Who is to blame for the rise of Donald Trump?

Dr. Frankenstein created the monster that bore his name, and if Dr. Jekyll had not conducted those experiments in his laboratory, Mr. Hyde would never have emerged to terrorize London.

In literature, we know whom to blame for the monsters that stalked the land, but who is to blame for the rise of Donald Trump? Is he the “monster” the elites say he is?

I am no fan of Trump and wish there were better candidates for president from both parties, but the major fault for his rise as the “presumptive nominee” of the Republican Party in 2016 can be laid at the feet of the very elites who are so quick to condemmn him.

It is they who have presided over the horrific national debt, spending as if there were no tomorrow. They are not good stewards of the money we make and they take. It is the elites who have started wars we should not have fought and then not fought them to win with too many “rules of engagement” that only guarantee stalemate, or victory for the other side.

They are the ones who over-regulate even small businesses, stifling their growth and preventing the creation of new ones. They so penalize initiative that if today’s OSHA regulations had been applied to Wilbur and Orville Wright the two visionaries would never have emerged from their Ohio bicycle shop, much less flown for the first time at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

The career politicians, the lobbyists, the lawyers, the self-serving institution that government has become (instead of the constitutionally limited, people-serving institution it was originally created to be) have fueled the rise of Donald Trump. It doesn’t help their position now that these elites appear at least as arrogant as Trump in their denunciations of him while refusing to accept responsibility for what they have failed to dismantle.

As Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan has noted, Trump projects love for America and increasing numbers of voters, who also love America, are captivated by his love song, even if he sings it off key.

Many of those voices that have warned of dire consequences should Trump become president have enabled big government. Republican—afraid of their own shadow—the media, and the Democrats, have done little to reverse any of this. When former House Speaker John Boehner refers to Sen. Ted Cruz as “Lucifer,” it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. What did Boehner do as speaker, other than cut deals with Sens. Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy and kiss former Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the cheek as she handed him the gavel? She must have instinctively known that Boehner wasn’t going to rock the boat and would do little damage to the Democratic agenda.

Voters gave Republicans a majority in both houses of Congress and they did almost nothing with it. It is why Boehner was ousted by conservative members of his own party.

Don’t you have a right to be infuriated if you love America, if you served in the military, or have relatives who did, as I have and did?

Washington elites who wonder why so many Republican voters are drawn to an angry voice need only to look in the mirror.

© 2016 Tribune Content Agency LLC.

Listen to Cal Thomas’ commentary on The World and Everything in It.