Republicans still don’t get it, either …

Once again, for the slow learners in the back of the room …

Donald Trump won the last election. 

He defeated his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton.

However, to first win the Republican nomination, he defeated all his Republican challengers.  That included those favored – and heavily backed – by the Republican establishment and deep-pocket Republican donors. 

Every moderate they put up went down in flames in the primaries. Despite spending millions more than Trump. Despite traditional party poohbahs like McCain, Romney, the Bushes, Boehner, Karl Rove, and others doing their absolute damndest – including funding and supporting stop-Trump movements, and trashing Trump in media interviews – to keep him from the nomination.

Yet Trump still emerged victorious from the primaries.  And won the nomination.   

Questions?  Anyone?  Anyone? 

Okay.  Why did this happen?   

Republican primary voters didn’t want to run another establishment Republican.  Been there; done that. Seen the results.  Republican primary voters wanted real change, not more wonky “reaching across the aisle,” “better relations with our neighbors” and “compassionate conservatism” crap.  They wanted an aggressive, take-charge leader for a change – someone who wouldn’t let Democrats walk all over them.  They wanted someone who cared less about what the media, pundits, career politicians and bureaucrats thought of them, and more about getting stuff fixed.   

In short, someone not a part of the Washington establishment. 

They – and in the general election, a lot of independents, too – wanted someone who would shake things up, change the way Washington worked and get results, public opinion polls be damned. So they voted for Trump. 

Trump wanted to repeal and replace ObamaCare. He wanted to improve border security on our southern border with a “big, beautiful wall.” He wanted to prioritize deporting criminals here illegally. He wanted to end “sanctuary cities.” He wanted to revisit our international trade deals.  And he wanted to cut taxes, and bring more jobs back to our country. 

He wanted to make American great again. 

That’s what he ran on and that’s how he won.   

Honestly, I don’t think any establishment politician – Republican or Democrat – could have defeated him in this election. That’s how angry the general public was with government as usual. Voters may not have agreed with him on every issue, but they didn’t want more of the same.

He ran nominally as a Republican but he was actually an independent. In reality, he ran against the Republican establishment as much as he did against the Democrats.

And he beat both.

As expected, Democrats have decided to resist him at every turn.  It’s the only card they can play, having lost control of the White House, the House and the Senate. It got worse for Democrats on the state level, too, as there are now even more Republican governors and Republicans control more state legislatures. All Democrats can do is delay and disparage.   

Also, as expected, the media generally is doing everything in their power to make Trump and his administration look bad and incompetent. Of course, Trump often shoots himself in the foot with ill-advised tweets and off-the-cuff remarks.  

Still, Trump’s biggest problem is Republicans. 

None of us should be surprised.  To establishment Republicans Trump’s an unwanted guest who is annoying their friends.  He crashed their party but if they ignore him long enough he’ll get the message and leave. Then their party can continue as it was meant to be.

Conservative Republicans – such as the Freedom Caucus – will vote against any spending bill, regardless of what it’s for or how justified. They always want deep cuts in spending – unless, of course, that might hurt their constituents in any way. The media hate them. 

“Moderate” Republicans – in effect, timorous Democrats-lite – will watch polls and media reports to divine which way to vote.  Or stay undecided to see what they can squeeze out of a deal. The media love these people because they add drama to what’s usually a foregone conclusion.

Blue-state Republicans are nothing more than the last moderate Democrats in existence, and live in fear of being outed as actual Republicans. So they support the same social and fiscal causes as their more traditional Democrat brethren.  Why they’re still Republicans baffles me. 

Red-state Republicans feel immune from pressure by the White House and won’t support anything that doesn’t directly aid their state, and will reject anything that won’t. When you see a Republican running at the mouth about how they don’t give a damn what the President wants, and how Congress has the real power, it’s almost always a red-state Republican.

The Republicans in Congress, by and large, are all a pack of whores.  All they care about is getting re-elected. They expect that what worked for them in the past – the public posturing followed by the behind the scenes caving to whatever the Democrats want – will continue to work for them going forward. Nothing’s changed. 

In that regard, they are as tone-deaf as the Democrats right now, who keep saying the election was rigged by the Russians and Trump’s not really the President. 

Wake up folks. Trump is the President, sworn in and everything. 

The typical Republicans in Congress, and the policies they’ve traditionally represented, were defeated by Trump in the last election.  People actually voted against his opponents who espoused the traditional platform planks of the Republican establishment. People voted against what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wanted, and for tighter immigration enforcement. People voted against corporate welfare and especially tax breaks for companies that send U.S. jobs overseas. People voted against keeping ObamaCare and for replacing it with something that brought premium costs down for average working citizens.    

Yet Republicans still don’t get it; they don’t comprehend that voters sent a clear message that business as usual won’t cut it anymore.  Trump voters don’t care if Republicans and Democrats work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done; they only care that things get done.

Trump voters also don’t believe that it should take as long as it always has to get things accomplished. That Republicans are leaving to go home again, shortly after they came back from a two-week recess is incredible. Especially when Republicans, with control of the White House and Congress, could easily pass and get legislation signed to finally do something tangible.    

It’s also emblematic of the widespread attitude among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress that they are a privileged class in an exclusive club with its own set of rules.  Because of their lofty positions, they are entitled to act in a way that would never be tolerated in any private enterprise. That’s what they believe.

What they don’t understand is that they can be fired by the voting public as early as the next election cycle for their seats.  I fully expect many of the more contentious and obstructive Republicans to face serious primary challenges when those come around. And more than a few of those primary challengers will have the backing of Donald Trump.

Unlike the Democrats who move in lockstep regardless of their differences, Republicans remain oblivious to the power they could have if they simply coalesced.

Republicans have always said they can’t get things done in Washington because they lack control over Congress and the White House. Now they have it and they still can’t get anything done. 

That's all too clear to everyone, especially Trump voters.  

I think Republicans are gravely misreading Trump and what his supporters want, and ignoring the loyalty of his base – still at 95%. That’s a lot of people who will probably vote again to support those who delivered on Trump’s agenda, and punish those who didn’t.   

Time is running out. Republicans need to start accepting reality.