Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:47 pm
Donald Trump beat establishment favorite Senator Marco Rubio (R-FLA) in Virginia this Super Tuesday. Virginia is the state that houses many establishment Republicans whose votes, it was hoped, would save Rubio and thus save the Republican party.
If the Republican party can’t pull a win out of Virginia for its establishment favorite, the take-over of the party by the Trump faction (which is also the Bush-forever faction, the Palin faction, etc), their days of falsely selling themselves as moderates are over.
What we are witnessing this Super Tuesday is 30-40 years of Republican southern strategy coming home to roost. Years of selling financial platforms that harm the voters by playing up racism and bigotry have brought Republicans to Donald Trump.
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This should surprise no one, but it will because Republicans don’t do reality. It is denial that has brought Republicans here – not actual failures, but denials of those failures.
It will take years for the ramifications of Donald Trump beating the second establishment favorite to make themselves known. Rubio wasn’t even the first establishment favorite, he was a Hail Mary hope that was wobbly from the outset. The first had to drop out because even Jeb Bush couldn’t override the rage driving the Trump faction of the Republican party to toss a match onto the gasoline of destruction.
Update: Rubio might not get any delegates if he can’t meet the 20% threshold:
Rubio's current %s in states w/ 20% thresholds: 15.7% in AL, 21.9% in GA, 19.5% in TN, 18.8% in TX, 19.6% in VT. Ouch!!
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 2, 2016
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