Donald Trump’s popularity is a response to decades of arrogance and betrayal by the Republican establishment.

After giving us lackluster centrist candidates in election after election, the elite is amazed that the rank and file are so fed up that many are falling for a pseudo-populist huckster who’s smart enough to take positions that are an anathema to the establishment, but not to the base. In separate polls last fall, 64 % of likely Republican voters supported a moratorium on Muslim immigration, while 73% agreed with a wall on the border.

Insults aside, last week, Mitt Romney attacked Trump with a feather duster, charging, “His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader.” Ouch, that must have hurt.

Getting campaign advice from Romney is like getting directions from Wrong Way Corrigan. He started the 2012 campaign by saying Barack Obama was a “nice guy but in over his head.” A man who despises America and is doing his best to undermine our security -- who reviles the middle class as Bible-banging bigots fixated on guns -- is not a nice guy.

Later, he told a group of wealthy donors that “47% of the American people will vote for the president no matter what,” because they’re welfare addicts. Like Democrats, RINOs are economic determinists who believe voters are motivated solely by their wallets. In 2102, Romney’s mantra was “jobs, jobs, jobs” --forget open borders, moral decline, terrorism or judicial tyranny (throwaway lines at best). In consequence, he lost, lost, lost.

The other half of the 2012 GOP comedy team, Speaker Paul Ryan -- another Republican defeatist -- also took a shot at Trump.

As speaker, Ryan worked with Nancy Pelosi to pass the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill, fully funding ObamaCare, executive amnesties and Planned Parenthood. Conservatives gave the GOP the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. In return, the Republican leadership gave us empty rhetoric and vague promises. (“My party went to Washington and all I got was this lousy T-shirt slogan.”)

The Republican establishment believes it has a divine right to pick the party’s nominees. Ford, Dole, McCain, and Romney -- the elite has an unerring instinct for disaster. For them, vision and values are irrelevant. It’s all about credentials (who’s next in line for the nomination) and who won’t upset the media by being “divisive.”

Their choice this year seemed to be based on breeding. Bonnie Prince Jeb, heir to the Bush dynasty (who said illegal immigration is “an act of love”), sank to the single digits before he withdrew. Then, Boy Marco became the RINO flavor du jour. Now, there’s talk of drafting Ryan. I wonder what Harold Stassen is doing these days.

The GOP establishment has always treated the base with contempt. Our role was to show up at rallies waving signs (and do other grunt work), while our betters were left to run the party. You’ll take what we give you and like it, they told us. Whenever an outsider comes close to the nomination -- Gingrich, Santorum, Cruz -- they get hysterical.

Romney and company are scared of Trump? Well, so am I. If he’s elected, he’ll treat us like his first two wives the first chance he gets. Conservatives who are now supporting him will wake up one day knowing how it feels to be date-raped.

Republican insiders thought they could play us for suckers forever. Whenever we dug in our heels, all they had to do was point to the latest Democrat horror story -- Clinton, Kerry, Obama and now Hillary -- to scare us into line. What are conservatives going to do, stay home, they sneered? In 2012, 10 million did, costing Romney the election.

The difference between the Republican elite and its Democrat counterpart is mostly rhetorical. Republican insiders are comfortable with big government -- as long as they get to distribute the largesse. They view social issues as stuff to stick in a platform to keep activists happy, and promptly forget once in office.

Now their chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance in the form of a sleazy New York real estate developer who brags about buying politicians. The one candidate who could stop him, Ted Cruz, they won’t give the time of day because he’s an authentic conservative.

If nothing else good comes out of this election, at least it will mark the demise of the Republican establishment. They keep threatening to start a third party if Trump wins the nomination. Why not? They could call themselves -- the Whigs.