The Day After: Nevada Edition - Part 2

See you in 2020 Nevada

We need to talk about Donald Trump.

Yesterday the Republicans had their caucus in Nevada, and Trump demolished the rest of the GOP field. Again. The New York City businessman, and a formerly registered Democratic Party voter, won his third primary contest out of four. The only loss, a very close second place finish, came in an Iowa caucus marred by dirty campaign tactics employed by  the campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Florida Senator Marco Rubio continued his streak of being the runner -up, and the aforementioned Cruz is starting to fall further behind. Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson continued their quest for irrelevance in the 2016 presidential primary. Donald Trump won, it is time to start calling him the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. We need to accept this and move on.

The establishment of the Republican party is not quite ready to anoint Mr. Trump just yet. The narrative being fed to the lapdogs in the media is that Nevada, and the caucus system itself, usually has low voter turnout numbers. In reality the state actually had a record breaking night with the number of registered Republicans who voted in the caucus. Another excuse the DC republicans are floating out is that Trump does not have broad appeal. The reality is that more evangelicals voted for Trump than Cruz, more identified "very conservative" voters went for Trump than any other candidate. In fact Donald Trump won all but two counties in the Silver State (Ted Cruz won the two counties). With the Nevada caucus ending the crucial first four states of the primary calendar, Donald Trump is in a position that history says he will be the nominee. No amount of spin from frustrated Republicans can change the facts of the past.  

Somehow it still feels like the Donald Trump campaign is still a joke and will not be the GOP Presidential candidate. Is the narrative coming from the national media actually true? Will Trump falter on Super Tuesday? Many, including us here at SeedSing, have been dismissing Donald Trump since it was alleged that he paid actors to show up for his pep rally announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Since that announcement, Mr. Trump has made one outrageous remark after another to make it look like his campaign was going to be finished quickly. Early in the campaign, Trump's top campaign adviser quit (or was fired, who knows).  His entire platform is filled with racism and hate.  He is incredibly ill informed on religion and American sports heroes. To the dismay of many Republicans, Trump called the last elected GOP president a failure. Each of these missteps has only seemed to strengthen Donald Trumps hold on the plurality of Republican primary voters. Even if he continues his public missteps before Super Tuesday, Trump will probably still come out on top. This does not feel real.

What Donald Trump's success is really showing us is that the Republican Party is not about governance, it is about anger. The entire party is throwing a temper tantrum over President Obama's Constitutionally mandated duties. The rise of Trump has embraced the idea of anger, and the Republican voters have fallen in line. The idea of "Constitutional Conservatives" is false. The idea that the Republicans want to govern is laughable. Donald Trump knows that the voters are not interested in moving America forward. He is the only candidate that has been truthful about what most Republicans want, and he has been awarded with one victory after another. The Republican party is invested in an antiquated and exclusionary philosophy. Donald Trump is the hero of this type of thinking.  Good governance is not the concern, fear of change is. That is why he is winning.

It is long past time to accept the legitimacy of Donald Trump as a candidate for President of the United States. Senators Rubio and Cruz may try and claim to be the true Republican, but the voters have emphatically said their flag bearing is the New York City businessman. The primary season has kicked into full gear, and no one has been able to slow down Donald Trump, including Mr. Trump himself. Once the voting ends next week on Super Tuesday, Trump could be close to securing the GOP nomination. He is already leading in the polls for most of the eleven states that will vote on March 1st. It is time to take Donald Trump seriously. We may be stuck with him until November 8th, or longer.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. This primary season he really wants you to vote yes and like SeedSing on Facebook.