Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Were you sickened by the Republican debate the other night? The hype leading up to the debate was unbelievable. Never before had there been so much interest in a debate this early in an election season, and it turned out to be the most watched program on Fox News ever. A record-shattering 24 million Americans tuned in, and what they witnessed was an expertly orchestrated assault on Donald Trump. From the very first moments, every question that was launched at Trump was an “attack question”. And then the laughable “focus group” that followed was specifically designed to show that “ordinary people” were “changing their minds” about Trump. By the end of the evening, it was abundantly clear that Fox News had purposely intended to try to destroy Trump’s candidacy.

And of course Fox News is far from alone. Every mainstream news outlet in the entire country is running anti-Trump news stories every single day. Virtually every other presidential candidate in both parties is attacking him, and virtually every “political expert” from across the political spectrum is trashing his chances of success.

So why is this happening?

Normally, candidates that are not part of the “establishment” do not pose much of a threat. In order to win elections in this country, especially on a national level, you need name recognition and you need lots and lots of money.

Donald Trump has both, and no matter what you may think of him you have to admit that he has star power.

And he was never supposed to run for president. You see, the truth is that only members of “the club” are allowed to play. The elite very carefully groom their candidates, and they are usually able to maintain a very tight grip on both major political parties.

This two-headed abomination that we call a “two party system” is in reality just a one party system. Yes, many Democrats and many Republicans really do hate one another, but at the end of the day there is very little difference between the two parties. That is why nothing ever really seems to change no matter who gets elected. George W. Bush continued almost all of Bill Clinton’s policies, and Barack Obama has continued almost all of George W. Bush’s policies. When they are running for office, they tell us what they think we want to hear, but once they get to D.C. they do exactly what the establishment wants them to do.

Donald Trump, whether you love him or you hate him, is a threat to this system. He is not controlled by the elite, and he does and says all sorts of things that drive the elite absolutely nuts.

If he was polling below 5 percent that wouldn’t be a problem. At first, the mainstream media attempted to portray him as a joke that would never get any real support. But since then, Trump has proven that he is a serious candidate with some very serious ideas about how to fix this country. Now that he is receiving far, far more support than the establishment choice (Jeb Bush), he must be destroyed.

I can promise you right now that the Republican establishment will pull out every dirty trick in the book to keep Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination.

And if Donald Trump runs as an independent, the elite will move heaven and earth to keep him out of the White House.

This isn’t even just about Trump. If Ben Carson starts getting too much support, he will be destroyed too. This is how presidential elections in America work.

What we witnessed during the Fox News debate the other night was not an accident. The goal was to make Jeb Bush look good and to make Donald Trump look bad. The following comes from Mike Adams…

But the one thing that really stood out was the total fraud of what Fox News pulled off. It was clear from the first five minutes that Fox News had pre-arranged softball questions for Jeb Bush to highlight his “heroic actions” and accomplishments. Meanwhile, the kinds of questions directed to Donald Trump were all thinly veiled accusations and insults, designed to attack Trump on issues that had nothing to do with running the country. The typical questions went something like this: (paraphrased) Fox News: “Jeb Bush, how did you get to be such an amazing leader?” Fox News: “Donald Trump, why do you hate women?” As if a debate with totally contrived questions wasn’t enough, Fox News also had a pre-arranged assembly of apparently “ordinary citizens” who were asked, after the debate, how many of them now hated Donald Trump.

And even when “the debate” was over, the assault continued. If you have not seen the disgraceful “focus group interview” which Frank Luntz orchestrated, you can check it out below…

I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that.

Virtually everyone in the “focus group” that Frank Luntz put together supposedly had a positive view of Donald Trump before the debate, and then almost every single one of them supposedly become Trump haters during the course of the two hour debate.

I am sure that they were hoping that everybody in the viewing public would “come to their senses” and become Jeb Bush supporters.

But of course post-debate polling shows that is not happening at all.

The Drudge Report conducted a flash poll immediately following the debate, and a whopping 44.67 percent of those that responded said that Trump won the debate.

Ted Cruz was in second place with 14.31 percent.

Jeb Bush got a measly 2.07 percent.

A Newsmax survey came up with similar results…

Donald Trump: 38 percent

Ted Cruz: 15.5 percent

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson: 10.2 percent

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: 9.7 percent

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul: 9.3 percent

Ohio Gov. John Kasich: 4.9 percent

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 4.5 percent

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: 3.5 percent

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: 2.5 percent

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 1.4 percent

And a survey conducted by Time Magazine also produced similar findings. Donald Trump got 47 percent, Ben Carson was in second place with 11 percent, and Jeb Bush got 4 percent.

But Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee.

Unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong for the Republican establishment, Jeb Bush is going to be the nominee.

We have a system that is deeply, deeply broken and that does not reflect the will of the people.

This was illustrated by one of the questions that Trump was asked during the debate…

BAIER: Mr. Trump, it’s not just your past support for single-payer health care. You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies….You’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, and Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.” TRUMP: You’d better believe it. BAIER: — they do? TRUMP: If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I’ve given to, just so you understand, a lot of money. TRUMP: I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people, before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me. And that’s a broken system.

The really amazing thing is that nobody up on that stage disputed that what Trump was saying was true.

It is very well understood by our politicians that when they get big checks from the elite for their campaigns that certain things are expected from them in return.

Our government does not reflect the will of the people and it hasn’t for a very long time.

Instead, it reflects the will of the elite, and the American people are getting sick and tired of it.

Right now, surveys show that Donald Trump has far more support than any other Republican candidate.

But he is not going to be the Republican nominee. The Republican establishment will make sure of that.

There is still the possibility that Trump could run as an independent. That would be an extremely tough road, but on Sunday he sounded very open to the possibility…

The political hurricane that is Donald Trump didn’t recede over the weekend, even in the face of a rising tide of criticism from Republican rivals about his attack on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Instead, the celebrity billionaire insisted in a string of interviews on Sunday TV shows that he had done nothing wrong, that “only a deviant” would interpret his words in an offensive way, and that he is leaving open the possibility of running an independent campaign for the White House if the GOP doesn’t treat him “fairly.” “I do have leverage and I like having leverage,” Trump declared on CBS’ Face the Nation on a morning that also included interviews with ABC’s This Week, CNN’s State of the Union and NBC’s Meet the Press.

This is a scenario that I discussed in my previous article entitled “Republican Operatives Plot To Sabotage Trump – But That Could Turn Him Into Their Worst Nightmare“. Personally, I believe that Donald Trump will decide to run as an independent when it becomes clear to him that the Republican establishment is going to prevent him from winning the nomination at all costs.

But I could be wrong.