Pavlich: Decrying the GOP establishment is a lazy argument

When Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won Oklahoma on Super Tuesday, the reddest state in the country (really, every single county went red in the last presidential election) I wondered, “Are the people of Oklahoma the ‘establishment,’ since they didn’t make Donald Trump the winner? After all, Trump is supposedly bucking the ‘establishment.’ ” 

For months now Trump supporters have hurled the allegation of “establishment” against any Republican who dares to oppose The Donald, ignoring not only the state of the race but how the remaining GOP candidates secured their political seats in the first place. 

{mosads}First let’s start with Cruz, the guy nobody allegedly likes on Capitol Hill. The senator was elected in 2012 and rode in on the Tea Party wave, defeating the well-established and well-funded Lt. Gov David Dewhurst. Cruz was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — before opportunism trumped conservatism — and she spent countless hours in the Lone Star State campaigning on his behalf. 

During his time in Washington, Cruz has proven he didn’t plan to get comfortable in the swamp that so often becomes a hot tub. In 2013, just a year after being elected, Cruz filibustered over ObamaCare funding for nearly 22 hours, which led to an eventual government shutdown when Democratic leader Harry Reid refused to compromise. Around the same time Cruz launched a “Make DC Listen” campaign, which went viral on social media. 

The bottom line? Cruz has a record of votes and actions consistent with the promises he made on the campaign trail to become senator in the first place. 

Reviewing the history of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s path to Washington, it is similar to the one taken by Cruz. In 2009, Rubio was losing to GOP Gov. Charlie Crist and was being out-fundraised by millions of dollars in one of the most expensive media markets in the country; keep in mind Crist had a 60 percent approval rating among Floridians when Rubio chose to challenge him for the Senate. 

Unhappy with the established Florida political class, Tea Party activists got behind Rubio’s message of lower taxes and limited government, propelling him to victory. Crist, who supported President Obama’s stimulus package, was destroyed and humiliated to point he eventually changed his party affiliation to Democrat. 

Because of Rubio’s Washington work on the Gang of Eight, which by all accounts was a massive mistake and error in judgment, he’s been pigeonholed into the establishment category — a label that fails to acknowledge the real history about how he was elected. 

Cruz has a 100 percent conservative rating from the Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Action for America. Rubio’s rating sits at 94 percent. Cruz and Rubio aren’t establishment no matter how many times pro-Trump analysts say so. 

Finally, we come to front-runner Trump. Is he considered “establishment?” Although the billionaire has never held public office and only officially snagged the title of politician last year, he wasn’t a political rookie and has now become a professional. 

Trump has been donating big money and influencing politics for years. In fact, while conservative Tea Party groups were working extremely hard to defeat ObamaCare before it passed in 2010, Trump was sending checks to Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leaders who eventually passed ObamaCare without a single Republican vote. Trump also wrote a number of checks to fund Democratic establishment candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Regardless, he’s is portrayed as an outsider and has been able to sell himself as such to voters around the country. 

There is no such thing as GOP “establishment” in this race, unless you count John Kasich, who cannot win. The establishment isn’t running the 2016 GOP primary, and it never was, which is why candidates like Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush failed to gain any kind of serious traction in this election cycle. Cruz and Rubio are the only candidates left who are seriously attempting to stop Trump from securing the GOP nomination. Based on their positions and how they came to power, they are far from the establishment lane, which closed on the campaign trail a long time ago. 

Crying “establishment” is a lazy argument and has no defining meaning in this presidential race. 

Pavlich is editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.