I think it’s pretty clear that it’s Trumpism today, but there’s no telling if that lasts if there’s a catastrophic loss in November. Trumpism is built on WINNING, and, probably more importantly, Trump himself.
Hard to imagine, for example, Tom Cotton becoming a big player in the Republican party if Trump loses. I think it’s far more likely that someone like Ted Cruz steps up.
So they essentially say, Romney is a fucking Democrat now? Screw him?
I would bet that Romney would support Ted Cruz.
True conservative can find common cause with Democrats in getting rid of Trump, Senate Republican and House leaders in the GOP.
Rebuilding American after this destructive plague has infected the country, will require conservatives working with Joe Biden, which shouldn’t be particularly terrifying. Especially because dealing with less dangerous virus, aka Covid should be a non-partisan issue.
I don’t know if conservatives eventually find a home in new Republican, e.g. the Lincoln Party, Or the existing Republican party becomes a fringe party and the Democrat party gets split. Honestly it is too far in the future to worry about it.
We might hear more about the review process for Bolton’s book at some point:
They served a FOIA request on the process to various agencies in February, have been stonewalled and now are taking the next step.
And here is the related video on Bolton:
Is there any non-crazy conservative constituency of note? I don’t mean people who click the ‘more conservative’ box when polled, I mean people who line up behind the list of causes conservatism stands for? My recollection is that the public lines up on the ‘liberal’ side of most issues of substance. It’s kind of hard to sustain a viable party if you’re on the minority side of most of the issues.
After Watergate the republican’s were through, done, kaput. Never gonna recover their honor and be believable to the American people. After four years of Carter Ronnie Ray-Gun took the white house and his crew lied about the economy and foreign policy for 12 years and when called upon it claimed that he couldn’t remember.
That made the left think that taking care of the economy was important which brought us Bill Clinton who started the closest thing to real economic growth in my lifetime only to have the Republicans crow about how important Truth was which brought us Dubya who REALLY spent 8 years lying to the people.
That made the left think that real change was needed which led to Obama which led to where we are at.
I see the corpse that’s animating my country, but I’m not counting the Republican party as dead until I see two parties that at least waive in the direction of what the people of this country really want. I’m not talking about planks of a platform that say “truth, justice and the American way.” I’m talking about legislators who actually put the needs of their constituents into their bills. Until then, as far as I can tell the republican party is live and well.
You can draw a straight line between here and there. Pretending that it stops here is just niave foolishness. There was a time when the left could not imagine a politician more deceitful than Richard Nixon. Today republicans are dismantling stuff that Nixon like the EPA because that’s way too far to the left.
The notion that this plague is reliant on a leader is false hope that we’ve seen before. Any white man will do. That’s why Biden is doing as well as he’s doing. Don’t lose site of that.
Don’t deny history. Like a bad horror movie this tide can’t be stopped in June. Not by polls or by public protests. Only in November on a Tuesday. And frankly only in multiple Novembers.
Having grown up in that era, I cannot stress those points enough. The 1974-1980 period was the point in the horror movie where everyone thought the vampire was dead … right before it roared back to life, stronger than ever.
We may be headed to a similar place now. The stubborn, lingering wish that Trump is a fluke who only succeeded based on his unique personal appeal (!) and skills (!!) needs to be burned to the ground. There are lots of voters who deeply want a fascist leader, and lots of rich, powerful people willing to spend vast amounts of cash to search for and subsidize an army of Trump replacements. The fight doesn’t end in November: it merely continues.
(And before anyone thinks, “But this time, there’s no Reagan-equivalent waiting in the wings” - Reagan wasn’t Reagan in 1974. He was widely considered too lightweight to go the distance. An actor? In the White House? the pundits said. Never happen, the American people have standards. The succeeding 45 years of GOP politics proved the pundits wrong and H.L. Menken right.)
Are you talking to American people in general or to this forum community specifically? I’m only asking because I haven’t personally seen much sentiment here that it’s all over when Trump’s gone. @Timex is often saying that the entire GOP must be destroyed, myself and others have made multiple posts worrying about the next Trump or the “smart Trump”. So just curious if you had a different read on the forum or if you are speaking more in general.
Personally, I think it’s clear that Trump is merely the symptom and the logical conclusion to the GOP platform for the past several decades. He’s the expression of cultural and political rot we have in this country. That’s not going away with Trump leaving (the office or this mortal coil, whichever it may be).
Mostly the American people/media. But around here you do occasionally see people acting like Trump is the disease, not the symptom (e.g. the idea upthread that Trump supporters are personally attached to him - no, they’re not. He’ll become an unperson just as soon as Fox News tells their viewers to treat him that way.)
And hell, I’m part of the problem myself. I post ten times as much about Donnie, acting as if his buffoonery were the main area of concern, when we should really be taking aim at Rupert and Lachlan, Stephen Miller*, the Mercers, the shadowy unknown people facilitating the Mercers’ entry into politics, etc. etc.
Which is how it’s designed to be: get the people to take whacks at the big, obvious pinata-shaped head while the man behind the curtain attracts no attention at all.
*It’s positively frightening the way Miller has gotten less and less coverage as his influence has grown and grown. It’s obvious why Miller has tried to stay hidden: if Donnie ever thinks Miller is hogging the spotlight, out the door Miller goes, just like Bannon. But what’s chilling is how the media has played along and enabled Miller’s strategy of blending into the background. By keeping the focus on Donnie instead of the guy doing 90% of the work, the media is helping Miller execute his agenda.
There will always be a constituency for politicians who want to lower taxes and decrease regulation. And there will always be some places where those positions are supported by a majority.
They don’t seem to have majority support across the entire country right now, but that could easily change in 4-8 years.
Right and that’s a healthy opposition. It’s necessary.
What we need to stamp out is anti-science, racism, corruption, and greed that are the four pillars of the GOP platform today.
So Trump is Zaphod Beeblebrox?
I think Timex was correct in that Trump is the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
This seems like a great idea all around.
While it is possible he actually thinks attacking Obamacare during a pandemic is a good idea and will win lots of votes, what worries me most about this is that it is possible even Donnie is capable of seeing the optics of this is not going to be good for his election chances. It may be an indication he’s switching over to burn it all down mode.
I think this is just the energize the base strategy. Their only chance is massive voter suppression of Dem voters and super enthusiasm by Trump voters. So that’s what they will try to do.
If only we could pretend not to see him and he’d go away.
I think its simply his pathological hatred of anything the black guy accomplished. Optics don’t enter into it.
DJT knows jack shit about the ACA, health care in general, real estate, or pretty much anything else.
I have zero doubt that his entire input into this was at some point waving his hand at some lackey and saying, “I want it gone, get rid of it”. And it eventually led to this, where they are talking literal technicalities, claiming ACA is illegal. Of course, DJT just wants to shit on Obama.