# 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:** 187
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3725 "2016-04-15T19:01:12Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > [After briefly dropping below 50% last week, Trump’s chances to get the nomination climb to 60%](http://predictwise.com/) > > With Clinton holding steady, currently at 93%, it looks like the chances of a Clinton/Trump election are \>50%. I can only hope so! ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3726 "2016-04-15T19:04:54Z")
[Donald Trump’s favorite Bible passage is one that Jesus specifically repudiated.](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/donald-trump-favorite-bible-verse-is-one-jesus-specifically-repudiated/) ---
**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, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3727 "2016-04-15T19:13:40Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Really, they weren’t ignored. They weren’t disenfranchised. They were invited to the table and they didn’t bother to come. I read somewhere that only 5% of registered Republicans made it to the precinct caucuses. That’s a lot of apathy. It also means that it wouldn’t have taken very much at all to flip the vote the other way - if Trump truly has all those supporters, where the hell were they? Whining about it now is not good form. Many stayed away because we were told that under the new state rules, we would not be voting for candidates directly. Most figured why bother if we’re not even voting. I couldn’t go because I had to work that night. Look, the Colorado caucus was a giant clusterfuck. Under RNC rules, if we had voted for a candidate, the delegates would have been bound but by never voting for a candidate but by selecting delegates our contingent is not bound. The way it turned out we should have either done it the way every other state did it OR chosen volunteers at random from each congressional district/state as a whole. ---
**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, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3728 "2016-04-15T20:24:34Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > “We wrote the rules to give Coloradans a bigger voice in the Presidential selection process. Last year, when we looked at the calendar, we saw that Colorado was one of the later states. So we (Colorado Republicans) wanted to make sure our voice was heard. That’s what this process does. We let you know. We put information on our websites, we published it in newspapers, we sent email and snail mail to Colorado Republicans to ask them to come and let their opinions be known. Some people did, and this is the will of those people. We’re proud that Colorado voices will have a significant effect on the Republican nomination and hope that Colorado Republicans have an impact on choosing the next President of the United States” Get that down to fewer words than “The guy with the most votes should win” and slap it on a bumper sticker and you’re golden 😃 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3729 "2016-04-15T22:19:27Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Get that down to fewer words than “The guy with the most votes should win” and slap it on a bumper sticker and you’re golden 😃 “Show up or Shut up” 🙂 ---
**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, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3730 "2016-04-15T22:23:12Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > “Show up or Shut up” 🙂 You should work for a campaign. 😃 Just so long as it’s not Trump’s… ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3731 "2016-04-15T23:34:36Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Donald Trump’s favorite Bible passage is one that Jesus specifically repudiated.](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/donald-trump-favorite-bible-verse-is-one-jesus-specifically-repudiated/) Not so different from many American Christians, who pretty much ignore what Jesus said about public prayer, accumulation of wealth, compassion for the less fortunate, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3732 "2016-04-17T00:54:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Donald Trump’s favorite Bible passage is one that Jesus specifically repudiated.](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/donald-trump-favorite-bible-verse-is-one-jesus-specifically-repudiated/) I am shocked [/spoiler] to learn of a fake Christian in politics. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3733 "2016-04-17T01:27:23Z")
Jesus wasn’t a true Christian! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3734 "2016-04-17T01:42:24Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Not so different from many American Christians, who pretty much ignore what Jesus said about public prayer, accumulation of wealth, compassion for the less fortunate, etc. IIRC you once said “Most people know just enough about their Holy books to justify whatever their beliefs are” or words to that effect. That said, I’m sure they could find other passages though like Jesus claiming they needed to follow ever not and tittle of the law. The Crusaders I’m pretty sure had read the Sermon on the Mount. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3735 "2016-04-17T03:29:07Z")
P.M. Carpenter’s [latest post](http://www.pmcarpenter.com/2016/04/trump-and-a-2-year-dem-congress.html) nicely lays out a case that dovetails with my reasons for rooting for Drumpf to win the nomination (which led me to even consider, for a time, crossing over to vote for him in the Missouri primary). He also punctures the huffy posturing from Dana Milbank (among many others) about how we need to transcend partisanship and oppose Drumpf’s nomination on principle, or something: > [@](#): > > “The important thing is not what’s best for Democrats but what’s best for the country — and that means not having a race-baiting demagogue as the nominee of a major party.” > > Better, then, to have a more traditional-McCarthyite demagogue as the GOP’s nominee? That is Milbank’s thinking, for reasons that a second reading of his column failed to elucidate for me.[…] > > Thus falls Milbank’s construction: “The important thing is not what’s best for Democrats but what’s best for the country.” Given the abominable state of congressional Republicanism, the difference between what’s good for Democrats and what’s good for the country does not exist.[…] > > Simply put as a matter of pragmatic politics, I’m for whichever GOP candidate — Trump or Cruz — would cause the greater decline in congressional Republicanism-cum-congressional abominations. At the moment that would seem to be Trump, so I’m for The Donald; should circumstances change, then I’ll root for Cruz. He goes on to make another point I’ve long been fond of: namely, that while it might obviously be ideal if we could get Democrats out for midterms, we can sufficiently move progressive incrementalism forward by occasionally getting a two-year cycle of Democratic control of the Oval Office and both houses of Congress, then fighting a rearguard action to protect those gains the rest of the time. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3736 "2016-04-17T04:00:19Z")
You sure are enamoured with this P.M. Carpenter guy. Kind of weird - he’s just some nobody blogger. ---
**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 17, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3737 "2016-04-17T05:35:54Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Drumpf Oliver’s failed Drumpfening is the saddest and most desperate thing ever. I don’t think I have ever seen even one tenth the effort put into forcing a meme. [It didn’t work.](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=drumpf%2C%20trump%2C%20donald%20trump&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5) ---
**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 17, 2016, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3738 "2016-04-17T05:37:58Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Oliver’s failed Drumpfening is the saddest and most desperate thing ever. I don’t think I have ever seen even one tenth the effort put into forcing a meme. > > [It didn’t work.](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=drumpf%2C%20trump%2C%20donald%20trump&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5) It’s mostly a form of virtue signalling by normie liberals to show how “funny” they are. ---
**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 17, 2016, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3739 "2016-04-17T05:59:51Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > It’s mostly a form of virtue signalling by normie liberals to show how “funny” they are. [The style is so dated. so 1998-2010:](http://exiledonline.com/the-rally-to-restore-vanity-generation-x-celebrates-its-homeric-struggle-against-lameness/) > [@](#): > > I’ve come to the conclusion that this has been the Great Dream of my generation: to position ourselves in such a way that we’re beyond mockery. To not look stupid. That’s the biggest crime of all–looking stupid. That’s why they’ve turned Stewart into a demigod, because he knows how to make the other guys look really stupid, and if you’re on the same team as Stewart, you’re on the safe side of the mockery, rather than dangerously vulnerable to mockery. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3740 "2016-04-17T08:10:24Z")
It’s middle school antics. “Yeah, we may have lost, but we sure told them!” It’s a more sophisticated version of “You’re momma!” Not that I don’t love those shows, but what makes them good is that they are informative while being entertaining. But when they get into trying to claim scalps they always fail. Clowns don’t claim scalps. Ruthless people claim scalps. See: Karl Rove, Lee Atwater. They destroy candidates. Which is why John Oliver does entertainment and doesn’t work on a campaign. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3741 "2016-04-17T10:49:45Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You sure are enamoured with this P.M. Carpenter guy. Kind of weird - he’s just some nobody blogger. Yes, it sure is strange for anyone to read the same blog on a regular basis. Normally people who like blogs just read a different blog every day at random. :rolleyes: That “nobody” part is particularly interesting to me, though. You do realize that when you read a thread here, you are just reading a bunch of nobodies (as far as anyone knows, anyway)? Each thread’s OP is basically equivalent to a blog post, and then with a bunch of comments below. So your complaint is what’s actually “kind of weird”, IMO. :dubious: > [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Oliver’s failed Drumpfening is the saddest and most desperate thing ever. I don’t think I have ever seen even one tenth the effort put into forcing a meme. > > [It didn’t work.](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=drumpf%2C%20trump%2C%20donald%20trump&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5) You can’t measure this one “working” or not by Google trends. I have never once put “Drumpf” into a search engine. Yet not only do I use that moniker to refer to him, thanks to the browser extension every article, Facebook post, etc. refers to him the same way, from my perspective. Even if I’m the only one left in the world blissfully remaining in that state (which I doubt, given what [huge reach](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliver-fcc-website-net-neutrality) Oliver has shown in the past), I enjoy it and it looks just the same to me as it would if it had “caught on like wildfire” or whatever. Maybe that last is the real point: unlike Pierce Hawthorne trying to get “streets ahead” to take hold as a catchphrase, those of us who have Drumpfinated aren’t really in the business of trying to make it catch on, while sort of anxiously looking around to see if others are doing the same. I don’t know if I’ve come across hundreds of people using it in comments on news sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc., or if it’s just the Drumpfinator making it look that way. And I don’t really care. 😛 ETA: > [@adaher](#): > > It’s middle school antics. “Yeah, we may have lost, but we sure told them!” It’s a more sophisticated version of “You’re momma!” You mean “\*your \*momma”. (Presumably.) But how have we “lost” to Drumpf? I know you like predictions, but that’s quite a whopper. Can I quote you on that? Because if Drumpf wins the election in the fall, I will–as they saying goes–eat my hat. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3742 "2016-04-17T11:17:18Z")
Trump will probably lose, but a) it won’t be because he got made fun of, and b) GWB was the focus of a much more coordinated campaign of ridicule. Perhaps a campaign of ridicule could be effective, but probably only against someone who cares about being taken seriously. Trump and Bush are brash guys who don’t really care what others think of them. Ridicule probably hurts someone like Clinton a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3743 "2016-04-17T11:40:54Z")
Sometimes you seem particularly insightful for a Republican, but then…huh? “Trump and Bush are brash guys who don’t really care what others think of them”?!? Let’s just leave Bush aside: I wasn’t talking about him, this thread’s not about him, he’s history. But Drumpf? I can’t think of any public figure who is more [thin-skinned,](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=trump%20thin-skinned) who cares \*more \*about what people think of him. Where on earth did you get that? ETA: Thin-skinned people almost always try to make a show of not caring what others think, but I always find this insistence incredibly transparent and even more cringe-inducing. I had no idea that anyone actually took those protestations at face value. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/3744 "2016-04-17T11:47:07Z")
Mocking some foreign name seems just so damn… _sad_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=186) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=188)