whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
Harrison Bergeron said:
It's possible to both not like Trump and to not want to live in a Stalinist banana republic.
I agree with you. I defended Trump and his criminal role for 6th issues, I do not believe he had direct culpability for that mess. I also thought the Jan 6th Coalition was ridiculous.
Here, we have a Special Counsel that got a Grand Jury indictment. This is a different animal than the other stuff.
Let me be clear, I don't like Trump, believe he is central to the rise of Biden and the destruction of America. Wish he would go back to reality TV. One dose from 2016-18 is enough Trump for me. The fact he won, represents all things wrong with our elections. Money andefia too much influence.
one ******* is not the problem.
the reaction of institutions to that ******* is the problem.
once we tolerate that, then politics devolves to nothing more than an argument about the definition of *******s.
The last real President was Bush 41. After that, it became this crap of demonizing the other side and one-up-man-ship. It started with Clinton and has continued, it is reaching a critical mass with Trump. We can't go on like this and HAVE to get back to running serious candidates or China will dominate us. Haley, DeSantis, Pompeo, Scott, and even Christie have serious experience governing. We need to get away from clowns like Trump.
I agree it started with Clinton, but in other respects you are badly mis-assessing the situation.
We were in "normal politics" under Bush 41, politics where we broadly agreed on the purpose of government, the problems we faced, and primarily disagreed about the best ways to use government (or not) to solve the problems. To some degree, the Cold War forced that upon us. The divide did start with Clinton, who did indeed do things that had always been considered unacceptable - sex with interns in his office, multiple counts of obstruction & conspiracy. Then disbarred. Republicans were hardly unreasonable for impeaching him. But choosing the political route for defense, to ride it out, Democrats set in motion the post-modernist dynamic, betraying their true philosophical colors. Merit hierarchies be damned. It's all about power.
The problem has gotten worse with each successive admin. Dems made Bush 43 pay dearly. Then Obama engaged in purposefully divisive racial policies, and consolidated Democrat hold on governmental institutions by using Stimlus monies to build public sector unions as blue grassroots. Trump was a reaction to all that, and of course the reaction on him was Democrats dropping all pretenses about common good, embracing "regime politics" with gusto. Today, the two sides do not agree on the definitions of basic things, even what are boys and what are girls. And the left controls at least parts of most societal institutions, to include the federal bureaucracy, which is clearly being used to coerce compliance from the center and right portions of the spectrum. So we wildly disagree on the problems AND how to use government (or not) to solve them. We believe spending and the border and....so many things are literally "state sponsored chaos." Meanwhile, Dems are moving in to overdrive defining everything before it to be extirpated as either white supremacy or an existential threat to the climate.
All of that to say is, the "serious experience" argument, no matter how practical it might be, t is going to get drowned out by as an irrelevancy given the situation - we are in a defacto civil war. Conservatives are looking for someone to fight, no matter what, because they correctly perceive the consequences of NOT defending Trump - it will only ratify that Dems have the right to use their power to intimidate their political opponents.
This dynamic until one side gives up and the other one wins.
Wish it wasn't that way, but it is what it is. And I am frankly concerned that so many on the center right work so hard NOT to see it. Dems do not have that limitation. They are all in that they are surrounded by fascists and anything goes to destroy them.
outstanding article here, five years old now, current events proving it more prescient with each passing year.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/americas-cold-civil-war/
I do agree with the fight, but I disagree with your choice of Champion. He does more damage, much of it self-inflicted, than forward the cause. Goldwater, Reagan, Bush, and even the Dems at least had real experience. Dislike him, but Clinton had real administrative skills. Obama had real oratory political skills. Bush 45 had real governing skills. We are not seeing that with Trump. He is a reality TV guy and media personality and acting like it. He is damaging the situation more than helping because he cannot win a General Election. He hasn't had a positive impact since 2016!
It's the champion we have. As long as he has the kind of support he commands, it is simply not possible to make the case that another is clearly stronger.
Not advocating anything. Just reading the tea leaves.
Well, I do not think he will be an issue by election time. He will have bigger issues to deal with.
he will make those bigger issues THE issue, and they may well become a positive for him.
Primary, yes. He may just have enough to win nomination. Win a General Election, he is done. GOP foolish hooking their wagon to a candidate no Dem, women or independent moderate would vote. Not only that, he guarantees record turnout for Dems. He is not a winning strategy for GOP.
Pretty sure that's a good RDS campaign meme which probably isn't real-life true. To the extent that the political middle sees "dual standards of justice" as a serious issue (and by good margin they do), only Trump can fully exploit it.
No, the GOP can exploit it. Haley, using it as an example of Dem over-reach. I think you are dead-on right.
Trump? I think Trump is distasteful to the point of them just not voting. Also the number of Dems voting will make the point moot. No way they let Trump win. Biden gets 100 million...
That part in bold is the strongest case there is for Trump.
And there is wisdom in it. When your adversaries tell you what you cannot do, transgress immediately.
""If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him."
--Sun Tzu
There are more registered Dems (48 million to 36 million), if they get enough turnout there is nothing the GOP can do. You run Trump, you guarentee they all show up... Nothing nefarious about it. He is just that polarizing. Best thing GOP can do is run someone that the Dem's don't care. I think Haley fits that bill best
Just popped up in Twitter feed…..
It'll be interesting to watch if this changes in the future as the younger generations start to hold more influence than the Baby Boomers. I suspect the younger generations skew Democrat. Of course, that could change as they age.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranking-u-s-generations-on-their-power-and-influence-over-society/Boomers capture
47.4% of political influence. This generation accounts for 32% of all U.S. voters, and holds the majority of federal and state positions. For instance,
68% of U.S. senators are Baby Boomers.
Political spending on election campaigns and lobbying predominantly comes from Boomers, too. When it comes to money spent on lobbying, we found that 60% of the top 20 spenders were from organizations led by Baby Boomers.
In contrast, Millennials and Gen Zers barely make a splash in the political realm. That said, in the coming years, it's estimated that the combined voting power of Millennials and Gen Z will see immense growth, rising from 32% of voters in 2020 up to 55% by 2036.
