“Adolph is a dangerous loonie, but I’ll be okay; I’ll just move back to my wife’s home town, Warsaw.”
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Well, let’s do acknowledge that Bernie’s being a man helps. If he were to act loudly assertive in order to not get blown off the stage by Trumpian bloviation, he would fare better in the court of public opinion than would Mrs Clinton’s enactment of the same behavior.
As a woman, she does have a finer line to tread in these terms.
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They were pretending she was a protester in order to cop a feel.
You’re assuming that Trump will run by attempting to gain the support of centrists.
Much more likely, IMO, is that he’ll go straight for the hard-core racist vote and rely on voter suppression and violence to keep the opposition from the polls.
The “Pledge allegiance to Trump” images weren’t accidental. He’s already locked up the KKK support; now he’s using the same sort of minimally-deniable dog whistle to bring in the overt neo-nazis.
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I’m not sure about that. Surely some advisor will tell him that he can’t get more than what, 30%? of the general vote that way.
And, he’s already been swinging centerward, by renouncing David Duke and by saying he wouldn’t kill the families of terrorists after all. Baby steps, but he does seem to be in this thing to win, so I expect him to get less wingnutty as the months of this ridiculously long campaign season go on.
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Surprised that isn’t the republican slogan. OK admittedly it unofficially was during the entirety of Obama, but… just…
Sigh.
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Yeah, they’ve both gotten so honest about their other forms of bigotry. I guess that’s one line they’re not quite willing to cross. Yet.
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What bothers me is the ‘pledge to Trump’ didn’t set of any of my family’s alarm bells. Hell they go ‘well he wants people to vote.’
Me: no He’s calling up fascist imagery and has been doubling down on the whole cult of personality thing Stalin used (I didn’t want to use the obvious hitler comparison because Godwin.)
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Did you remind them that he’s been known to keep Mein Kampf at his bedside?
I’ve given up on the adults of my family. The moment I hear them trying to teach shit to my niece like it being OK to talk down to ‘those people.’ It’s on.
I’m just focusing what i can to make sure the wee ones don’t grow up to be bigoted close minded fucks.
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My understanding is that they learn best by example, and also by a willingness to talk through such things when they want to. Sounds to me like you’re on the right track. 
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True.
I substance, not power. I meant that he’s been consistently for the people and honest about his politics on a level that Clinton can’t even begin to approach.
He’s the only real candidate for either party looking to represent the people.
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Yeah - as the father of 3, my main goal is to not add to the asshole population. So far so good.
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He was … this afternoon.
To top it off, after the rally, the puncher was interviewed by Inside Edition on camera. Among other vile comments, the puncher said “If we see him again, we might have to kill him.” I can’t even begin to understand this mindset.
Old Hateful Man
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Trump is legitimizing enactment of a lot of bitter and/or scared white people’s fantasies. Lots more people gonna get hurt. And it looks like that asshole Trump will never be seriously held responsible.
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No, I’m saying every President in the last 50 years has won by taking the middle-- the hardcore partisans will always vote the party line. Even a lot of the GOP who dislike him will fall in line, but I suspect not all.
I have no idea what Trump will do if he wins the nomination.
If pressed I’d say: I think Trump only cares about winning. I don’t think he cares about actual policy or politics (he was a Democrat until recently-- probably because in NYC it helped him more.) I think he cares about Trump coming out on top all the time. This seems to be the theme of his life from what I’ve seen for decades now. Maybe this means he was always really a Republican, and just didn’t know it (maybe not.)
With that in mind, if he were to find he was suddenly in second place to a woman or wild-haired Jewish hippy, he would hire some policy experts and public relations guys to come up with whatever it took to win. So far he has just been winging it, and since it’s been working, he figures he’s smarter than everyone who says he can’t win. He might double down on his racist, sexist, xenophobic stuff before realizing it isn’t changing his poll numbers, by then trying to appeal to the middle will be pointless, but he would probably try it anyway.
That’s my best guess anyway.
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I think one needs to be filed under “waaaaay too much Photoshopping.”
Well . . . I will stand by my assertion that the Hitler/Trump comparison is a exaggerated.
For now, anyways.
But I absolutely agree his followers are getting more and more brown-shirt-ish every day.
The real test will come during the general election: if Trump is the nominee, and is polling way behind the Democratic nominee, and he starts actively encouraging his people to go ‘fuck shit up’ at DEM events, then that’s it, he’s Hitler part two, and I owe everybody here a Coke.
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