A Scary Time For The GOP
It's Friday the 13th and the GOP is afraid, very afraid. I know because the Washington Post told me so. A front page article this morning says that the party elders are hitting the "panic button" and see "doom" ahead if the leading "outsiders" - Donald Trump or Dr. Ben Carson - get the GOP nomination. Some of the insiders are so afraid that they are reportedly talking once again about drafting Mitt Romney to run again in spite of his repeated statements that he won't do so.
By the way, the Post story adds it isn't just Trump and Carson who upset the inside the Beltway crowd - they are also very worried about "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas who is gaining steam and is loathed by party elites." So, the bottom line is that the party elders are mortified and loathe Trump, Carson, and Cruz, who together are currently supported by around 65% of Republicans and Republican leaning independents. Instead of loathing these candidates it might be more productive for the insiders to ask themselves why so much of the GOP base is in revolt.
One Republican who does seem to "get it" is Governor Nikki Haley. Trying to explain the disconnect she said:
"You have a lot of people who were told that if we got a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate, then life was gonna be great... What you're seeing is that people are angry. Where's the change? Why aren't there bills on the president's desk every day for him to veto? They're saying, 'Look, what you said would happen didn't happen...'"
What The Headlines Reveal
Perusing the headlines over the last couple of weeks, I couldn't help but notice a remarkable juxtaposition. Perhaps you'll notice it too. Here's a sampling of some recent headlines.
Clarion University Play Canceled Over Actors' Race
Two elderly Israelis stabbed in latest Palestinian attacks
College 'Safe Space' Boos an Asian Woman For Declaring 'Black People Can Be Racist'
ISIS Claims Responsibility for Blasts That Killed Dozens in Beirut
Chaos on campus: Students protest, call for heads to roll at schools around country
ISIS Beheads Sudanese Christian Man in Latest Video
Campus Activists Weaponize 'Safe Space'
IDF: 2 Israelis killed, 1 injured by shooter in West Bank
Claremont McKenna College Junior Class President Resigns Over Racially Insensitive Halloween Costume
These headlines highlight how insular American college campuses have become. The chaos taking place on campuses across the country is a result of a generation of children that have been told that they are unique "snowflakes" whose every thought and feeling must be validated and celebrated by all those around them.
Meanwhile, of course, most of the world is dealing with a whole other set of problems. While student protestors call for "heads to roll" at schools across the country, actual heads are rolling across the Middle East and Africa as a result of radical Islam's declared war on Christianity. As college kids demand "safe spaces" on campuses where their feelings can't be hurt or their beliefs challenged, Jewish children in Israel have no safe spaces from the tyranny of Palestinian terrorists.
And as college students demand "trigger warnings" that alert them to passages in books or scenes in movies that might evoke memories of a traumatic event, millions of people around the world live in fear of the trauma -- war, terrorism, slavery, displacement -- that lies just around the corner.