Primary Results: The Democrats

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won four of five states in [Tuesday] night’s “Acela Primary,” so named for the Amtrak train that runs through Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Here are the results:

Connecticut: Clinton 52%, Sanders 47%

Delaware: Clinton 60%, Sanders 39%

Maryland: Clinton 63%, Sanders 33%

Pennsylvania: Clinton 56%, Sanders 44%

Rhode Island: Sanders 55%, Clinton 44%

With her solid victories [Tuesday] night, Hillary Clinton surged ahead in the delegate contest. She now has 2,151 delegates or 90% of the total needed to secure the Democrat presidential nomination. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders promises to continue fighting all the way to the Democrat convention, but there are reports his campaign has begun laying off staff.

Primary Results: The Republicans

The Donald dominated [Tuesday] night’s Republican primaries, sweeping all five contests in the Northeast. Here are the results:

Connecticut: Trump 58%, Kasich 29%, Cruz 12%

Delaware: Trump 61%, Kasich 20%, Cruz 16%

Maryland: Trump 54%, Kasich 23%, Cruz 19%

Pennsylvania: Trump 57%, Cruz 22%, Kasich 19%

Rhode Island: Trump 64%, Kasich 25%, Cruz 11%

As a reality check, only one of those states may be competitive for the eventual Republican nominee in November — Pennsylvania. It has a lot of working class people. A Republican victory there in November would dramatically change the Electoral College landscape.

The media dismiss Trump as a divisive candidate, doomed to fail. But it is impossible to deny the impressive nature of his victories. While his negatives may be sky high, he is, nevertheless, shattering voting records.

According to one analysis, Trump has won more than 10 million votes so far, “already about 250,000 more than Romney earned in the entire 2012 primary season.” At this rate, Trump will “easily pass the modern record-holder, George W. Bush, who collected 10.8 million votes in 2000.”

Warning Signs: Anger

Let me dive a bit deeper and give you some more details from the exit polls that may explain the primary results.

Nearly 60% percent of Republican voters in Pennsylvania said they felt betrayed by the Republican Party. We’ve seen similar polling results in state after state this primary season. Think about that for a second.

In the media and in Washington, D.C., Tea Party conservatives who battle the GOP leadership and insist on conservative ideas, are considered by the media and the GOP establishment as “fringe.”

But solid majorities of Republicans are saying they are not angry at the conservative rebels in Congress, who played hardball on spending bills and government shutdowns. They are upset at the party leaders.

It is no accident that the two main contenders for the Republican nomination are Trump, whose entire campaign has been an attack on the GOP establishment, and Cruz, whose opponents keep saying, “No one in the GOP leadership likes him.” To conservative voters, that’s a compliment.

One explanation for the grassroots’ frustration is the general sense that GOP leaders do not fight hard enough. Conservatives tired of weak-kneed opposition to the left are turning to candidates they perceive to be fighters.

Warning Signs: Out Of Touch Elites

Here’s another telling statistic: 68% of Pennsylvania Republicans agreed with the idea of a temporary moratorium on Muslim immigration. Again, similar results have been registered in virtually every state in this campaign.

And yet hardly a day goes by when I don’t run into a Washington insider who just doesn’t get it. They shake their heads and parrot the left, saying, “A ban on Muslims does not represent our values.”

My response is always the same: Tell me the urgent public policy reason why America should become less Judeo-Christian and more Islamic. I have yet to get an adequate answer to that question, particularly at a time of war.

It makes no sense to me that we continue to allow high levels of Muslim immigration when we don’t have the faintest notion of how to adequately screen people coming in.

We got warnings about one of the Tsarnaev brothers from Russia, but nothing happened. Even with repeated warnings about the jihadist at Fort Hood, political correctness stopped us from acting. No one paid attention to the Pakistani jihadi bride’s social media account, or fake addresses or warnings about the radical mosque they attended.

During World War II, no one was suggesting that we should be taking in more German or Japanese immigrants. No one thought that was a rational reaction during a time of war. So why, when we are at war with radical Islamists, do Washington elites go nuts when the suggestion is made to pause Muslim immigration?

Muslim immigration, the failure to defund Obamacare, inaction in the face of repeated violations of the separation of powers, the Gitmo “jail breaks,” the attacks on religious liberty — the list goes on and on. That is what explains much of the frustration and rebellion of grassroots conservatives.