# 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:** 185
**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:** [April 14, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3685 "2016-04-14T23:48:42Z")
One often referred point by me is that among conservative media sources it is not only the National Review, but others like Town Hall and RedState also warn Republicans about Trump. And then there is The Weekly Standard. [http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps-dead-enders/article/2001949](http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps-dead-enders/article/2001949) > [@](#): > > **Trump’s Dead-Enders** > > You will recall Donald Trump’s promise to bring you only “the best people.” > > Oh, sorry. There were two of those promises. The first one came in his pitch for Trump University where Trump promised prospective students (read: marks) that he would only hire professors who were “absolutely terrific; terrific people, terrific brains, successful—we’re going to have the best of the best.” > > Donald Trump is currently being sued for fraud stemming from Trump University, which no longer exists. > > And then there’s Trump’s promise to staff his presidential administration with only “the best people.” > > … > > And now there’s Trump’s delegate operation, which is so disorganized and pathetic that after getting crushed in delegate hunts in three states over the weekend, the Trump campaign’s excuse was “They were unaware of the rules.” So disorganized that Trump’s own children couldn’t get themselves registered in time to vote in the New York primary. > > So, don’t say you weren’t warned. But the main reason why I point to this conservative piece is to notice that many of the smart ones from the right do think that Trump is the one with many followers that do remain ignorant about what Trump has done. And it is really wishful thinking to think that Trump is the one keeping his powder dry. He really has stale gun powder against fresh tons of TNT that the Democrats have. And I should add, explosive material that many Republicans that will not follow bullshit politics will tell their readers and viewers about too. > [@](#): > > All of which is to say that while Trump’s name-ID is close to total, voter understanding of who the man actually is seems to be lagging quite a bit behind. Which has two implications for the remainder of the race: > > (1) It suggests that the notion that nothing Trump does or says hurts him is simply wrong. Trump has a giant field of defensive chaff around him that protects him from attacks. But chaff isn’t foolproof and a determined attack can penetrate it. The reason Trump has survived problems that would have killed other campaigns isn’t that his supporters don’t care about them—it’s that many do not know about them. Ted Cruz should keep attacking. And if he won’t, eventually someone else will. > > (2) Trump’s favorable rating right now—currently at a net negative of minus-35\_is likely to be not a floor, but a ceiling. If Trump is the nominee, not only is the media suddenly going to start asking him tough questions, but Democrats will spend a billion dollars or so making sure that you don’t need to be on the intertubes to know about Trump’s problems. Everyone in America with a television will know about every creepy thing he’s ever said and every shady thing he’s ever done. And maybe you, personally, won’t care about it. But a lot of the Mrs. Martins of the world will. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3686 "2016-04-15T00:29:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Of course, but they can get those things in Mexico, and not have to watch over their shoulders for _La Migra._ What they come here for is money. How can they go back when they don’t know if they can make it back here to work? It’s often an incredibly sad, shitty situation. Mexicans tend to have strong multi-generational family ties. Imagine what it’s like to leave you family for years upon end to live in a place where you don’t speak the language, where you don’t have the same rights as the citizens of the place you are in, even though you may have been working your joints into dust for a decade or more as a bunger, cutting puss filled rectums out of steers in the slaughterhouse 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, to put meat on their table. And then working after work on the side stripping shingles with your cousin after you get off third shift at 7am. I mean, you can pay someone enough to endure just about anything on your behalf. And you can find someone, somewhere, who’s life is so shitty that the new situation is an improvement. That does NOT make it a moral practice. > [@](#): > > So? That is no American’s fault. Except to the extent that the American governments anti-drug policies and the American peoples bottomless drug-appetite is what allows the cartels to exist. In any case, obviously the Mexican immigrants do not **want** American government to relieve their “exploitation” by deporting them. Other things government perhaps could do to relieve their exploitation – e.g., cracking down on exploitative employers in such a way that the immigrants themselves are in no danger of being caught up in the net – would be politically impossible for several obvious reasons. It is Americas fault, more than anyone else’s, for allowing the situation to develop as it has. We allowed the incentives to develop and to remain. That’s because people who write laws or decide whether they are enforced, or those who indoctrinate students or television viewers, are not the ones who’s wages are being depressed by the presence of bargain basement labor from illegal immigrants. They are more likely to benefit from cheap meat, vegetables, housing, lawn care, gardening, child care, and the other products of a flooded manual labor market. > [@](#): > > Go home, eat, maybe watch some TV, and go to bed. What would you do? Cry. Get ripped off by money transmitters, if I had any money left to send my mother, after going to the strip club out of desperation for human contact. Drink. Wonder if my brother, who got deported to Tijuana after he was caught by ICE in Texas, is still alive. Gamble. Cry some more. Play XBox. Smoke weed. Cry. Sleep a few worried hours in the 2 bedroom apartment shared with 7 other illegal immigrants who I don’t like or trust, or drink some more. Back to work. Wonder if I will see my mother again. Ache in every inch of my spine. Beg my boss and friends to advance me some money to send my mother in Mexico City to help get my brother, who she found via phone calls to Tijuana charities, and may now be a drug addict, across the border again. Cry some more when my boss doesn’t have the money to advance because the economy is strained and he has his own problems, and my friend, with pain in his face, won’t help me because he has some stupid hang up about paying “coyotes” and “human smugglers”, when those guys are just trying to make a living like everyone else, and often help people a lot more than they hurt them. > [@](#): > > [Here](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Immigration_myths_and_facts#Illegal_immigrants_are_the_source_of_many_communicable_diseases), [here](http://web.archive.org/web/20100428090514/http://colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200805210001), [here](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/jul/23/are-illegal-immigrants-bringing-tremendous-diseas/), [here](http://www.ibtimes.com/do-mexican-immigrants-bring-disease-us-donald-trump-says-theres-health-scare-1997922), [here](http://sma.org/illegal-immigration-and-the-threat-of-infectious-disease/). In fact, the only contrary cites I can find are from nonsources like the _Washington Times._ The cite in the first link is the second link, which is only archived, and just mentions a few claims that were apparently bullshit. It doesn’t say that Mexican immigrants have no more disease than Americans. The third cite just says that Trump’s claim that illegal immigrants were bringing in “tremendous amounts” of disease is questionable, because the levels of disease are not unusual, and then goes on to tell us the CDC says that there is some risk. So all it does is let us know that Trump uses hyperbole. No surprise there. The next link is informative in reminding us that the places immigrants come from tend to have roughly the same levels of immunization as here. It then tells us about flare-ups of tuberculosis in detention centers. Your last citation tells us about all of the screening and testing that a legal immigrant must pass in order to be allowed into the country, and then says: > [@](#): > > Individuals who fail the exam due to certain health-related conditions are not admitted to the United States. Such conditions include drug addiction or communicable diseases of public health significance such as TB, syphilis, gonorrhoea, leprosy, and a changing list of current threats such as polio, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, or severe acute respiratory syndromes. Illegal immigrants crossing into the United States could bring any of these threats, however. Southern Texas Border Patrol agent Chris Cabrera warns: “What’s coming over into the US could harm everyone. We are starting to see scabies, chicken pox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, and different viruses.” > > Illegal immigration may expose Americans to diseases that have been virtually eradicated, but are highly contagious, as in the case of TB. This disease rose by 20% globally from 1985 to 1991, and was declared a worldwide emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1995. Furthermore, TB frequently occurs in connection with the human immunodeficiency virus. > [@](#): > > I doubt that very much. No doubt some Mexicans do have some anti-white feeling (mainly directed against Mexico’s own ruling class), but that cannot possibly be their reason for wanting to stay in a country full of white people. There is just as much anti-whitey sentiment from the fringy immigrant activist types as there is racism from white anti-immigrant folks. One of the videos I recently posted here had one of them screaming “white cracker” during a scuffle with police outside of a Trump rally. > [@](#): > > But the racism in anti-immigrant feeling **is** compelling grounds to evaluate the importance of the issues very skeptically. I agree, but skepticism is different from condescending, accusatory dismissal of the issue as completely unimportant, and merely the the result of racism. > [@](#): > > I dunno about that. They have Arpaio and he ain’t unique, and they have Trump as the GOP frontrunner, and probably some sympathizers in Congress whose names are better known to you than me. Look at all of the money spend against Trump by Jeb and Rubio, and then look at what he did to them. Look at what happened in Florida and Arizona. The only reason Trump is succeeding is the wide gulf between Americans’ desires and the actions of their political representatives. [In U.S., Six in 10 Dissatisfied With Immigration Levels](http://www.gallup.com/poll/181313/dissatisfied-immigration-levels.aspx) ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3687 "2016-04-15T00:35:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is that the one he wants to b\*ng? He said he would want to if she wasn’t his daughter. I’ve heard many people say similar things in the sorts of informal non serious conversations that Trump was having. People getting their panties in a twist about this are channeling some pretty deep American Puritanism. Same as it ever was. Edit: I mean, she’s not your daughter, wouldn’t you want to bang her? ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3688 "2016-04-15T00:40:10Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > One often referred point by me is that among conservative media sources it is not only the National Review, but others like Town Hall and RedState also warn Republicans about Trump. And then there is The Weekly Standard. > > [http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps-dead-enders/article/2001949](http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps-dead-enders/article/2001949) > But the main reason why I point to this conservative piece is to notice that many of the smart ones from the right do think that Trump is the one with many followers that do remain ignorant about what Trump has done. And it is really wishful thinking to think that Trump is the one keeping his powder dry. He really has stale gun powder against fresh tons of TNT that the Democrats have. What do they have that compares to an apparent habit of attacking rape victims, and defending and covering for rapists, including one who was covered in his 12 year old victims blood? ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3689 "2016-04-15T00:49:37Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > What do they have that compares to an apparent habit of attacking rape victims, and defending and covering for rapists, including one who was covered in his 12 year old victims blood? The fact that that petard was already used. You are only resorting with the generic hate that many have against lawyers that are doing their jobs. And that petard was also used by FOX too no less, two years ago. Again, it will work wonders for the Republican base, but since many independents **and a lot of the right wing media** will shoot at Trump, I still like the chances of the democrats better. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3690 "2016-04-15T01:18:31Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > There is just as much anti-whitey sentiment from the fringy immigrant activist types as there is racism from white anti-immigrant folks. One of the videos I recently posted here had one of them screaming “white cracker” during a scuffle with police outside of a Trump rally. Because one anecdote is a trend. Ri-ight. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3691 "2016-04-15T01:19:50Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > He said he would want to if she wasn’t his daughter. I’ve heard many people say similar things in the sorts of informal non serious conversations that Trump was having. People getting their panties in a twist about this are channeling some pretty deep American Puritanism. Same as it ever was. > > Edit: I mean, she’s not your daughter, wouldn’t you want to bang her? If you don’t see how that’s incestuous, you need a serious refresher on mores and ethics. A disclaimer doesn’t change it. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3692 "2016-04-15T01:57:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > If you don’t see how that’s incestuous, you need a serious refresher on mores and ethics. A disclaimer doesn’t change it. Oh please. I know plenty of people that talk like this about family members, and none of them are pervs. It just means they can objectively judge attractiveness, and don’t share your hang-ups about mentioning it. The fact that it is even repeatedly brought up as if it is potent against him shows that the Trumpaphobes’ attack is in starvation mode, subsisting on bark and grass. It reminds me of the Drumpf thing, the most contrived, unimaginative, forced and awkward meme attempt in history. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3693 "2016-04-15T02:16:27Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Oh please. I know plenty of people that talk like this about family members, and none of them are pervs. It just means they can objectively judge attractiveness, and don’t share your hang-ups about mentioning it. > > The fact that it is even repeatedly brought up as if it is potent against him shows that the Trumpaphobes’ attack is in starvation mode, subsisting on bark and grass. > > It reminds me of the Drumpf thing, the most contrived, unimaginative, forced and awkward meme attempt in history. I’ve already said that I don’t even think that’s what what he was saying was about, but it has nothing to do with the perception. It also has nothing to do with being open about sex or not. It’s not necessary to bring it up, there are plenty of other misogynist statements he’s made. But it’s weird. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, most people (and by a wide margin) would agree. Of course, you can then come back with how much more open you are than the rest of the world, but it doesn’t wash. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3694 "2016-04-15T02:21:44Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > He said he would want to if she wasn’t his daughter. I’ve heard many people say similar things in the sorts of informal non serious conversations that Trump was having. She was sitting right next to him and it was on national television. Imagine her inward cringe at that. You might say that to some friend of yours in private (but its still creepy) but to say it in front of her? That’s fucked up. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3695 "2016-04-15T02:57:30Z")
[Let Me Ask America a Question By DONALD J. TRUMP](http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3696 "2016-04-15T03:04:18Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > [Let Me Ask America a Question > By DONALD J. TRUMP](http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882) LOL one million Republicans? How is it that no one else has any numbers on the Colorado caucus? Same old argument. The only surprise is that Trump can write. (Although I’d be willing to bet that someone else wrote it.) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3697 "2016-04-15T03:18:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > LOL one million Republicans? How is it that no one else has any numbers on the Colorado caucus? Because there are no numbers since the state Pubs eliminated the straw-poll caucus for us so that our delegates would be unbound in Cleveland. We elected delegate that themselves elected delegates that elected delegates that are now bound to Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3698 "2016-04-15T03:31:04Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Because there are no numbers since the state Pubs eliminated the straw-poll caucus for us so that our delegates would be unbound in Cleveland. We elected delegate that themselves elected delegates that elected delegates that are now bound to Cruz. Yet Trump (or whichever surrogate wrote that tract and Trump approved) explicitly stated that one million Republican voters were disenfranchised. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3699 "2016-04-15T04:34:13Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Yes, but in Pittsburgh? > > Reminds me of Sarah Palin talking about the Phillies. Apparently, even the audience started groaning. While there are Penn State grads and fans here, traditionally the University of Pittsburgh has always been one of Penn State’s biggest rivals, so I’m guessing there were a good many Pitt fans there last night. Not to mention people around here weren’t too thrilled with Paterno when the Sandusky scandal hit the fan. He might as well have walked into Primantis and asked for the fries and coleslaw on the side. > [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Future first Jewish president of the United States Ivanka Trump [Just Shut Down Critics Who Say Her Father Mistreats Women](http://fortune.com/2016/04/13/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-women/) I think her mother might disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3700 "2016-04-15T07:31:28Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > [Let Me Ask America a Question > By DONALD J. TRUMP](http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882) This splendid editorial vindicates my thesis of TRUMP as a progressive force in American life, unleashing populist tendencies in an unparalleled way. He may not exactly agree with me, but he recognizes the status quo is rotten and that the centre cannot hold: > [@](#): > > In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it. > > Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family? > > I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3701 "2016-04-15T08:57:26Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > This splendid editorial vindicates my thesis of TRUMP as a progressive force in American life, unleashing populist tendencies in an unparalleled way. He may not exactly agree with me, but he recognizes the status quo is rotten and that the centre cannot hold: Your thesis is goofy. Trump is a festering clot of unearned arrogance and hair. He doesn’t recognize how utterly inept and unprepared he is, much less any grand vision of the societal problems he thinks he’ll fix. He’s bitching there about not knowing what he’s doing. Yeah, when you don’t know what you’re doing, you fuck up sometimes. If he were elected he wouldn’t be some force for change, he’d be a petty dictator getting his hand slapped by the judicial and legislative branches over and over. American soldiers deserve better than to be the tip of a spear wielded by a racist asshole who thinks strength is about mindless bluster and threats. If he weren’t born rich he’d be selling used cars. He’s the avatar for Dunning-Kruger. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3702 "2016-04-15T11:54:48Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > This splendid editorial vindicates my thesis of TRUMP as a progressive force in American life, unleashing populist tendencies in an unparalleled way. He may not exactly agree with me, but he recognizes the status quo is rotten and that the centre cannot hold: Poppycock. He’s just Sarah Palin with a wiener. He may recognize that the white working class is all pissed off and feels abandoned, and he resonates that anger like a well-calibrated tuning fork, but he promises nothing but the usual Republican pablum of cutting taxes for the rich and slashing the social safety net. The only thing he has done that your garden variety Republican has not is be more honest about embracing bigotry, fear, and hatred. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3703 "2016-04-15T12:33:57Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Your thesis is goofy. Trump is a festering clot of unearned arrogance and hair. Oh, he’s earned the hair. He deserves every follicle.\* \*Which may be the meanest thing I’ve ever said. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3704 "2016-04-15T13:23:18Z")
I’m not personally convinced by Trump’s WSJ argument (I’m also fine with Democratic super delegates, the electoral college, etc) but I can see how it’s a convincing one. And it makes his argument that the system is “unfair” and makes it about the American voter where the RNC can only defend with rules written by party elites. It’s very difficult to frame “The rules we wrote say that we don’t have to listen to you” as a positive to people who feel like they’re being ignored or disenfranchised. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=184) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=186)