One of the few debate lines that got him angry boos from the assembled Republican audience.
I agree with whoever it was that said the problem with the #stoptrump movement is that it attacks him over his few virtues rather than his many, many flaws.
5 Likes
We have both kinds of conservative here, right wing and ultra.
15 Likes
1 Like
The thing that gets me is that, the republicans are so eager to stop Trump that theyāre lining up behind the one remaining candidate whoās even worse.
5 Likes
Am I the only person thinking this is code for: we promise, if you nominate one of these two instead of the Earl of Cheetos, weāll put the other on the ticket as VP?
8 Likes
The 2008 DNC scenario ā where an established party elite loses to a previously unknown Junior Senator based on combination of charisma and general dissatisfaction with the party ā would be considered a major bug, not a feature in the GOP.
The GOP is set up to winnow the field down to a few party creatures with proven track records and loyalty. Thereās a ladder, and when you get to the top you get a crack at the presidency. (Or youāre completely unelectable like Strom Thurman and instead ascend straight to lichdom. Whichever.)
Trump is doing well because the entire field this time around is also-rans, fringe candidates, and general chaff. There is no elder elite who can claim authority and run with it.
4 Likes
Code is meant to be hard for outsiders to decipher. There is no such guile here. This is as blatant a signal as you can send the based that itās time for this nonsense to stop.
1 Like
Hey, JIm Webb didnāt get this far. The guyās a Republican who got left behind by the Republican partyās hard shift to the right*. To pretend that Hillary is as bad as even some of the other Democratic candidates, much less the raving loonies on the right, is to diminish just how horrible the Republican party is.
*Here he stands up for white privilege and Andrew Jackson:
5 Likes
Canāt we distinguish between being a Christian and believing utter nonsense despite abundant evidence to the contrary?
If not, then no - Christians (and the rest of the superstitious, misogynist, bronze-age nutbars) cannot be qualified to run nations in the present.
Religious organizations can do wonderful things as community hubs and coordinators of charitable action. Those things could be accomplished equally well without indoctrinating children and oppressing women.
2 Likes
I have no reliable test for belief, but maybe Trump will share his Muslim faith-detector (used to expel and exclude them from Americaās borders) and we can mod it to detect Christianity.
āTrueā faith or no, Iām happy to disqualify anybody who claims to believe bullshit, because believing nonsense is not a great quality for decision makers.
2 Likes
Love how heās offended by Jackson being called a monster for his genocide, since The Trail of Tears was all just one big accident, so it wasnāt a completely intentional genocideā¦ Somehow the fact that Jefferson called him āa dangerous man,ā and Quincy Adams termed him a ābarbarian,ā show that he was a hero because they were āelites,ā which somehow isnāt offensive to his delicate sensibilities. Obviously criticizing the guy who was perpetrator of the Trail of Tears and other atrocities against Native Americans (and literally murdered people) is Political Correctness run amok.
8 Likes
Lindsay Graham.
Sure, heās bloodthirsty, amoral and corrupt, but he does have a certain dark charm.
3 Likes
I certainly donāt think faith in a higher power is a prerequisite for the job, but we do theoretically live in a representative democracy. As long as most Americans have some kind of religious faith it makes sense that most of our leaders would too.
Iām more concerned with what people do in the name of their faith. Jimmy Carter is a deacon but he worships the āhelp the unfortunateā version of Jesus instead of the āsmite the hereticsā version, so whatever inspires him to build those houses for poor folks is fine by me.
9 Likes
Personally, I believe that President Hillary Clinton will be an honored guest at Donald Trumpās next wedding.
2 Likes
1 Like
One could make that argument about any religious belief that one has a prejudice against, yes.
If youāre going to bar from office anyone in the world with a belief in Something Greater Than Oneself, itās going to be a very narrow field in elections.
3 Likes
I donāt care what sort of morality-inducing superstition my political leaders hold in private, as long as they donāt insist on inflicting them on the rest of us. Separation of church and state, etc.
7 Likes
My observation is that you apes we human beings - of which I am clearly one - form values and then make up reasons to justify them after. It makes more sense to think of people who build the houses vs people who do the smiting than as religious vs. non-religious.
If we go by actual rather than professed belief then I have a feeling that the vast majority of presidential candidates would still be qualified under this criterion.
6 Likes
I donāt mean to say that believers canāt do good things, in fact I was clear that religion accompanies all kinds of positive behaviour.
I just feel that leaders should be grounded in reality.
-
If they think there is a magical something underlying the detectable, measurable universe, so be it.
-
If they believe in an omnipotent and omniscient sky father or similar, then they shouldnāt be leading a country. If they lie about believing, Iām not sure thatās any better
Bernie is the only one not claiming faith in the absurd.
2 Likes
I said believing contrary to abundant evidence (young Earth, Noahās Ark, etc).
Argue against straw men all you like, but donāt put my name on them!
