Super Saturday is upon us and CNN will begin covering the results in just a few hours. Super Tuesday has come and gone, and though the playing field has narrowed to just four the conversation still centers around Donald Trump as it has throughout this entire primary season.
The GOP establishment is in a panic and news networks are trying to explain the seemingly inexorable force that is The Donald. Despite comments and a campaign strategy that would doom any other campaign to a very public death (I'm looking at you Howard Dean), The Donald continues to ride roughshod over the Republican primaries. It is almost as though his hair is actually made of a carbon fiber/Teflon weave rather than of left over straw from Scarecrow's costume from the Wizard of Oz.
But really his rise to power (and ability to go the distance) shouldn't be that surprising. The GOP is just reaping what they have sown. For the past eight years the GOP has railed against Washington and the establishment. Ted Cruz's rise to power was on the same wave the Trump has now commandeered. In fact next to Trump, Cruz screams "Washington Insider".
No, The Donald's rise to power is a direct result of all the hard work that the GOP has put into bringing down President Obama and the Democrats. Only now they have lost control of it. If you have seen any of the Jurassic Park movies, you're familiar with the overall plot points.
And to further complicate the issue, the other three candidates have yet to step down and unify behind one candidate. Were this to happen, they might just have a chance to stop Trump. But in effect, Rubio, Cruz and Kasich have become third party candidates within their own party who do nothing except fracture the vote so that Trump emerges victorious again and again. And it is only going to become worse if Rubio wins Florida and Kasich wins Ohio. They will only use that as a further proof that they should remain in the race, and more than likely Trump will continue to pick up delegates from everywhere else.
Even if after this weekend they do finally unify like some political Voltron, it may be too late to stop Trump. Had there only been three candidates at the beginning of the primary it is likely that Trump would have already been defeated, but he was able to win again and again because of his strong base, a base that was created by the GOP establishment.
The question now is where does the GOP go from here? In all honesty, it may not have a choice in the end to either support Donald Trump. Either that or disown him. But what will that do to the GOP? Could we be witnessing the death of a party? Or the creation of a new one?
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