# A Trump General Election loss will lead to the worst of all possible lessons for all sides **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928 "2016-05-04T18:41:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/41 "2016-05-13T17:04:00Z")
**BrainGlutton** , you seem to be ideologically committed to a vision whereby all that is good and right and to be sought is to the left, and the duality has to be Center v. (Real)Left. I OTOH though I have no use for the 21st Century GOP, I would not mind having a legitimate Lib/Con match (which is not what we’re getting). Heck yeah, it could end up that the entity named “Democrats” ends up being a CenterRight/StatuQuo party and we both get our wish. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/42 "2016-05-13T17:48:41Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > **BrainGlutton** , you seem to be ideologically committed to a vision whereby all that is good and right and to be sought is to the left . . . No, only that nothing good or right is to be found on the Right, any more. Not quite the same thing. Sure the LW side has its cranks and woo-ists, anti-vaxxers, anti-GMOs, Luddites, but they are incidental, not essential the way cranks and bigots and heartless bizcons and warhawk neocons and [vulgar libertarians](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Vulgar_libertarian) are on the RW side now. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > . . . and the duality has to be Center v. (Real)Left. I OTOH though I have no use for the 21st Century GOP, I would not mind having a legitimate Lib/Con match (which is not what we’re getting). Heck yeah, it could end up that the entity named “Democrats” ends up being a CenterRight/StatuQuo party and we both get our wish. [Thomas Frank](http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People/dp/1627795391) (author of _What’s the Matter with Kansas?)_ makes a pretty strong case that the Dems are that already and have been for decades. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/43 "2016-05-13T17:56:41Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > This may be better in its own thread but I don’t think you can blame base Republicans (much) for the success of Trump. You can blame the GOP for not realizing how well he would do (but NOBODY thought he’d do this well) and letting the train get out of the station but he’s doing so well in part because he’s attracting voters who never (or rarely) voted in past primaries. He’s also attracting Democrats. I’ve heard numerous times, in person and in interviews on NPR, from people who have said that if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination they will vote for Trump (or vice versa). Is there actual data that he’s bringing tons of new voters into the fold? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/44 "2016-05-13T18:44:05Z")
I hope that their solution to the loss is to get even crazier, leading to a bunch of Trumps in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/45 "2016-05-13T19:43:03Z")
> [@Salvor](#): > > Trump WILL lose, I don’t care what anyone says, the bulk of a nation is not as dumb and rotted out as the republican party and base. > But the WHY he lost will vary based on the different factions. This was echoed in a business insider piece: > > [Donald Trump and the GOP's Crisis - Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nomination-gop-crisis-2016-5) > > _ **“But do not hold your breath for any faction of the Republican Party to take that lesson from their impending, devastating loss. Instead, three different factions will each have their own story of why Republicans lost the 2016 election — and each of them will be wrong.”** _ > Basically, the ted cruz wing will blame the loss on not electing a “TRUE Conservative” The tea party wing that wants to shut down the government and throw tantrums will not be disabused by a trump loss, they will continue on not having their TRASH ideas shredded in public for all to see. That is what a Cruz loss would have done, but that will not come to pass. > > The establishment wing will blame the loss on having an erratic clown run for the presidency, it has nothing to do with conservative ideas, nothing to do with any REAL discords between what party elites want and the rest of their base and the nation, it’s just that Trump was a one off. > The trump supporter angle was new to me in the article but it makes sense, that wing will blame the sizable chunk of so called conservatives and establishment types that refused to get in line and support Trump. > This is a total and complete death spiral with no clear experiment to show them all how wrong they are. Here’s something worth chewing on: a majority of the republican voters did not vote for Donald Trump. The voters who most closely identified with the current republican power brokers did not vote for Trump and some still might not. The republicans have problems with or without Trump. It’s just that Trump has exposed those problems. I agree that the party may not ‘get it’ but I don’t know if that’s important. These factions in the republican party can’t coexist into perpetuity. The God vote and the Alex Jones libertarian conspiracy nuts cannot peacefully coexist with anyone. Barry Goldwater warned his fellow republicans years ago. It’s the republican establishment who made the conscious decision to invite the Jesus cult into their tent. And now they’re going to pay for it. Trump could win while the party collapses. In fact it seems like this is exactly how we’ve gotten to this point so far. Trump losing the general presupposes that voters will naturally all repudiate Trump by flocking to Clinton, which I’m not so confident about. Where I disagree with Sanders and his supporters is in the belief that they’d flock to Sanders – they wouldn’t. Trump would beat Sanders, despite what some polls say. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/46 "2016-05-13T19:46:06Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > I hope that their solution to the loss is to get even crazier, leading to a bunch of Trumps in 2020. Interesting you mention a bunch of Trumps because what I see happening at the moment is alarming enough. On the one hand, I’m grateful that Trump appears to have brushed back the religious kook element. However, when I see billionaires Peter Thiel and T Boone Pickens lining up to support Trump, this is starting to resemble the billionaires club taking over politics. And that’s the real danger that I see with Trump, aside from the fact that he’ll probably have a hell of a time finding qualified people to run his administration. We’re heading back into the 19th Century. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/47 "2016-05-13T19:50:39Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I agree that the party may not ‘get it’ but I don’t know if that’s important. These factions in the republican party can’t coexist into perpetuity. The God vote and the Alex Jones libertarian conspiracy nuts cannot peacefully coexist with anyone. Barry Goldwater warned his fellow republicans years ago. It’s the republican establishment who made the conscious decision to invite the Jesus cult into their tent. And now they’re going to pay for it. It’s not so much the religious right (Cruz was their guy, and he ultimately flamed out) as the overall pattern of pandering to the lowest instincts of the Teeming Millions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928/48 "2016-05-13T22:13:29Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > . . . he’ll probably have a hell of a time finding qualified people to run his administration. [Indeed.](http://www.salon.com/2016/05/11/what_an_america_made_great_again_looks_like_report_suggests_a_trump_administration_would_be_staffed_by_non_political_naifs/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-trump-general-election-loss-will-lead-to-the-worst-of-all-possible-lessons-for-all-sides/753928.md?page=2)