Over the past century there have been two common traits found in all nations that have adopted socialist governing principals.  The first is the creation of a privileged governing class, and the second is the abject economic and political failure of those same societies.  True to form in the United States, as it plunges headfirst into the socialist abyss, there has been the evolution of the privileged governing class -- except here it is often referred to as the “Establishment,” which for the time being, has two branches.

There are no offices on Connecticut Avenue in Washington D.C. with signs reading “The Republican Establishment” or the “The Democratic Establishment”; rather the Esabishment is an amalgam of like-minded groups with one common interest: the control of the government purse strings and the attendant power contained within.

The Republican and Democratic political establishments are made up of the following: 

1) A preponderance of current and retired national office holders whose livelihood (re-election for current office holders and lobbying or consulting for retired politicians) requires fealty to Party in order to maintain access to government largesse;

2) the majority of the media elite, including pundits, editors, writers and television news personalities based in Washington and New York, whose proximity to power and access is vital in order to gratify their self-esteem and to sustain their standard of living;  

3) Academia, numerous think-tanks, so-called non-government organizations, and lobbyists who fasten onto those in any administration and Congress for employment, grants, favorable legislation and ego-gratification;  

4) The reliable deep pocket political contributors and political consultants whose future is irrevocably tied to the political machinery of the Party; and

5) The crony capitalists, i.e. leaders of the corporate and financial community as well as unions whose entities are dependent on or subject to government oversight and/or benevolence.

The Republican Establishment, with the exception of the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the Republican controlled House of Representatives from 1995 to 1998, has been content, since 1946, to merely slow down the big government policies of the Democrats, while politically decrying their tax and spend policies.  However, in truth, many have been comfortable with reaping the financial and ego-gratifying rewards of such indifference while playing the game with their counterparts in the other branch of the overall governing class.

But in contrast to the stability of the Republican Establishment, over the past ten years there has evolution in the power base of the Democratic equivalent. An evolution that appears to be either willfully ignored or is unseen by an oblivious counterpart.

While the Democratic branch of the governing class came into flower during Franklin Roosevelt’s three and a half terms in office as a byproduct of his brand of benevolent socialism, the current iteration is politically dominated by the radical American Left, whose philosophical underpinning is based on the Marxist tenet that the end justifies the means. In order to seize all political and societal power, this new Democratic Establishment aims at permanently relegating an impotent Republican Party and its extended family to the back of the bus, stripping them of all power, money and influence.

But rather than view the current iteration of the Democratic Party as a threat to them and the nation, the GOP Establishment parties on as if nothing has changed.  Apparently it is their view that Barack Obama and his fellow travelers’ abuse of and determination to seize all power is just another inning in a baseball game in which they will eventually get to the plate for their turn at bat.

The true nature of the Republican Establishment’s motivation has been exposed by their reaction to the Tea Party movement and conservatives in general. This grassroots rebellion was the first manifestation of the awareness by a large portion of the American public of the long term consequences stemming from the nation’s catastrophic debt accumulation, coupled with the virulent and coercive transformation of society.  Despite the overwhelming success of the Tea Party working within the Republican Party in the 2010 and 2014 mid-term elections, nearly all of the Republican elites downplayed their success and fell-in with the mainstream media and the Democrats in their well-worn and gratuitous aspersions against these concerned and patriotic Americans. The Conservative movement poses a threat to not only the accumulated power of the governing class, but their livelihoods; thus the concerted effort to marginalize them by any vile or preposterous means possible.

However the myopia of the current Republican Establishment is astounding.  By choosing to continue its alignment with the Democratic branch of the governing class and vilify the conservative/Tea Party movement, they have rejected the only possible means of their potential, albeit altered, survival.

If the Democratic Party cabal continues their hegemony in America beyond 2016, the nation and the Republican Establishment are doomed.  Their relationship with the Democrats is akin to the old fable of the scorpion and the frog.  A scorpion asks a frog to carry him across a river.  The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so both would sink and drown.  The frog then agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both.  When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is who he is.

With the ongoing demographic changes coupled with the vast number of low-information and ill-educated  voters, the Republican Party cannot win a general election without an overwhelming turnout of the conservative voting bloc, as amply demonstrated in the disastrous presidential campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney.  Any viable chance of winning the 2016 election would require the nomination of an authentic conservative candidate and not another so-called moderate (i.e. Establishment representative).  However, that would also set the stage, in part as a reaction to the ongoing animosity, for the radical transformation of the GOP Establishment if that nominee were to occupy the White House and more conservatives were elected to Congress.

So the Republican Establishment finds itself on the horns of a dilemma: does it continue to cast its fate with the other branch of the governing class -- the Democrats -- by nominating another unelectable moderate in 2016; or does it get behind a viable conservative and risk losing much of its current power base.

In either case they lose in the long term.  So the question they must answer is: What is more important: the fate of the country or the fate of their privileged status?