The question remains, though. Why do these people love him so much? I doubt the answer lies in ideology. Rather, this is an emotional attachment and an expression of primal rage. And if you look at the other Republican circus — the House speakership battle — you can see what it might be. Both the Trump voter, the Tea Party regular, the talk-radio crowd and the Freedom Caucus are all saying the same thing: They’ve been lied to by the Republican Party and they’re not going to take it anymore.
For years, they have been loyal foot soldiers for the GOP, putting up with candidates like Mitt Romney, a milquetoast campaigner who changed his political stripes as often as he changed his underwear. They watched George W. Bush screw the pooch in Iraq, embarrassing the party and the US of A in the eyes of the whole world. They waited and waited for the Republicans to fulfill their promises to overturn Obamacare, ban abortion, outlaw gay marriage, eliminate the deficit and kick in the teeth of any tin-horned terrorist who dared to take the name of America in vain. These were all the promises the Republicans ran on. And yet nothing happened. And they don’t understand why.
The only thing they see as a positive is that when the Republicans lose their minds and storm townhalls or shut down the government, as they did in 2010 and 2014, they win big at the ballot box, thereby proving that the entire country agrees that this agenda must be immediately adopted in its entirety without compromise.
This is truly what they believe.
Here’s Giant Slayer David Brat, the Freedom Caucus member who took down the second most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, last year:
CHUCK TODD:Congressman Brat, let me start with you. You’re a member of the Freedom Caucus. What is it that you want, and what is it that Speaker Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, and Eric Cantor haven’t delivered?
REP. DAVE BRAT: Right. Well, they all ran on a pledge to America. And just like your 72% of the folks out there in the real world, say, “We make these promises when we run, but then when we get up here, we’re called ‘unrealistic’ by the Washington establishment and the bubble up here.” What we want is what the American people want.
You’ll notice his conceit (or delusion) — that he represents “the American people” as a whole — when in fact he is just one of 435 representatives who represent their own districts. He seems not to recognize that many of his fellow representatives’ constituents have very different agendas than his do. Why, even within his own district 40 percent of the people voted for his opponent.
And you’ll also notice that he also doesn’t seem to recognize that our system of government requires that the president sign legislation or notice that the president is of the opposing party. Indeed, he doesn’t seem to understand our system of government at all. Or, as Republican congressman Charlie Dent said about the Freedom Caucus, “they seem to have a problem with James Madison.”
While there’s no direct evidence (that I’m aware of) that ties these Tea Party radicals to the Donald Trump phenomenon, it’s easy to see a relationship between the two. Rather than recognizing that our system of government cannot deliver their agenda by fiat, they are lashing out in anger at those who fail to do that and turning to a megalomaniac whose grandiose promises of deliverance are no longer even political, much less achievable. He is simply promising that he will, by sheer force of personality, deport all the “bad people”, bring “so many victories they’ll be coming out of your ears,” and Make America Great Again. He doesn’t have an agenda. He is offering a utopian revelation. And after all the disappointments from their more earthly leaders, it’s what they need to hear.
Please click over to read the rest. There’s a lot more. If any when Trump starts to lose his lustre, there’s another candidate lurking who can at least give them the fight they’re looking for.