An occasional look at words we hear in the 2016 campaign and what’s behind them
WASHINGTON (AP) – The “establishment” is taking a beating in this year’s presidential race – from candidates who may or may not be a part of it but are quite sure it’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.
At a time when most people in the United States think the country is on the wrong track, Democrats and Republicans alike have it in for the old guard and politics as usual.
And it’s not just shake-it-up types like Donald Trump. Seasoned politicians are contorting themselves to keep their distance from the established political order.
Since you’re sure to hear a lot more about the establishment over the next year, here’s a closer look at what the candidates have to say about it, what it means and where it came from.
–––
LOOK WHO’S TALKING
See if you can guess which candidates are holding forth here:
–1. Americans “are tired of the same-old, same-old establishment politics, establishment economics and establishment foreign policy.”
–2. “I was a member of the establishment. ... There is an establishment out there, it’s a real establishment, real people and they’re people that are used to having their little puppets all over the place.”
–3. “That’s the argument the establishment and the Republican Party makes. ... You need to wait in line. It’s not your turn. I don’t know what we’re waiting for. This country can’t have another eight –four years like the last eight. "
–4. Asked how the establishment has failed conservatives: “We have great conservative ideas but somehow the political class hasn’t been able to translate those ideas into results.”
–5. “The establishment will tell you, `Oh, well, we don’t have the votes”’ – complaining about why Congress hasn’t reined in spending.
–6. “The Establishment’s only hope: Trump & me in a cage match.” (Tweeted.)
Answers: 1. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent running for president as a Democrat. 2. Businessman Trump. 3. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. 4. Republican businesswoman Carly Fiorina. 5. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. 6. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
–––
DEFINITION, PLEASE
In 1967, the now-gone National Observer took note of the overuse of the term “establishment” and wrote: “If someone wishes to complain about something but hasn’t a very clear idea of what, all he needs do is blame the problem on the `establishment’ and people will sagely wag their heads.” William Safire included that quote in his Political Dictionary, along with this one from Newsweek in 1987, referring to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush: “Bush’s native political tribe – the Eastern-establishment wing of the GOP – is nearly extinct today.”
(Nearly three decades later, the tribe lives on: The establishment label is weighing down Jeb Bush, son of one President Bush, brother of another and grandson of a senator.)
GOP pollster David Winston says the word establishment is being redefined in this campaign as a synonym for the status quo, which carries heavy baggage in a time of voter discontent.
Within the Republican Party, Winston says, the anti-establishment camp is divided between candidates who want to work within the existing system to change things (Bush, Rubio, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, etc.) and those who want to completely disregard it (Trump, Cruz).
“There are some folks who are trying to create a distinction here that Washington is so broken that you just have to go beyond it and not deal with the consequences,” says Winston.
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, for his part, sees the anti-establishment sentiment playing out as anger against the “power elite.” Voters are “looking for candidates who represent an ability and a willingness to stand up to those who control our lives,” he says.
–––
WHO’S ESTABLISHMENT?
Among the current crop of candidates, no one raises a hand to self-identify as part of the establishment.
But Bush and Democrat Hillary Clinton, because of their political pedigrees, inevitably get tagged with the label.
Bush, a former Florida governor, presents himself as an outsider by talking about Washington as “broken” and his work in Tallahassee “to disrupt the old order.” He describes himself as “a candidate not from Washington, but from the practical world.”
Clinton, as a former secretary of state, senator and first lady, knows she can’t claim the outsider mantle. Instead she stresses competence, experience and a willingness to make hard choices.
Plenty of candidates are happy to affix the establishment label on their opponents.
Paul lumped Rubio in with Clinton, saying the Florida senator was “quickly becoming the establishment candidate” because of his support for military intervention to remove Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Sanders is unequivocal about Clinton: “She is the candidate of the establishment. She is, all right? That’s fine. I am not.”
Trump, during a fall appearance in New Hampshire, said he’s been placed on both sides of the equation over the years.
“I was so establishment when I gave contributions, right?” he said. “When I decided to run, I was anti-establishment.”
In an interview with CNN, Trump said this of the GOP establishment: “Look, here’s the issue, you have people that thought they were going to win that are not going to win. Bush isn’t going to win. I won’t go through the list of names but I can name all of them. But they’re not going to win. And, they’re upset. They’re professional politicians. They’ve been talking, talking, talking, all their lives. And now they’re not going to win.”
–––
READY, SET, BASH
Plenty of candidates are promoting themselves as warriors against the big, bad establishment – and using it to raise money.
Republican Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, sent out a fundraising email vowing to fight the bullying by a “permanent political class.”
Rubio emailed potential donors that “the Establishment Republicans are attacking me in the media for being `too conservative.”’
Paul’s campaign slogan is centered on an anti-establishment pitch: “Defeat the Washington machine. Unleash the American dream.”
–––
THERE’S A HISTORY
The anti-establishment anger that candidates are tapping into this year is notable, but not entirely new.
Pat Buchanan, the conservative commentator who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination in 1992 and 1996, surfed a wave of anger with the Washington establishment as he gleefully exhorted “peasants with pitchforks” to retake control of the government. Conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona in 1964 wrested the GOP nomination from New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, the epitome of the Eastern Establishment.
Buchanan, now 77, sees the same “sense of anti-establishmentarianism, of overthrowing the people who have ruled us and the people who have led us astray” at play now, as in those earlier campaigns.
“The country’s really in ferment,” he said.
–––
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New Jersey, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire and Sergio Bustos in Florida contributed to this report.
–––
Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac