# 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:** 90
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1785 "2016-02-04T02:53:10Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > the constant drumbeat from the left is that Republicans as a whole are xenophobic and hate blacks, Hispanics and Muslims. I think constant drumbeats are in the ear of the beholder. That is, if you do nothing but read SDMB posts all day long, and then do nothing other than look for ones in which liberals are accusing conservatives of the above, well, you’ll certainly find some. Because it happens. Sometimes it happens because said liberal actually believes that all Republicans are racist. (Der Trihs probably would have made that statement with no qualification). Sometimes it happens because someone is exercising hyperbole. Sometimes it happens because it’s kinda true in the context. Sometimes it happens because the way someone intended a phrase like “as a whole” to be meant is not the same way you are interpreting it. But if you ask the vast majority of liberals on this board, or in the USA as a whole, something like “do the majority of Republicans hate black people”, I believe you will find that the overwhelming majority of liberals would answer “no”. Speaking purely for myself, a longstanding member-in-good-standing of the SDMB liberal hivemeind, I would agree with the following statements: (a) racists are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats (b) Republicans are more likely to be racists than Democrats (c) Most Republicans are not particularly actively racist (d) Racism is not just a binary on-off (e) There’s a direct connection from Obama’s race to the “he’s not one of us”/“he’s not a true American”/“things are changing and I don’t like it even though I can’t really express why” sentiments that are felt by so many on the right. And that’s true even if a fair number of those people would be perfectly willing to vote for a Colin Powell or less-insane-Ben-Carson As for your comment about constant drumbeats of hate, I think it’s interesting to compare the most popular and influential media voices on the left and on the right. We all know what the negative stereotypes from each side are… D’s think that R’s are anti-intellectual racists who hate poor people, R’s think D’s are mushy-headed traitors who hate the military. How often do you think Jon Stewart or Rachel Maddow or Al Franken actually come right out and express the left side of those viewpoints, compared to how often Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity or Anne Coulter come right out and express the right side? If you’re complaining about a constant drumbeat of hateful stereotypes, you should remove the beam from your own eye before you start attacking the left. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1786 "2016-02-04T03:13:49Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > He tweeted it again a few minutes after that. I think he deleted the first one because of a typo, not because of propriety. You are incorrect. Trump removed the phrase “he stole it” from his original tweet. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1787 "2016-02-04T03:38:51Z")
What I been hearing and not citing because I’m just hearing it…Cruz not only advised to the effect that Carson was going to suspend, he emphasized the possibility of switching votes to Cruz that would be lost voting for Carson. Effectively, “stealing” Carson’s promised votes. Depending on how carefully the semantics are parsed. that’s somewhere between stealing and hardball. Certainly not a Christian thing to do, especially to a colleague in the Brotherhood of the Traveling Evangelical Pants. Well, that’s OK, he can always rely on his other base supports. I hear the Association of Insufferable Mensa Members is still solid… ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1788 "2016-02-04T03:56:08Z")
Cruz knows how to play the game, that’s for sure. Plus he’s sending a signal to Republican voters that he won’t lose for lack of effort if he makes it to the general election, a criticism leveled at McCain and Romney. But again, if we’re using the Clinton standard, if it’s allowed, it’s fine. That’s what makes it easy to run against her. The whining will sound like, well, whining. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1789 "2016-02-04T04:12:31Z")
Clinton? You sure this isn’t Obama’s fault? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1790 "2016-02-04T04:21:52Z")
It’s no one’s “fault”, it’s just that the candidate you select tells us what kind of campaign we are going to have. You guys like Clinton in part because she’ll fight dirty. Cruz is that guy on our side. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1791 "2016-02-04T04:33:10Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > But if you ask the vast majority of liberals on this board, or in the USA as a whole, something like “do the majority of Republicans hate black people”, I believe you will find that the overwhelming majority of liberals would answer “no”. > > Speaking purely for myself, a longstanding member-in-good-standing of the SDMB liberal hivemeind, I would agree with the following statements: > (a) racists are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats > (b) Republicans are more likely to be racists than Democrats > (c) Most Republicans are not particularly actively racist > (d) Racism is not just a binary on-off > (e) There’s a direct connection from Obama’s race to the “he’s not one of us”/“he’s not a true American”/“things are changing and I don’t like it even though I can’t really express why” sentiments that are felt by so many on the right. And that’s true even if a fair number of those people would be perfectly willing to vote for a Colin Powell or less-insane-Ben-Carson You can add to those points [my response here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19070152&postcount=1719) to **SA** claiming that women and minorities were “not only welcome but strongly supported” in the Republican party – women and minorities in Congress are overwhelmingly Democrats by a large margin. The Republican leadership is “diverse” mostly in the sense that the old white men in it belong to entirely different golf & country clubs. > [@adaher](#): > > Cruz knows how to play the game, that’s for sure. Cruz is doing more than playing the game, he’s outright lying. When CNN broke the news that Carson was taking a break from the campaign after Iowa and was going to take a breather in Florida instead of rushing to NH, Cruz started spreading the news in a way that made it sound like Carson was quitting. When both CNN and the Carson campaign then explicitly clarified that Carson was _ **not** _ suspending and was just temporarily taking a break, Cruz conveniently “forgot” to pass on that news, and on top of that, he’s now blaming CNN for causing the confusion. And CNN slammed him hard for that. It’s interesting – first Fox gets into a feud with Trump for being an asshole, now CNN hates Cruz for being a liar. That’s quite the lineup of Repub front runners, there. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1792 "2016-02-04T04:39:08Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s no one’s “fault”, it’s just that the candidate you select tells us what kind of campaign we are going to have. You guys like Clinton in part because she’ll fight dirty. Cruz is that guy on our side. What an asinine thing to say. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1793 "2016-02-04T04:48:24Z")
And now of course Trump is accusing Cruz of stealing Iowa. The upshot of it all is that with Carson pretty well washed up and the two reigning lunatics at each other’s throats and each one hated by at least one major news network, all Rubio has to do is watch them destroy themselves. Which, one way or another, I predicted was always going to be the case, Cruz being loathsome and dishonest and Trump being a bloviating clown. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1794 "2016-02-04T06:31:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You can add to those points [my response here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19070152&postcount=1719) to **SA** claiming that women and minorities were “not only welcome but strongly supported” in the Republican party – women and minorities in Congress are overwhelmingly Democrats by a large margin. The Republican leadership is “diverse” mostly in the sense that the old white men in it belong to entirely different golf & country clubs. Can’t think of a better rebuttal to that last crack than what Limbaugh said about two Hispanics and a black guy drawing 60% of the Republican vote in Iowa while two bedraggled old white people are the Democrats’ standard bearers. As for however many fewer Republican women are holding office these days than before, any number of perfectly innocent reasons could be the explanation, foremost of which is the possibility that more Republican women are simply not as interested in running for office these days. Then again maybe they don’t want to be lampooned on SNL or accused of being witches by a liberal news and entertainment media offended by the very idea of Republican women running for office. I’m afraid that unless you have proof that some sort of widespread effort has been made by the party’s “old white guys” to keep them out of the running, I’m afraid I’m going to have wholeheartedly reject your entire premise. As far as there being more women holding office as Democrats, that isn’t the point. The point is that Republicans are wholeheartedly accepting and supportive of both women and people of color as long as they hold conservative values. In other words, when it comes to sex or color or even young white guys (:D), ideology is the determinant quality as to Republican acceptance and/or the ability to succeed in office, not race or sex. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1795 "2016-02-04T07:40:58Z")
You can spin it any way you like, and it may even be true that there are fewer Republican women in Congress because fewer Republican women choose to run – perhaps because they’re all at home having babies and cooking dinner and meekly obeying their husbands the way God intended. And even if they don’t believe these things, perhaps they don’t see a lot of point in running on a Republican ticket because so many Republicans do. The relative absence of women and minorities tells a story, and you may debate what that story is, but it ain’t likely to be a story of peer-level welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1796 "2016-02-04T07:52:07Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I actually get most of my ideas about what liberals think and how they behave from this very board. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > So you did. I had stopped reading at that point because I see where you were headed. That explains rather a lot, doesn’t it. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > For example, I was hip to the liberal nature of the news media going as far back as Richard Nixon and couldn’t believe the way the liberal press hounded him for almost the entirety of his career until they finally managed to run him out of office. You might want to take that up with Senators Goldwater and Scott, and Congressman Rhodes (all Republicans) who met with Nixon on August 7th, 1974, and told him he was certain to be impeached. Nixon resigned two days later. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1797 "2016-02-04T13:13:34Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Can’t think of a better rebuttal to that last crack than what Limbaugh said about two Hispanics and a black guy drawing 60% of the Republican vote in Iowa while two bedraggled old white people are the Democrats’ standard bearers. Not that you listen to him, you just keep his bon mots on file. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1798 "2016-02-04T13:55:51Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Can’t think of a better rebuttal to that last crack than what Limbaugh said . . . Any sentence that begins that way should alert the one using it to an urgent need for some deep and painful self-examination. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1799 "2016-02-04T14:22:04Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I was hip to the liberal nature of the news media going as far back as Richard Nixon and couldn’t believe the way the liberal press hounded him for almost the entirety of his career until they finally managed to run him out of office. And I’ve held them responsible ever since for inflicting Jimmy Carter upon the country. 🙂 Wait - you’re using this to brag about forming your own opinions? You’re saying with a straight face that the liberal media are responsible for Nixon resigning? Nixon had nothing to do with it? And the media elected Jimmy Carter, not the voters? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1800 "2016-02-04T14:23:06Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It’s no one’s “fault”, it’s just that the candidate you select tells us what kind of campaign we are going to have. You guys like Clinton in part because she’ll fight dirty. Cruz is that guy on our side. So you admit Cruz fights dirty, and you believe it is okay to fight dirty if someone else (allegedly) does too. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1801 "2016-02-04T14:27:19Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > What I been hearing and not citing because I’m just hearing it…Cruz not only advised to the effect that Carson was going to suspend, he emphasized the possibility of switching votes to Cruz that would be lost voting for Carson. Effectively, “stealing” Carson’s promised votes. > > Depending on how carefully the semantics are parsed. that’s somewhere between stealing and hardball. Certainly not a Christian thing to do, especially to a colleague in the Brotherhood of the Traveling Evangelical Pants. Well, that’s OK, he can always rely on his other base supports. I hear the Association of Insufferable Mensa Members is still solid… It’s worse than that. Cruz sent out mailings implying that they were from the state government, and that the government was going to publicly report the records of voters, both whether they voted and who they voted for, and even possibly retaliate in some way if they don’t show up to vote. [http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/267625-iowa-secretary-of-state-scolds-cruz-over-controversial-mailers](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/267625-iowa-secretary-of-state-scolds-cruz-over-controversial-mailers) It’s funny to see Trump find out that being a huge asshole isn’t enough to win - you have to be a huge devious asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1802 "2016-02-04T14:29:46Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > So you admit Cruz fights dirty, and you believe it is okay to fight dirty if someone else (allegedly) does too. Who fought dirty against Cruz to justify what he did in Iowa? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1803 "2016-02-04T14:42:26Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You guys like Clinton in part because she’ll fight dirty. No. We “like” Clinton because the Republican alternatives\* are batshit insane, each in their own special way, and Clinton is believed to be more likely to beat the eventual GOP nominee than Sanders. I’m not looking forward to a Clinton presidency but if it saves us from a Cruz one then roll on, Hillary. If Sanders had a stronger chance of winning than Clinton, I’d be all about the Bern. \*Note that I didn’t say Cliinton was preferable to any Republican. I still live in hope of a non-crazy, non-evil Republican nominee emerging again someday. But not this year. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1804 "2016-02-04T14:43:44Z")
I don’t understand why Trump is railing against the Iowa result. Surely he should be thanking them for giving him a platform on which to build for New Hampshire? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=89) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=91)