Question: Is Donald Trump Taking a Wrecking Ball to the Democratic Party?

I have written that Donald Trump is leading an insurgency.

If you Google the words “Trump” and “insurgency” you will get over 650,000 links to articles and commentary. I recently said to a friend that Donald Trump has gone from being a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President to the leader of a movement. That movement has now turned into an insurgency within the Republican Party and led to anarchy within the Democratic Party.

First here are definitions of words I use:

Insurgency is a “rebellion against an existing government by a group not recognized as a belligerent.” Insurgency is synonymous with dissent, insurrection, mutiny, revolt, uprising, defiance and disobedience.

Anarchy is a “state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.” Anarchy is synonymous with lawlessness, nihilism, mobocracy, revolution, insurrection, disorder, chaos, mayhem, tumult and turmoil.

Populist is a “member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.”

Is it Trump who created an insurgency or is Trump following the lead of a growing populist insurgency that was already taking place?

I have written that Trump leads his followers by following their lead. The movement began during the Presidency of Bill Clinton and continues today. It is a struggle between the individualist and the collectivist.

In an article titled Trump Changes Democratic Party Too Dick Morris writes:

Trump’s candidacy and its challenge to the economic and social establishments of America highlights how close Hillary Clinton is to both. She is the candidate of the status quo in a country seething with a craving for political change.

Trump is the sole provider of change in this election. Clinton may trot out her little bitty programs of incremental change, creeping forward from the Obama agenda, but it doesn’t come close to the full-scale assault on income inequality, crony capitalism, free trade giveaways, rampant illegal immigration and political correctness gone berserk that the populists of both parties want.

But Trump is doing more than driving populist Democrats into Republican arms. He is separating the establishment left of the Democratic Party from its populist base. His candidacy separates the blue-collar social populists from their partisan moorings even as his economic populism appeals to the Sanders left.

A new Democratic Party is emerging from the wreckage.

The recent attack against Trump supporters at a rally in San Jose, California shows how far toward becoming a party of anarchists the Democrats have become. This form of public violence against those attending a political event is anti-thematic to American populist values and beliefs in both political parties.

The clearest example of how out of touch Democratic leaders are with their populist base may be found in the response of the Mayor of San Jose to the violence at the rally. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat supporting Hillary Clinton, told the Associated Press that “[A]t some point Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign,” blaming the Republican’s presence for inciting the violence.

This is blaming the victim of rape for the sexual assault, the gun for the shooting or those attacked for the actions of the mob.

What San Jose reinforces is the Trump Insurgents versus the hard leftist Democrat Anarchists on the streets. Continued violence can drive moderate populist Democrats to the Republican party.

Trump supporters. Photo: Facebook.

Donald Trump has tapped into the “Individualism Movement.” Trump’s life is the embodiment of the individualist. Trump has been rich, then poor and then rich again. He has done this not with government handouts, but rather despite the government.

Members of the Individualism Movement go by many names: Silent Majority, TEA Party Patriots, Constitutionalists, Blue Dog Democrats, Anti-Establishment Republicans, the working class and Blue Dog Democrats. They embody the insurgency.

Is Trump the new populist or the old individualist?

Here are just some of the reasons Trump is different from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders:

Not a career politician.
Not politically correct.
Isn’t influenced by money or big donors.
When he sees something he says something.
Turns his negatives into positives.
Attacks against him consistently backfire.
Fearless and is therefore feared.
Has broad populist appeal due to his forthright comments.

Each of these are indicators of individualism on steroids.

Donald Trump is saying what people have wanted to say but have been afraid to do so. When Trump speaks he is not speaking to the media or the elite, he is speaking to John and Jane six-pack. He is speaking to each an every American.

It appears that Donald Trump is fundamentally transforming both the Democratic and Republican parties.