The GOP Establishment vs. the GOP Voter

I have often said that our country suffers from two major problems.

1. The GOP establishment, which, with its willingness to negotiate away America’s culture, values, people, and place in the world, demonstrates it couldn’t care less about any of it, so long as it gets to position itself as ruling over the ashes.

2: The Democrats, who are holding the torches.

To demonstrate the difference between the GOP and the GOP establishment, allow me to dig into history a bit. Let’s first look at he writings of establishment critter George Will, writing in the WaPo back in November of 1974:

But Reagan is 63, and looks it. His hair is still remarkably free of gray, but around the mouth and neck he looks like an old man. He’s never demonstrated substantial national appeal. His hardcore support today consists primarily of the kamikaze conservatives who thought the 1964 Goldwater campaign was jolly fun. And there’s a reason to doubt that Reagan is well suited to appeal to the electorate that just produced a democratic landslide. If a Reagan third party would just lead the “Nixon was lynched” crowd away from the Republican party, and into outer darkness where there is a wailing and gnashing of teeth, it might be at worst a mixed course for the Republican party. It would cost the party some support, but it would make the party seem cleansed.”

Will was among those who actively campaigned for Gerry Ford in the 1976 cycle, which Jimmy Carter won.

Will was not happy about Reagan, at least until he won two landslides. Then, suddenly, Will was all sweetness and light with the man. It's hard to argue with success when it's staring you in the face, I suppose.

Similarly, recently, he hasn't been happy about Donald Trump. He wasn't happy about Ted Cruz back in the ‘16 campaign, either. Or, for that matter, anyone who dares to be an actual conservative. Apparently, to Will, the definition of conservatism amounts to what the finger gauge tells you. In fairness to him, I suppose he's always been in the business of discussing controversy, and as I said the other day regarding Kimmel, controversy sells.

That said, the fear that Will shows us when he mentions the ‘64 cycle and Goldwater is a cancer among the GOP leadership, which has long since metastasized, despite all the evidence that their fears about actual conservatism are unfounded. Fear is a hard thing to overcome, and so, being shown a specific path to victory — and an overwhelming victory at that — the GOP establishment is so wrapped up in its fear that it refuses to actually be conservative. The result is that the establishment’s support today for Trump is lukewarm at best, while the rank and file recognize the gem whom we're lucky enough to have at the helm.

In 2016, after Trump’s victory, I observed the establishment’s reaction and said that Trump was going to have a hard time of it with that element of his own party. That prediction was undeniably proven true.

I also said that if Reagan and his successes did not teach the GOP establishment the truth of the matter, simply repeating those successes under another name isn’t going to teach them, either. That’s how we ended up with Reagan having Bush on his ticket (and with Trump’s first term, establishment critter Mike Pence) for vice president. The leadership felt the ticket needed what they called "balance." They thought Reagan was (sing along together, children) “too conservative.” This was also indicated by the establishment's pick for the 2016 campaign — Jeb Bush. (To this day, I don’t think they’ve gotten over the rejection of that choice by the rank and file GOP. It is as bad a misread of the voter as I've seen in my 50-some odd years of watching such things. But to their way of thinking, it had the advantage of playing to the middle.)

The objections of the establishment GOP to Trump are of a similar vein today. One can easily understand why the GOP leadership disrespects the strong conservative candidate — and indeed, anyone who wants to shrink government. After all, they are being asked by the tenets of conservatism to reject the use of the power that they have in their hands to “effect change.” It doesn’t take too many years for somebody with power in his hands to start seeing it as a good thing, as opposed to an evil that needs to be controlled, as the founders saw it. This is precisely why the founders never foresaw the terror of multi-decade “service” in government. Did you know that, if there were a 12-year limit on service in Congress, for example, over half of U.S. representatives and senators would have to go find themselves a real job? And so, we find many of the GOP establishment problem children firmly entrenched in positions of power and working directly against the will of the GOP voter.

This is also why the establishment dislikes Trump, who obviously is all about making the changes the GOP rank and file voters have been demanding for decades, and screw the “Go along to get along” crowd. In other words, he threatens the establishment.

But why would the legacy GOP leaders be so afraid of actually pushing for American values and putting America first? Why are they so set on the continuance of the “compromise” that put us where we were at the end of the Biden Administration? It’s their devotion to the non-existent political center. They figure that if they compromise conservative values, the left will be nicer to them and not call them the next Hitler.

But that's not how this stuff works, and history is our guide here.

Consider the liberal reaction to President George W. Bush, whom they compared to Adolf Hitler. And Bush wasn’t a conservative. Neither was his old man. Both of them were, at best, centrists. The left also called Romney and McCain (both establishment critters) Hitler. So, too, Donald Trump, of course. Further, every Republican president since Ike (except George Will's choice in '76, Gerald Ford) suffered under an impeachment attempt from the Democrats.

Trust me when I tell you that the left isn’t going to like us any less if we actually stand up for our beliefs. They’re going to hate us either way, and we'll doubtless see how we all look in a funky little mustache. We might as well stand up for our values, folks. It's not going to change what the left or the GOP establishment thinks of us.

Back in 2015, I said that the rank and file were about ready to go nuclear on the GOP leadership. Trump’s win the following year constituted exactly that. No less so in 2024. Then again, it shouldn't shock anyone; the rank and file have always been more conservative than the leadership. This has much to do with the leadership being in reality-deprived Washington, D.C., and the rank and file being spread over the rest of the country.

There’s a reason the establishment doesn’t stand up for our beliefs: It doesn't believe as the rank and file does.

OK, I hear you — the evidence of the delta between the rank-and-file GOP voter and the establishment is a bit harder to trace these days. It's easy enough to suggest I'm overstating my case here. Granted, the establishment's objection to Trump is somewhat muted in the current environment, where it's harder than ever to contemplate compromise with the huge piles of guano on the other side of the aisle.

However, let's not kid ourselves; the establishment GOP support has been far from full-throated. I predict that, rather like we saw in the post-Reagan years, party leaders will wait until the president is out of office, then attempt to rewrite his legacy and disassociate themselves and the whole of the GOP from his successes and the lessons he showed us. They'll return to pursuing the non-existent political center. The degree to which that happens depends on who we choose for the Republican ticket in '28.

Meanwhile, the rank-and-file GOP voter needs to keep this in mind when selecting people to support in the midterms and beyond.

Remember, this is not about one man. This is a movement. One that's been generations in building. We cannot afford to stumble now. Keep the movement going! Take advantage of PJ Media's Schumer Shutdown Sale and use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership!

Eric Florack has spent 35 years discussing politics in online forums. He’s also a veteran of some 20 years of Broadcast (radio) experience and blogs at Bits Blog, which is in its 25th year.

The GOP Establishment vs. the GOP Voter

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