Sometimes, power brokers are so convinced of their own intelligence that they overlook whether the American public actually wants the product they’re shoving down our throats, and the result is a major fiasco.  America witnessed a classic example of this in the 1980s.

Start the Wayback Machine, Sherman.

Boys and girls, our tale takes place back in early 1985, as big news started leaking out, that the Coca-Cola Co. was developing a new kind of Coke, a revamping of the legendary American Soft Drink, that reached back through American history, that was being created in an effort to stem a very real challenge from an upstart soft drink named “Pepsi”.

Coca-Cola had already been in development with the new product for almost two years, conducting taste tests and research, with all the top-level secrecy of a military operation.

Finally, on the 23rd of April, 1985, New Coke was launched through the means of a huge (or YUGE, as Donald J. Trump would say) Marketing Campaign, including prime-time TV ads.

The “experts”, including Company Chairman Roberto C. Goizueta, himself, lauded New Coke as being “smoother, rounder yet bolder,” speaking of it more like a fine wine than a soft drink.

An unforeseen problem with Coca-Cola’s brilliant idea soon arose: The American People weren’t buying their B******t.

The reaction of the American Public was overwhelmingly negative (like the reaction to Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem).

The old formula of Coca-Cola’s had become such a part of Americana, that some people compared the change in Coke to trampling the American flag.

Soon Americans were hoarding cases of the old formula.

In June 1985, Newsweek reported that sharp black marketeers were selling  “old” Coke for $30 a case.

Things were so far out-of-hand that a Hollywood producer, was reported to have rented a wine cellar to hold 100 cases of the old Coke.

Finally, losing money hand-over-fist, on July 11, Coca-Cola finally pulled the plug on “New Coke” yanking their brilliant idea from store shelves.

According to company President Donald R. Keough,

We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for [old] Coca-Cola.

Gee, DiNozzo. Ya think?

New Coke thus joined Billy Beer and other failures in the pantheon of failed products that their creators though were can’t-miss ideas at the time.

Per Sam Craig, professor of marketing and international business at the Stern School of Business at New York University,

They didn’t ask the critical question of Coke users: Do you want a new Coke? By failing to ask that critical question, they had to backpedal very quickly.

(**information courtesy of msnbc.com**)

Back to the present…with some help from The Washington Post , who reports on a Political Campaign, which is quickly becoming the “New Coke” of the 2016 Republican Primaries:

…Party leaders, donors and other supporters of Rubio portray a political operation that continues to come up short in its message, in its attention to the fundamentals of campaigning and in its use of a promising politician. The failures have all but doomed ­Rubio’s chances of securing the GOP nomination, leaving him far behind Trump and Cruz in both delegates and states won.

Many Rubio backers say they still believe Trump would be a political disaster but are worried that the freshman senator is not doing enough to make an effective case against the billionaire. Even with a strong win Sunday in Puerto Rico, Rubio has lost 18 of 20 nominating contests so far, and he faces grim odds in many of the states to come.

All of Rubio’s hopes now ride on his ability to win his home state’s 99 delegates. But even if he prevails in Florida’s winner-take-all contest, it will be difficult for him to secure enough delegates before the party convention in July, meaning he would have to try to win the nomination in an unpredictable floor fight.

“They have no infrastructure,” said Scott Reed, who is unaffiliated with any campaign but serves as the chief political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “His campaign hasn’t been able to keep up with his candidacy. . . . They don’t have the operation in the states to help him get over the top. He should be a finalist going all the way to California, and he’s not.”

One prominent Rubio supporter, who is an elected official and spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly, said Sunday that he now doubts that Rubio can win and is privately preparing to support Cruz should the race narrow. He said Rubio’s recent decision to go hard in attacking Trump does not seem to have helped him.

“Cruz seems to be the only one benefiting from Marco’s hits on Trump. Marco hits Trump and doesn’t go up in the polls,” the supporter said. “It wasn’t easy to watch television on Saturday night. Nothing is happening. A lot of us, we love him, but we think we might have to end up with Cruz.”

One major Rubio donor was more dour, referring to Rubio’s dismal 2-for-20 record: “That’s not good.”

The race has tightened in Florida, according to recent polls, but Rubio still trails Trump. With just $5.1 million in his campaign account at the beginning of February, Rubio is relying on super PACs to air millions of dollars in attack ads against the front-runner. One of the state’s most revered Republicans, Jeb Bush, has so far declined to endorse him. 

The failure of  “Third Generation Professional Political Legacy” Jeb! Bush and the unabashed success of American Entrepreneur Donald J. Trump in the Republican Primaries, forced the Establishment (Vichy) Republicans to “throw a lateral pass” and to bankroll Senator Marco Rubio, who, by default, became, “Their Guy”.

In the two years since the TEA Party propelled them to victory in the Mid-terms, the Establishment Republicans, who rode our coat tails back to the Halls of Power, have increasingly treated us badly, at first, shunning Conservatives like we were red-headed step-children, and now, insulting and degrading us like we are lepers…or their enemy.

The good ol’ boys in the Northeast Republicans’ Club, or Vichy Republicans, as I like to call them, after the failure of Jeb!, put the pedal to the metal, doubling down on stupid, by failing to realize that the majority of Americans out here in the Heartland are fed up with the greed and machinations of self-serving Professional Politicians., and are scrambling to maintain their Positions of Power.

What slays me is the fact that the Establishment Republicans seem to be quite content, in their moderately left-leaning stupor, to be totally oblivious and tone deaf of their Base, average hard working middle-class Americans like you and me.

You know, the people who actually put them into office.

They keep on making bad choices.

They have pushed for maintaining the Washingtonian Status Quo because they erroneously believe that new citizens, provided through amnesty, will vote for them instead of the Democratic Party, who are ready to be their own personal Santa Claus and buy their votes with free admission to the Welfare State.

Spineless Vichy Republicans have been a barrier to Republican victory for as long as I can remember. Like Quakers, Establishment Republicans seem to believe that passive resistance and reaching out to their sworn enemies as “friends”, is the way to defeat those who oppose you.

The 2016 Republican Primaries are a prime example of that.

Last week’s lecture to the Republican Base from the “Severe Conservative” himself, Mitt Romney, was a failed attempt, as was his Presidential Campaign in 2012, to force Americans to “settle” for a “product” that we do not want.

Just like the Coca Cola Company Executives, who tried to fool Coca-Cola drinkers by giving them a new kind of “Pepsi-Cola”. the Republican Establishment are trying to force a new Jeb! down our throats in the person of the Former “Gang of Eight” member and “bright young star”, Marco Rubio.

And, judging from last weeks Republican Primary Results, Americans are reacting the same way that they did to the “New Coke” of 1985.

This “New Coke” is being rejected, also.

Until He Comes,

KJ