# X candidate "frightens" the establishment: what do you take that to mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 10, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285 "2015-04-10T02:37:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/1 "2015-04-10T02:37:18Z")
You see this language pop up sometimes. A candidate’s extremism (usually) “frightens” the establishment of that party. An example: > [@](#): > > [Under that scenario [something significant hamstringing Bush and Walker] major party players would search for alternatives to defeat candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who scare the party establishment to death.](http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/) Do you take this “fear” language as fear of them as candidates because the establishment assumes they are likely to lose? Or is it fear of them winning the presidency? I’ve always assumed the former, but now I wonder if I’m supposed to be thinking it’s the latter. ETA: I recognize there may not be any actual fear felt by anyone. I’m trying to get what the authors mean when they say it. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/2 "2015-04-10T02:45:23Z")
The establishment simply wants power. An extremist candidate will not win a presidential election, and thus the other side gets power. I don’t why the Republican establishment would, in and of itself, fear Cruz or Paul. They know that presidents get to make the major policy decisions, and they have to live with those decisions and/or proposals. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/3 "2015-04-10T02:53:47Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > The establishment simply wants power. All candidates want power. What any establishment wants is to preserve the established distribution of power. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/4 "2015-04-10T03:08:09Z")
Pretty much. When they say the establishment fears the candidate, what they’re trying to say is that the candidate is willing to defy the conventional wisdom and can’t be “controlled” by the establishment. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/5 "2015-04-10T03:08:19Z")
I take it to mean that a “journalist” has taken a +5 to clickbaiting. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/6 "2015-04-10T03:59:26Z")
I’ll go with thelurkinghorror. There is always the (remote) possibility that a candidate will seize enough of the vote to challenge the “old guard” in a party, either resulting in a crushing defeat for the party as that candidate is perceived as too extreme by the general electorate or resulting in the loss of power within the party for the old guard, even in victory. However, mostly it is little more than posturing by a reporter looking to create an exciting story, (_i.e._, a story drawing more viewers), regarding a run of the mill internal power struggle within a party. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/7 "2015-04-10T04:29:48Z")
I assume they like to hide in cupboards and jump out when John Boehner walks by. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/8 "2015-04-10T11:31:37Z")
Not Boehner, he’s just cry and then they’ll feel bad. I’m going with ‘lazy political reporting’ for $1000. Having been there I can tell you that the pressure to produce a story when there IS no story is tremendous. Reporters are encouraged to come up with some form of drama even this far out. That’s what led to Trump, Carson and the others having their moment in the spotlight last time. If the political press had been serious each of them would have been ignored and never had that bump in the polls that led to their ‘frontrunner’ status. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/9 "2015-04-10T11:34:29Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I assume they like to hide in cupboards and jump out when John Boehner walks by. A phenomenon known as the “fear Boehner”. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/10 "2015-04-10T14:03:56Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I’ll go with thelurkinghorror. > > There is always the (remote) possibility that a candidate will seize enough of the vote to challenge the “old guard” in a party, either resulting in a crushing defeat for the party as that candidate is perceived as too extreme by the general electorate or resulting in the loss of power within the party for the old guard, even in victory. > > However, mostly it is little more than posturing by a reporter looking to create an exciting story, (_i.e._, a story drawing more viewers), regarding a run of the mill internal power struggle within a party. An internal power struggle in either of America’s major political parties is never run-of-the-mill; it changes things no matter how it comes out. Consider the New Politics behind the McGovern campaign, and how it changed the Democratic Party, and how that changed the electoral landscape and gave movement conservatism a shot at real power. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/11 "2015-04-11T22:16:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > An internal power struggle in either of America’s major political parties is never run-of-the-mill; it changes things no matter how it comes out. Consider the New Politics behind the McGovern campaign, and how it changed the Democratic Party, and how that changed the electoral landscape and gave movement conservatism a shot at real power. I did not say that all power struggles were run-of-the-mill and I would certainly not consider the events surrounding McGovern as run-of-the-mill. There was a massive amount of change surrounding the 1972 election that was far from run-of-the-mill. Obama’s campaign was also not run-of-the-mill. However, those were particular events while power struggles go on all the time and nearly all attract at least one candidate that someone in the press claims is “frightening” the old guard. It has been over a century since Hannah picked McKinley and pretty much all candidacies involve some challenge to the power elite. They tend to not be genuinely frightening. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/12 "2015-04-11T22:39:47Z")
What has been going on in the GOP since the Tea Party emerged is not run-of-the-mill either; and a similar split is beginning to emerge in the Dems, you’re going to be hearing a lot more about that in coming years, and it might well be a bigger deal than the New Politics, because the new insurgency is focused on corporate power and wealth power and class conflict, things even more important than racism and sexism and foreign policy. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-candidate-frightens-the-establishment-what-do-you-take-that-to-mean/717285/13 "2015-04-12T17:57:29Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I take it to mean that a “journalist” has taken a +5 to clickbaiting. Pretty much. It means “this old guy in a suit isn’t like the other old guys in suits!” And when someone says it about the candidate they support it means “dimesworther trying to resolve cognitive dissonance”