Promoted to the front by Erick

Like clockwork, in recent years, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has lectured conservatives about the imprudence of their frustrations and need to fall in line with the orders of the Washington establishment.

It is to be expected then that they view Donald Trump’s rise in the polls as a creation of those of us who have been trying to call attention to the frustration of the American people, rather than using it as a moment to reflect on the intellectual bankruptcy of the ruling elite in the Acela Corridor.

Let’s be clear: Mr. Trump is a response to a political process that has ignored the voice of the American people. He is a symptom of the way the bipartisan elites of Washington have governed.

Americans face real challenges. There is friction in the labor market as new skills are valued in the information economy. People feel alone in a world where support structures like the family and community are breaking down.

And, in light of these challenges, how has our nation’s ruling class responded? By pulling its hair out trying to find a way to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, doubling down on No Child Left Behind, and fighting for amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

We are surprised people feel frustration?

Donald Trump is not taking off because Republican voters agree with his liberal policy positions. He has supported socialized medicine, abortion, and amnesty in the past. He is taking off because voters feel unheard, they feel like both political parties are paid off by the well-connected, and they feel like the political process has become a game disconnected from addressing their concerns.

You know what? They are right about each and every one of those critiques. The question for the leaders of the Republican Party is whether they will take real, meaningful action to pivot in a different direction and regain the trust of their voters.

It is unfortunate that it takes Donald Trump surging to the lead of an otherwise superbly qualified primary field to put an explanation mark on the sad state of the Republican Party and hopefully help it chart a new course. But desperately needed reform of the Republican Party is, hopefully, not the only positive externality of his surge in the polls. His antics will hopefully highlight to many the importance of civility in this debate about the future of the Republican Party.

The Wall Street Journal may want to take note. Perhaps their disgust with Donald Trump’s tone will encourage them to reevaluate their own editorial practices that have caused them to call millions of grassroots conservatives, in recent years, the “blood-and-soil wing” of the Republican Party (a not even veiled Nazi reference), “dumb,” and a “kamikaze caucus.”

Americans who care passionately about our future don’t deserve to be smeared. They deserve a clear, forthright debate on policies affecting poor, rich, middle-class, young, old, business owners and workers alike. They deserve leaders who will fight for opportunity for all and favoritism to none.