# Trump's Republican primary campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 3, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828 "2015-09-03T18:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 127
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2525 "2016-03-15T21:08:22Z")
[Salon.com has an article discusssing the Monster created by the GOP Frankenstein](http://www.salon.com/2016/03/15/introducing_donald_trumps_fire_eaters_how_the_republican_party_made_the_mob_that_the_gop_frontrunner_exploits/): > [@](#): > > Multiple generations of Americans have been indoctrinated by preemptive war and gun culture, both of which are central features of the GOP. For decades, the GOP has been built around shooting first and asking questions later… In a sane world, reasonable Americans would rise up in unison against gun fetishists who’ve cumulatively made the AR-15, the Sandy Hook weapon, the most popular firearm in America. In a sane world, reasonable Americans would’ve condemned lawmakers like former U.S. congressman Steve Stockman, who, in the wake of Sandy Hook, held two online contests in which the prize was an AR-15. But it’s no longer a sane world, and terrible behavior by one of our two major political parties is allowed to continue without serious repercussions. > > Worse, how often have we heard characters like Bill O’Reilly using violent language while demagoguing against abortion doctors like George Tiller? How often has Sarah Palin blurted out the catchphrase, “Don’t retreat, reload!” and how often do her fanboys repeat this nonsense on social media and elsewhere? When we hear Trump blurting obnoxious commands to his people, it’s impossible to not recall a member of Congress shouting “You lie!” at President Obama, or NRA board member and GOP campaign surrogate Ted Nugent calling the president a chimp, or establishment Republicans violently destroying the tax code or the Affordable Care Act with firearms and wood chippers. The second-place GOP candidate for president, Ted Cruz, famously produced a video in which he cooked bacon using a semi-automatic rifle. The Republicans love their stunts, but they love their violence more. And yet the conservative movement is wringing its hands over why Trump is doing so well? > … > In order for the cocktail of ignorance and violence to work for Trump, it had to have been cultivated by the GOP, and the GOP has given us George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Fox & Friends. If you’d like to witness the evolutionary precursor to Trump’s brand of mayhem, review the YouTube videos of the Palin rallies and crowds eight years ago. That’s where both the Tea Party and the Trump campaign strategy began. Then, as with today, nobody in the D.C. media took seriously how bad it was until after it was too late. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2526 "2016-03-15T21:09:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not even you can possibly believe that. You seem as certain of my what my beliefs are, as you are of the perfection of your own. No, the media had no good reason to go on the massive blitz that they went on, other than a barefaced attempt to associate Trump with a reviled figure, through constant repetition of their names together in the same reports. It’s blatant as hell, and [everyone with any sense at all can see it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NVVwZVd6ZM), which is why [it isn’t working.](https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/03/14/trump-rises-national-support-rubio-falls-and-carso/) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2527 "2016-03-15T21:26:22Z")
You see what you want to see, that’s for sure. The media reported on it because Trump came up with the harebrained claim that he didn’t know who Duke was, and refused to condemn white supremacists. Trump has nobody to blame for that story but himself. And David Duke, of course. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2528 "2016-03-15T21:32:45Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > You seem as certain of my what my beliefs are, as you are of the perfection of your own. > > No, the media had no good reason to go on the massive blitz that they went on, other than a barefaced attempt to associate Trump with a reviled figure, through constant repetition of their names together in the same reports. > > It’s blatant as hell, and [everyone with any sense at all can see it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NVVwZVd6ZM), which is why [it isn’t working.](https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/03/14/trump-rises-national-support-rubio-falls-and-carso/) I was a newspaper reporter once, I have a master’s degree in journalism, I know some things about news value and editorial judgment, and I can tell you it would be utterly inconceivable for any serious, responsible news outlet **not** to make a headline-story out of David Duke endorsing any major presidential candidate. I mean, it’s not like the Communists endorsing the Democrat like they do every four years, that’s a non-story because the CPUSA is completely irrelevant – which White Nationalism unfortunately is not. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2529 "2016-03-15T21:46:59Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > So, if I take your point, news organizations should allot equal headline space to every endorsement by any organization with the ability to create a web site and a press release? I didn’t say equal, I said any one of the thousand or so times. Trump is the leading GOP candidate, this is a mainstream Republican group. David Duke is is a race huckster of rapidly waning influence, who endorsed Trump as a publicity stunt, in order to get more people to subscribe to his newsletter. The media knows this, but they use it anyway for their own purposes of driving ratings and vilifying Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2530 "2016-03-15T21:52:01Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Trump is the leading GOP candidate, this is a mainstream Republican group. The National Black Republican Association is a fringe organization with no constituency. Their endorsement is meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2531 "2016-03-15T21:52:55Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I don’t buy this argument either. If CNN and other media organizations are so determined to bring down Mr. Trump, why are they giving him so much free media exposure? I mean every news station has been pretty much the Trump Channel since the beginning of the year. Why do people’s immune systems torture them when they have allergic reactions? > [@](#): > > I’m pretty sure I know a perfectly reasonable answer to that question. I wonder if you do. Money? Ratings? They can’t help themselves? It’s a prisoner’s dilemma, they would all be better off if no one played along. But as long as at least one is looping Trump’s latest trigger, that’s where all the eyeballs go. So they all end up promoting both Trump \*and \*David Duke, even though they nearly universally loath both of them. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2532 "2016-03-15T22:08:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You see what you want to see, that’s for sure. The media reported on it because Trump came up with the harebrained claim that he didn’t know who Duke was, and refused to condemn white supremacists. Oh please. The media was already associating the two, he had already disavowed the endorsement on Twitter the night before. He just didn’t play along with the game intended to associate him to Duke. Instead of responding to the apologetically to the implication, he rebuked it by saying he didn’t even know anything about the guy or his ideology. It’s like of you were to keep pestering me about being a Paraguayan nationalist. After denying it a few time I might get tired of the whole back and forth by saying “WTF I don’t even know anything about Paraguay, I’ve never even been there, dude”. And then you could drag out my fourth grade geography lesson to prove that I did, in fact, know something about Paraguay all along, and must therefore be a filthy Paraguayan nationalist. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2533 "2016-03-15T22:10:45Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > I didn’t say equal, I said any one of the thousand or so times. > > Trump is the leading GOP candidate, **this is a mainstream Republican group.** > > David Duke is is a race huckster of rapidly waning influence, who endorsed Trump as a publicity stunt, in order to get more people to subscribe to his newsletter. The media knows this, but they use it anyway for their own purposes of driving ratings and vilifying Trump. (Bolding mine) “A mainstream Republican group” that apparently consists of one person, that you, again apparently, never heard of before you went data mining today and still know nothing about other that what you read on CNN’s site. You know, the news organization that is cleverly covering up this earth-shattering endorsement by, uh, publishing it. No reasonable person could possibly consider this to be a “mainstream Republican group” or its endorsement a headline story. Are you a reasonable person? ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2534 "2016-03-15T22:14:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I was a newspaper reporter once, I have a master’s degree in journalism, I know some things about news value and editorial judgment, and I can tell you it would be utterly inconceivable for any serious, responsible news outlet **not** to make a headline-story out of David Duke endorsing any major presidential candidate. Right, because bullshit sensationalism sells. It’s the only reason Duke has any exposure at all. > [@](#): > > I mean, it’s not like the Communists endorsing the Democrat like they do every four years, that’s a non-story because the CPUSA is completely irrelevant – which White Nationalism unfortunately is not. Both of them have very marginal influence. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2535 "2016-03-15T22:15:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh please. > > The media was already associating the two, he had already disavowed the endorsement on Twitter the night before. He just didn’t play along with the game intended to associate him to Duke. Instead of responding to the apologetically to the implication, he rebuked it by saying he didn’t even know anything about the guy or his ideology. > > It’s like of you were to keep pestering me about being a Paraguayan nationalist. After denying it a few time I might get tired of the whole back and forth by saying “WTF I don’t even know anything about Paraguay, I’ve never even been there, dude”. > > And then you could drag out my fourth grade geography lesson to prove that I did, in fact, know something about Paraguay all along, and must therefore be a filthy Paraguayan nationalist. No, he had disavowed the endorsement [in a press conference](http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/28/politics/donald-trump-white-supremacists/) that nobody was watching. And yet he never made reference to that prior disavowal on CNN, and even pretended he didn’t know anything about Duke or the endorsement. If anything, it looked like he was walking back his previous comments. He wasn’t being “pestered.” He was being asked about it _for the second time_. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2536 "2016-03-15T22:20:18Z")
Clinton got endorsed by a grand dragon too, because supposedly she has a “secret agenda”. Well, of course she does, but anyone who claims to know what it is is BSing. If there’s one thing both she and Trump have in common it’s that no one knows who the “real” candidate is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2537 "2016-03-15T22:21:41Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Both of them have very marginal influence. Both are **marginal,** but only the Communists are **irrelevant.** There is no such thing (any more, if ever there was) in American political discourse, not even in Sanders’ wing, as “Communist dog-whistling.” There is a **lot** of racist dog-whistling, because, among other things, Pubs know WNs and less-extreme plain ol’ white racists sometimes vote and are numerous enough to matter. N.B.: The point of racist dog-whistle messaging is not that only the intended audience can hear it. Everybody can hear it, and everybody knows what it means. The point is plausible deniability based on intentional ambiguity. That’s why somebody like Trump gets so upset when somebody like Duke chimes in and gives the game away. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2538 "2016-03-15T22:24:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Clinton got endorsed by a grand dragon too, because supposedly she has a “secret agenda”. Well, of course she does, but anyone who claims to know what it is is BSing. If there’s one thing both she and Trump have in common it’s that no one knows who the “real” candidate is. [They have something else in common too!](http://i.imgur.com/AdKdjiel.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2539 "2016-03-15T22:29:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > [They have something else in common too!](http://i.imgur.com/AdKdjiel.jpg) Not orange enough. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2540 "2016-03-15T22:34:28Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > The National Black Republican Association is a fringe organization with no constituency. Their endorsement is meaningless. Duke’s is less than meaningless. Even if the National Black Republican Association is just that one lady, she is an active Republican in good standing, not a pariah like Duke. The most important point is that Duke is doing this specifically to cause the reaction and the controversy that is occurring, for his own selfish and petty reasons. Hell, he has endorsed a black Democrat, supposedly because he admired the guy’s anti-Israel position. But actually he did it because he knew that the guy’s enemies wouldn’t be able to keep themselves from using it against him, and would thereby give Duke the exposure he needs for his message to reach enough new people to replace his existing membership, as it dies off and wises up. Maybe one in a thousand or one in ten thousand of the people that hear his name google him will sign up and pay the $15 a month, or whatever he charges now, for his newsletter, subscription, or whatever his recurring fee membership club scam is configured these days. So he just got a nice fat little bonus. He should send CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC thank you cards. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2541 "2016-03-15T22:46:45Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > No, he had disavowed the endorsement [in a press conference](http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/28/politics/donald-trump-white-supremacists/) that nobody was watching. And yet he never made reference to that prior disavowal on CNN, and even pretended he didn’t know anything about Duke or the endorsement. If anything, it looked like he was walking back his previous comments. > > He wasn’t being “pestered.” He was being asked about it _for the second time_. August 2015: Trump: [I don’t want David Duke’s endorsement](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trump-doesnt-want-david-duke-endorsement-121784) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2542 "2016-03-15T22:49:48Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > The most important point is that Duke is doing this specifically to cause the reaction and the controversy that is occurring, for his own selfish and petty reasons. No, the important thing is that he **can,** and that Trump, alone in the field, makes it so easy. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2543 "2016-03-15T22:49:52Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > August 2015: Trump: [I don’t want David Duke’s endorsement](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trump-doesnt-want-david-duke-endorsement-121784) February 2016: Trump: “I don’t know anything about David Duke. okay? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don’t know.” Yep, a pants on fire lie. > **[Donald Trump's absurd claim that he knows nothing about former KKK leader...](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/mar/02/donald-trump/trumps-absurd-claim-he-knows-nothing-about-former-/)** > > A few days before Donald Trump dominated Super Tuesday, the Republican frontrunner was being rebuked left and right for ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2544 "2016-03-15T23:13:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Both are **marginal,** but only the Communists are **irrelevant.** There is no such thing (any more, if ever there was) in American political discourse, not even in Sanders’ wing, as “Communist dog-whistling.” There is a **lot** of racist dog-whistling, because, among other things, Pubs know WNs and less-extreme plain ol’ white racists sometimes vote and are numerous enough to matter. You are mixing up three, four, or more different overlapping groups of vastly different scale, though: 1. The biggest being white people with racist inclinations, who might vote. Most of them are live-and let-live good ole boys, who don’t spend any time thinking about racialist theorizing, don’t necessarily favor discrimination against people of other races, and would prefer their daughter’s especially to “stick to their own kind”, but most of them will usually accept people of other races into their families and social circles when it happens. 2. Small subsection of that group actual believe explicitly in white supremacy, are more hard core in their beliefs, often having other fringe conspiracy theory beliefs as well. These people may or may not disown and become estranged from family members for marrying, dating, or befriending people of other races. Most of these people do not belong to any racialist themed membership organizations. 3. Then you have the people who belong to some kind of group or another, usually this just means being on a mailing list and maybe paying some kind of subscription fee. They generally make some kind of pledge of racial purity in which they promise that they have or will disown family members who date/marry/befriend people of other races. 4. Lastly, Duke’s group, which is but one of these membership orgs. Duke’s group makes up a minuscule portion of group #1. Even if Trump is dog whistling and pandering to group #1, which I think his success in certain areas of the South clear he has done and done effectively, this doesn’t mean he is pandering to the Duke fan club, who are very rare in comparison, and have very extreme beliefs that the average member of group 1 would generally find bizarre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=126) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=128)