It's Not Trump Vs. Establishment - Trump Is The Establishment

The talking heads on cable news keep talking about how Trump and his MAGA base are fighting against the establishment of the Republican Party. But where is this so-called "establishment"?

The Republican Primary started with over a dozen candidates vying with Trump for the party's presidential nomination. After one one state (Iowa) had made their choice known, every candidate but one (Nikki Haley) had dropped out of the race. And while she wanted the nomination, she was also a follower of Trump's right-wing MAGA beliefs. There is no non-MAGA candidate running for the nomination anymore.

And while it looked for a while that their might be a bipartisan fix for the border, all it took was Trump saying he didn't want the bill to pass to effectively kill it.

Both the base and congressional Republicans continue to accept (and declare their belief) that the 2020 election was won by Trump -- and he was cheated out of a second term. The very few Republicans (like Liz Cheney) who dared to tell the truth have been kicked out of the party.

And while Trump clearly tried to instigate an insurrection on January 6th of 2021, no current Republican will admit that today. In fact, most of them (taking their cue from Trump) are now referring to the January 6th criminals as "hostages".

At their 2020 convention, Republicans didn't even bother to write a party platform. They simply noted that they supported whatever Donald Trump wanted to do. And they are likely to do the same at their 2024 convention. when they renominate a man with 91 pending criminal indictments.

There is no "establishment" vying with Trump for control of the Republican Party. Donald Trump (and his MAGA minions) ARE THE ESTABLISHMENT! And they have been for quite a while now. 

"The Establishment" - Is It Big Business Or Elected Officials ?

We often hear the media, politicians, and even voters toss around the term "the establishment". Who are they talking about? Who is the establishment?

The folks at the YouGov Poll decided to see what their respondents thought. They questioned 2,204 adults on December 15th, and the results are shown in the two charts above.

The public is pretty split over whether Big Business or elected officials make up the establishment. That doesn't surprise me, since I believe it is a combination of both -- Big Business and the politicians who pursue the policies that Big Business wants enacted.

The poll's respondents were a little clearer over which political party represented the establishment. They tended to think the Republicans represented the establishment more than the Democrats. I would agree with that, and think the poll should have been even bigger in naming the Republicans. It is the elected Republican officials who carry the most water for Big Business.