http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/26/scott-faulkner-how-trump-wins/?page=all#pagebreakHow Trump wins
Outsider movements on the right and left can help him smash the status quo
By Scot Faulkner
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Anew voter coalition is emerging. A new era has begun.
Donald Trump has swept away his competition in the Republican primaries. Here is how he will sweep to victory in the General Election.
Outside the circles of power in Washington, D.C., New York City and Hollywood, America has been a smoldering caldera of anger. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, America has been without a real strategy or leader to cope with the complexities of the post-Cold War World.
Throughout America, those not favored by government regulations and contracts remain in the deep depression that started in 2007 and swallowed our economy in September 2008.
The 2016 election cycle is all about Americans rebelling against those who lied to them and who are exploiting the system. This is Donald Trump’s America.
This year is about removing those who caused the problem and starting anew. That is why policy details matter less than the willingness to topple the current establishment.
Americans in 2016 are seeking a defining moment of rebellion.
On April 19, 1775, militiamen in Lexington and Concord stood their ground against British regulars who were on their way to confiscate rebel arms and arrest their leaders. The American Revolution had begun.
No policy manifesto or legislation existed when those heroic individuals rose up against a collective evil. The Minutemen did not debate alternatives — they decisively acted to end the established order. It was fight first, sort out later.
Mr. Trump is leading a “back to the future” rebellion, transcending party and ideology. Just like 1775, it is fight first, sort out later.
There are three movements capable of bringing 1775 to 2016. The establishments of both parties have done everything they can to keep these movements apart, including demonizing each with the others’. The establishment’s worst nightmare is that these movements will unite in a common purpose against them.
The moment these movements think like 1775, the establishment is through. Mr. Trump knows this.
The Tea Party movement arose in 2007 to protest policies of Republican, and later Democratic, elites. This movement railed against out-of-control government spending and attacked the cozy behind-the-scenes deals between government elites and friendly business leaders. They decried the crony capitalism of George W. Bush’s Wall Street bailout, which rewarded instead of punished those who wrecked the American economy.
Occupy Wall Street began on Sept. 17, 2011, with demonstrations in New York City. The OWS demonstrators also decried crony capitalism and the Wall Street bailout.
In 2014, North American workers united in an Inter-Continental Day of Action to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Many were veterans of the fight against the North American Free Trade Agreement. Approximately 564 organizations, spanning the political spectrum, signed petitions and organized protests.
Those who rallied to Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot in 1992, and who are rallying to Bernard Sanders in 2016 desire to end a system that benefits elites at the expense of everyone else. Mr. Sanders remains in the race to bring his voice and his legions to the Democratic National Convention. The platform fights and Mr. Sanders’ speech to the convention will be their high-water mark. Afterward, they may support Mr. Trump in fighting the system.
Mr. Trump understands that America’s political parties are voter mobilization mechanisms, not ideological crusades. He knows his history.
The Reagan era was driven by Reagan and “Reaganism,” not by Republicanism. The Republican establishment never fully embraced Reaganism, to the point of undermining his revolution. Elected as “Reagan’s third term,” George H.W. Bush and the Republican Establishment launched a thorough “cleansing” of Reaganites from the executive branch, as well as among state Republican parties. Grass-roots Republicans realized their enemy was the moderate, elitist, Washington Republican establishment.
In 1994, Newt Gingrich’s rival of Reaganism powered Republicans to retake the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Pettiness and ego among congressional Republicans derailed the revival. Scandals and earmark abuses drove them out of office in 2006. Grass-roots Republicans erupted in open revolt against the Washington establishment.
The establishment still does not comprehend what is happening, or they hope they can dampen the rebellion and keep control of the status quo.
Mr. Trump is the only person left standing willing to smash their status quo.
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• Scot Faulkner served as director of personnel for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and on his White House staff. He also served as the first chief administrative officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.
