yet. Please!
Marco, of course, has every right to run until the end, but I translate this that Rubio will be absolutely ruthless in his quest to take down Trump. Nice. Way to back the party! Mr. Cruz at least has said he would back the Republican nominee.
Another example is GOP political consultant Stuart Stevens, who in a recent article smeared many middle Americans by saying that “to support Trump is to support a bigot.” This is indicative of what the insider political class thinks of the great unwashed masses of the Heartland. It’s not called "flyover country" for nothing.
No Stuart, to support Trump is to support the relinquishment of power by the political class that has been incorrigibly dismissive of the concerns of the American middle class for the last thirty years.
Terminal denial, though, seems to be another good phrase that captures the essence of the moment. The political class reminds me of the captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. It knows it won’t be in power much longer if Trump succeeds in remaking the party into a vessel that serves middle America’s interests rather than those of Beltway elites and their clientele. Yet they keep hoping for his political demise and lob wild insults at him to see if something sticks. That possibility gets dimmer and dimmer as the primary results keep coming in though. They are now running scared.
And at least part of it is about money. The cognoscenti of the GOP also know its long-extended assignment in DC is nearly over and the positive cashflow from these plum positions is about to end. Talk about a fringe group! So, now, in order to hold on, they are threatening either openly as in Whitman’s case or in a more subtle way like Rubio and Stevens, to bolt, attempt to destroy, or smear the party that gave them so much.
They are the "New Apostates." How moderate of them!
