Not realizing that our candidates were outclassed is a serious problem in and of itself.whiterock said:Seriously. Your argument implicitly assumes that Dems can find a way to elected severely flawed candidates, but that for some genetic unremediable reason Republicans cannot. That is a serious problem in and of itself.Mothra said:B.S. Your arguments supporting your contention that he is in any way electable in a general election are absurd at best. We have a 2020 election, a 2022 midterm, a favorability rating around 40% and and an approval rating that has never risen above 50% since his election that tells us he is not electable.whiterock said:Mothra said:Foreordained? No. I would say Trump has a slightly better chance than a snowball's chance in hell. Slightly.whiterock said:You may be correct about the general. You may also be incorrect about the general. Some signposts:Mothra said:The author is saying it's not over for Trump as far as getting the nomination is concerned. I am not sure I have seen any national pundit say otherwise. There remains a very good possibility, given the nutjobs and morons that comprise his rabid fan base, that he still gets the nomination. However, in the general election against the Dem nominee, whomever that is? Trump doesn't stand a chance. One need look no further than his polling numbers to see that.whiterock said:That's the biggest part of it. it's a bigger cultural issue within the GOP than Dems. And your last sentence hints at why. Dem leadership seems to always have a genuine concern for the desires of its grassroots, and actively seeks opportunities to advance the progressive agenda, which Dems tend to see is the true purpose of politics. GOP, on the other hand, tends to see their grassroots as unreasonable nutjobs getting in the way of what they believe to be the true purpose of politics - compromising with Dems. The perception that Trump would be different in that regard was a big part of why he won in 2016 (primary and general). In office, Trump proved that he would leave it all on the battlefield to do what he promised, no matter how much grief he got. That's why he has such enduring support. Trumpists are not unreasonable. They are entirely logical. Show them someone who will fight like Trump, and then the issue of moving on largely becomes and issue of fairness and gratitude.. (and there is a credible contender in view, btw.)RMF5630 said:Really is.ATL Bear said:They can't quit Trump. It's absolutely bizarre, and incomprehensible.Mothra said:
If Trump can't win a general election, which he can't, we should all be hammering on him at this point, and encouraging strong alternatives, like RDS. It makes no sense to hammer on alternatives when the party is about to hitch its wagon to an unhinged loser.
Only explanation I can come up with is they do not believe anyone else will champion their causes. I am not sure there is anyone out there that will appease that part of the population, outside of someone they consider one of their own.
The flipside: the Trump critique in this and a couple other current threads is reflective (to matters of degree) of not just a majority of posters here, but of what I see hear elsewhere - a wide range of arguments all spinning on an axis unelectability. What those arguments are hardly unreasonable, they are also not ineluctable.
Amid that dynamic, we see conflicting poll numbers. Some showing RDS pulling ahead. Others, like the one below from this weekend's lede in the Economist, show him still in the lead.
The trend could continue. Or it could not. From the hardly Trump-friendly National Review:
"I'm way more hesitant to call it over for Trump. I even think the NFT sale wasn't entirely worthless it certainly brought in some funds. Trump is funnier, and attracts more of the spotlight, than any of his rivals. If he starts putting in the work by giving speeches and figuring out which lines get a response, he'll identify the issues that matter, and increasingly ditch the grievances about 2020 that don't."
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/is-trump-done/
Trump is done as a national candidate. He will never win another election. The sooner that we realize that, and start throwing our support behind electable alternatives, the better.
It is not yet clear that the outcome of the general election is foreordained.
He's done. Again, the sooner we all come around to that fact, the better.
Again, the electability argument is weak, because there is no argument for it which cannot be mostly or fully countered with equally valid reasoning or data. If you want someone else on the ticket, you should try other arguments.
If you want the Republicans to lose this next election cycle, then by all means keep propagating that fiction. I can't remember the last time you've been right on any of your predictions.