Why hasn’t the Republican “establishment” stopped Trump? One theory holds that party elders aren’t so anti-Donald as they seem. Trump is obnoxious, certainly. But he also a dealmaker, and therefore the kind of person with whom transactional politicians could do business. The real threat, this theory holds, is Ted Cruz. So maybe the party is willing to accept Trump to avoid a hostile takeover by ideological purists.
Cards on the table: I’m not going to be supporting the Republican nominee in November.
This Bloomberg News story is emblematic of our time, and what it says about the relationships among the GOP leadership, religious conservatives, gays and lesbians, and Wall Street. And it is critically important for conservative Christians to read it and understand what it means.
The story is about Rep. Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who chairs a powerful House subcommittee. More:
A few moments on a New Hampshire debate stage last Saturday will likely go down as an historic moment in American politics. For the previous week there had been a palpable sense that the GOP establishment, desperate to coalesce behind someone to stop Donald Trump, was going to break very quickly towards Marco Rubio. Immediately after Iowa, Rubio began began scooping up endorsements from senators. There were many press reports that key players in Jeb Bush’s financial team were ready to jump—and pull their funds, and their friends, from Jeb’s flailing candidacy to Rubio.
Going into the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump was riding high.
The brazen billionaire was not only the clear frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, he had also managed to pull ahead of his closest rival, senator Ted Cruz, in Iowa for the first time since August.
Make no mistake, nine months ago the idea that Trump could be competitive in Iowa was laughable. But the only one laughing going into the caucus was Trump.
And then, something went wrong.