Agree x 3…especially your last point, @anon10035199:
The further the left goes, the right will follow and so on. Both ideologies breed extremism in the other party.
1 Like
I found it odd that trump ticked a few conservative boxes well:
Border security
Originalist judges
Lower taxes
Reduced regulation
But he went off the reservation on a bunch of other areas
Protectionist trade policy
Budget deficits don’t matter
Nation building wars are stupid
I guess after the ideologically pure Romney got beat the Reps were just willing to get the W and forget Trump wasn’t a conservative.
The party has changed. Its politicians and many constituents have become a mob of vigilanties driven by social justice rage (new term I just made up)
If they put forth a candidate that is anything less than the Michael Phelpsesque multi-gold medal champion of the victim olympics, they’re going to look like the party of massive, irreconcilable hypocrisy.
Nobody expected anything better from Trump. With all of the virtue signaling and quite literal destruction of people (some legitimate) from the neo-dems, the expectation they have created for themselves is very high.
That’s just my take on it though.
2 Likes
I just hope the Republicans learned from Trump that it is OK to push back. Graham has caught on and I hope more them do the same. It would be nice to have an actual Republican conservative who also has a backbone run in 2024.
2 Likes
Post trump does such a thing as a Republican conservative exist? I think I’m most disappointed in the small amount of Republicans who have challenged him on his numerous statements that fly in the face of what once seemed like sacred ground for them.
At least right now it seems like a principled Republican conservative is extinct. And it wasn’t Democrats doing it was one of their own.
2 Likes
I just think they sold their soul to do it. And what’s crazy is I don’t believe they had to do it. I mean it’s hard to play what if’s but I think many other people beat Clinton. She was a historically flawed candidate and weirdly Republicans ran the one person who almost lost to her. And the only one who could be close to her in disapproval.
The vast majority of those guys with this economy and no major war and we aren’t even talking about the 2020 race. It would be a landslide. Instead Republicans got the W that I think they easily could have got without him, sold their ideals to appease him, and may lose 2020.
The economy is roaring and the guy can’t average 45% approval? That is mind boggling to me. It’s all been self inflicted wounds. But hey keep that tweet game up. Dude is historically unpopular and if he could just not be an absolute awful human when he spoke and tweeted he would cruise.
2 Likes
I’m hearing you, H…but do you actually see Trump losing to any of the 20-plus whom have declared on the DEM side?
Unlike Hillary…they seem like a likable bunch…and don’t have an alleged body-count in their wake…but they sound like a bunch of idealistic kids on a Jr. High Debate Team.
Trump is a damn Beast, always in Beast Mode. He probably already has in his head how he will destroy whomever of those 20-plus are sacrificed to run against him.
1 Like
H:
This goes back to what I brought up earlier in the thread about the “Long-game”.
While I think that the Trumpublicans will continue to win over a few more election cycles…I don’t know how strong they will be long-term.
To me; it really is hard to predict.
We’re in uncharted water here. We simply haven’t seen a President this unpopular at this point before. Trumps floor might not be low because he has people who would vote for him if he killed the Pope, but where is his ceiling? The idea that he tracks this low with seemingly all this good news about the economy is amazing.
Think about how close the election in 04 was and realize that Bush’s approval/disapproval spread is almost 14 full points ahead of Trump at the time. Kerry was certainly not someone who I think a lot of people liked but the anti-bush vote was so strong it almost carried him. The anti-Trump vote it would seem will be stronger.
Again the idea that the Democrats even have a shot is weird. With the economy like this they should be having about no one running and waiting until 2024. I don’t know if he will lose but at this point Trumps as vulnerable as could be with all this on his side.
Trump was an unknown quantity to some and he isn’t going to have that advantage this time around. Say what you will about the strength of the Dem field but not a single one will be as unpopular as Clinton was in 16. Not a one.
Of course he’s going to have the war chest, no primary, and unless something changes a hot economy. I just don’t see his approval ratings having much movement which again is rare. Good week bad week he doesn’t move much which means people pretty much know how they feel about him. And that has to be concerning if you’re part of his campaign.
I’d just like to see some type of return to normalcy. And I’ll define that by having someone regardless of their positions that I can have my daughter watch on tv. She isn’t old enough to know big government or specific policies but she recognizes foul language, name calling, bullying.
1 Like
Agree.
Another one of those surreal things when it comes to where we are in Politics.
I certainly don’t disagree…but I go back to my Jr. High Debate Team Analogy.
I listen to many of the DEMS speak of their (often unrealistic) proposals…and I think of some 7th Grader debating their “cures” for World Peace.
Don’t get me wrong; Trump’s only “remedy” for anything is to a) fire-up the base b) tweet how he is the greatest President ever and all of his problems are due to Democrats, then c) search-and-destroy…but the DEMS have very little, often weak, counters.
As I have often said; simply being “anti-Trump” will only get you so far… and sounding like a 7th Grade debater curing World Hunger and offering Peace solutions will not only get you beat…but beat badly, by a Demagogue as ruthless as Trump.
I remain skeptical. Republicans used to talk like rock-ribbed principled believers in an ideology - reality exposed them as a bunch of spineless lemmings. Trump could say he wants to nationalize the banks and as long as he packaged it by saying such a move would be the Ultimate Trolling of the Left and would make libs cry, Republicans would line up and say “Hell yes, it’s time to nationalize the banks!!!”
1 Like
But I think has always been an act and the Mueller report has exposed (further) that it’s an act. Trump markets himself as this raging badass - but like most schticks, it wears off. It’s pretty hard to make the case you’re an Alpha Beast when the only reason you don’t have obstruction charges against you is that senior servants in your administration simply ignore you even after you’ve given them a direct command.
The Dems have done themselves no favors with the clown car scenario of (mostly) pretenders, but it’s early yet. Trump’s base will stick in 2020, but Trump’s base isn’t what carried him in 2016.
1 Like
Tonight on mental gymnastics. Trump is an alpha BECAUSE his people blatantly ignore his orders. A real alpha has people around him that will save him from himself.
Hillary ran on anti Trump and pulled MILLIONS more votes. This statement hasn’t held up a single time you’ve said it.
Hell, Trump won by being anti-Lib/Obama/Hillary.
1 Like
Again it’s a what if game. But 2 salient points.
-
Trump viciously attacked the left-leaning mainstream media. That’s something no establishment Republican would have done. That same media ate goodey two shoes Romney alive.
-
Nixon took us off the gold standard. Reagan increased the deficit because he traded welfare increases for his tax cuts with Congress. Bush 1st raised taxes. Bush 2nd ran huge deficits and created a new entitlement with Medicare part D.
So the Republican party has had several presidents who wouldn’t pass a Barry Goldwater purity test to say the least.
Edit: didn’t Raegan sign an amnesty as well? The Congress promised further enforcement later (which never materialized of course).
3 Likes
That’s 5D chess, bro.
4 Likes
“Creepy Joe” is now officially in…
For the next year and a half…do you guys think that Trump will call him anything but “Creepy Joe”?
Gainz:
In my opinion; it’s not a question of “purity”; but more a question of deviation from what in the past were your core principals and/or core ideology.
Now…time…and just changes in society…will lead to some shifts. But now it seems that both parties are shifting in ways in which one cannot even recognize those core beliefs and ideologies.
I’m rambling and covering territory that we’ve discussed ad nauseum.
Time to move onto how long it will take Trump to tweet about “Creepy Joe’s” official entrance into the race!
So let’s summarize the Top DEM “front runners” once more:
-
Two white guys; almost in their eighties; one a proud Socialist and the other with “touchy/feely” tendencies that will be exploited to the maximum by Trump and Conservative PAC’s.
-
A Native American Wanna-Be who is about as Native American as Trump.
-
Betos?/The Field?
No wonder Trump said the other day that he wasn’t worried about 2020…
Buttigieg is raising some money. He likes dudes and has been a mayor of a lefty city. He’s trying to put forth a moderate conciliatory tone. Will be interesting to see.