The 2016 presidential election cycle, particularly but not exclusively on the Republican side, will be known as the rise of the rebellious anti-establishment fervor.
Resolve has taken root and blossomed into the body politic like never before – call it the American spring.
Average citizens in both parties know what they do not want. They are fed up with the ruling class, which seems to have no soul. The pitched battle now is over what partisans really want in terms of their standard bearer. For Republicans, always in search of the next Reagan, none of the three remaining candidates fill the bill. In fact, no one on the scene at any level seems to have those almost mythical Reaganesque qualities. It may be that another paradigm is in order.
It is almost sad to watch Ted Cruz. On paper, he is as solid as conservatives come as conservatism is generally defined. He certainly went to Washington and delivered on the promise to challenge the status quo. He knows the Constitution we all claim to support, better than most of us. Yet somehow, his style – the sense that he is, in fact, the smartest guy in every room – is a drag on him. Reagan and even Clinton had a way of making every man feel he was the most important person in the room.
John Kasich has failed to catch on because we know who he is. He is, in fact, as establishment as it comes. Enough said.
Then there is the Donald. Never has there been so much vitriol from the political right against one of their own…
