They abandoned the principles, but not the tribe.
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The problem is all of those on Stormfront and the rest of the vile cesspool that is the right-wing web who do like him. They know exactly who Trump is, and they like him for it. For them to stop liking him, he would have to change who he is and then tell them about it directly from the horse’s mouth. We cannot discredit Trump among them because he is who he is, and that’s why they love him.
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I will take your word for it, and don’t discount that some Stormfront readers are against him for that reason, but “mainstream racists” like fmr Congressman Steven King, Stephen Miller, David Duke and many of the tiki torch types at the “Unite the Right” rally and many racists at the Jan 6 insurrection are fervent Trump supporters. If he has the mainstream racists, he doesn’t need the fringes.
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Of course, just for the record, Frum was arguing that meant everyone should be extra conciliatory toward the would-be anti-democracy conservatives, and do things like reduce immigration to make sure the white boomers don’t feel their positions are threatened by non-whites, because he’s still frickin’ George W Bush’s speechwriter rather than a human being worth listening to.
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I think you conflate two things I was trying to say as the same thing. If it came out Trump had an account on Stormfront, it would make little difference.
If a video came out of Trump kissing a dude, he would be instantly banished from right wing politics.
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@ chenille – Thank you! Behold the definitive poster child for rich, white, entitled privilege. Anything he (Frum) says should be held up against “Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction” and everything that flowed (and is still flowing) from that. Axis of Evil, indeed. So when you think of the stereotypically nice, polite Canadian, think instead of David Frum.
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I took your advice and voted today, as a matter of fact (OK, I was already going to do that, but, hey).
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What I am saying is that Trump is not the type of guy to kiss a dude or embrace Marxism or convert to Islam, and both his supporters and detractors know it. Evidence to the contrary would be dismissed by all unless it came from the horse’s mouth. Everything else can and will be written off as deepfakes or fake news.
ETA: I’m not arguing that they wouldn’t dump him for the above things; I’m just saying that none of those things are going to happen, and a misinformation campaign to convince them that any of the above things had happened would fail because these people believe the word of their lord and savior Trump above objective reality, much less even well-constructed misinformation.
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Thank you, but I’m not sure what Canadians in general have to do with it. I don’t hold Stephen Miller and Michael Anton against all California.
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Welcome to realpolitik!!
Even in democracies and republics, even in the USA, power belongs to those that can grab it and keep hold. A democracy is where the people took the power, but keeping it is hard and that struggle is never over.
The French learnt this the hard way, which is why you don’t want to be on the wrong end of a French protest march. In the US on the other hand I think it isn’t learnt yet. There is too much believe in the system itself. Manifest Destiny: the idea that the USA with its political system and rights is a natural thing that exist by itself. Well, it isn’t.
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I have been saying this since the rise of the Trump! It was during the Nixon years the GOP decided their principles were less important than getting elected.
Before that the GOP was the party for African Americans, for progressive and humanist ideas. The Democrats were the party of the Solid South, carpetbaggers and the political machines.
After that the Republicans were the party of grifters and populists farming elections, making politics a show-and-dance with muppets for the rubes to gawk at while the puppeteers ran with the money. Reagan and Dubya showed them how to do this well and Trump perfected it.
Here is a sad thought: If in Truman’s time the new (northern) democrats and the old GOP had worked together on human rights the 50s and 60s would have looked a lot different 
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What’s the wording of the rule? I know the founders explicitly didn’t want political parties, so it would have been either added later or specify “X people must certify it”.
And I guess it doesn’t specify “Republicans and Democrats”, so if the Greens or Libertarians become the second-biggest party, the problem might be solved.
If something like that happened in my country, there would be a reelection, and then voters would nuke the offending party out of existence, annoyed at the shenanigans. But I guess that’s too much to ask for in the US. Ugh, voters having loyalty to a political party is poison to the democratic process…
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Oh yes, but all the messes there (and what messes, some going on today even) generally derived from unchecked greed and power seeking on the part of the governing class. This of course is common enough even in present-time politicians, what I cannot get in this case is why the electorate, to their own very-much-verifiable detriment, support them. In theory, political supporters seek advantages, not messy, undignified demises. In short, why do turkeys vote for Christmas?
I feel like we’re all on the stage, and this is the last scene from Cabaret.
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George Washington didn’t want political parties. The rest had already begun to split into federalists and anti-federalists even before the Constitution was ratified.
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This is the wording of the rule, actually, from the wiki on the Eleventh Commandment:
The Eleventh Commandment was a phrase used by President Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for Governor of California. The Commandment reads: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
Trump has changed it to “Thou shalt not speak ill of ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶f̶e̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶R̶e̶p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶a̶n̶ me, or my stated beliefs”.
The current problem is not a party problem it’s a cult of personality problem. Trump flirted with starting a third party, and did not get guff for it, but he doesn’t have to start a third party as he’s maintained ownership of the Republican™ brand.
There are movements for more ranked choice voting, so hopefully the US is at least dipping it’s toe into more third party options.
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We ignore the fascists at our peril.
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How To Fight This Shit, Part XXII:
The For the People Act is being debated in the senate TODAY. It will introduce protections against voter suppression, among other things.
Call your senators and urge them to support this bill.
You can look up contact number with this site:
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There is no reason why “we, the people” have to go along with this faux-legalistic maneuver if and when it occurs.
Even if we did go along when Gore conceded in 2000, which signalled to the Repugs that Dems were a pushover.
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