Trump's constituency versus the GOP Establishment and its plan to marginalize its conservative base.

Editor's notes:  Understand this:  the Establishment GOP has been working against its conservative base since it regained power in 2010,  rather than embracing it and giving it additional direction.  The plan included rhetoric that is designed to appease the base, and,  an election campaign designed to add to the independent and Hispanic constituencies,  thus moving away from the conservative base.  Although Trump is not "tea party,"  the importance of his candidacy is his willingness to embrace the conservative GOP constituency,  and to mirror much of the concern of that population,  while remaining his own man.  While he is not my first choice,  I have to admit that he is doing just about everything right.  It really is amazing.  There is much about the Hard Right with which I do not agree,  but what all conservatives have in common,  is this:  they (we) are sick and tired of being lied to.   

by EDWARD J. ERLER August 19, 2015 4:00 AM 

Donald Trump continues to bewilder political experts. He unabashedly wades into politically dangerous territory and yet continues to be rewarded by favorable poll results. He has clearly tapped into a reserve of public resentment for inside-the-Beltway politics. How far this resentment will carry him is anyone’s guess, but the Republican establishment is worried. His latest proposal to end birthright citizenship has set off alarm bells in the Republican party. The leadership worries that Trump will derail the party’s plans to appeal to the Latino vote. Establishment Republicans believe that the future of the party depends on being able to capture a larger share of this rapidly expanding electorate. Trump’s plan, however, may appeal to the most rapidly expanding electorate, senior citizens, and may have an even greater appeal to the millions of Republicans who stayed away from the polls in 2012 as well as the ethnic and blue-collar Democrats who crossed party lines to vote Republican in the congressional elections of 2014. All of these voters outnumber any increase in the Latino vote that Republicans could possibly hope to gain from a population that has consistently voted Democratic by a two-thirds majority and shows little inclination to change.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/birthright-citizenship-not-mandated-by-constitution