Ugh. The extent to which people seem to be viewing this as a moral failing (i.e. a breach of contract with God or ones spouse) rather than as sexual assault that harms another real person is really very upsetting.
I really think that there are significant number of conservatives who are more upset by the married woman angle than the assault angle. There’s still no empathy. “Saying bad things about black people or brown people is still fine, because it doesn’t affect me personally, but the idea that Trump would try to have sex with MY wife, who I consider my property? Now I’m upset.”
Clay
2832
I think the morality angle is a convenient excuse for Republican candidates who have wanted to bail for a while. I’d love to see how those defending him would like it if somebody showed up and assaulted them, or their spouses or children or mothers. There would be calls for the death penalty for sexual assault.
ShivaX
2836
I love how all the people on Twitter with “Deplorable” in their name… are actually fucking deplorable.
It doesn’t work when you show how it was correct, folks.
rei
2838
I have seen this just expressed recently by close otherwise nice Christian friend. Breaking marriage vows was the dealbreaker. Not the sex assault. Not the racism or xenophobia. False equivalence of “Hillary is just as bad” still persists though.
Dejin
2839
Rudy Giuliani on ABC’s this week admits what Trump was saying is straight out sexual assault
It’s kind of amazing, the word salad coming out of his mouth as he tries to deal with what he just said.
Timex
2841
Trump supporters have no morality at all. They’ve demonstrated themselves to be abominations.
Do you think? On the one hand they are trying to distance themselves from his taint at the eleventh hour in the hope it will save them with moderate voters but, at the same time, they are being savaged by the Trump supporters to their right who view their defection as a betrayal. So the moderate voters will likely stay home anyway and they’ll lose the 15% of their base that they’ve been debasing themselves to court all of this time.
JFrazer
2843
That’s the point. They won’t lose the base. The base isn’t going to vote Democrat, no matter what happens. They will vote the ®’s down the line, period. The only danger these candidates had was getting primaried, but it’s too late for that. Now that they are on the tickets as the ®’s, they can denounce Trump and not risk any votes. The only way it hurts them is if the RNC turns off the money faucet, and we’ve already seen leaks saying the RNC gave the green-light to denounce if you feel it’s best for your campaign.
The main impact is the Trump supporters who choose to stay home. You can’t get those votes, whether you support or denounce him. These denouncements are a last-minute grasp-at-straws to make up for those lost voters and try to lure back some of the moderates that they alienated.
Politics really does make me ill when I stop and think about it too long.
jpinard
2844
OMG Trump once joked his sexual conquest upper age limit was 35…
…the worst part, his “lower limit” was 12. He may joke, but as often as he’s ogled his own daughter and the rape accusations against him from a 15 year old . What a disgusting pile of crap he is… and his supporters.
[quote]Stern then asked Trump if he has an age limit.
“No, I have no age — I mean, I have age limit. I don’t want to be like Congressman Foley, with, you know, 12-year-olds.”[/quote]
Trump is a piece of shit, but it seems a tad disingenuous to claim that he’s saying 12 years old is his age limit there.
I don’t think that is true. A lot of Trump supporters hardly ever vote, and in the past some have even voted Democrat.
As long as they think Trump has a chance they’ll come out a vote for Trump and yes I think most will vote R in the rest of the ticket. However, there is a chance that a decent percentage will not vote Republican down ballot as way of punishing the leadership for abandoning Trump.
The traditional Republican platform of lower taxes, traditional values, strong military. doesn’t really offer them anything. They are home collecting SS disability so they don’t benefit from lower income taxes. Some are strongly anti-abortion, traditional marriage, but most don’t really care that much. Trump has really tarnished the Republican image on the military.
Moreover, many Republican policies Free trade, pro-skilled immigration, entitlement reform, cutting corporate tax rates, abolishing Obamacare don’t help them and many cases hurt them. The only good Republican policies from their prospectives, are those which are opposing the Democrats catering to special interests. There is precious little that the hardcore Trump supporters and traditional Republican have in common.
Canuck
2847
Yesssss. Poison all the Wells, Donald! Let’s see how many you can take down with you.
Canuck
2848
Will they though? Regular Republicans, sure. But diehard Trump fanaticals probably won’t if Trump is against them. If 30% of the Republican electorate are Trump deadenders and only half of them decide not to vote downticket then that could flip a lot of races.
This is exactly the issue, and it looks like Trump is exacerbating it. The “base” for Donald Trump isn’t the “base” for the Republican party. That’s why this is such a mess for them.
-Tom
ShivaX
2850
So Trump is basically declaring war on Ryan at this point. Yet Ryan is still endorsing him.
Fivethirtyeight had an article about this:
The bottom line is that at this point Trump is more popular than Ryan.
