I thought that the leak forced them to release the ruling early, and the original plan was to wait until after the election. I confess that I could have totally misunderstood, as I have no idea about how this part of the SC works.
But to be fair to everyone (D’s and R’s alike) that wasn’t concerned about him back then, I don’t think most people were aware of what he was capable of. I think most people just considered him a joke that would fizzle out.
Hell, even South Park backed themselves into a corner with the Mr Garrison as President story line that they weren’t expecting to have to stick with for so long.
I can see the rubber-band is starting to stretch to near it’s snapping point with the results of this election, but it has not yet broken. The fever may be breaking (hopefully) in the Republican party regarding TFG himself, but his brand of no compromise/total war on opponents and hate/fear filled ideology is here for a while more.
I am hoping that more Republicans are waking up to the fact that they can disagree with Trump and even turn their backs on him without suffering severe backlash from the electorate. The man is a cancer on this country.
Also, I’m laying in a supply of popcorn just in case there ends up being a series of debates that include him and the other whackos that are making noises about running.
Expect Trump presidential runs in 2024 and beyond (if he loses in '24), so long as he can keep something of a base of loyal fans showering him with adulation and money. He might end up as a demented version of Harold Stassen, running until he dies.
Trump could be dragging down Republican tickets for years to come.
He might be done, but the specter of fascism is frighteningly strong. I’ve long maintained that Trump wasn’t so bad because he’s at least half-crazy and acting against his own interests. Just in terms of personal comportment and style: if he’d dressed more appropriately (suits that fit, ties that are not suited more for Bozo than Potus, etc) and didn’t curse so much, just two examples, I think he would have had more curb appeal for conservative voters. Imagine a fascist, authoritarian candidate running on the GOP ticket who simply comported himself with a tad more elan, a skosh less crudeness for its own sake. That’s the danger to the country.
I disagree. Trump lacks the organizational skills to set up a independent campaign and get people to vote for him, so that won’t happen unless some outside party decides to do the work for him. But Trump does have the ability to stage rallies and troll online.
So he may not get votes for himself. But he can convince people to not vote for anyone else. And that will hurt DeSantis more than Biden because DeSantis has a lot more potential second-choice voters in Trump’s base than Biden does.
I hope Trump is effectively done, meaning enough US citizens has seen Trump for who he really is and rejected him and will vote against him that he can not win. If that is true, I doubt Trump will get the message and try to drag the republicans party down with his sinking ship.
I have been mister doom and gloom for a bit now…just ask my family.
However, to sound naively optimistic, whoever comes after Trump may be a scum bag…but there is a good chance he won’t be a Republic-overthrowing-autocratic one. Much like recovering from a disease, if the Republicans acknowledge that election denying autocratic direction moving is being rejected, they will stop doing it. In addition, if anyone tries it in the future or thinks about it, they will come across opposition from their own side… “Hey, we tried that and it didn’t work and we payed a price. Stop it”.
Hopefully, the population has been more ‘inoculated’ as well if tried again.
This is the scenario I hope for. Republicans paid a price by messing up the opportunity of a generation (high inflation, stock market hurting, overseas strike etc etc). They should have won big just based on historical data.
However, IMO, the price they paid for their disgusting, Republic-threatening behavior is not enough. They need to pay a HEAVIER PRICE for Trump…and Trump messing up 2024 would be a great continuation on that price. They need to pay a price that makes them SCREAM so they don’t go that direction again. 2022 is not enough.
That was November 3, 2020.
The best comparison to Trump is Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy had a period when he was a major political force and the Republicans had to take him seriously. But he couldn’t last in the long term. The public got tired of his nonsense and moved back to regular politicians. McCarthy was still around and he still had some followers but he was no longer important.
That’s where Trump is.
No we need to, and are paying a heavy price for Trump. After all we are one nation at the heart, we agreed to adversarial political system, and there is no constitutional restriction as to the morality of the president or presidential candidate. Though quite honestly I do question if Trump was legit elected in 2016, but that aside Trump was our president and we own that as a nation and now we have decades of cleanup that hopefully we can work together on, even with our ‘normal’ political divide.
I don’t think we disagree. Like you, I doubt Trump could successfully form a third party. In addition to his lack of organizational skills, he is fundamentally lazy, and he wouldn’t want to spend his own money, while most of his hardcore supporters who would remain probably couldn’t pony up endless amounts of cash. The Republican party, on the other hand - organized, motivated, and well-funded by Peter Thiel et al who are apparently sick of Trump - would work hard and probably successfully to sabotage any Trump efforts to mount a credible third-party campaign.
The point of my comment was simply that the only way we could end up with a three-way fight among DeSantis, Trump and Biden is if Trump somehow did mount a credible third-party campaign. As hilariously entertaining as that would be, I don’t think it’s at all likely.
Look at what’s happening at the state level in places like Ohio, which for the last decade or so has overall shown a partisan split among voters of roughly 47D-53R. The U.S. House delegation is 4D-12R, the state House is 35D-64R, the state Senate is 8D-25R.
The Republican supermajority is passing extreme abortion and gun laws that clear majorities of the public disfavour.
It is an anti-democratic one-party, extremist right-wing government and it is practically impossible for the voters to dislodge it. And it is this close to being permanent minority rule.
Trump is on the one hand a perfect representation of what’s facing us but he is also a distraction.
We are losing our democracy, with or without Trump.
I doubt it. I think the lesson the Republicans learned a different lesson from Donald Trump.
I think prior to Trump, the Republicans looked back to Nixon and figured that you can get away with breaking some rules but there’s a line you can’t cross. If you go too far and break too many rules, you get knocked down.
Trump showed that isn’t true. He did far worse things than any other President has done and he kept his office. He showed you can break any rule and not suffer the consequences. He literally bragged that he could publicly murder somebody and get away with it.
What brought Trump down wasn’t the rules. It was his personal flaws; Trump is dumb, inexperienced, lazy, and lacks charisma.
Most politicians don’t have those flaws. Most politicians know how to look the part and present a good public image and they understand how to get things done.
So what I feel the Republicans learned from Trump is that you can go far by breaking all the rules, even if you lack normal political skills. Which means you can go even farther if you break all the rules and combine that with a set of those skills.
Ahhh the ‘Death of the Roman Republic’ argument…where people found out that supposedly hard rules were more like suggestions with no teeth. He can’t do that! – He won’t get away with it! – Why isn’t he being punished? – OMG (or OMJ) he is getting away with it – wait he is doing something else – he can’t do that! repeat.
That could very well be true.
However, and I am mister doom and gloom - and for the first time in what seems like forever I can put forth an optimistic theory that I can actually think might be true. Let me have my moment 
Trump won’t win again but he has illuminated the weak spots in our system, that it depends on respect for democratic norms to continue. Some Republicans now understand that this is something which can be exploited if you’re ruthless enough.
Dems need to pay heed to the nearly unanimous opinion of election scientists, that our basic systems need fundamental reform before a Competent Trump shows up.
They’d have a better chance of developing faster than light travel, or nuclear fusion in 2 years.
S-ing T F U is just not a very Trumpian thing to do.
Yes, nobody has figured this out in the seventy-six years Trump’s been around. But as somebody who doesn’t want the Republicans to win the presidency in 2024, I don’t personally see this as a problem.