RedState users may have noticed that you are now receiving Trump polls through your text messages. This should bring back memories of the 2016-era Cambridge Analytica opposition researcher style messages. They ask for either a YES/NO response or to go here and answer this invitation.
The two messages I received in my phone’s text came from unknown outfits. Unknown parties sent me the first, CI Polling. The second was a link that led to web-act.co. It traces back to a Colorado URL registration where ownership details are masked.
Some of that is being paid for by none other than Trump nemesis John Bolton’s Super PAC, which Bolton says has been engaging in research polling and is making announcements on its website that support for Trump is falling.
John Bolton Super PAC, 19 January 2022 Press Release
Washington D.C. – A new national survey conducted by John Bolton Super PAC of likely voters revealed a 14-point drop in Republican Primary voters identifying themselves as “Trump Republicans.” Voters calling themselves “Trump Republicans” fell to 14.6% from 29.4% in September. Trump’s “very favorable” numbers also dropped 11 points with GOP primary voters continuing their decline, down from 55% in September to 44% now.
The poll also revealed a substantial decline in the power of Trump’s endorsement: Republican primary voters “definitely voting” for a Trump endorsed candidate are down to just 12.6%, compared with 28.8% in September, a 16-point drop.
According to lobbyist tracking website opensecrets.com, Bolton’s Super PAC has shown reporting activity for the 2021-2022 reporting cycle with the last summary at the end of 2021 showing about $1 million in available funds.
Bolton did a recent interview with Foreign Press Association. He wanted to talk about his results from a poll that concluded Trump was becoming less relevant to the GOP. I watched the interview more because I was interested in Bolton’s thoughts on Ukraine; but, when he mentioned he was paying for polls, the lights went off as to who was at least partially behind the text messages carefully crafted with that “ever so slight doubt about the subject of the question” that is so characteristic of a Cambridge Analytica style crafted outcome poll question.
Donald Trump is an unpopular figure in American politics. In 2016, Trump appeared on the political scene. His unconventional and anti-establishment thinking style appealed to mainstream Americans, propelling him up the 45ThThe presidency of the United States
The Republican Party established a stern resistance against Trump. DC insiders were wary of Trump’s potential as an outsider. He openly detested their values and came to power in their own town.
In 2016, Democrats replaced the insurgent challenger with the familiar inner circle. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the heir apparent of the throne was their candidate. This assumption was wrong. Trump reached out to ordinary Americans, and that was enough for him to sweep the country.
If you’ve ever had the chance to be in DC on an election night, the aura at the bars and watching the returns come in is one of distant curiosity. It doesn’t really change anything for the residents of the castle keep other than changing offices from the Capitol offices to the consulting offices one Metro stop away until the next election.
Trump, however was a different story. Trump was different.Th presidency upset the status quo of DC’s comfort zone. Trump overtook every Beltway assumption and ground rule. It created universal opposition against the Whitehouse paralleled only by DC’s universal acrimony against another President who also defied convention to save the Nation from civil war, Abraham Lincoln.
When you examine the situation objectively one can see that Trump’s reaction to the election was so strong that it gave the opportunity for Democrats outside the party from the extreme left to increase their standing within the Beltway. In 2022, Cabinet officials can spend over half of their press conference time on “woke” talking points that would have been unheard of in the days before 2016. In many ways, the bulls of China continue to be a force in China.
Trump’s term ended with a country deeply divided. But Trump’s presidency also ended with the DC Establishment deeply united. They are aware that their goal is to keep ordinary America from turning their city upside-down again. They are very afraid that Trump might be like the fictional Lord Voldemort and “come back.”
As the country can plainly see, the Democrat portion of the task of keeping this from happening is to attempt to contain Trump using a “death of a thousand cuts” strategy by endlessly creating investigations and lawsuits that question the integrity of the man. What they aren’t saying is that what they are really opposing is the legitimacy of the values of ordinary people inside the Beltway. This is after all 2022 where, if you even think about questioning the party line, you’ll lose your press credentials.
There are also tasks for the GOP-side of DC Establishment. Chief among these is to prevent Trump’s populist agenda from gaining traction in the GOP platform, lest the 2022 midterm become the start of yet another round of “resistance” by the castle against the outsiders. John Bolton appears to have signed up for the cause as a foot soldier.
This leaves us wondering what this means for the CPAC meeting, which will see the beginning of the battle between Trump insiders and GOP establishment. You can guess my answer.
But I’m quite sure the Democrats will be rooting for the DC insiders.
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