2016: What Should’ve Been

Over and over again, Republican voters were told that 2016 was going to be the year — the year of a strong bench, the year of a shorter primary, the year of unity — and the year a Republican would take back the White House.

Instead, 2016 became a year of rejection of traditional candidates, the Grand Ole Party and its Old Guard.

Alas, here we are in mid-April in the middle of a volatile primary, with the looming possibility of a contested convention in July as the race to 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination continues.

After eight years of failed Obama policies, job losses, and economic strife, Republicans were poised to be on the offensive. So how did we get here?

In May of 2015, the Republican National Committee (RNC) met in Arizona, where they discussed the 2016 election and what needed to be done to take back the White House.

“To win in a presidential election year, the Democrats have to be good,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “As Republicans, we need to be about perfect in order to win.”

A tall order considering the start of the 2016 presidential campaign season boasted 17 candidates — all with ideological and generational differences.

Anger has swept the 2016 election, specifically anger at Washington and the Establishment — something that should’ve been expected by the Republican Party in an election year when substance and experience no longer qualify a candidate to be president because of failed “experienced” candidates in 2008 and 2012. The base bought into a party that for years has failed to hear them.

Voter anger peaked in 2010 — the height of the Tea Party movement that led to Republicans gaining a majority in Congress. Rasmussen polling shows that 63 percent of Republican voters are very angry with the policies of the federal government even though Republicans hold a majority in both the House and Senate.

It’s not just anger, though; it’s disaffection and dissatisfaction with the government and the status quo.

“Anyone who didn’t see the ‘angry electorate’ phenomenon coming in 2016 has simply had their head in the sand,” said Mark Meckler, founder of Citizens for Self Governance and founder of the Tea Party movement. “This is a direct outgrowth of the Tea Party movement, which began in 2009. The Tea Party infused new enthusiasm into the Republican Party and handed them the House in 2010, and then the Senate in 2014. In return, Republicans have delivered nothing, repeatedly refusing to use the power of the purse to limit any of the myriad of offenses committed by the Obama administration. The day of reckoning is upon them, and we are now witnessing the demise of the Republican Establishment. May they rest in peace.”

[lz_table title=”GOP Voters Find Government Unfavorable” source=”CNN Politics”]South Carolina
Dissatisfied,52%
Angry,40%
|New Hampshire
Dissatisfied,50%
Angry,39%
|Texas
Dissatisfied,43%
Angry,48%
|Florida
Dissatisfied,46%
Angry,40%
|Ohio
Dissatisfied,55%
Angry,36%
|North Carolina
Dissatisfied,53%
Angry,40%
|Wisconsin
Dissatisfied,55%
Angry,32%
[/lz_table]

What’s more, exit polling from early nominating states has been showing just how angry and dissatisfied Republican voters are, which has led to record high turnout at the polls. The anger is not specific to just one region or one demographic — it’s a resounding anger felt by more than 40 percent of GOP voters throughout the country.

The GOP’s best and brightest from the deep bench of candidates faded fast to shine the spotlight on political outsiders such as Donald Trump whose simple messages resonated with an angry electorate. In the end there was room for only one politically connected candidate to remain in the race — Sen Ted. Cruz. The Texas senator, hated by the Political Establishment, became the most outsider-insider candidate to go up against billionaire businessman Trump.

The rise of Trump is a direct result of the failure of the Republican Party to remain in touch and in tune to its base. For years the GOP has put up candidates who were told “it was their turn” and the voters accepted it — but not anymore.

Many within the GOP elite and the Establishment have coalesced around the “Never Trump” movement in an effort to prevent him from getting the nomination, even though he has won a majority of votes in many states. But it’s not just the elite that are put off by Trump, it’s long-time leading conservatives as well — creating a real divide among different factions of the party. Now, even some Republicans are coming to terms with the fact that the GOP’s best chance of taking back the White House may be in 2020 — completely giving up on this year’s election.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who suspended his campaign in December of 2015, now finds himself backing Cruz in the hopes of preventing a Trump nomination. But his endorsement is one that lacks enthusiasm. Graham himself has even said that he believes Republicans will lose the election in November. “Here’s my concern: We can lose in 2016 — and we probably will,” Graham said. “If Trump is the standard bearer, it’s not about 2016. It’s about losing the heart and soul of the conservative movement.”

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfmcEHO-lBE”]

Graham himself even admits that if Trump can’t be stopped at the convention by Cruz or Kasich, the party must not parachute someone in — but if it does, it would be do at its own peril. “I’m trying to get us the most viable nominee for 2016 that could win without destroying the party,” Graham said on “CBS This Morning.” “The bottom line is millions of people have gone to the polls and cast their ballot, and if 2,000 of us take that choice away, then I think we destroy the Republican Party forever.”

Republicans throughout the country were promised a White House win in 2016, and now as the delegate hunt continues and a contested convention is likely — the White House seems all the more unattainable.

The party runs the risk of fracturing beyond repair. If an angry electorate feels as though its voices are negated and that the party’s preference somehow overcame the will of the people — watch out.