My prediction is that the pundits will continue to be full of themselves/shit. The pundit’s predictions of how the voters must respond to the pundits instructions has been amusing, to say the least. Trump this, Bernie that. What a hoot.
I have no idea who will get the nominations of either party. Trump is under attack by the pundits and Hillary is under investigation by the FBI. As of today, I’m thinking Bernie is the odds on favorite to be the next POTUS.
You know, everywhere you look these days people are talking about how Hillary is under investigation by the FBI! Or is that just you?
I mean they’ve been discredited independent of the fact they condemned TRUMP-this is just icing on the cake or the nail in the coffin.
Funny considering TRUMP has actually some policies-like sealing the border, ending the trade deficit, protecting Medicare/Social Security, spending money on infrastructure instead of useless wars-and people seem to like it. His ideas may be objectionable on numerous grounds but it cannot be denied 1) he has ideas and 2) that they are popular ideas at least with a segment of the electorate.
And your classist and possibly racist dismissal of the white working-class only drives them further into the arms of TRUMP.
Exactly. He has ideas that are anathema to the GOP base. But they still swoon to him. Because they’re in love with the sizzle, not the steak.
Trump’s visceral disgust is what they identify with, not his ideas.
That’s utter fucking goofy nonsense. White people aren’t the problem. Ignorant people mislead by RW media are the problem.
Also, don’t snidely call me a possible racist unless I have it coming, okay?
I enjoyed reading the National Review take. It’s always nice to see a good roasting of Trump, and especially in the form of well-reasoned arguments from the right wing. But it’s nothing but entertainment without an analysis of why the majority of their party appears to be lining up behind a candidate who is either bugfuck insane or trying very hard to cultivate that impression. Until they confront that reality, the party will continue to fracture.
Actually his ideas are perfectly in line with the white working-class segment of the GOP electorate that supports him and that’s why he’s doing so well. If you look at polls, large majorities of Republicans like Medicare, Social Security, and higher taxes on the wealthy. Their voting for Republicans has been driven more by resentment on racial and culture war grounds such as the view that welfare/new government spending disproportionately benefits the “wrong” people, abortion, and guns as well as the War on Terror then agreement with the GOP on socioeconomic issues. And now they have their ideal candidate-someone who unapologetically demands deportation of illegal immigrants as well as solving the trade deficit, someone who protects their guns as well as their Social Security and Medicare.
“Degenerate yokels” is very much a classist term and since it implies these people are genetically degraded, arguably racialized as well. Not against white people in general, but the “rednecks” certainly.
People are still trying to stump the Trump? Good luck.
Forget the pundits, check out this thread. All these Trump threads will be hilarious to bump if Trump wins. Yeah, Trump has no idea what he’s doing, which is why he’s playing everyone like a fiddle. Libs are pretty sure what conservatives want too, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” all over again.
Too bad Bernie gets blown out in any state where melanin exists. On the plus side, Trump/Hillary debates will be top tier entertainment.
Quibble with the “majority” behind “a candidate”. Several highly motivated minorities line up behind one of several bugfuck crazy shoebats. But none of respective certifiable candidates has a majority unto themselves. Doesn’t mean shit to a tree, but I was in a quibbling mood,
Fair enough. Point still stands, though.
We’re talking about GOP primary voters. Trump’s message is hardly tailor-made to court them.
I purport, that most adults who are seriously supporting Donald Trump for the most powerful, and arguably important job on Earth, are either misinformed, ignorant, and/or a fucking nut.
Living in the South or liking Nascar is not what marks someone as a degenerate yokel. Degenerate yokels (as I used the term) can show themselves, by, among other things, fervent support of unserious racist candidates who offer nothing but a peacock walk.
NR can’t confront that situation because the Movement Conservatism that Dr. William F. “It’s Pronounced Frahnkensteen” Buckley himself started is largely responsible for it.
It is absolutely tailor-made to a large portion of the GOP electorate because many of them are indeed socioeconomically marginalized white lower-middle/working-class voters. And there’s a reason why TRUMP is stronger among those who identify as Democrats as well as newer voters.
I would say anyone supporting a candidate who unironically believes in the Laffer Curve or thinks gutting Social Security/Medicare is a good idea are far more ignorant and delusional then TRUMP supporters.
Fight my ignorance here… what’s behind your disparagement of the Laffer curve?
Also, why do you keep putting TRUMP in all-caps? Is there an acronym, or is it some weird branding thing you’re trying to start?
I’d attribute that to name recognition, ignorance of the issues, and the perceived idea that he, “speaks his mind.”
Oh, Trump would probably be a better president than Cruz. But that’s hardly a high bar.
Trump thinks that he’ll deport millions. Mexico will build a border wall for us. He’ll just magic our trade numbers. That we’ll put a quarter of the world’s population on a no-fly list. He’s stupid.
Not to mention, his tax plan helps the rich and balloons the deficit. If he doesn’t believe in the Laffer-curve, he still acts like it.
This. A hundred times this.
Trump is, plus/minus a few details, essentially re-running Ross Perot’s populist-rightist campaign. Which was very successful given where Perot and his nascent organization had to start from. Many populist rightists are the common decent middle class folks of America. It’s not all knuckle-dragging wannabe Muslim-shooters.
The genius (or spectacular good fortune) of Trump is that unlike Perot he’s running this campaign from inside one of the two main parties. In fact the party that’s all but assured of controlling both halves of Congress come January.
It’s sort of like the Alien creature that grew by feasting on the astronaut’s life force before bursting out of his chest with fatal consequences. As a third-party candidate Trump would have to defeat the Republicans. As things are playing out he’s co-opted them into being his launching pad and his fuel source. And as with the Alien’s astronaut, it’s not clear the Republicans will survive the burst-out in any recognizable form.
This is utterly fascinating to watch. I just wish like heck it was happening in Outer Slobovia, not the United States.
A thousand times this.
It’s an article of faith for the GOP, but it’s not well supported.
To me that doesn’t seem like a repudiation of the Laffer curve itself, but rather an argument of where current US taxation rates exist on the Laffer curve. The curve just posits that a happy medium exists, it doesn’t purport to say whether we are ahead or behind that happy medium. It could just as easily be an article of faith for socialists who think taxes could be a bit higher. Am I wrong?
Well, for one thing, nobody knows what a Laffer curve actually looks like. It’s a truism that 0% taxes and 100% taxes will each yield zero revenue, but no economist has any solid theoretical basis for plotting any point between those ends.
Or who at least is selling them that bill of goods whether or not it’s real or he can deliver. And if so much airtime, bandwidth and print space is being dedicated to that campaign it’s because *some *nontrivial segment of that target demo (enough to make people who are supposed to know better begin to sweat) claim to be not just willing to listen to his pitch but buying in. Someone responds to obnoxious ads and buys the goods, or they would not exist.
I agree with LSLGuy, Donald’s a shorter and a flipper and a hype man who cares about getting his cut and then f*** it if the enterprise goes down the tubes and takes everyone else with it, he’ll just have his name unbolted from the front of the building; but he knows how to play the frontman in a reality-elimination game and the campaign has been allowed to turn into that.