6222

Well I did not wish to invoke the Ailes Curse upon myself for daring to speak their full titles, I have family to think of you know.

You, however, are about to be flung into the maw of destruction, fed to the Eater of All Hope. Do not run, their choppers are already overhead.

6223

They cannot stand the sight of the Holy Symbol of Sanders (a sickle and hammer woven from hemp), so I am safe here, in my place of power (a massive government funded education institution).

6224

Sometimes, at night, do you still hear them, Clarice? The screaming of the Christies?

His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss.

That piece is brilliant.

6225

Because the rest of the republican candidates are anywhere near moderate? You’re talking about a group of candidates so extreme that Trump is seen as one of the more moderate ones. You certainly can’t kick trump out and expect Crazy Cruz to lead you to sanity.

Splitting off 1/3 of the republican party and sending them to the loony bin is about as likely as deporting all of the illegal immigrants.

6226

I love that passage that you quoted, too.

6227

I think that the candidates are who they are in part because of the crazies under the umbrella. I’d imagine that crazies are a pretty reliable voting block, and candidates who appealed to them would in turn find enough support to run a national campaign. If the crazies leave, it would logically follow that the candidates of the future would not fit the same mold. Of course, logic has long been divorced from the current political situation, so take that all with a grain of salt.

edit - my personal theory is that IFF the crazies due depart thanks to GOP shenanigans, the remaining non-crazy Republicans might become attractive to people who vote Democrat simply because they can’t support the crazies, eventually shifting the GOP to a moderate party and in turn shifting the Dems to the Left (as their moderates migrate away). Probably would take a good decade or two for that to really start to gain traction because tribalism and tradition are real obstacles in the shift.

6228

In 2012, Romney heaped praise on Donald, specifically citing his knowledge of the economy and how trade agreements impact it. The relevant portion starts at 2:25:

All Trump need do to rebut Romney now is to buy some ad time to play this clip, then remind people of how two-faced politicians can be. Assuming that Romney’s speech today doesn’t tie Trump to a dead girl or live boy, this whole “stop Trump” train may only make him stronger.

6229

The fact that the establishment GOP is bringing out Romney as the one to try to rally the GOP voters against Trump is a sign of just how bad it is now for the GOP. This is the best they’ve got. A guy who the GOP tried hard to not nominate but ended up with because everyone else who entered and led and was hailed as “The Nominee” flamed out (can we say Rick Perry debate crash?) They’ve got no party beloved previous President to trot out. No one that could make the masses falling for Trump to stop and say, whoa - could I have been mistaken?

The people who are turning out for Romney are just going to laugh at him, as Trump makes joke after joke about him. After all, Trump’s big brag is he’s a winner; so they pull out a loser to draw those people away?

6230

It reeks of desperation.

6231

Trump also heaped praise on Romney, and then later called him a loser.

6232

The rules don’t apply to Trump. He can flip-flop all he wants without getting dirt on him. The same can’t be said of the establishment Republicans.

Personally, I don’t think Trump’s popularity has much to do with Trump himself. We’ve hit the tipping point in politics. People want things to change. It’s the reason why an unknown Democrat with no measurable political experience was able to get elected 8 years ago by simply saying “I’ll change things”. He said it in an easy, measured tone…then didn’t live up to the promises. Now we have a bombastic blowhard saying nearly the same thing, and people are leaning towards him. If quiet change didn’t work, maybe loud change will. It could have come from almost any outsider saying almost anything, as long as the key points of “I’ll make things better” and “it’s someone else’s fault” were the talking points. Carson started out extremely popular as well, with no political experience and mostly saying nothing other than “I know how to fix this”. His problem was that he went too nut-ball crazy for most people and revealed that he can’t debate his way out of a paper bag. Bernie Sanders is riding the same wave. The problem, for him, is that he started in such a deep hole and the Democrats are slightly less disenfranchised than the Republicans are at this point.

If Trump wins, it will be less of a message of “we like Trump” and more of a message of “this isn’t working, we need to try something new…even if it’s going to burn the whole thing down”.

6233

So? Trump’s hypothetical commercials would not play those bits.

I’m thinking about tactics, not truth. Truth and facts aren’t particularly relevant in GOP politics.

6234

Now this is fun.

6235

Romney is ripping him up pretty bad. As others have suggested, rationality doesn’t have much to do with anything. Trump is immune to facts.

But it’s still a coherent, fact based rejection of Trump.

6236

To be fair to Republicans, it’s necessary for this rift to come to a head if they ever want to be a coherent party again. It’s been lurking now for 10 years and they still haven’t resolved it. And they haven’t had a coherent belief system in decades if ever.

We all know this. We make fun of them for it. To fix it, they’re probably going to have to go through a transition like this. Maybe they emerge stronger for it a decade from now. Or maybe they collapse and we re-shape the American political system. Either option is positive.

6237

The democrats did the same, back with the vietnam war. It took them until now to really recover completely and solidify as a single party.

6238

Good speech.
I’m glad Romney called him on tarrifs. If we put a 35% tarriff on Chinese goods, China will react by placing 35% tarriff on US goods. Suddenly Boeing aircraft are no longer competitive with Airbus, Oregon forest products lose out to British Columbia, and California agriculture loses out everybody, and Chinese buy Samsung phones and not iPhones.

6239

Guess how much Romney’s takedown of Trump will move the needle? Zero.

It will, in fact, embolden Trump and more firmly cement his supporters.

6240

If I were Trump I would point out the GOP scrambling behind the scenes, closed-door-meeting style with big donors, as ample evidence that he and his supporters are on the right track. “Look at them scurrying to try and keep us down!” Which, to be fair, would be true enough. Together let’s pull back reveal the men behind the curtain!

6241

We spent decades convincing our voters that Government was the source of all their problems, but now listen to everyone in Government telling you how stupid you are for supporting the guy who wants to destroy the Government. Brilliant plan!

Republican logic.