Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets a supporter in Tucson, Arizona, on March 19, 2016. Photo from Facebook

Steve Russell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, compares Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Andrew Jackson, another famous Indian fighter:

Playing the part of the modern Indian fighter Donald Trump was the second most famous Indian fighter in history after Custer, Andrew Jackson.

Jackson was the Donald Trump of his time, considered by establishment politicians to be uncouth and ignorant, and what happened to Jackson in the 1824 U.S. Presidential election is precisely what the elders of the Republican Party propose to do to Trump.

The Electoral College split with 99 votes for Jackson, 84 for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, 41 for Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, and 37 for Speaker of the House Henry Clay. The 12th Amendment provides that in the absence of a majority in the Electoral College, the top three candidates are in front of the House of Representatives for a decision. This somewhat mitigated the conflict of interest in Clay presiding, since Clay was out of it by coming in fourth.

Clay threw his support to Adams, who subsequently appointed Clay Secretary of State; a result Jackson claimed was a “corrupt bargain.” “Corrupt bargain” became the battle cry of the 1828 election, which Jackson won going away.

Fast-forward to 2016, and the Republican establishment is reacting to the electoral success of Donald Trump in the same way the Democrat-Republicans reacted to Jackson. The “donor class” of the GOP has been having dump Trump meetings ever since Super Tuesday and an anti-Trump super-PAC advertising campaign has gone up, with no discernable impact.

Get the Story:
Steve Russell: Race Riots, Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump (Indian Country Today 3/21)

Another Opinion [Read for Donald Trump's discussion of the Indian heritage claims of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts)]:
Maureen Dowd: Will Trump Be Dumped? (The New York Times 3/19)

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