Yeah, coalition-building is certainly my expectation as well. Politics is all about compromise and I do understand that. I have a long history of apologizing for the GOP on that front, but I really thought it had a set of core principles. It doesn’t.
Paul Ryan (paraphrased): Donald Trump said something equivalent to the epitome of a racist thing. But I’m supporting him anyway.
(because “values” I guess.) My opinion of the Republicans now directing this clown show is lower than before, which is quite something.
Wondering who gets the name? “Republican Party”, who will be legally entitled to that copyrighted brand name? If the Establishment screws over the nutbars, and the nutbars bolt and become the Freedom Liberty Patriot Party, then Lindsay Graham is still a Republican. But if Trump drives away the corporate Republicans, then the batshit baboons get to be the “Republican Party”.
So, then the Loyal Opposition Party has to go out and buy all the stuff that now belongs to the Republican Party. Any sums owing to the Republican Party are out of their reach. Their first public act will be “In the Name of Sweet Baby Jesus, Give Us Some Money! NOW!”
Remember wishing, many a time, to see the Republican Party burn up, fall over and sink into the swamp. But that monkey’s paw is ugly, and has kinda bad vibes.
That is true usually. But Latino voters with low registration are feeling threatened by him. It is one thing to oppose someone because you disagree with their policies and another to oppose someone who calls you and your friends rapists and wants to deport many of your friends. And accuses a heroic judge of bias because his parents were Mexican. That’s a different matter altogether.
Remember, in California shit like this basically wiped out the Republican party to the extent that two Democrats are competing for Senate this year. And so often, as California goes the country follows.
I said low and got lower, and one big reason is John McCain, who I used to respect.
He is old, his wife is rich, and he has been in the Senate forever. Losing his seat is not the end of the world. They guy who held out against the North Vietnamese can’t hold out against the guy who insulted him with nothing but his honor at stake?
If there was a mirror of Profiles in Courage called Profiles in Cowardice, McCain would be chapter one.
That’s only because they changed the rules to make it the top two vote-getters in the primary. Used to be you’d have a Pub candidate and a Dem candidate.
Speaking of which, I was surprised how poor a showing Sanchez made. It looks very likely that it’ll be Senator Harris.
I still think it’ll be Sanchez. LAtinos outnumber African-Americans, and Republicans will almost all back Sanchez.
The jungle primary will often shut out Republicans, but it also makes life more difficult for the most progressive Democratic candidates. It actually gives Republicans more power at this point, since they can always just pick the less liberal Democrat.
And the national race will be between Kasich and Sanders, right?
Could still be. You never know. WIth these two potential nominees, nothing’s truly decided until the conventions adjourn.
Harris did better than 2-to-1 among Dems, and they outnumber Pubs by at least 3-to-1. That’s a helluva hill to climb. I’m not buying it.
Low, stayed the same.
Not unexpected in the slightest. Politicians will do whatever they need to so that ‘their side’ wins. The only thing I was a bit surprised at was Paul Ryan’s obviousness about it - he basically all but said “well, Trump’s a racist, but he’s our racist.” I expected him to be a bit more vague about Trump’s faults.
It’s just confirmed that every time I think they’ve hit rock bottom, they get out a jackhammer and start digging.
The sad part is that they have so little self-respect that they not only lick his boots, they start with the sole.
Particularly embarrassing outbursts of racism will be reported on Fox News as “Racist (D)”.
Until now, it’s been reported as “Not Really Racist (R).” Now they just drop the “Not.”
You know who had core principles? Dick Cheney. You know who was a consummate deal cutter? Dick Cheney. As far as this liberal was considered, the man was Darth Vader because he was so damn effective. He would always compromise and he would never give up. Six months later he would be back tinkering with the edge of the envelope again.
Compromise should be a bipartisan value. It used to be that way. It isn’t any more: polling shows that Democrats like it and Republicans don’t. I’m not vilifying the Republican base in this regards: I assume they are following their opinion leaders, though I might be wrong. Anyway set that aside.
Parliamentary systems like Britain and France aren’t predicated bipartisanship. The idea is that you form your governing coalition and those in power vote yes, while others vote no. That’s the way we’re evolving. The problem is that’s not the way our system is set up. Division of powers means that there are multiple ways for an opposition party to screw things up and blame the other side. There’s no accountability.
For centuries our system was held together not by good design, but by norms. We know this because countries that adopted our institutions such as bicameralism and a separate Presidency tended to suffer gridlock, collapse and coup. While democracy has a terrific brand, our particular democratic design is known to be unstable. Problem is, norms are breaking down. Gingrich started that process, Mitch McConnell continued it. (Actually, I’d say it started in the late 1980s, when weaknesses in the filibuster rules were discovered.) If Trump is elected, expect more of the same. Imagine what a guy who doesn’t care about democratic norms could do with the power of the pardon for example.
It has lowered my opinion of the Republican base – how can so many idiots have voted for him.
But it hasn’t changed my opinion of the Republican establishment – by which I mean elected Republican office holders. I predicted they would fall into line to kiss the Republican nominee regardless of who it was or what negative opinions they expressed about the nominee while he was still just one candidate among several. This is pretty much exactly what’s happening at that level.
what cracks me up about the GOP Establishment is their belief that if he would just stick to the script they would support him. Like all the shitty things he said over the past year specifically (and over his whole life more broadly) somehow disappear because he gets thru 1 speech without insulting any one.
Is that the bar now for the GOP? Dont insult or be racist during a speech and we will support you? Nobody seems to care that the fact he continues to do these things doesn’t make him bad at running a campaign it makes him a racist hater of anyone not like him.
I’m just amazed… Like if David Duke decided to run for President but used a teleprompter and was nice and articulate to all races in America he would be a good president? Really?
If you believe that Trump’s statements are “unacceptable”, but still back him to be President, then what you’re really saying is that you’re ready to accept that kind of crap coming out of the mouth of the POTUS.
No, because everybody knows about David Duke. Look, the Pub Establishment knows they’ve been winning a lot of elections by appealing to white racism at least since 1972. But it has to be in code. The only problem with Trump is that, unlike the rest, he has not been properly trained to dog-whistle the message for plausible deniability.