Did Trump Miscalculate?

Pretty much.

And at this point, even if a Democratic Congress in 2019 impeached Trump, it would only do more damage to this country. It wouldn’t be seen as justice, it would be seen as vindictive on the part of Democrats and would only increase the divide between partisans.

The Democratic Party removing Trump, I believe, would result in civil unrest unseen since at least the 1960s, if not the Civil War.

It’s a no-win for us. Keep Trump, and the country only becomes more and more of a joke, remove him and the uglier elements of our society may create chaos and bloodshed.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but looking to the 2018 mid-term elections, I would think the Republicans would fare better then if they can get rid of Trump now. And the Dems would fare better if Trump is still irritating people until election time.

The only problem with that is, can the nation survive 17 more months of this?

My primary motivation isn’t to destroy the Republican Party. My primary motivation is to protect the country and people I care about. And no, I don’t consider those things synonymous.

The GOP is doing terrible things and wants to do worse. But there are things worse than the GOP, and Trump can be the conduit for those things.

There’s not going to be any impeachment. Republicans know it would tear the party apart. Unless Trump is found in bed with the proverbial live boy or dead girl, it is inconceivable.

agree. Schumer should cozy up to McConnell and make a deal. We’ll work with you on tax cuts, infrastructure, and fixing ACA. Bipartisanship. And, both parties will unanimously vote to remove Trump from office.

This has been a right-wing talking point for quite a while, now. You may not realize how ridiculous such chest-thumping makes you look. Partly because we’ve all had a good look at the “militias,” and partly because of what is likely to occur if Trump stays in office.

If you don’t think Trump will call for violence next Tuesday in Phoenix–right after pardoning Arpaio–then you haven’t been paying attention. He will call on the neo-Nazis and other pro-violence right-wingers in attendance to Take Back Our Country. He may even call for the removal-by-violence of Arizona’s two GOP Senators, who’ve each become ‘enemies’ in his eyes (that would be John McCain and Jeff Flake).

Blood in the streets is far more likely if Trump remains President than if Trump is removed from office.

No. You’re just putting party over country. If we crash, we all crash, not just Republicans. It is not worth harming our country to stop the Republicans.

Before Trump, we were winning anyways. We have the demographics. And we can now point to Trump if anyone tries to use his tactics to win.

This is just as bad as Republicans who would attack Obama at every turn.

I, a Democrat, will not march with you to have our country (or, if nukes get involved, possibly the world) destroyed because you want to destroy the other political party.

Dems may have the demographics, but they don’t have the unity. That’s always been the Pubbies’ strong suit; being able to hold their noses to vote for whichever meat puppet the RNC puts up as a candidate.

Until Dems find it, or Pubs’ unity is broken, it’ll be the same old song and dance.

I’m wondering if Bannon ever said something along the lines of:

“I only tell you one time. Don’t fuck me, Donny. Don’t you ever try to fuck me.”

Plus there will always be another Republican, or whatever the conservative-populist-religious right faction coalition comes to call itself. It took just ONE term after Nixon to get Reagan in office. The Right will not go away, you want it to come back to its senses and be the sort of conservatives that want to, well, conserve the nation as best they can, not to see it in flames.

Still too early to read the tea leaves but I wonder if this doesn’t potentially lead to a civil war within the GOP /right wing. The different factions may finally be starting to take their positions.

Meanwhile the sad fact is that Trump’s unpopularity in polling data, both Gallup and across the board, has NOT increased further over these last several days of relative pandering to overt racism, anti-Semitism, and hatemongering. His disapproval on Gallup has dropped four points on Gallup over the past four days and approval is up by the same. And roughly 3 in 4 Republicans still approve of the job he is doing.

If it is GOP civil war I am not so sure that Trump will lose.

Nope. The only hope for the country is to de-legitimize the Republican party. No modern country can survive a party that accepts hate as a guiding principle. If Trump is allowed to get away with a statement that equates Nazis with anti-Nazi protestors then it has become time to equate the Republican Party with Nazis. The idea is not a violent clash but to institutionalize shame against Republicans in the same way that shame has been institutionalized against Nazis. They are a symbol of evil that only evil people can embrace. The Republican Party has officially made itself into a symbol of evil and should be treated that way.

I’ll back this up with the composite ratings from Realclearpolitics. A despised minority is in control of the silent majority. Quel irony.

You do realize that different things can share some properties? For example a cat is not a fish. Yet they both share several properties.

So, condemning the violence and the violent rhetoric of the nutty Antifa and the nutty Nazis is actually a legitimate view. Of course that doesn’t suit people’s political goals so they will obfuscate and use poor logic. But hell, even, Noam Chomsky sees Antifa as counterproductive.

Of course some won’t be satisfied until we have our very own Reign of Terror - Wikipedia.

Please. Trump wants to have it both ways. Trump has said that there were good people on both sides, but then wants to parse out that some of the alt-right protesters were actually good people but then globally blames the left/alt-left counter-protestors for charging in with clubs and being violent.

Here is a snippet of what Trump said:

Here is video shot by some of the Friday night marchers. They alternate between chanting “you will not replace us” (some media figures said they also heard “Jews will not replace us”), “one people, one nation, end immigration,” “anti-white,” and “blood and soil.” Blood and soil is a well-known phrase specifically linked to Nazism. The person taking this particular video spots Richard Spencer, an openly white supremacist, and lauds him as the speaker of the night, saying “this is why we’re here, everybody.”

But, y’know, good people.

For someone who occasionally protests that he didn’t vote for Trump (yet is considering voting to re-elect Trump to spite everyone and anyone who dares give voice in response to his weekly outrage), you sure do reflexively defend every utterance of the man.

The third sentence is ambiguous. Are you saying that ‘If mainstream Americans start supporting Trump then I will go along’? Or that ‘Divisiness is a feature, not a bug. If Trump and his hate-filled supporters attract even more impassioned opposition then I will be happy to join the pro-Trump train’ ?

Nitpick. Let’s not misquote Dear Leader. While he’s happy to prattle about ‘the Alt-Left’, IIRC when he mentions Alt-Right he accompanies it with an adjective like ‘so-called.’

Yes, all the different flavors of Republicans share the property of hated of the Other as a core principle.

Perhaps you didn’t notice this while you were busy voting for Obama but we on the left have been saying this for decades. The only difference now is the public visibility and a President who espouses it loudly and daily.

They came charging in without a permit and were very, very violent!

Every time I see that line I start imagining a Mel Brooks/Zucker Brothers movie scene with a torch-n-club wielding mob stopping short and showing a little man at a little desk an official permit to be very very violent, before charging into the fray.