It is too bad that in this article he does not come out with real data to answer the question which perennially plagues the Republican Party, whether we lose because we have not loosened up enough to entice the mushy middle or do we lose because we haven't tightened up enough to energize our muscular base?
We conservatives have argued ever since Ronald Reagan walked off with two of the greatest landslides ever that the Republican Party was throwing away its birthright when it despises its own conservative base. Since then we have lost the popular vote in national election after national election, as I recall five of the last six of them, and every time we have sought to accommodate moderates.
Many conservatives are energized by Donald Trump believing that he is a muscular conservative. It is clear that he is robust but it is not clear that he is a conservative. It seems to be clear that that his candidacy, whether intentionally or not, will strike a blow at the Republican establishment who have given us accommodationists ever since Ronald Reagan. But it is not clear that Trump is a conservative nor is it clear that he will govern as a conservative in the unlikely event that he captures both the nomination and the election.
It it is not clear whether Trump will energize the base sufficiently to overcome the amount of Democrats he is no doubt energizing or independents , especially women, whom he might be offending? That is not by way of an assertion that is by way of a question, hence the ?.
Nor is it clear whether Trump will garner enough Reagan Democrats, blue-collar workers especially, in the rust belt, and the coal industry, other middle-class people displaced by immigrants, to compensate for any losses he might generate elsewhere. It is entirely possible that even while Donald Trump wrecks the Republican Party (I can dream can't I?) he might at the same time be creating a whole new coalition reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's brilliant and unstoppable force. That is something to contemplate before breakfast.
I think we have to be very careful about being drawn up in an enthusiastic rush for Donald Trump because he generates enthusiasm within our conservative community. We have to be careful about projecting our perception of the world onto people who do not live and breathe politics. We have to be especially careful about projecting our values onto females who get their politics from the pages of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Michael Barone is opening a whole lot of options for us to ponder some of which might just not be impossible.
