Terrifying is right. Jesus.
Moore
6083
Thanks, I have more but I don’t wanna be spammy! Only trump, Cruz and hil have earned one, I only draw monsters (and they have to be relevant, I hope trump picks Christie for vp, he would be fun to doodle)
These articles on Trump’s appeal to authoritarians seemed strange to me, since nearly all mainstream politicians and voters at their core support authoritarianism based on the Wikipedia definition:
Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms.
Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but there’s always an undercurrent. (“There ought to be a law!” etc.)
Then I realized they just changed the definition:
MacWilliams studies authoritarianism — not actual dictators, but rather a psychological profile of individual voters that is characterized by a desire for order and a fear of outsiders.
Now it makes sense.
Timex
6085
Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but there’s always an undercurrent. (“There ought to be a law!” etc.)
Authoritarianism is defined by the extreme. It’s the end of the spectrum opposite of libertarianism.
Simply believing in laws doesn’t make you an authoritarian.
There’s a lot of insight in that article, and it really does explain the rise of Trump.
Together, those three insights added up to one terrifying theory: that if social change and physical threats coincided at the same time, it could awaken a potentially enormous population of American authoritarians, who would demand a strongman leader and the extreme policies necessary, in their view, to meet the rising threats.
This theory would seem to predict the rise of an American political constituency that looks an awful lot like the support base that has emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, to propel Donald Trump from sideshow loser of the 2012 GOP primary to runaway frontrunner in 2016.
Beyond being almost alarmingly prescient, this theory speaks to an oft-stated concern about Trump: that what’s scariest is not the candidate, but rather the extent and fervor of his support.
And it raises a question: If this rise in American authoritarianism is so powerful as to drive Trump’s ascent, then how else might it be shaping American politics? And what effect could it have even after the 2016 race has ended?
RichVR
6087
Triggercut, I think I know where you got that horror.
Am I close?
I don’t think it matters who drops out anymore.
If Cruz drops out, Trump picks up many of his voters
If Carson drops out, Trump picks up many probably most of his voters.
If Rubio drops out, many of Rubio’s voters stay home, some switch to Kasich or Cruz
If Kasich drops out, Rubio picks up most of his voters, but Rubio+Kasich is still lower than Trump in most states.
Matt Yglesiasnicely sums up why Clinton has a very good chance to beat Trump in the general:
There are three main problems with Donald Trump as a candidate for national office, none of which can be effectively exploited by the Republican Party but all of which can be exploited by Clinton. The problems are:
[ul]
[li]Trump is a racist.[/li]> [li]Trump’s business record is unimpressive and ethically dodgy.[/li]> [li]Trump’s policy ideas are terrible.[/li]> [li]There is simply no reason to believe that this is what the American people are looking for.[/li]> [/ul]
The problem Republicans have is that is that these flaws are not flaws that a Republican Party politician can effectively articulate to an audience of Republican Party primary voters.
[ul]
[li]Republican Party primary voters think that white people being shamed for racism is a bigger problem than white people doing racist stuff.[/li]> [li]Republican Party elites are ideologically committed to the defense of inherited wealth and opposed to the regulation of business in the public interest.[/li]> [li]Republican Party elites essentially share Trump’s least-popular and most-obviously-ridiculous policy idea — an enormous tax cut for the rich — so they can’t criticize it. [/li]
[/ul]
It’s not going to be easy, but it’s doable.
President Trump is just so horrifying.
She has to win.
RichVR
6090
In my considered opinion, many of the people who will vote for Trump are the first people who will be against the wall with me when his revolution comes. I am a liberal-ish gun owner. I like to have my privacy. I hate change. One day the average Trump voter will be walking into some twisted re-training camp along side of me. I’ll be asked: What did you do? I’ll say, I voted for Hillary. He’ll look really confused. And I’ll ask him, What did you do to be here?
He’ll say, But… but… I voted FOR him!
And I’ll laugh and laugh.
Oghier
6091
Also, if Rubio drops out, Trump wins every delegate in Florida. That’s likely, anyway.
Tim_N
6092
But what if Trump drops out!?
In my gut I still think Trump has absolutely zero interest in actually serving as President. Maybe it’s just the denial talking, but I can completely see him just suddenly dropping out so he can go golf and ogle some more Eastern European models.
Probably won’t happen … but if it does it will make the history books, along with LBJ dropping out/RFK getting assassinated in '68 and Ross Perot’s antics in '92.
(I guess the real telenovela thing for him to do would be get elected, then resign in his first week.)
I think it is more likely that he appoints himself President for Life that drops out.
Nesrie
6095
The guy is a megalomaniac. There is no way he’s dropping out if for no other reason than he’s never had more attention in his life. He literally has the entire world watching him, and he is so self-involved he talks about the size of his hands. The only way he can maintain that attention is basically to get into office.
William Saletan nails why this is all happening
As president, Obama was never a radical leftist. He extended the drone program, the Iran sanctions, and the bailout-recovery policies of George W. Bush. He proposed to cut the national debt through a higher ratio of spending cuts to tax increases than even Bush’s father had accepted and Republican voters preferred. Obama embraced the Heritage Foundation’s idea of imposing personal responsibility for health care costs through an individual mandate to buy insurance. He decimated al-Qaida’s leadership, built up troop strength in Afghanistan, and killed Osama bin Laden.
Nevertheless, Republicans opposed Obama at every turn. Whatever he embraced, they rejected. They refused to compromise on health care or offer a realistic alternative. They staged dozens of votes to repeal the new health-insurance law in its entirety. They forced a federal shutdown to protest the law. They took the nation’s credit rating hostage in a debt-ceiling showdown. They urged Iran to reject a nuclear nonproliferation agreement with the United States.
In 2012, Republicans lost the Hispanic vote and the presidential election. An internal autopsy report on this defeat, commissioned by the Republican National Committee, concluded: “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform.” Instead, in 2013 and 2014, House Republicans killed immigration reform. Today, Sen. Ted Cruz hounds Sen. Marco Rubio for having consorted with Obama to support the bill, and Rubio dutifully renounces it.
If Obama had been a leftist, the GOP’s policy of negating him on every issue might have positioned Republicans in the mainstream. Instead, because Obama was a moderate, the GOP’s negation strategy pushed it toward the fringe.
Tim_N
6097
Question of the day for me:
From Cruz’s perspective, was a small win in Iowa worth making Carson so incredibly bitter he refuses to ever drop out and pass his voters onto you? Of course there are plenty of assumptions loaded into that question, but I am starting to think an Iowaless/fraudless Cruz would probably be in a better place right now (which I am thankful he is not).
If these bloggers keep explaining everything about the Republican Party, what are they going to be able to talk about during the general election?
Hillary puff pieces for days!
Honestly, the Iowa thing with Carson is probably not even pinging anyone’s antenna anymore. Ted Cruz is flat out hated by members of both parties, and has been for a while in a not very well kept secret. Heck, he should probably be playing even dirtier. He’s not winning any friends to his side, so he might as well give a villainous mustache twirl run at the nomination.
LMN8R
6100
The rise of Trump is simple. Authoritarianism is absolutely it.
Republicans have always claimed to hate “big government”, except for when it suits them.
Now comes Trump, and he’s not even pretending to hate “big government”. He’s openly advocating for the biggest, most invasive government the US has ever seen. And he wants to use it to attack foreigners, minorities, and other oppressed groups that Republicans have trained their base to fear for decades.
ShivaX
6101
Finally someone who will save us from all the boogeymen, take all our freedoms and make us safe.
