`9. Clearly, I’m slipping.
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I love what Taibbi said about Cruz’s face: it’s like someone assembled it from bits of a waterlogged Reagan mask at gunpoint.
PMSL
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Of course you wouldn’t have a thread you’ve never been to muted. Getting quoted in a thread other than the one you posted on is something that happens on these boards, and you get notified. Your comparison between that and being doxed was hyperbolic. The suggestion that you can’t say what you think (because other people might disagree?) and the idea that someone quoting you is creepy seems really weird to me. Things you say on these boards being quoted on these boards is what happens on these boards, and more often than not things are quoted to be disagreed with rather than agreed with. I think that’s how virtually every message board on the internet works.
As a non-American looking in from the outside, I completely agree with your assessment that both the Republicans and the Democrats have failed to deliver on the things they said they’d deliver on. I expect that of every politician to some extent, but I don’t even think that many American politicians were even trying. I think they are consciously playing their own voters for suckers, thinking the sheep will bleat on command in response to various buzz words.
I see a lot of what makes Donald Trump appealing as a candidate. But there are lots of reasons to think he’s terrible. He appears to be a terrific salesman who has made a lot of money for himself. From what I can see, the people working with Trump have been less successful than Trump himself. That’s what I think he is doing right now, selling himself as a president to people who are going to do a lot worse than he is if they buy it.
Of course that sounds like what I’m saying is that the worst case scenario is that Trump is just like all the others, since selling something they aren’t going to deliver is the problem that people are dealing with.
What I can’t take is the racist stuff, and he really did say those things, it’s not an invention of the media. He really talked about banning people from entering the country based on their religion, and he really did talk around a question about whether he would track people based on their religion (this, I think, is where you’ll find the Hitler comparisons since it actually reminds one of what Hitler did in a non-metaphorical way). He really did take 48 hours to disavow white supremecy (his defense of not knowing what it was is not credible).
His recent anti-protest and anti-democratic comments have been very troubling too. He really did say that things were better back when the standard response to protesters was to beat them up. He pines for the days of the Kent State shootings, basically.
What probably bothers me most about him is that he says how stupid Iraq was while saying he would bomb ISIS into the ground. It’s pretty easy to see yesterday’s foreign war as stupid, but he appears very ready to get into another one. So more of the same on the worst of American policy.
If someone votes from Trump in the primary because he isn’t Ted Cruz, I’d get behind that. But it’s hard for me to see being enthusiastic about the guy.
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PBS runs a story on a family volunteering for Trump’s “Get out the vote” call bank, but fails to note the woman’s prominent white supremacist tattoos: Gothic-lettered 88 (“Heil Hitler”) on left hand, and a Stormfront-style Sun Cross on right hand.
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And then, after defending their neglect of basic principles of journalistic responsibility, they continue to dig by uncritically broadcasting the subject’s prima facie non-credible claim that the tattoos are of purely religious meaning.
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Given Trump’s previously moderate views on just about everything, and his previously friendly relations with the Clinton family, the “long con” conspiracy theory becomes more and more convincing: Trump has got people thinking about voting for Hillary Clinton who would never ever ever vote for her if she weren’t literally the only alternative to literal fascism.
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Hey, why the fuck not. The Democratic Party has apparently been infiltrated by Republicans for ages…
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The incomparable Todd Gitlin reports for WaPo on precedent for risks of increased violence associated with Drumpf rallies.
…
Wallace roused his crowds against left-wingers in the same way Trump turns his followers’ rage against Muslims and immigrants. Like Wallace, the game Trump plays is, “Make my day.” Disruptors in his audiences are props for his performances, rallying his supporters more fervently and defensively around him. The result, as in 1968, is a growing climate of violence. It feels as if, somewhere, fuses are lit. …
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The Guardian has reported on CBS video of Drumpf Oberleunant Lewandowski assaulting the opposition … again.
Is Tuscon tired of the Trump Charm offensive already? How could they not be?
Footage posted on the internet by a CBS reporter appears to show Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, yank a protester by his collar at an event in Tucson, Arizona. A second man, behind the protester, also appears to grab the demonstrator, a young man who spins around to confront them after realizing he is being physically restrained.
Here is her tattoo:
Here is an image search for Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88:
There are lots of images. The Earnhardt 88 is always in that font with that shadow.
I’m sure this is a stock answer for those with 88 tattoos when someone understands the meaning, but it isn’t very convincing.
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I hope you realize what a horrific omen this is.
Chris Christie and others keep saying similar things about Donald Trump right before they pledge support for him. And those are the ones not saying the same things about Ted Cruz, right before they pledge support for Cruz.
Any position in the Republican primaries other than:
- “I’m voting for Cruz because, goddammit, I can’t let Trump win.”
- “I’m voting for Trump because, goddammit, I can’t let Cruz win.”
Is beyond my comprehension.
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- “I’m drafting Romney in the primaries, because goddammit, I can’t let either win.”
Romney was on Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night raising Romney awareness. In the last couple of weeks he’s recorded robocalls for Rubio, hit the campaign trail to appear alongside Kasich and announced his Utah caucus vote for Cruz - without fully backing any of them. A vote for Cruz is merely a vote to prevent Trump getting the nomination before brokered deals can be made at the Republican National Convention.
Granted, that’s the same as your option 2. But without intending to nominate Cruz.
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It combines the fun of self-love with an association with an adorable arctic bird.
I think if the party goes this way - tries to get the vote split so there is a brokered convention, and then pressures delegates to select another nominee (not Cruz or Trump), I think they will collapse in the election and lose even some carefully gerrymandered unloseable seats. It wouldn’t be shocking if 25-30% of their voters abandoned them as irredeemably corrupt.
And that’s a non-violent outcome. Trump said that is there were shenanigans to prevent him from getting elected their might be a revolt, and if those shenanigans also kept Cruz out, I think riots would be possible (riots with lots of guns).
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Romney could get the Republican vote out. He simply comes across as an adult with a professional demeanor next to Trump and Cruz.
The problem is that much of the Republican Party believes that it’s no longer about losing the White House this round, it’s about losing the party. They want to dump Trump at all costs, and Cruz isn’t an alternative they like.
But Trump is FAR ahead in the polls. Even if a brokered deal hands the nomination to Cruz, He’ll take his marbles and go home. Meaning that he’ll take all his supporters and all that media attention he gets, and run with his own party.
Canada’s Tea Party movement started within the old Conservative Party, and in 1987 they split off to become the “Reform Party.” They were motivated by the need for democratic reforms, by profound discontent with the Conservative establishment, by a lack of power outside of the capitol region, and by runaway deficit spending which the Conservative party promised to stop but instead accelerated. Sound familiar?
Early on the Reform Party was marked by wingnuttyness and racism, and was home to the religious right. Sound familiar?
Because they split the conservative vote, the old Conservative party was reduced to almost no seats in the next election. Of course extremists get more press than moderates, so the writing was on the wall. With the Reform Party getting all the press, most remaining Conservative candidates crossed over. Trump would count on this, and he’d get it.
The old conservative party (The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada) dissolved in 2004. The Reform Party renamed itself to the Conservative Party of Canada. They got the wingnuts and racists under control. They kept the old Reform Party leadership.
And until last fall they ran the country for a decade.
Trump would likely lose to the Democrats in 2016. But he’d split the vote on the right, and the Republicans would collapse like Canada’s Conservatives did. If Trump runs in 2020, he still gets all the press. If not, his party will be seen to have “matured” like the Reform Party did.
Either way, the old Republican Party is gone.
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