“POWERS THAT BE” FUME OVER THE RISE OF AMERICAN POPULISM
In case you missed it, the hardcore “neoconservative” American Enterprise Institute hosted its annual World Forum at the luxurious Cloister at Sea Island last week. Of course this ritzy, five-star resort was really playing host to something else: A full-on establishment freakout over the presidential aspirations of Donald Trump.
“The Donald” has blown the 2016 presidential election wide open with his outspoken opposition to the “Republican” party’s open borders and crony capitalist policies – and now finds himself on the verge of capturing the GOP presidential nomination.
Gathered in a last-ditch effort to blunt Trump’s populist surge? Quite literally, “the powers that be.”
Ferried by private jets to this remove island getaway, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Facebook investor Sean Parker, U.S. Senate leader Mitch McConnell, U.S. House speaker Paul Ryan and “Republican” political consultant Karl Rove all attended the event. Numerous ranking “Republicans” in the U.S. Congress and several of their big donors (including billionaire Philip Anschutz, an owner of the resort) also attended.
Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of the uber-liberal New York Times was there, too.
South Carolina’s own U.S. Senator Tim Scott was one of several Senators making the trip – although sources close to his office said he has yet to formally affix his name to the #NeverTrump bandwagon.
He appears to be the exception among this crowd …
“A specter was haunting the World Forum – the specter of Donald Trump,” neocon editor Bill Kristol wrote of the off-the-record event. “There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he’s done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated.”
The consensus? There doesn’t appear to have been one. Although Kristol is hoping to move his powerful friends in the direction of a plan to take down “The Donald.”
“The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him,” Kristol wrote. “In general, there’s a little too much hand-wringing, brow-furrowing, and fatalism out there and not quite enough resolving to save the party from nominating or the country electing someone who simply shouldn’t be president.”
In other words, these people are going to take Trump out … one way or the other.
Unfortunately Trump has given some of them – the technology leaders in particular – some valid reasons to oppose him. In picking a fight with Apple over its decision to fight the federal government on encryption, Trump has needlessly made a powerful enemy and found himself on the wrong side of the populist divide.
Of course Apple’s Cook was reportedly accosted at the event by warmongering U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas – receiving a tongue-lashing from the Senator on the encryption issue – so hopefully he realizes his company has no home with the establishment that’s trying to kill Trump, either.
Here’s the GOP’s conundrum: Killing Trump (literally or figuratively) will do nothing to stop the movement that has fueled his rise. Put another way, enough people have finally seen through the doublespeak and naked self-service of the Washington, D.C. “Republican” elite.
They are done with bought-and-paid-for politicians who slavishly serve these special interests at the expense of the people’s interests.
44 comments
Criminal Establishment will be busted up under Trump (which it screams the need). They have no choice but to assassinate him. Its the only way they can stop him and remain free from incarceration. No wonder Lindsey Graham is acting all worried and shit. Graham will end up doing time if the Don gets elected.
I hope and pray for Trump’s safety through this all.
How can Trump, who has given money to candidates of every political stripe for four decades, not be recognized as the epitome of the political elite of the establishment.
Commenters and fits complain that the parties are the same and Trump comes along and proves it by giving money to both parties repeatedly.
Rubio and Cruz are freshman senators. They are supposed to be the establishment and not Trump. Give me a break. If that perceived establishment had any power then Jeb Bush would be winning. Trump has plenty of establishment support. They just realize the wisdom of lying low. Unions are giving Trump a second look as well as leaders of industries that are not internationally competitive.
You think that because of Trump’s wealth, he cant’ be controlled by powerful forces. The truth is the opposite. Because of his extensive political and business entanglements, he is more vulnerable to influence to protect his wealth. The more wealth, the more worries.
u b stupid.
You must be a graduate of Trump University.
You must have attended Haley University.
I believe he did.
you must be new here..by all appearances BT not only graduated at the top of his class at Haley University he was, and still is, the head cheerleader. I don’t think the dear leader could ever do would sully her reputation with BT.
Real Republicans like me don’t believe in education, which is why we are voting for Trump.
Schoo’s for fools baby!!!!! If you ain’t knocked up by 19 you’re a failure.
I’d be curious as to your definition of “internationally competitive”. Would that be the mill in Union, SC that pays a low wage of $10/hour but yet still can’t compete with the Vietnamese mill paying workers $1/hour. So, what do you think should happen to these terminated US employees as companies move offshore to increase their profitability? Do you think these workers should just go on welfare? Wouldn’t it cost the average citizen less in taxes/social costs to protect these workers’ jobs rather than having them be supported by welfare, WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, etc?
It is true that there is no law of economics that guarantees full employment, but countries that have nationalists protective tarriffs have unemployment also.
Economies and industies have been globalizing for five hundred years. Any country that thinks they can resist this mega trend will only get run over and left behind. In the future, high tech and high capital industries will have production and supply chains in multiple continents. A customer base of 4.5% of the the world’s population that is the United States will not be enough to be successful.
By definition of the phrase, every country has “comparative advantages”. A healthy economy only gets short term advantages by protecting industries. Eventually the burden of protecting an industry becomes counter productive.
It is clear that South Carolina has an advantage for high capital investment industries. We have a legal system where businesses believe their investments are safe. We also have a workforce that requires less training than the Vietnamese. Also their is more reliable infrastructure and we have a concentration of suppliers or accessible transportation and ports.
“Wouldn’t it cost the average citizen less in taxes/social costs to
protect these workers’ jobs rather than having them be supported by
welfare, WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, etc?”
Not necessarily, it depends on the amount of savings in terms of price disparity in relation to the welfare costs, broken down on an individual basis.
Say for example that someone saves $10/year buying soap from Chinese manufacturers as opposed to their shared cost of supporting welfare for factory workers(remember, spread out over the population) might only be $1.
I’m not endorsing welfare in any way, shape or form(most here who know me, know that)- I’m just commenting on the situation as it stands today.
I’m not completely immune from the concerns of globalization from one standpoint however:
We don’t know how much manufacturing has been lost due to comparitive advantage versus currency manipulation.
In fact, it’s almost impossible to measure IMO. The only thing that would come close to rectifying such matters would be some type of stable commodity standard(like gold or silver, but whatever the free market would choose would be ideal).
The irony of Trump’s comments is that he blasts currency manipulation by other countries, but ignores the fact the US government does it daily.
Trump has a limited understanding of economics despite his business success…the two issues are mostly unrelated so it’s understandable to some degree.
“If that perceived establishment had any power then Jeb Bush would be winning. Trump has plenty of establishment support. ”
I think you have to look more closely at where the “establishment” has power & where they are losing it.
IMO, they have “power” when it comes to the GOP party mechanics- meaning they can change the rules even before this primary is over if The Donald doesn’t win enough delegates in time to foster a brokered convention.
The irony of which is that they actually went from 5 states to 8 states in a rule change DURING the 2012 primary to stop Ron Paul from having any chance to speak on a brokered election floor- and they can change it back if things go the right way during the rules meeting which has a good chance of occurring before the primaries are wrapped up.
So where the establishment still has power is in the proverbial “gears” of the party mechanics IMO.
I do agree with your comment about Bush, in that they are losing power(but haven’t lost it completely) when it comes to the voting base it appears-(for now).
But The Donald really hasn’t had to run a campaign against the full force of establishment politics because their voting base has been broken up among several of their favored candidates…so how much control they’ve lost remains to be seen.
If you use a simply metric as to “dollars” funded to Trump’s campaign, compared to Rubio or Cruz for example, it’s clear that the latter have much more establishment support- if you think a different metric should be used- feel free to note which and why.
Yet your side is working hand-in-glove with the BLM/Bernie Sanders Crew to attack TRUMP ONLY, not Cruz, Rubio or Kasich.
The fact that he brilliantly took jeb! out from the start—huge tactical gamble that paid off—only explains SOME of the hate for Trump.
Most could be assigned to the potential he represents to screw the global socialists in both parties out of making a mint while destroying the US economy enough to force global governance. The North American Union is calling….and if you want to poke fun, lets look at the folks in the CFR–the organization that promotes it–and how many of them are calling the shots in both parties.
You forgot to mention the Illuminati and the Trilateral Commission.
Good strategy, bucky. Denial of the facts offered would require lying.
You have retained your honor.
The Establishment’s motto is “somebody is going to steal the government blind so it might as well be us.”
Screw them. Vote Trump, let him break Washington into pieces, then dump Trump in 4 for a re-building. Things will be better because they just can’t get worse!
Kristol wrote. “In general, there’s a little too much hand-wringing, brow-furrowing, and fatalism out there…
You forgot “pearl clutching”.
I have some pearls Trump can clutch. Really, they are as small as pearls.
That’s when Kristol curls up in a fetal position and cups his ba11s…..such as they are.
Since they are in such close geographical proximity…maybe we can take out the Beast of Sea Island* and the Creature from Jekyll Island** with one stone***, as it were.
*The GOP …and for that matter, the Democrat establishment
**The Fed
***President Donald J. Trump
Based on the BS Trump has had to put up with from the GOP establishment, just to run; If Trump is not the nominee I am staying home. I would rather see the party go down in flames so that we can rebuild than vote for another establishment shill or some whacked out religious nut who thinks god anointed him to be king of America. I think a lot of Republicans will feel the same. The party of Koch and Mitt should keep that in mind. But maybe they would rather the same thing, because they sure as heck seem to be afraid of a Trump Presidency.
I’m with you, Hank. Trump or nothing, even if nothing turns out to be Hildabeast. The Republican establishment scumboli need to learn that fear of Democrats alone will not justify voting for shit like McCain and Romney.
Everything is going exactly as planned!
I don’t think they are so much scared of a Trump presidency per se, I think they are more scared long term that they can no longer fool the middle class into believing the Republican establishment gives a crap about what happens to those families who make less than 200K a year. Perhaps they fear if Trump gets the nomination the anti establishment thinking will be here to stay.
I also think they are terrified that the anti establishment sentiment might trickle down to house and senate races.
Might as well go Third Party, then.
The GOP has gone SO far over the line in smearing their front-runner(!!! I still can’t believe it!) that ANY agreement they may have had is broken.
I think Trump could win a 3-way.
He forgot to mention that his darling Tim Scott was there as well…..
Errr…. my bad, he did.
I’ve been wondering about Tim. If he joins this group that will cinch it for me, time to replace him.
Agreed.
Like Grahman? His seat is safe. You fuckers don’t vote.
I vote. Unfortunately, I am seriously outnumbered by idiots who vote to keep the likes of Graham in office, even though ANY of the options we had would have been better than him.
“The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him,” Kristol wrote. ”
lol…it’s good to see a Neocon Trotskyite(pardon the redundancy) return to his roots in an open and honest manner.
People like me and David Duke understand Trump the most.
For better or worse, there’s a lot of people on the Trump train- no one can deny that.
I’m on the Trump train. With Trump’s proven track record on ventures with his name on it I’m sure it will end well for all of us.
lol…it really don’t matter who gets elected, it’s not going to end well regardless.
You are probably right but I want a fellow racist to be at the helm when the ship sinks.
lulz
Hmm…..will this website report on who is challenging Tim Scott…..?
We’re not going to pay for that effing wall – Mexico.
The Cloister at Sea Island is the perfect venue for the AEI cabal — if they couldn’t make to Cibolo Creek Ranch.
Go Trump!!!!!!