Trump is exposing a sick underbelly of the republican party. Myself and other decent people I know that formerly voted republican are leaving the party in droves. I believe the democrats suffered a similar fate this last election but nothing to the degree it will hit the republicans in 4 years.
People were predicting the destruction (implosion?) of the Repub party I think back before the Tea Party became a thing. Now they’re stronger than ever. Personally I think the Dem party is what’s really in trouble. I could see it splitting apart along the lines of moderates and histrionic SJWs.
I think the dem party is potentially in the best position it has been in a long time. Trump policies will fail regardless of his popularity. Too many things will go wrong if he keeps his promises. The dems will have the opportunity to drop the far left radicals and bring in a good many moderate republicans.
2020 will be a massive landslide wave victory for the Democratic Party.
I’m surprised there isn’t more of a Republican effort to oust Trump and put in Pence instead.
I don’t hear a lot of republicans speaking up besides myself but facebook is just loaded with posts calling the Obamas gorillas and other similar sick shit. I hate to think that any decent person could tolerate this. It has reached a point I am ashamed to identify as a republican, I see few people speaking out but at least i hope they feel similar.
The same was said of 2016, constantly here.
"Yep, yep, it might be a historic night…but don’t forget, it’s a big country.
There may yet be once Trump starts trying to make the same kind of ‘deals’ with the Republican-controlled Congress has he has with Boeing, Carrier, China, et cetera, but first they need to concoct a reason to impeach him, and he hasn’t even been inaugerated yet; abandoning him now would be a disaster because he’d just blame the Republicans for abandoning his base. And regardless of whether Trump stays or goes, he has shown politicians of all colors that you can appeal to racist, misogynistic, angry voters and still carry a significant number of want-to-think-they-are moderates as long as you talk loudly, appeal to peoples’ fears and anxieties, and deny that you just said the totally fucked up thing that you just got caught saying on tape and stick with it. Trump is a buffoon, a clownish Bond villian, a “man-baby”, but he’s also managed to get his followers to look past that and vote him into office anyway, just by being “too tremendous to fail”. Look for Republicans to ape his behavior (albeit hopefully ineffectually) in the future, and probably some Democrats and independent candidates as well. It’s franky a more effective approach than appealing to voters’ interest in policy discussions.
Stranger
I actually did point awhile ago that Trump could win, I thought it was not likely but now what it happened I have to look at history and point what I did then also:
It looks a lot like when Pete Wilson won the governorship in California, thanks to hate and dislike of many liberal ideas. In less than a generation the state Republicans have virtually lost all power.
But the similarity I did point the most was when Herbert Hoover won. (Who until now was the one that had less government experience before becoming president, did not turn so good BTW) So the Republicans then won the White House also by pumping out the catholic hate against the Democrat Al Smith and his “reprehensible” bid to end prohibition.
And similarly I have noted how the hate was used against Clinton, Health care access, Environmental protection, minorities and also as a counter against gay rights or things like the legalization of marijuana. (The states where marijuana was legalized in the past election were blue states, the only state where the proposition to legalize it did lose was the red state of Arizona.)
Seeing the cabinet Trump is setting points to a regression to all that (except against Clinton, no lock up there) and one has to add a very confrontational position against the mainstream media not only because of the moves Trump did to discredit it, but also because the advisors he is getting (and Trump too) shows that the Trump administration will rely on ignorant sources of information and conspiracy theory sources.
With that crew and ideals It is very unlikely that trouble will be avoided, and like in the past, it is more likely that the makings of a huge backlash will take place that will led to the Democrats gaining enough power to make America progress.
I am surprised, after so many political predictions about Trump that were completely, laughably, utterly wrong, people are still making them.
There is your problem right there. He won’t because he never intended to. I am still convinced that Trump never intended to get elected in the first place. Now that one of the strangest accidents in history actually happened, he has to find a way to play it off. That way will most assuredly be by delegating almost all traditional Presidential powers to others. It is really up to the whole team to make it work. I was a never-Trumper but I don’t want him to fail now for the good of the country. Team loyalty is fine when you are talking about a football rivalry but not when the future of the U.S. is at stake.
Where are those far left radicals supposed to go in a two party system? I agree that they have gotten out of control as well and were a big factor in giving Trump a win but they are chronically unhappy, very vocal and sometimes deranged. You can’t just wave a wand and make them disappear as much as almost everyone who isn’t them would like.
Well, 4 years ago many Republicans thought that Obama was toast. The polls then were more correct about Obama, and today they were also correct about the popular vote.
Something that Trump even today still gets wrong or lies about it when there is really no need to do so.
It would be laughable but we do indeed have a rudderless rude regent.
As in “the only way is up”? If that’s not what you meant, I would like to know just what you’re thinking of.
I know… but sometimes its tiring trying to deal with clogs like him in the Political Process.
**Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!
Plunge!**
Single Jewish Women aren’t enough of a demographic to save the Democrats.
I think Trump and the weakness of the Democratic Party is the best thing that ever happened to Vladimir Putin.
It feels like we’re in a whole different level of politics in this country that we’ve never seen before. This doesn’t just feel like waiting out a president we happen to disagree with, but disagree with within normal parameters. This is populism and racism and fear burbling up in a strange new way that doesn’t seem easily fixed by simply voting some Democrats in in two or four years. We need a Lincoln, we need an FDR.
We currently have a strongman in Russia who knows how to make our highly-malleable strongman in America feel like his dick is bigger than it really is; both strongmen are building up a common enemy (foreigners in general, Muslims who don’t toe our national line more specifically); we have a strongman in America with a willingness to talk about increasing nukes; we have supporters of our strongman holding an increasingly favorable opinion of the Russian strongman. Again, as divided as our country is and given how voter allegiances are rapidly shifting in strange new ways, I don’t see an easy fix in two or four years for Democrats. I see strange new global partnerships and alliances that won’t easily be unwoven by a ballot featuring Julian Castro or Liz Warren or Tom Vilsack or whomever.
I do hope I’m wrong, and that I’m laughing at these goofy thoughts in four years. Feel free to throw them back in my face in 2020 when things feel normal again.
Some of you are making some assumptions here.
First you are assuming Trump will royally fuck things up (not to say if he does that most people would not be terribly surprised).
But IFFF he doesn’t? The economy does okay or gets a bit better even (whether he deserves any credit or not). He does NOT start WWIII, but only bombs the shit outa some assholes here and there. No major scandals. A few PR victories?
AND the democratic party doubles down on their positions? Which they seem to be doing post election disaster response wise (though how much of that is team Hillary unwilling to admit they just fucked up not the actual inner workings of the DNC I do not know).
If those things happen?
IMO the democrats will be on life support compared to the Republicans.
Just in time, eh? Is there something that you and these other decent people have learned about Trump since the election that has caused you a change of heart? If there is, I’m curious what it is; if there isn’t, then there aren’t enough of you to make a difference.
I don’t mean to direct that at you, HB. In fact, I applaud you for remembering principles and not just blindly following a party. But enough people voted for Trump to put him in office. Until Trump loses them the “sick underbelly” will carry the day.
The assumption that worries me is the idea that even if Trump royally fucks things up that his supporters will accept that Trump is the cause. I think Trump could drop trou and take a big ol’ dump on the Great Wall, and when the Chinese complained his supporters would say “oh, they’re such whiners.”
I don’t know. People felt the same way about Bush, and look where we are now. Wimpy dems and crazy republicans.
For all any of us know, all Trump will do is push the overton window of craziness further to the right so that in 2028 the GOP nominates a neo-nazi pedophile with fetal alcohol syndrome to be president and he gets 70 million votes.
One of the good things about Trump is he has awoken liberals to how dangerously unhinged and irresponsible the base of the right has become. I don’t think a lot of us understood how dangerous these people could be before now. I predict a lot of liberal organization and pushback that will make what we did under Bush look quaint.
Part of the problem is that Trump’s bar of success is so low that if he doesn’t start nuclear war or cause a depression he will be labeled a success by many. I hope to god Trump is a success. My only complaint is that the voters punished the dems when the GOP obstructed them, but will reward the GOP if the dems cooperate. Politics has gotten to the point where there is no incentive to work with the ruling party. If you work with the ruling party, your base turns on you and primaries you, and the voters reward the ruling party and punish the minority party for any success and achievements.
The dems are in some ways on life support. They have very few state legislatures. The dems are now a regional party consisting of the west coast, the northeast and the big cities. The GOP controls everything else on the state & federal level. Even the fact that the dems control the big cities is somewhat meaningless, because if the GOP controls the state legislature they can just limit the ability of the cities to pass progressive legislation. In Ohio Kasich recently said cities are not allowed to raise their minimum wage. I could see the GOP doing more and more of that in red states with large blue cities (North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, etc)
That’s already happening in Michigan, and it continues. Proponents of local governance, my ass.