Writing in the National Review, Jonah Goldberg, in an article entitled The Decline of Political Power, asserts, “Whether or not Trump and Sanders go on to win the nomination, they’ve already played an historic role. They’ve exposed the parties as the weaklings they’ve long been”. Goldberg goes on to say of his old boss, the late Ben Wattenberg, a conservative Democrat who fought a losing battle to save the Democrats from their relentless drift to the left, “I remember asking Ben on more than one occasion why the Democratic Party would allow this or that thing to happen. He’d always respond pretty much the same way. ‘What Democratic Party? The Democratic Party is a dozen people with fax machines.’ “

Goldberg is not a Donald Trump fan and neither am I. But the Trump phenomenon is real and has unhinged a great many people that deserve to be unhinged. It has exposed emperors that now know that everyone knows that they have no clothes. One of those emperors is the mainstream media. The Trump campaign has thrown a pie in face of political correctness.

And the media is throwing stuff back. The funny thing is though, the more “they” throw at him, the more popular he gets, which drives “them” crazy. The standard explanation for Trump’s popularity is that “he says what he really thinks”, but I’m not so sure. The “Donald” is a master marketer and has probably made more money through the media than he has in real estate. He is one of them and knows the game — inside and out. He has written several books, and he has a very impressive resume as a television and movie producer, including the successful show The Apprentice. You might remember the catch phrase: “You’re fired!” It resonates. He might consider using it in his campaign. That’s what voters appear to think about their current political leadership.

Then there’s this New York Times headline from last month, “Donald Trump’s rally in Chicago canceled after violent scuffles…..” After the “violent scuffles”, MoveOn claimed responsibility for that act of terrorism stating that they were “standing up” to Donald Trump. They chastise the Republican establishment for not “stopping” him. They consider it their appointed duty to do it for them. Got that? A progressive organization imploring the Republican establishment to stop Donald Trump.

A portion of the original funding for MoveOn came from billionaire George Soros. And, it has endorsed Bernie Sanders. I have not heard any calls for Sanders to disavow MoveOn’s support. In fact, Sanders has responded by stating that he has “no control” over MoveOn and its actions and still makes appeals through MoveOn to its members for campaign funding support. Further, Sanders blames Trump for the violent actions of Sanders’ supporters. Now that is chutzpah, but that’s how socialists roll - they aren’t responsible for their own actions, it’s always someone else’s fault. The buck doesn’t stop there.

Then there’s the incident that happened at Emory University in Georgia, now referred to as “the Chalkening”. It led to this Washington Post headline, “Someone wrote ‘Trump 2016’ on Emory’s campus in chalk. Some students said they no longer feel safe”. Really. According to WaPo, “That afternoon, a group of 40 to 50 students protested…they shouted in the quad, ‘You are not listening! Come speak to us, we are in pain!’ “ Needless to say, Emory University is now a bit of a laughing stock, but they are not alone. Recently, according to one report, “students at the University of Michigan called police the other day — because someone had written Donald Trump’s name in chalk”.  You can’t make this stuff up.

And there are consequences. Consider this headline from the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, “University of Missouri enrollment and budget picture ‘grim’ for fall, faculty leader says”, citing a 23% decline in student enrollment deposits. Many are attributing this decline to the absurd response by the university to recent student protests. But then, academics often misunderstand the economic consequences of actions.

These institutions of higher learning have failed their students - kids that have taken on huge debt obligations in the hope of properly preparing for life in “the real world”. One would think that the universities of this country would be preparing their students to cope with the risks and dangers of everyday life instead of providing “safe spaces” for…..hmmm….what are these safe spaces for?

For those students that demand “safe spaces”, I might point out that there are spaces over at Arlington National Cemetery that are occupied by men and women that gave up their safe spaces to provide safer spaces for us. And, as president Eisenhower said, “If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom”.

That fits in with one of my mottoes in life, “be careful what you wish for”. Along those lines, I have a friend who has commented to me that he is enjoying watching Donald Trump destroy the Republican Party. Well, with apologies to Mark Twain, the reports of its demise might be exaggerated, or premature, or both. According to this recent State Journal headline, here in West Virginia, “Party Time: Voters Switch Political Sides in Droves”. And they’re mostly switching from Democrat to Republican.

From the article, “Whether they’re changing political parties just to vote for Trump or not, election officials all over West Virginia say they are seeing more and more people changing their political affiliation.” It goes on to gather quotes from County Clerks from around the state. In Raleigh County alone there were 378 in a six week period in February and March. “‘We wouldn’t do that many (affiliation changes) in a year,’ said [Sally] Chapman, who has been with the county clerk’s office for 28 years”. She added, “That has been a huge turnaround. We have seen lifelong people in our county, who have always voted Democrat, changing their party.” Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick has seen similar changes in voter registration.

Said the State Journal, “The trend is statewide”.  And that “Briana Wilson, communications director for Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, said more than 16,000 state voters have switched parties since November 2015”. Further, “Of those, 6,138 Democrats switched from their party to the Republican Party, while 3,198 Democrats switched to no party affiliation. During the same time period, only 1,165 Republicans crossed the line to become Democrats, while 1,338 Republicans switched to become non-affiliated”. The article goes on to imply anecdotally that the Trump campaign might be affecting other states similarly.

So it appears that the Trump and Sanders campaigns have created cracks in the foundation of the Democrat Party and that the Trump campaign might be providing the GOP with an opportunity. Getting back to Jonah Goldberg and his assertion that we might be witnessing the decline of political power, I’m not so sure - only time will tell. But I suspect that when this political cycle is over there may very well be a re-location of the center with regard to American politics. And that is rattling more than a few cages - in politics, in academia and in the media. Stay tuned.