David Michael Miller
It was a telling moment when Donald Trump asked the audience at his Janesville rally, “How do you like Paul Ryan?” The crowd responded with loud boos. This in the hometown of Ryan, the Republican House speaker, the 2012 vice presidential candidate, the party’s leading policy wonk.
Trump has slapped at Ryan, saying “Paul wants to knock out Social Security, knock it down, way down, wants to knock Medicare way down.... These people have been making their payments their whole lives…but [Republicans] want to cut it very substantially.”
Trump at least called Ryan “a nice guy” but gleefully slammed Scott Walker’s failure in the presidential primary (“We sent him packing like a little boy”) and his governance of this state: Wisconsin “is doing very poorly,” is “losing jobs all over the place” and is mired in “vitriol” over the governor. But, Trump declared, “you have a governor that has you convinced that [Wisconsin] doesn’t have problems.”
Trump has been running roughshod over Republicans, from Jeb Bush (“lacks energy”) to Lindsay Graham (“nut job”) to “Little Marco” Rubio to “Lying” Ted Cruz. Republican leaders, in turn, are all joining forces to stop Trump or, if they fail, to distance their candidates for the U.S. Senate and House as far as possible from Trump.
Yet what is the view of Reince Priebus, Republican national chairman and good friend of the two men, Walker and Ryan, who’ve been used as piñatas by Trump? “What is everyone going to say when we steamroll our opponents on the other side of the aisle?” Priebus huffed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “People are fired up, we have record turnout. For the first time in a long time, we have more Republicans registered in almost every battleground state than the Democrats do. The fundamentals on our side are unbelievably good.”
It’s reminiscent of Priebus’ prediction before the 2012 election. He blasted “a narrative out there that I just think is blatantly uninformed...that the Democrats have this great ground game. I think we’re going to crush the Democrats on the ground. I just don’t think they’ve got a very good ground game. It’s all smoke and mirrors.”
Priebus later admitted he was wrong and has worked to improve his party’s ground game. And he commissioned a report after the 2012 defeat that concluded: “It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities.” Yet he has stood by while Trump has pushed the party into a virulent anti-amnesty posture, with The Donald accusing Mexico of sending rapists and drug dealers to the United States.
Priebus has frequently said it’s not his job to tell candidates what to say or think. In reality, he has stepped in at times to try to monitor the message, and it’s been revealing how and when.
After the Mexican rapist comment, Priebus phoned Trump, urging him to tone it down. But even a toned-down version of that message was obviously contradictory to the Priebus report urging Republicans to woo Hispanics.
After Trump suggested a ban on all Muslim immigrants, Priebus disagreed, saying, “We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values.”
But when Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Trump’s failure to immediately distance himself from David Duke and the KKK, Priebus said nothing. That might seem surprising given that the post-2012 report also urged the party to build “a lasting relationship with the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.”
But the reality is that Trump was increasing turnout by attracting voters with quite racist views. The South Carolina exit poll showed 70% of Trump’s voters wish the Confederate flag was still flying on their statehouse grounds, and 38% wish the South had won the Civil War. National YouGov data showed nearly 20% of Trump’s voters disagreed with President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves.
Priebus not only wants those votes, he’s convinced they could bring the GOP victory. “I’m not one of these people that think that Donald Trump can’t win a general election,” he’s said. “I actually think there is a huge crossover appeal there to people that are disengaged politically.”
Priebus might have acted earlier — last fall — to head off the Trump bandwagon. But it’s clear he’s convinced Trump can help the party win, despite polls showing 63% of Americans view him unfavorably. Trump is fueling such outrage that not one GOP official in Wisconsin supported him. Trump helped kill Scott Walker’s presidential bid and is overthrowing the GOP political philosophy Ryan has helped guide. And if Trump does win the nomination, it may be harder for down-ticket Republicans like U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to win election.
Come November there may be a lot of Republicans unhappy with Reince Priebus.
Bruce Murphy is the editor of UrbanMilwaukee.com.
