Donald Trump has shown how easily this regime may be threatened just by refusing to be intimidated-Angelo Codevilla

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7/27/15, "Does Trump Trump?" by Angelo M. Codevilla, via Steven Hayward, Powerline

"Donald Trump leapt atop other contenders for the Republican presidential nomination when he acted on the primordial fact in American public life today, from which most of the others hide their eyes, namely: most Americans distrust, fear, are sick and tired of, the elected, appointed, and bureaucratic officials who rule over us, as well as their cronies in the corporate, media, and academic world. Trump’s attraction lies less in his words’ grace or even precision than in the extent to which Americans are searching for someone, anyone, to lead against this ruling class, that is making America less prosperous, less free, and more dangerous....

The point here is simple: our ruling class has succeeded in ruling not by reason or persuasion, never mind integrity, but by occupying society’s commanding heights, by imposing itself and its ever-changing appetites on the rest of us. It has coopted or intimidated potential opponents by denying the legitimacy of opposition. Donald Trump, haplessness and clownishness notwithstanding, has shown how easily this regime may be threatened just by refusing to be intimidated.

Having failed to destroy Trump, Republicans and Democrats are left to hope that he will self-destruct as Perot did. Indeed, Trump has hardly scratched the surface and may not be able to do more than that. Yet our rulers know the list of things divide them from the American people is long. They want to avoid like the plague any and all arguments on the substance of those things. They fear the rise of an un-intimidated leader more graceful and precise than Trump, someone whose vision is fuller but who is even more passionate in championing the many resentments the voicing of just a few channeled so much support to Trump....

Habitually, our ruling class tries to intimidate its opponents by calling them “haters” (“racists,” etc. is part of the all too familiar litany.) A statesman worthy of the title would respond that calling people such names is the very opposite of civility, never mind love. Such a leader would trump our rulers.

Donald Trump is not such a person." 

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Added: Rush Limbaugh is a Codevilla fan and read part of Codevilla's Trump piece on the air Monday, July 27, 2015. For the record, as to Dr. Codevilla's conclusion that Mr. Trump is not the person who will ultimately "trump" our ruling class, Limbaugh says, "That's debatable:"
 
7/27/15, "Angelo Codevilla's Take on Trump," Rush Limbaugh

"RUSH:  Now, I should mention here that at the end of the piece, Angelo Codevilla concludes this way.  "Habitually, our ruling class tries to intimidate its opponents by calling them 'haters' ('racists,' etc. ...) A statesman worthy of the title would respond that calling people such names is the very opposite of civility, never mind love. Such a leader would Trump our rulers." Codevilla says, "Donald Trump is not such a person." Trump is not the person that we needed to pull this off.

That's his bottom line conclusion. He believes that Trump represents a vessel...but he's not convinced that Trump's actually the guy. That's debatable. 

 What is obviously clear is that the Trump campaign has unnerved whatever you call it, the ruling class, the establishment, and they really expected that he would implode by now....Now they're panicking. None of the rules seem to work here, none of the old techniques. They can't buy Trump. They can't buy him off meaning they can't promise him something big if he toes the line....

Obama, when he was a state senator, somehow benefits from private divorce records of his opponent being released, and his opponent had to quit. That's happened a couple times with Obama. Obama's operating strategy, modus operandi, is no opposition. Not defeating the opposition, but just getting rid of any. It's apparent that the ruling class doesn't know what to do with Trump. They're waiting for him to implode." 

"END TRANSCRIPT"

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From Powerline: "“The 2016 election is simple; the person who runs on the platform ‘Who do they think they are?’ will win.”"

"Angelo Codevilla is a former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, and the author of more than a dozen fine books on politics, arms control, and intelligence (if I had to pick a favorite it might be The Character of Nations), including a fine translation of Machiavelli’s Prince published by Yale University Press. Most recently his essay-turned-book The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It caught the attention of Rush Limbaugh and many others. It argues that our fundamental political problem is not “big government,” but the creation of a ruling class, inhabiting both parties, that is steadily increasing its authoritarian control over the nation. In a conversation a few months ago Angelo remarked, “The 2016 election is simple; the person who runs on the platform ‘Who do they think they are?’ will win.”"



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