Super Tuesday’s non-surprising wins for Donald Trump – non-surprising because he’s been the front-runner for months and that’s what front-runners do, they win – ought to put to rest any long-lingering dreams of the Democrats, the establishment-types in the Republican Party and the amnesty hopefuls for the billionaire businessman to fall from political favor and drop his bid for the White House.
It ought to – but it’s not.
Scarcely had the latest tallies been made for the GOPers, showing Trump with 316 delegates and second-place Sen. Ted Cruz with 226, and CNBC was already blasting this headline: “Why Trump can’t be president.” The piece, admittedly the opinion of one, nonetheless serves as a good summary of just how far Trump detractors have gone, and will continue to go, to make sure he’s not the party nominee.
“We’ve been telling Trump supporters that he is a racist, a sexist, and a bigot,” the writer writes, running down all the past public relations’ efforts aimed at taking out Trump. “We have been going about this all wrong.”
So the new messaging?
“There is really only reason Trump supporters should not support Trump,” the CNBC column states. “He is not qualified. … [He] is not qualified to deliver on any of his promises.”
What part of “sick of status quo” do anti-Trumpers not understand?
It’s only the wind beneath the wings of polls that lifted, at varying campaign points, political outsiders Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, along with Trump, to nearly unheard of heights. Fox News reported the anomaly back in September by stating: “Most Republicans feel betrayed by their party – and show their displeasure by supporting outsiders over establishment candidates in the GOP presidential race. Real-estate mogul Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are the favorites … in the latest Fox News national poll on the 2016 election. Neither has held elected office before and yet the two of them – together with businesswoman Carly Fiorina – capture the support of more than half of GOP primary voters.”
The New York Times gave an update on that situation just last month, with a February story headlined: “Entrance Poll: Strong Desire for Outsider Drives Trump Win,” focused in part on Nevada’s results.
Coming full circle, Fox again reported the situation just this week, with a headline about the 2016 contests that blasted, “The year convention wisdom was turned upside down,” and an opener that read: “Shred the political playbook.”
Media outlet upon media outlet, meanwhile, reported similarly, in the months in between.
But instead of adapting and understanding, and maybe learning a thing or two from the unchanging message from the American voter – you know, the “sick of status quo” mantra – those in the Hate Trump camp offered up this: Let’s assassinate him.
“Can we kill Trump?” asked one woman on social media in December.
“Someone needs to murder Trump ASAP,” wrote another in that same time frame.
“Assassinate Trump like I’m [George] Zimmerman,” rapped rapper Rick Ross that same month.
Then this, from a New York Times columnist, no less, in a February social media post: “Good news guys. I’ve figured out how the Trump campaign ends,” alongside a link to the 1983 movie, “The Dead Zone,” with a story line about an assassination attempt on a politician.
Look, like Trump or hate him – support him or not. But the fact of the matter is he is tapping into a surging conviction of the American voter that expresses both disgust with and distrust of Capitol Hill. And Trump’s not just selling hats with “Make America Great Again” messages that show he’s fighting for Americans. Rather, he’s sounding words of warning for a corrupt system that bluntly makes clear he’s preparing for war on Washington, D.C. – and that is what his detractors fear, and seek to avoid, most of all.