Trump supporters and many Republicans still love Trump (or profess to), and his mixture of nostalgia and personality may well win him the next nomination and possibly the presidency.
It must be said Trump originally or eventually supported many ideas not all his supporters might agree with: tax cuts for the very wealthy, some progressive transgender policies, universal medical coverage (at least originally), agreements with China and Russia. But if Trump did it, these were okay or not much emphasized. Few would argue with Trump being described as forceful.
It seems to me that the last president to lose an election and still have a future shot was Nixon, who lost in 1960 but won in 1968. Are there any similarities between Trump and Nixon that might explain such political persistence, popularity and prospects? Trump supporters like the man, not the movement. I was unaware Nixon had much of a (cult of) personality - I thought his support was a “silent majority” of those who feared youthful rebellion and more liberal values?
I’m confused, Nixon was only VP in 1960, not President.
Biden ran and lost multiple times and finally won.
Trump is trying to duplicate a feat that only Cleveland pulled off. Though if not for a would be assassin bullet, Theodore Roosevelt probably would have also won 2012 instead of Wilson when he ran as an independent and fairly easily beat the incumbent Taft.
He made almost a joke run earlier. It was to garner free publicity for his book basically. Though I didn’t think the 2016 run was serious at first either.
Tricky Dick lost to JFK in 1960 and won in 1968, and if I’m not mistaken he and Cleveland were the only nominees to lose an election and later to win one.
Anyway, Nixon ran and won because of his personal ambition. He wanted it more than anyone except possibly Hillary. Donnie doesn’t particularly want the job, he didn’t run in 2016 intending to win it, he didn’t care about doing the job, he actually didn’t do anything when he had it. The only thing he has going for him is a cult following.
Not desperation, but priorities. Trump is exactly what a majority of Republican voters wanted, based on all the opinion polling out there. They wanted rage and spittle and nonsense, as long as it pissed off liberals. Pissing off liberals is their highest priority, and they found someone that pisses off liberals like no one else. That’s what’s most important to them.
Andrew Jackson list in 1824 (although he had a plurality of both the popular and electoral votes, but lost to Q in the House) and won in 1828 (and 1832).
Andy Jackson winning twice beginning in 1828 is actually a useful tool for reciting 8 digits of e. If you can remember e starts with 2.7, and Jackson won twice starting in 1828, and can remember a 45-90-45 triangle, then you can recite e as 2.718281828459045.
iiandyiii is spot on. Republicans have no policy goals, no proposed legislation. All they want to do is piss off liberals and they found the perfect guy for the job.
Thomas Jefferson lost to John Adams in 1796, although this was right at the dawn of the party system and I don’t know that you could consider either one “nominees” of their respective parties.
You’re quite right about the vast differences between Trump and Nixon. One parallel that I see is that both were crooks with not even a concept of ethics, although Trump has taken self-serving grift, cronyism, nepotism, and serial lying to hitherto unimaginable depths of depravity that make Nixon look like a saint in comparison.
But another notable parallel – and especially pertinent to the OP’s question – is the number of times both have been written off as politically finished, yet managed to rise like zombies and stagger forth again. Nixon was nearly washed up as far back as 1952, when Eisenhower was ready to dump him as VP candidate due to the revelation of financial improprieties, but managed to save himself with the cringe-worthy yet effective Checkers speech. He lost to Kennedy in 1960, as already stated, but then also lost the California governor’s race two years later, leading to his famous “last press conference” and the remark to the media that “you won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more”. But just seven years later, he was elected president. The humourist Dave Barry compared Nixon to Dracula, impossible to kill except maybe with a wooden stake through the heart, and maybe not even then.
The difference with Trump is that he’s never had to do anything to survive the perils of his own malfeasance and incompetence. He’s just immune to political disasters that would normally not only render a candidate completely unelectable, but would drive them out of public view out of sheer shame. Trump doesn’t have the self-awareness to feel shame, or anything else except egotistical self-aggrandizement. His base either doesn’t care about his aberrant psychopathology, or considers it a virtue. Such is the nature of politics today, and such are the values of Republicans today.
Very this. Maybe I am missing something, but that does seem to be the one thing that excites Republicans these days. I don’t hear much about their agenda or policies or proposals to, ya know, get stuff done. Governing and compromising is not even on the table - just oppose anything anyone from the other tribe wants to do. That’s all they got.