Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
Last summer I bought into the conventional wisdom that Trump or Cruz would lose the GOP nomination because they were unelectable at a national level and that a party establishment member would arise out of the crowd to win the nomination.
I don't think that's going to happen now. The polling for both Trump and Cruz has stayed remarkably consistent going into Primary season. My guess is Trump will roll up Cruz to win the GOP nomination. I don't think a brokered convention will occur in Cleveland.
So why is this happening? Well for a long time the GOP's Southern strategy has allied two primary groups. Working class whites with Plutocrats/Corporate Management class. Two very unlikely partners in politics. For a generation now this coalition has been lead by the plutocrats who have promised their base to uphold social issues that white working class identify with their values (the so called guns, gays, abortion, religion, patriotism, etc). For a generation the GOP's political leaders have made promises to the white working class base only to be elected and to focus on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and free trade, only to have their priorities almost completely ignored. This has been going of for election, after election for over a generation and it's a big reason why white working class voters are so angry. They feel that they have gone from the political dominant demographic to an after thought and they are not happy about this.
Along comes Trump and Cruz at a time when this anger among the largest constituent of the GOP coalition has reached white hot heat and they appear to be the right people at the right time to win the GOP nomination. I am pretty sure now that Trump will win the GOP nomination. In that respect I have changed my view from last summer.
So that then brings up the only real relevant electoral question. Since Bernie Sanders odds of beating Hillary who will be Hillary's vice-president? Nothing has changed at the national level. The data, if the election were held today, shows clearly Hillary would defeat Trump decisively and Cruz by an EV landslide.
I don't think that's going to happen now. The polling for both Trump and Cruz has stayed remarkably consistent going into Primary season. My guess is Trump will roll up Cruz to win the GOP nomination. I don't think a brokered convention will occur in Cleveland.
So why is this happening? Well for a long time the GOP's Southern strategy has allied two primary groups. Working class whites with Plutocrats/Corporate Management class. Two very unlikely partners in politics. For a generation now this coalition has been lead by the plutocrats who have promised their base to uphold social issues that white working class identify with their values (the so called guns, gays, abortion, religion, patriotism, etc). For a generation the GOP's political leaders have made promises to the white working class base only to be elected and to focus on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and free trade, only to have their priorities almost completely ignored. This has been going of for election, after election for over a generation and it's a big reason why white working class voters are so angry. They feel that they have gone from the political dominant demographic to an after thought and they are not happy about this.
Along comes Trump and Cruz at a time when this anger among the largest constituent of the GOP coalition has reached white hot heat and they appear to be the right people at the right time to win the GOP nomination. I am pretty sure now that Trump will win the GOP nomination. In that respect I have changed my view from last summer.
So that then brings up the only real relevant electoral question. Since Bernie Sanders odds of beating Hillary who will be Hillary's vice-president? Nothing has changed at the national level. The data, if the election were held today, shows clearly Hillary would defeat Trump decisively and Cruz by an EV landslide.