by Mark Steyn Steyn on America August 12, 2015
Today I started the day with the great John Oakley on Toronto's AM640. He began with a soundbite of Donald Trump, meandering around wherever it was, after which we tried to pin down his appeal. Noting the differences between the US and the more fluid party systems of Canada (and pretty much everywhere else), I said that the permanently frozen institutionalized nature of the party system in America had led to a kind of "two-party one-party state". The problem with that is that it works fine for Democrats: When you say "Washington is broken" to liberals, they must wonder what you're on about - they get Obamacare, illegal-immigration amnesty, same-sex marriage, the EPA regulating every aspect of life... What's not to like?
But the two-party one-party state doesn't work so well for conservatives - even with big, historic Republican victories. In my interview with John, I described Republicans as a party of seat-warmers - until the pendulum swings and the Dems come roaring back. When the left wins, they're in power; when the right wins, they're in office, and that's all. A substantial portion of the base gets that, and is sick of it. They feel like they're losing their country, and they want more than a party that promises merely to lose it a little more slowly.
We'll post the audio of my appearance with John as soon as we can [UPDATE! It's here! Scroll down the page and enjoy the listen]. Meanwhile, I've had a ton of mail objecting to my "support" of Donald Trump which we'll try to run some of it in the days ahead. But, for the record, I'm not "supporting" him. As I said to John, the Republican nominating process has failed in the last two cycles, and thus, five months before any actual votes are cast, watching someone disrupt a racket that can use all the disruption it can get is hugely enjoyable. I mean, he's touched the third, fourth, fifth and every other live rail in American politics, insulting Hispanics, veterans, menstruating women - and the more juice that shoots through him the stronger he gets. He's discarded every convention of American politics, which, given that it's the conventions of American politics that have made us the brokest nation in history, is something to be cheered. He's the richest guy in the race, but he's not spending a dime - because while the single-digit candidates kiss up to the big donors and blow through a fortune on the usual tedious "I was born the son of a mailman" ads - Trump is sucking up all the airtime between commercial breaks for free. He's making a mockery of the consultant class, and what's not to enjoy about that? For as long as it lasts.
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