I treat it as a warning.
Hey, I remember back when Republicans arguably did jump ship away from the guy: Congressmen in general, Senators in particular, and Governors of this and that state: they’d endorsed the guy for President, and they officially rescinded it when he got caught on tape as a don’t-even-wait guy and grab-‘em-by-the-pussy raconteur.
That seems more dramatic than the reactions he gets now — but I’m not sure I can describe it as a turning point, because, well, you know.
Trump has no tipping point. Neither do his core supporters. The question is if the Republicans in Congress have one.
Untrue.
The tipping point comes in November. When we see how the middle 25% of the country supports or rejects him in the midterms.
Republicans in Congress will support him as long as a majority of Republican primary voters support him. And keep in mind that primary voters (i.e voters who care enough about politics to show up in primary elections) are more extremist than the average voter.
Sorry I should have been clearer. What I was referring to was the combination of all of recent news that makes it difficult for his supporters to continue to explain away his past questionable actions. The Cambridge Analytica data operation for the purpose of manipulating the vote makes it hard to feign ignorance on Russian meddling. The new news of paying hush money to the former Playboy model (not porn star, sorry!) makes it hard to deny the Stormy Daniels history. The Apprentice contestant claiming sexual assault adds to that litany of misdeeds. Finally, the House and Senate leaders immediately coming out and publicly stating that they are in favor of the Mueller investigation tells me that something has changed. We won’t know for a while, probably not until the mid-terms, but the ship appears to be sinking.
Wow. This is the best, most concise summary of all things thump that I’ve read so far. Well said.
This raises a question: if/when the Pubs get one more Supreme of their own, would that be enuff for them to say, “Okay! Mission accomplished! We’re done!” and abandon thump like a box of used tissues? IOW would that be the tipping point?
You think *that *will affect Trump’s assessment of his own political position? A Dem takeover of Congress will just let him and his base have a more plausible scapegoat. His comment about shooting somebody in Fifth Avenue was accurate and remains so.
The convinceables, the “middle 25%”, have already tipped, as his approval ratings show, but it hasn’t made any substantive difference.
Pretty much this. Until there are consequences for their support, they will continue to give it. Republicans are terrified of their base and know that coming out now will get them primaried.
I’ll believe that Republicans have a spine when they show evidence of having one. Right now they’re saying that firing Mueller would be very serious. But what will they do if he does? Wag their fingers and say “tut tut”?
This congratulatory call to Putin for his electoral victory pisses off old war horses like McCain, and perhaps it would do anybody else in. But fear not- the scandal cycle is so short that there’ll be something else come out today that will eclipse the Putin ass-kissing of yesterday. And something on Thursday to make us forget about Wednesday’s outrage. And so on.
As far as I can tell, most of them are made of Silly Putty; they can contort themselves into any position and they’ll pick up the imprint of any issue that someone rubs on them with enough pressure.
Although a handful of Republicans who are set to retire or not run for re-election like John McCain and Jeff Flake have spoken out against Trump’s more egregious policies and actions, the GOP as a whole has backed Trump. As well they should; President Donald Trump is a Frankenstein’s monster of their own creation as all he did to get elected was mouth the mostly-empty pledges stemming back to the Newt Gingrich-crafted “Contract With America”, appeal to the sense of entitlement and paranoia fostered by Fox News, and literally steal a catchphrase from the patron saint of the modern neoconservative movement, Ronald Reagan. Trump is the genie that they’ve been rubbing the lamp to call for the last quarter century, only he turned out to be an enchanted monkey’s paw. So it goes.
The tipping point, if any, will come after the mid-term elections and only if the Republicans fare very poorly and forecast even worse for 2020. And while things are shaping up for them to lose a number of contested seats it is far from given that they’ll lose their majority in the House and almost assured to retain to in the Senate. Of course, if Trump gets too bored playing President or so besieged with scandal that even McConnell and Ryan (or his successor) no longer back him, he could resign…giving us President Pence, human foreskin model and stealh apocalypter. So, be careful what you wish for upon the monkey’s paw.
Stranger
Wonderful!
Depends on what sort of tipping point we’re talking about.
Sure, he’s consumed by rage and resentment, but that’s the underlying nature of this particular beast.
However, he’s feeling increasingly trapped, if news reports are reasonably accurate, and that’s an unusual situation for him.
And for the first time in his life, he’s got ways of lashing out that are potentially dangerous to the entire world. I worry about what he’ll do if he feels the walls are closing in.
But the GOP? Ha. Even after Trump launches an attack on NK that fails to keep NK from nuking Tokyo and obliterating Seoul in a firestorm of conventional warheads, the GOP will say that it’s especially at a time like this when we need to stand unified behind our leader. (ETA: And should I mention that Sen. Lindsey Graham has said that there’s a 30% chance that Trump will launch an attack on NK?)
Why do you feel this way? It seems to be a perspective at odds with reality. Have you spent any time examining how you reached this erroneous conclusion?
Probably not. The odds of them (us?) throwing the guy that just gave them (us?) a conservative majority on SCOTUS to the wolves would seem to be vanishingly small. They (we? Not sure of the correct pronoun) are probably more likely to throw him a parade, or make a statue of him than abandon him.
It’s seemed like this is the case. In essence, any GOP congressperson who wants to keep his or her job has been petrified of speaking out against Trump, because they’ve seen how blindly faithful his base is to him.
In an opinion piece in today’s Washington Post, retiring Tennessee senator Bob Corker is quoted as saying:
A video could surface of Trump and Pence having their way with the now famous Marlon Bundo and the Deplorables would cheer.
There is nothing Trump can do to make those idiots change their minds. Strike that: Change their few brain cells.
True. But I continue to maintain that such represents a majority of R primary voters - no one to blame but republicans who don’t vote in the primary for that - but less than 35% of the entire population.
It does no one in the republican political class to win a primary if Trump makes it very difficult to win the general election. Elections - in the US - are zero-sum games. There’s no credit for a strong second place finish.
Are you friggin kidding me? Trump isn’t made of teflon. Trumps a mud monster. You can throw mud at this guy 24/7/365 and it will kind of absorb and blend in. In some cases, make him stronger.
EVERYONE knows all about his character, or rather, lack of. They knew 99% of it before the election. He’s been famous, a household name since the 80’s. The ones that could make a difference, know, and just. don’t. care. This is what separates him from other politicians. He’s never really made any attempt to look like a good guy (on a character level). And when he does, it’s just laughable (remember Two Corinthians?). Most politicians take great pains to try to look good. A single mud sling is going to show up quite badly and could be a career ender. Not Trump.
There IS no tipping point. Not as long as Republicans are in power. They are too afraid of his base, and his base isn’t going to change.
His Base LIKES that he is a ‘mud monster’. Cheating on his Wife with porn ‘stars’ is a PLUS to them.
trump doesn’t have a tipping point. All his base cares about is tribalism, and Trump is part of the right tribe.