Below is a video from this morning’s Up with Steve Kornaki. It’s Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who was on The Apprentice for three seasons making mincemeat of Beltway insiders, politicos and pundits alike. It’s spectacular.
She’s right in everything she says. After the jump, more analysis.
Omarosa is correct that the insertion of the Donald into the debates is a game changer, but there is something more. The people who support him believe that the system in Washington is broken, that the people elected represent their own interests and not those of their constituents, that uber rich people (and corporations!) buy influence not available to mere mortals, and that politicians lie.
All of this is true, and as an aside, this is why we progressives want Citizens United repealed. Here comes Donald saying that yeah, he’s rich and he’s bought influence, and that’s just how the system goes. He’s gone bankrupt and he did so using laws available to rich people. Both true.
The RNC, the rest of the field, and even the Beltway pundits have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, and are unable to get their collective head around the idea that someone could come in and disrupt everything that is their bread and butter.
Eventually, he won’t be the Republican nominee because the GOP is known for moving goal posts and even if he can win primaries and delegates, they’ll prevent him from even making it to the floor of the convention, the same as they did with Ron Paul’s delegates the last two cycles. They lie, cheat and steal, and they are VERY good at it. Think back on the 2012 Iowa caucuses, which Rick Santorum won, and they said he didn’t for weeks afterward — just long enough to kill his candidacy. (I’m not a Santorum supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but the guy did win, and the party didn’t really let him. Just sayin’.)
But until the party stomps him, think about it every time they find a reason to exclude him from something, or set up a barrier to try to keep him out of something — he may not be a politician, and he may have never held office, but per my reading of the Constitution, he’s got as much right to run for the Republican nomination as anyone else.
The powers that be among the Republicans appear to have decided that now is the time to get the Trump out before he drags the party down. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the rank and file to get the message or if they are setting themselves up for a grassroots revolt.