At U.S. News David Catanese digs into the outsider insurgency that’s riling the GOP.
After months of obstinate denial and simmering dismay, Republican elites are soberly coming to the conclusion that 2016 may be the year the raucous insurgent faction of the party finally topples the usually sturdy mainstream contingent in the presidential race.
The twin renegade candidacies of real estate mogul Donald Trump and junior Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are packing the potency and endurance to be plausible ultimate victors of the primary – an outcome deemed doubtful by wide swaths of GOP leadership just a few months ago.
The success of their campaigns is being enhanced by a divided slate of traditional candidates from the wing of the party known collectively in Washington – and derisively outside of it – as “the establishment.”
There’s also a palpable lack of urgency among party chieftains and mainstream campaigns to do anything about it. With just a month before balloting begins, there are few calls for unity and little sign of a grand coalescing in order to halt the march of the outsiders. Instead, there’s a budding sense that if the voters decide 2016 is the year to tear the scab off, upend history and remake the party, so be it.
Read the whole thing.
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