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“Trump has risen because voters see him as authentic, independent, direct, firm, — and believe he can’t be bought. These are the same character traits our candidates should be advancing in 2016. That’s Trump lesson #1.”
— Excerpt from a seven-page confidential memo that imagines Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee, in which “the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee urges candidates to adopt many of Trump’s tactics, issues and approaches — right down to adjusting the way they dress and how they use Twitter,” the Washington Post reports.
Some of the highest-ranking Republicans in Congress and some of the party’s wealthiest and most generous donors have balked at trying to take down Mr. Trump because they fear a public feud with the insult-spewing media figure. Others warn that doing so might backfire at a time of soaring anger toward political insiders. … That has led to a standoff of sorts: Almost everyone in the party’s upper echelons agrees something must be done, and almost no one is willing to do it.
I look at our friends in the Latino community as people that ought to be voting Republican. I mean, they’re very strong family. We could all learn a little from them about the importance of family, couldn’t we? Because they are great, they are God-fearing, hard-working folks. And a lot of them do jobs that they’re willing to do. That’s why, in a hotel, you leave a little tip, you know?
— Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the Columbus Dispatch.
70%
Of Latinos “hold negative views of Donald Trump — including 60% who said they have a ‘very negative’ impression of the front-runner in the GOP’s 2016 presidential race. That’s compared to 55% of U.S. residents and just 28% of Republicans who view Trump negatively,” according to a new MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll. “Almost two-thirds of Latinos surveyed — 65% — say Trump is hurting the image of the Republican Party, while just 13% say he is helping the party.”
The Grand Old Party?once moderate and even magnanimous?has fallen into a prison of its own making when it comes to presidential politics. Republicans may be having a heyday in the Congress but their prospects for the 2016 presidential election aren’t great?and won’t improve unless and until they break out of their intellectual and ideological straightjackets and start speaking to where the American public lives: geographically, culturally, and politically.
Why don’t they say anything? Because they’re afraid to. Because he’s speaking for them. He just does it in a different tone and different language.
— Harry Reid, quoted by CNN, on Donald Trump and the GOP presidential field.
Trump’s candidacy has blasted open the GOP’s longstanding fault lines at a time when the party hoped for unity. His gleeful, attention-hogging boorishness—and the large crowds that have cheered it—cements a popular image of the party as standing for reactionary anger rather than constructive policies. As Democrats jeer that Trump has merely laid bare the true soul of the GOP, some Republicans wonder, with considerable anguish, whether they’re right.
— Molly Ball, in the Atlantic.
I think it is a positive for our party. When you have 30 million people watching, not to mention the fact that we have 16 other incredible candidates out there I think we are showing America that we are the young, diverse party, offering a whole slew of options for people and that’s a good thing.
— RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, in an interview on WISN, on whether Donald Trump is a positive force for Republicans.
24%
Donald Trump’s lead over the GOP presidential race, followed by Jeb Bush at 13%, Ben Carson at 9%, Marco Rubio at 8%, Scott Walker at 8%, Rand Paul at 6%, Ted Cruz at 5%, Carly Fiorina at 5%, John Kasich at 5% and Mike Huckabee at 4%, a new CNN/ORC poll finds. Key finding: “Trump is the biggest gainer in the poll, up 6 points since July according to the first nationwide CNN/ORC poll since the top candidates debated in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Carson gained 5 points and Fiorina 4 points.”
The ideas once languished at the edge of Republican politics, confined to think tanks and no-hope bills on Capitol Hill. To solve the problem of illegal immigration, truly drastic measures were necessary: Deport the undocumented en masse. Seize the money they try to send home. Deny citizenship to their U.S.-born children. … Now, all of those ideas have been embraced by Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, who has followed up weeks of doomsaying about illegal immigrants with a call for an unprecedented crackdown.
