As our nation has watched the rise of Donald Trump from a billionaire celebrity to the front runner for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, the media has claimed that his support is revealing dissension, chaos and turmoil by the party’s voters. While there is no doubt that voters are tired, frustrated and disgusted with the Republican establishment, is it fair to chalk up Trump’s success to simple voter unrest and anger?
While the press has focused to great extent on the anger of voters, what has largely gone unnoticed is the role the Republican Party itself has played in elevating to front runner status a man whose 40 year history has been characterized by values that are the antithesis of the Party. Throughout Trump’s entire adult life, he has used his power, influence and wealth to support progressive liberal policies and politicians which are at total odds with Republicans.
Despite Trump’s unambiguous record though, Republican leadership both nationally and in states across this nation have undermined the values they purport to support by allowing democrats to weigh in on their nominee. Research reveals that much of Trump’s support flows from independents and democrats. So to use a football analogy, what Republican party leaders have done would be akin to allowing the fans of the Carolina Panthers to select the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, just prior to the SuperBowl.
Let me explain why this is the case.
America is dominated by a two party system, Republicans & Democrats. Depending on which poll you look at, Republicans make up around a fourth of voters, Democrats around a third, and independents account for the rest, approximately 40%. However, when polling which direction independents lean, Democrats rise to 48% and Republicans to 39%.
As the nation’s two parties select their candidates for state and national offices, the nominees are selected via open or closed primaries or caucuses. An open primary/caucus simply means that any registered voter can vote in a party’s primary/caucus. So a democrat or independent can walk into a voting booth during a Republican Presidential Primary and help Republicans select their nominee. Conversely, in a closed primary/caucus only registered voters of the party holding the primary/caucus can vote.
In Tennessee where I live, we recently held our Presidential Open Primary. So democrats & independent voters were free to determine who Republicans would select as their nominee for President. Again, using the football analogy, what we have done would be similar to calling on Roll Tide fans to pick the Volunteer’s quarterback. Can you imagine such a scenario ever occurring in college football? Yet, for some insane reason, Republican Party officials have long supported such nonsense in the selection of their “quarterback” for the highest office in the land, as well as local offices.
To illustrate how large of a role open primaries, and thus democrats & independents, have played in fueling Donald Trump’s momentum and victories, let’s look just at some summary numbers that illustrate how the life-long democrat, turned Republican, has fared in closed versus open primaries/caucuses.
To drill down further into the numbers, in the 13 closed contests to date, Donald Trump has won only 5 of them, or only 38% of them. Whereas in the 13 open contests so far, Trump has won 10, or 77% of the open primaries. If one can draw any conclusion from these numbers, it is that when the home team picks their quarterback, they generally win the contest. But when Republicans allow the other team’s fans (democrats) to help pick their quarterback, they will end up with a player whose commitment to their values is suspect, at best.
To be clear, the Republican party should strive to grow its support amongst voters. However, while open primaries allow for new voters to engage in the process, there is no mechanism to insure that democrats with ill intentions are not purposefully meddling in the selection of the Republican nominee. It’s a well known fact that democrats have deliberately crossed over into Republican primaries to undermine the outcome of Republican primaries. As this is done, the votes of authentic Republicans are diluted and their will is marginalized, if not defeated.
Open primaries have been opposed by many voters for years now. In fact, last year the Tennessee Republican Party party was strongly encouraged by grassroots voters and activists to change its primary from an open to a closed one. Yet, despite the efforts of many Republican voters from across our state, the Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee (“SEC”) ignored our warnings and last year voted to continue the Open Primary system in our state.
And now we see the result of the Tennessee SEC vote. A man who is now the poster child for RINO’s (Republican in Name Only), given his 40 year history of supporting democrats and their leftists policies, is enjoying front runner status. And those who enabled his rise should be held to account for their unwillingness to allow the home team to pick its own quarterback, free from the interference of the other team.
Should a party that willingly and knowingly contributes to its own demise expect the support of voters who warned them against such suicidal behavior? In my lifetime I’ve heard democrats say that they didn’t leave the party but rather the party left them. As Republican leadership continues to dilute the values that made it the party of Liberty, we are now beginning to hear those same comments from its base: “I didn’t leave the party. The party left me.” Or perhaps we should say the party committed suicide and its leaders pulled the trigger.
Mark,
I thoroughly enjoy your articles and the thought-provoking issues you address head-on. While Donald Trump is not the candidate that I would prefer, he is (I believe) by far the best we have to choose from. Ted Cruz is dishonest. Marco Rubio is… not effective. Romney is a snake that doesn’t know how to fight liberals. Bush? I don’t want another one. The only establishment Republicans I could support would be Newt Gingrich or Herman Cain (can you call Cain establishment?). Donald is the only one that says we need a wall. He is the only one that has prioritized protecting our country by keeping terrorists out. He is the only one screaming about the inequality of trade and is the only one preaching about American jobs. He doesn’t bow to anyone. We are tired of an apologetic noodle selling us out and our children into slavery. Is Donald rock hard on Conservative principles? I don’t think so. But we sent “Conservatives” to DC and they continue to fund abortion, ObamaCare, and allow for the dismantling of our once great military, and continue to tax us into oblivion. We are tired of establishment Conservatives. We are tired of their lies. Is it any wonder that a drowning constituency would reach out for the hand of one promising to do (at some things) right?
For years, I have listened to the Republican party tell me that we need the “independent” vote. Donald is getting that vote. The only backbone we have seen in Washington for years is Obama when he stands up to (and on the necks of) “conservatives”. The only abuse he has heaped on anyone is on Christians, and none of our elected representatives have stood up to bloody his nose. Donald is abusive. He is a fighter. He will call you mean names. And he won’t apologize for it.
As always, I cannot wait for your next article! Keep the faith!
Good article and very interesting comments on what is, in my opinion, a very broken political system. And I think David’s comments answer the question posed very well….we are indeed angry and frustrated with the status quo and that is the compelling driving force for Trump’s popularity. I have felt totally let down when Republicans controlled both the oval office and congress, just as I have when Democrats were in control…but I expected to be disappointed with the Democrat power base. I think that disappointment and frustration has surpassed the historical ideological tenets of the Republican party.
Love this post – from the cartoon depiction to the sad, truth written. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s like a whole colony of red ants building a whole new ant pile all for themselves and they hung a “yall come” sign up. It depicts our human need to belong to SOMEthing that validates our very own beliefs. It’s almost gang mentality. Then the red ants will come out – mad!
Many TN GOP SEC members voted to close primaries, myself included. We were only a few votes short. If we had voted to close, the state legislature would have had to pass a bill as well.
For years we have heard form the GOP establishment that we need to “take One for the Team” and support the Party Nominee when they have presented weak and feckless candidates. We have checked our conscience at the voting booth, and pulled the lever for the Party every time. We railed, pleaded and cried to the hierarchy to go RIGHT not Center, and when WE finally have the candidates that reflect OUR values, that voice OUR concerns, that champion OUR causes, the GOP balks and throws up barricades and obstacles to thwart what we have chosen. If we are ignored again, the GOP has truly committed suicide, and have indirectly redefined themselves as the third party, and Rome continues to burn….
Mark, your article and various posts on pro-Cruz sites reveal one thing to me….you are a man that likes to complain and write and do nothing about it. I am one of the members of the Tennessee State Executive Committee who voted on closing primaries. In fact, I and my newly elected colleagues made this issue a centerpiece of our campaigns and our efforts, immediately upon being seated and sworn into office. I did the majority of the debate for the side that was for closing the primaries, at the encouragement of my colleagues. The debate took place in a “historic” specially called meeting of 66 members to address this and nothing else. I say historic, because the bylaws provisions for a specially called meeting had rarely been used in history, in fact only once in 20 years. It was necessary to give this issue total focus. We lost by only a handful of votes, the closest the issue had ever come to passing the establishment-controlled SEC. The 18 of us who form the conservative caucus of the SEC are out-voted every time. However, we are making significant inroads and those at great sway from phone call arm-twisting of the establishment, have continued to migrate and join us. My criticism of you is what little support we had from bloggers and activists. In fact, NOBODY of your conviction showed up at the meeting, which was well-covered by media present. Why? As long as those of you who feel passionate about this issue, sit on the sidelines and write to limited blogosphere audiences, we will not make great progress. Before you sling criticism our way, know your facts and get behind the very effort you say you want. You also fail to differentiate arguments when we elect a president. Closed primaries are significant for local/state-wide elections but in the general election, long gone are the days when a Republican can get elected with Republican votes only. We must have Republicans of all nature and ideology, we must have Independents and we must have disaffected Democrats cross-over to vote for our candidate. The days are clearly gone when we demographically and politically had enough voters to get us over the top in the general. I would encourage you to keep that in mind before going over the cliff on closed primaries. It may be more passable to have a hybrid primary system that treats the presidential election differently. How can we close out the very voters in the presidential preference contests, who we depend on to win the general.
Rebecca, thanks for sharing your thoughts and for your willingness to serve on the SEC. While you are entitled to your opinion, you’re not entitled to reshaping or misinterpreting the facts about me and my involvement. Over the last decade I have spent many, many more hours engaged in conservative change than simply pecking away on a keyboard. What you apparently are unaware of is that I was very engaged behind the scenes in the process to rally SEC members to the cause of closing our primaries in TN. I’m thankful for your vote to that end. But several of us spent time discussing, planning and reaching out to SEC members across the state who we knew to encourage them to vote as you did. As the founder of the Chattanooga Tea Party 7 years ago, I would hardly say that we simply complain and do nothing. To the contrary, if you took the time to understand the facts before arriving at your invalid conclusions, you would know that our organization and members have been very engaged, particularly in our local community. For what it’s worth, next time you are ready to jump to a conclusion about someone you don’t even know, you might try picking up the phone, sending an email, or messaging them on Facebook, if you don’t “unfriend” them first. Thanks again for your thoughts, and service. At the end of the day though, I hope you’ll abandon your support of Hillary-lite, aka Donald Trump, and get behind the only consistent, constitutional conservative in the race, Ted Cruz!