New Hampshire spanks the elites

The conservatism that has dominated the Republican Party for decades is in crisis.

Donald Trump’s success combined with Marco Rubio’s fade reflects the implosion of any sort of Republican establishment.

Trump does not engage in the dainty dance that is the stock-in-trade of a Republican establishment that shifts effortlessly from backlash politics to high-toned rhetoric.

Trump’s stream-of-consciousness soliloquies invoke nationalism, tough talk on trade, and a harsh and sometimes racist response to immigration.

Trump won 47 percent of the ballots cast by those who never attended college — the people hurting most in our economy — but only 25 percent among those with postgraduate degrees.

[...] it shows how far the Bush brand has fallen that the former Florida governor had to count a fourth-place finish with 11 percent of the vote as a victory.

Republican chaos is good news for Democrats, but they face their own crisis.

Bernie Sanders’ victory did not surprise Hillary Clinton’s lieutenants, but his margin did, and so did the astonishing size of the party’s generation gap:

Where Clinton was old news to a new generation, a 74-year-old Washington warhorse emerged as a novel voice of authentic protest against the corruptions and injustices of traditional politics.

[...] a woman who can be charming and engaging outside the context of politics has offered neither a crisp explanation for why she’s running nor a persuasive answer to those who see her as untrustworthy.

In another time of discontent, Connolly noted that “vulnerable constituencies did not need too much political coaxing to bite the hand that had slapped them in the face.”