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They Created Trump 2016
All the elected Republicans with heartburn over Donald Trump’s rise in the polls should really ponder their role in the creation of Trump 2016.
It’s not just New York Republicans who have greeted Trump with open arms. In his election bid in 2012, Mitt Romney gladly had Donald Trump take the stage with him for an endorsement. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 63% also accepted his endorsement and had a private meeting with him.
Numerous Republican groups have solicited Trump for money. Going back to 2010, Republicans were keen on paying a visit to Trump’s office in New York and cashing his checks. Trump has been the “big get” for Republican groups.
I have written a lot about what it means to be a Republican these days. I know what it means to be a conservative. But to be a Republican, it seems you just need a desire to acquire power. You can figure out what to do with it later while throwing out some pablum about smaller government.
Republicans were absolutely eager to take Trump’s money, use Trump’s name, and have him in photographs with them until he got the big idea of running as one and disrupting their primary process.
I am in the camp that thinks Trump will not be the nominee. But I also do not think the GOP should be surprised by Trump’s rise. They compressed their primary schedule, they limited the number of debates, and they agreed to caps on the number of people on stage. None of those things are really objectionable. But it necessitated the candidates find Super PACs and mega-donors to fund their bids and drive up their name ID.
It should surprise none of us that one of those potential donors decided to run himself. And why not — the GOP has courted Donald Trump for years. If they really objected to Trump, they should not have taken his money. But they were happy to do that.
Now they will, from their perspective, pay the price. Trump probably hurt himself in Iowa with both his comments on McCain and his comments on his faith. We may have reached peak Trump as a result. But let’s not kid ourselves. The establishment’s wooing of Trump going back to 2010 advanced Donald Trump within the Republican Party.
If they didn’t want him and they didn’t want his money, they probably should have told him then, not now that he’s ahead in the polls. The GOP has taken money and sweat equity from millions of people and broken most of their campaign promises in return.
If I believed in karma, I’d think Trump was payback.
The post They Created Trump 2016 appeared first on RedState.
Source: http://www.redstate.com/2015/07/20/they-created-trump-2016/
