Despite all the furor on this site, Pence is really the largest scare in the Trump camp and also the least discussed that I’ve seen. It’s like worrying that Dark Helmet will get the Presidency and ignoring that Darth Sidious is his VP nominee.
Sure, Helmet is bad. But bad in a sort of useless, flailing, incompetent way so that even though everything he does is harmful, it will be mitigated to a large extent by his capabilities as a human.
But if something happens to him, suddenly you have Emperor Palpatine in the highest position in the land. And it’s unlikely that he’s going to wait very long before arranging to step up.
I don’t think garden variety scandals like ‘pay to play’ can bring down Trump. This is not just a race about corruption and someone who’s trying to fix a broken system - his voters use the outsider canard to bullshit people and bullshit themselves to make themselves feel better about voting for what they really want, which is a cultural counter-revolution.
If the democrats want to beat Trump, I think there are basically two ways to do that: convince people that life now is actually too good to take a chance on some reality TV clown – that’s one approach but it really doesn’t seem to be working.
The other approach? Turn the culture war back on Trump himself. The bigots are incurable, but there are still some middle-of-the road voters left who are open to being Swiftboated.
I think there needs to be a series of ads by either Hillary’s campaign or special interest that basically focus on the fact that Trump is a creep. Start with a little girl watching TV or a teenage girl being picked up by her date with her dad saying “Y’all be safe and back by 11 p.m. now” Show sound bytes and clips of Trump saying all kinds of sexist, filthy, vile, vulgar things and then at the end ask “Is this the America you want your daughters to grow up in?”
Do another one that shows the racial violence from the Trump rallies. “Is this the America you want your children to grow up in?” Trump and the alt right wants a culture – we need to fucking give them one.
Pence is bad for sure, but I think that if Trump gets impeached the Republican party would be pretty bitterly divided by that point. I don’t see Pence as a factor
Who, in the party, is a big Trump supporter? Trump is riding in on the support of of non-politicians. Taking Pence and a list of Supreme Court justices was the only thing that made the actual party the least bit amiable to him.
If Trump goes down in flames, the party and Pence will go on a mad dash to pass as much law as they can while the news focuses on Trump. If they spend any time whatsoever dealing with his fall, it will be to help push him down the stairs, not to stop and weep.
Ultimately neither party provides a perfect match for my views. The bloodthirsty support among Republicans for the death penalty has always made me uncomfortable, to pick one example. But in general, I find more common ground with Republicans than with Democrats.
It’s true that McCain was a sane choice, but Palin was not. Obama earned my vote by being palatable and picking Joe Biden, and frankly has been a decent pick, although I voted Romney in 2012.
The choice of Trump makes Palin look like Margaret Thatcher.
You and have little to nothing in common in politics (my fierce opposition to the death penalty probably being the only one, though mine has nothing to do with the religion I was raised in), but I consider you a thoughtful, decent human, probably even less flawed than myself. I cannot fathom how to square that with your current membership of what’s become of your party.
Just go forth and pick the least distateful of whatever crop of crooks is running at any given time, regardless of party affiliation. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
IMHO, it’s best not to form an emotional attachment to a political party, unless you are a politico. The advantage of joining one party or another is that you can vote in the primaries. Virginia, to take one example, has open Presidential primaries but AFAIK closed primaries for certain other offices.
If you think all of the candidates your primary ballot are nutcases and that isn’t true of the other primary ballot, then it’s probably time to switch parties of course.
One of many problems with this election is that a lot of big issues have been swept under the carpet. For example congressional GOP obstructionism and their habit of playing chicken with the nation’s good credit haven’t been mentioned. The Republicans nominated an outsider, someone the establishment is more than uneasy with. If elected, he could destroy the GOP, like Carter damaged the Democratic brand for years. But the Republicans have some real structural problems, wholly separate from Trumpism.
The GOP still has an intelligent and neurotypical legal community though. I can see why Bricker would be reluctant to bolt at the moment.
There are a few reasons, but the most practical one is that when I say I’m a Republican, it’s not a matter of registration; Virginia does not register voters as members of a particular party. So the only practical effect of “walking out,” is changing how I self-identify; there is no form to fill out.
And I have been involved at the local and state level with campaign and volunteer assistance to Republican candidates in the past, which again is not a matter of formal registration anywhere but serves to create an association.
And ultimately, what I said before: while I cannot claim to be in lockstep with each and every policy position taken by the Republicans, as a general rule I am more simpatico with the GOP than the Democrats.
I am perfectly willing to vote across the aisle, to be sure. But identification with a party transcends support in a given election. I am willing to, and have, voted for Democrats when their candidate makes better sense to me. But I am a Republican.