# Can a Republican explain this to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 20, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381 "2016-07-20T01:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/41 "2016-07-20T19:16:00Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > She was. Alaska was too far to travel from. Especially since she wasn’t picked for VP. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/42 "2016-07-20T19:16:31Z")
It’s my understanding that Palin’s son had a court date during the convention for his assault on his girlfriend, so that may be why his mother didn’t go to Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/43 "2016-07-20T19:17:06Z")
I’m also curious to hear from Dopers supporting Trump. [QUOTE=Hank Paulson, as quoted by Measure for Measure] I will not vote for Donald Trump. I will not cast a write-in vote. I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone. [/QUOTE] IIRC, our constitutional expert **Bricker, Esq.** , who despite his many faults is the only Republiopathic Doper who clearly has a 3-digit IQ, is on record planning to vote for Hillary. But I’m still very cautious. People with average or better intelligence were never a key part of the GOP base, let alone Trump’s base. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I’m not sure what you are confused about. In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry had to endure almost a year of attacks by the ironically named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth over his military record, awards, and conduct, even though the vast majority of their accusations were clearly contradicted by Kerry’s official military record and by his crewmates. > … > George W. Bush, who inarguably took a politically appointed Texas Air National Guard position that he was questionably qualified for to avoid the draft and purportedly did not meet all service commitments … > > Turning a vulnerability or error into an attack by manufacturing controversy about the other candidate’s culpablity or qualification is nothing new, even (or rather, especially) within recent memory. The Swiftboating of Kerry _ **almost certainly cost him the election** _ and was indeed heinously despicable. Do give Karl Rove and his brown-nosers credit for cleverness, however. When Dubya’s dereliction was about to become a story Rove or one of his disciples conjured up a forgery and turned it all into a story about Dan Rather, instead of a story about the incompetent malingerer. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/44 "2016-07-20T20:08:24Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > It’s my understanding that Palin’s son had a court date during the convention for his assault on his girlfriend, so that may be why his mother didn’t go to Cleveland. There is nothing on this earth short of a nuclear strike on Wasilla that would keep that self-aggrandizing publicity whore from showing up, if invited. Cleveland is only about 8 hours away. Zip in, blather to the masses, zip out. It’s more likely that the campaign didn’t want another loose cannon on the stage to upstage Der Trumpster. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/45 "2016-07-20T20:15:21Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > It’s almost like the media picks and chooses which stories to report on. Almost like they want the public to focus on a certain thing. Almost like they want us to think a certain way. Almost like they want us to think “Trump=Hitler Satan you can’t possibly vote for him” and not think about “some dumb GOPer said some dumb thing again.” They’re not that smart. You are giving “the media” far too much credit for being deliberately manipulative when in fact they are just going after the story that rings the loudest bells with the news-viewing public. The guy who’s show followed puppets making crank phone calls aptly demonstrated just how incapable supposed political journalists are at being able to actually tell news from smack, or indeed, even maintain control of their own show in the face of actual controversy. > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > That’s Hilary’s doing too. She has the power to cloud men’s minds. Through your comment I’ve gained [an entirely new view of Hillary Clinton](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/hillary-clinton-2016-shadow-campaign-101762) as a [dual gun wielding vigilante with a network of operatives](http://m.imgur.com/pREc2MJ) and the ability to conceal everything but her shadow, battling the evil Shiwan Khan. > [@septimus](#): > > The Swiftboating of Kerry _ **almost certainly cost him the election** _ and was indeed heinously despicable. Do give Karl Rove and his brown-nosers credit for cleverness, however. When Dubya’s dereliction was about to become a story Rove or one of his disciples conjured up a forgery and turned it all into a story about Dan Rather, instead of a story about the incompetent malingerer. Oh, I give Karl Rove mad props for being the epitome of malevolent shrewdness. Karl Rove is like the Ferris Bueller of political operatives; such a dick that you can’t believe he gets away with lame schemes, and yet, he just never quite gets caught, largely because the media is about as obtuse as Principle Rooney. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/46 "2016-07-20T23:53:08Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > [As you wish.](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/07/20/meredithstatement.pdf) If they were competent, that would’ve been done yesterday with a full immolation. I’m in Chicago, where our favorite sport is not baseball, football, hockey, basketball, or soccer. It’s politics. We were weaned on how to play the game and cannot respect amateurs. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/47 "2016-07-21T00:14:15Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > This is the same as most of the ridiculous explanations that Trump offers. He and his campaign manager don’t expect anyone to believe them, and his core doesn’t - they know it’s bullshit. For people in his camp, it’s a wink that says “look at the bullshit we can pull on these guys.” And to people not in his camp, it’s a big middle finger that says “haha, we don’t even have to make sense to pull in votes.” And it’s TroutMan for the win. The Republican base doesn’t believe this sort of bullshit. They know it’s bullshit, and they love that Trump can dish bullshit so transparent nobody believes it, but the news media has to act as if they believe Trump believes it. Trump doesn’t lie, he bullshits. For him to lie, he’d have to be telling you something with the expectation that you’d believe him. But he doesn’t think you’ll believe him, and he doesn’t care that you don’t believe him. It doesn’t rise to the level of a lie. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/48 "2016-07-21T00:30:38Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > The speech that was plagiarised was apparently written by a former Hillary Clinton speechwriter. It that what all those facebook shares saying Michelle plagiarized first are going on about? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/49 "2016-07-21T01:00:28Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > And it’s TroutMan for the win. > > The Republican base doesn’t believe this sort of bullshit. They know it’s bullshit, and they love that Trump can dish bullshit so transparent nobody believes it, but the news media has to act as if they believe Trump believes it. > > Trump doesn’t lie, he bullshits. For him to lie, he’d have to be telling you something with the expectation that you’d believe him. But he doesn’t think you’ll believe him, and he doesn’t care that you don’t believe him. It doesn’t rise to the level of a lie. Yeah. I recall people saying the same things about the Bush administration - that they were so indifferent to the facts that they weren’t even lying because lying involves trying to obfuscate the truth, while the worst of Bush’s cronies didn’t give a toss about the truth in the first place - if they even knew it. But Trump really [brings bullshit to the next level](https://newrepublic.com/article/124803/donald-trump-not-liar). Which is actually worse than a lie. A liar nevertheless implicitly acknowledges that there are things that matter, that in fact there are things that matter enough that they feel they must lie about them. Bullshitting is a lot more nihilistic. Things, facts, events just don’t matter to the bullshitter. At all. The only thing that matter is the effect a bullshit statement will have on people who are listening to them in the most immediate sense - if the bullshit is challenged tomorrow it doesn’t matter, because it’s already fully served its purpose. And that shit is terribly insidious. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/50 "2016-07-21T03:31:08Z")
The Republicans are going to realize that nobody is going to change their vote because Melania Trump plagiarized a speech. Trump supporters are going to figure it’s no big deal. Trump opponents already have much better reasons to oppose Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/51 "2016-07-21T03:57:24Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#): > > Birds of a feather flock together. If this is the sort of people the Trumps want working for them, then they will not have my vote for the White House! > > Shame on them! I have no respect for cheaters. …but they cared enough to steal the very best…\* . . . . . \*Taken from Hallmark’s logo. Footnotes. “That Was Easy” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/52 "2016-07-21T04:00:53Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > …but they cared enough to steal the very best…\* > . > . > . > . > . > \*Taken from Hallmark’s logo. Footnotes. “That Was Easy” _That’s_ where Staples got it from! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/53 "2016-07-21T04:48:26Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > IIRC, our constitutional expert **Bricker, Esq.** , who despite his many faults is the only Republiopathic Doper who clearly has a 3-digit IQ, is on record planning to vote for Hillary. Not at all happily. But yes. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/54 "2016-07-21T07:49:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Not at all happily. > > But yes. Thank God for the second amendment - you’ll be able to bring a bullet to the polls so you’ll have something to bite on while casting your vote. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/55 "2016-07-21T12:59:17Z")
Or you could bring a bucket, for afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/56 "2016-07-21T15:12:12Z")
All you haters of freedom are missing the point. [93% of Melania Trump’s speech was _not_ plagiarized.](http://www.today.com/news/chris-christie-93-percent-melania-trump-s-speech-differed-michelle-t100943) Now if we were talking about over half her speech being cribbed from elsewhere, you haters might have a point. But you’re just jealous of her glamor. :mad:😕:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/57 "2016-07-21T15:32:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Not at all happily. > > But yes. Here’s hoping you and enough other Republicans disgusted enough to vote Democrat get more directly involved in your Party to turn it around so you never have to do something like this again. I would much rather you voted _for_ a candidate and not _against_ one…even if that candidate were Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/58 "2016-07-21T15:41:32Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > And it’s TroutMan for the win. > > The Republican base doesn’t believe this sort of bullshit. They know it’s bullshit, and they love that Trump can dish bullshit so transparent nobody believes it, but the news media has to act as if they believe Trump believes it. > > Trump doesn’t lie, he bullshits. For him to lie, he’d have to be telling you something with the expectation that you’d believe him. But he doesn’t think you’ll believe him, and he doesn’t care that you don’t believe him. It doesn’t rise to the level of a lie. And yet its Hillary who has trustworthiness issues. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/59 "2016-07-21T15:46:51Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > All you haters of freedom are missing the point. > > [93% of Melania Trump’s speech was _not_ plagiarized.](http://www.today.com/news/chris-christie-93-percent-melania-trump-s-speech-differed-michelle-t100943) I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard somebody use all those words before. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381/60 "2016-07-21T20:02:05Z")
I can’t be too upset that one speechwriter intentionally or unintentionally plagiarized another. Best case scenario the writer read other speeches and liked those parts of Michelle’s speech, hopefully not intending to wholesale copy them but winding up doing it accidentally by not double-checking. If someone did it intentionally then they are pretty damn stupid but it’s just a speech. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-republican-explain-this-to-me/760381.md?page=4)