Editor’s Note: Sean Kennedy is a writer based in Washington. Previously, he was a U.S. Senate aide, television producer and a fellow at public policy think tanks. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.
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Sean Kennedy: Donald Trump holds sway over the same territory that the GOP covets
If conservatives don't check Trump in, they will lose the voters who are flocking to him
With less than a month until the Iowa caucuses, followed immediately by New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, it’s time the conservative base and Republican establishment destroy Donald J. Trump – before it’s too late for the party, the conservative cause, and the nation.
To save our republic and the Republican Party, a senator from a different era offers a roadmap.
The great Roman orator Cato the Elder had a fierce hatred for Rome’s mortal enemy, Carthage. So much so that Cato would end every speech, regardless of topic, with a reminder – “Carthago delenda est” – Carthage must be destroyed.
Cato rightly saw the Carthaginians as an existential threat to the Roman Republic. Like Carthage, Trump is a behemoth with sway over the same territory that the GOP covets.
Trump channels the populism of Patrick Buchanan of the 1990s. His appeal to the public strikes deeply at the GOP establishment which has utterly failed to address the concerns of what Nixon, and now Trump’s own signage, called the “silent majority.” These voters and taxpayers are sick and tired of being run over, run down, and run off by their “betters.”
