Live from La Farine: with both Cruz and Trump, the dog-whistle dance of the Republicans has broken down. Cruz won't whisper to the Washington Post and New York Times editorial boards that his statements out on the campaign trail are just boob bait for the bubbas. And so the Republican establishment, for whom Barack Obama is not a radical left-wing Communist Kenyan Muslim, are as scared of them as they are of the unpredictable and fascist Trump:
: Donald Trump Versus the Republican Brain: "Trump may be more effective than other Republicans at harnessing... xenophobia [and] nationalism...
...but he barely differs from Ted Cruz in the specific proposals in which he expresses them. Trump has attracted the support of the majority of Republican voters who favor higher taxes on the rich, but Trump himself would reduce them.... Trump attacks free trade more viscerally than other Republicans, but both he and Cruz have the same stance (oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, promise to implement some unspecified better deal). Trump is promising to appoint conventional right-wing jurists to the bench....
Republican-elite loathing for Trump has three sources. First... his deep unpopularity among the general public makes him a historically awful nominee. Second, his egomania... give them justifiable reasons to doubt he will stay committed to their agenda.... And third, they find his persona repellant. That last... [is] the highest-order question in the Republican race.....
There are certain forms of nonsense all Republicans must believe.... Ronald Reagan brought down communism by telling Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall; global warming is fake... the Bush tax cuts did not cause a deficit problem.... But Trump... [also] lies about things like his polling, his businesses, whether he has said the things he has actually said, whether Mitt Romney is even Mormon... a cult of personality so total they will accept even his most preposterous or obnoxious statement. That Trump, and Trump alone, can make Mexico fund a massive border wall is his most famous campaign promise and a symbol of the suspension of disbelief that is the heart of Trumpism....
The conservative movement has succeeded for decades by channeling racial resentment, nationalism, and authoritarianism into traditional policy proposals that can be justified in white papers.... Trump has made a mockery of this whole process.... Conservative intellectuals... have articulated serious reasons for, say, restricting immigration levels, but Trump grasps the embarrassing reality that most Republican voters are driven by base animus toward immigrants...
