As do I. However, there is one issue that is very important to me. After the Supreme judges stated that it was “precedent”, then turned around and tossed it, I will never, ever trust a Republican politician on abortion again. I’ll happily go to a baseball game with him. Even buy him a hot dog. He will not get my vote.
Well, as I said in my later post:
When I talk about “saving” the GOP, what I really mean is, someone else conducts a hostile take-over of the party, akin to what the Tea Party guys pulled a decade ago, but re-makes it as something worth voting for. As they say, this won’t be your Dad’s Republican Party.
If you can find a way to swap in a whole different party instead, by all means, do that. The problem I see is that, as above, “The Republican Party” is woven into the de facto system of government in the US. Whatever comes next has to have at least a fig leaf of being the legal heirs of the current party, even if they’ve been entirely remade.
Yup!
Article IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government …
Or so I’ve heard idiots (NOT you here!) argue.
Modnote: These posts are wildly off-topic for a thread on Chris Christie running. Please keep these potential hijack posts to more appropriate threads. I’m hiding both of your posts.
To everyone else, let’s avoid the side conversation about Trumpism unless it is in keeping with a Chris Christie run for President.
This topic was automatically opened after 14 minutes.
By running, Christie is performing an important function. Mind you, he’s not going to get the nomination, but he’s now saying out loud the things we all know to be true about the current front runner of the GOP. Up to now the number of higher profile voices in the GOP openly criticizing Trump have been very very limited. Mitt Romney…maybe a handful of others who’ve been openly critical of specific actions of Trump - and then always careful to hedge that criticism. I know it sounds milquetoast to hear Pence say about the indictment yesterday that he “cannot defend what has been alleged”, but recognize it as being the baby step in the right direction that it is. Over time, especially as Trump’s legal woes continue to grow (and they will continue to), we can hope others within the GOP take a cue from Christie and feel emboldened enough to start taking shots at Trump themselves.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” as they say.
I know Christie has made some bad calls in the past, including supporting Trump. And I see the scandals, though they are trivial in the current climate.
But he’s plain-spoken and is bringing back facts and an acknowledgement of reality to the right-wing discussion. That’s a big deal, as sad as that is to say. Right now, we only have one political party and one lunatic cult.
I’d also not 100% count him out. Sure, he’s very unlikely to progress much further, but a lot can change in a year. And if we ever get to a point where Christie and Dee Santis are debating 1 on 1, I would say the latter is toast.
If most everyone else in the field is on the trump bandwagon (promising a pardon and whatnot), and he’s the leading voice of reason, and then there’s some seismic shift in popular thinking (maybe donald pees himself at sentencing or something, or dies, forcing ron to take up the mantle) I could see him pulling this out.
And, I mean, c’mon, a return to a GOP front runner that late night comedians can lampoon for trivial reasons (“Something happened, and then Christie said he was hungry! He’s got a weight problem.”)? It’d be so refreshing.
(As for the trumpers who might scuttle this? Well, methinks a lot are boomers who are soon to shuffle off this mortal coil. And the rest can go slither back into the crevices of society from whence they came - only trump can inspire them to actually show up to vote in seizable numbers; he’s to deplorables what Obama was to minority voters)
There’s a non-zero chance that Biden loses the Presidency in 2024. I would even suggest that that possibility is large. So to the extent that anyone might dislike Christie, the alternative to Biden is almost certainly going to be a Republican and that means that you have to consider the other options.
Here are the Republicans (likely) on offer:
- Donald Trump
- Chris Christie
- Tim Scott
- Mike Pence
Personally, I was hopeful for Scott - based on his performance during some hearings that I’ve seen - but he has decided to throw the DOJ under the bus, in Trump’s favor. Politically expedient as may be, that destabilizes the country by endorsing conspiracy theories.
Between Christie or Pence, I’d take Christie.
And, let’s not forget that Christie gave us Christopher Wray. If he gave us an FBI director who, by all accounts, seems to be an honest and upstanding guy - willing to take out his own boss - then I think we can trust that for as crooked as Christie might be, he still understands the principal of not wrecking the place that he himself lives in.
Which is pretty sad as a point of promise when we’re talking about President. Once again, I’m dumbfounded at how we got to this point.
Off-topic Trumpism again, Hidden by WE?
Oh, he’ll definitely die at some point. Who do you think he is, Jesus Christ or something?
Trumpism without Trump is just extreme rightwing fanaticism, which we’ve always had with us. They might continue to control the GOP for a few more years beyond his death, but I can’t see them ever winning the presidency while they do. There’s way too many rightwing nutjobs in this country, but still not enough to win an honest election.
I hope.
Off-topic Trumpism again, Hidden by WE?
I think “X may die” is just an expression, not implying uncertainty.
“We may die, but our ideas will live on”
I think “Trumpism” represents a set of phenomena, some will die with Trump, some we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.
The crucial thing that will stick around is the gaslighting and disinformation. It’s something that was already starting to take root around the world, but Trump and FOX showed how brazen you can be in the new media landscape. People self-select the news and memes that they want to see, reality has very little to do with it.
That’s not going to end.
And secondly there is very little discussion of policy. The wack-a-doodle views of the MAGA wing are all you see on right and left wing media. In the latter case, we’re shaking our heads at their abhorrent and false statements, but in both cases it’s because of what drives clicks / views.
I accept that I’m part of the problem with this. I enjoy the “Can you believe what Trump / MTG / Boebert said today!?” show, just like I click on “Flat earth debunked”.
I like to stay informed on real politics, so I watch sober analysis and discussion as well, but the guilty pleasure eats up a lot of my time.
I just remembered W_E?'s warning about discussing Trumpism in this thread, so let’s bring it back to Christie, ok?
Sorry, I had a few windows open and just forgot that this was the Christie thread
I don’t know why but I forgot DeSantis in my list.
Despite his headline grabbing activities, which might seem like he’s ruining Florida and thus breaking my law against wrecking the place that you yourself live in, I feel like DeSantis tailors his actions to have smaller effects than they initially seem like and running a two-faced game with one for public exposure and another to actually do his job to manage things.
But, he has also thrown in with endorsing conspiracy theories AND endorsed unconstitutional, counter-Republican policies and laws, to “own the libs” and make headlines. And even if he believes that the courts will shoot those down - saving him from having to do the hard work of protecting the Constitution - that’s not much of an endorsement.
There’s also the gerrymander that he rammed through. The job of a government official is to work for all of his electorate. If he’s actively disempowering slews of them, to maintain his own base of power, then he’s actively pissing on his own job description. It’s like a firefighter having a hobby of arson, or a police officer selling drugs that he stole from the evidence locker. It’s a direct attack on the job that you’ve sworn to do, itself.
Christie is still the better pick.
Woohoo! Big CC is surging in (some) polls! He’s nearly at double digits (in New Hampshire).
Yes, a bit of good news for him:
It seems the MAGA crowd does not like Christie. To his credit, he pushed back. I’m not sure how well that will work for him.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie was booed while walking on stage at the Florida Republican Party’s Freedom Summit event on Saturday.
“Now look, every one of those boos, everyone one of those cat calls, everyone one of those yells will not … solve one problem we face in this country,” Christie said. “Your anger against the truth is reprehensible.”
Root no more: