No, because Sanders isn’t saying crazy and racist stuff.
Both Trump and Sanders are somewhat crazy. Sanders wants to tax the hell out of Wall Street, Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Correct.
Except in case of incumbents, it’s almost always unpredictable at this point. This time, the outlier in predictability is on the Democratic side, where consistent polling results, and the sentiment of party leaders seen in endorsements, strongly point in the same direction.
Those are not equivalent.
Which is an equivalent state of mind as those who believe the lies of the left that the political class use to gain power with counterproductive economic policy.
Well, they are in the sense that neither one is going to happen. 
But yeah, comparing a tax to banning Muslims from either the US is absurd. The latter might not even be constitutional, but it is completely impractical (as well as being unethical).
It is my position that Mr Trump is saying things that are positively repulsive. If such things were previously unthinkable, its news to me. Seems like I’ve been hearing shit like that all my born days, and there’s a bunch of them.
It is further my position that if Trump wins the Republican nomination, the mortal remains of Barry Goldwater will claw out of the ground and walk to the Pacific, and swim away…
The assertion of the OP, which I was disagreeing with, is that the zebra and the giraffe make the nominating process and outcome far more unpredictable than usual.
Yeah, but that’s outside the scope of the OP - unless you think that a sufficient number of Republicans are going to look down the road and say, “hey, we don’t really want Trump (or Cruz) as President, because they’re freakin’ crazy, so we’re gonna vote for Rubio or whoever.”
It’s quite possible that that could happen, but even that’s within the scope of recent history, e.g. the ‘stop Goldwater’ movement of 1964.
The genuine open question here is whether the media will openly talk about how crazy Trump and Cruz really are. They’re so invested in their ‘view from nowhere,’ where they supposedly don’t have opinions, but OTOH these guys may finally be too much GOP craziness for even them to swallow.
Its exciting to watch until you realize that the fate of the country is going to be decided in the next few months, possibly for the worst.
In your guts, you know they are nuts.
Yes, I agree. So many problems can be solved now that we are relieved of the burden of not speaking of lady newscasters’ bloody vaginas.
I’ll admit this can be a bad trap for elites to fall into. But let’s not pretend it isn’t a two-way street. Academics have studied the impact of, say, immigration on employment levels in the communities most affected. And they’ve consistently found that immigrants do not take jobs away. But this point gets lost in the noise from the right-wing about how pressing one for English is iconoclasm aimed at our Anglo culture. So eventually folks give up, assume the anti-immigration types are xenophobic racists, and call a spade a spade.
If you want to see this effect in action on this very board (but on a different issue), look no further than our own DerekMichaels. Every thread it’s “Obama disrespected Israel.” He gets called on it every time. Is there ever a counter argument - something based in facts or logic? Even an attempt? No. But the same claim gets trotted out again, in a new thread, the next week. Eventually you just give up on a mind that closed.
No, there is no desire for a serious discussion. Serious discussions are hard, and require deep thinking and reading and educating yourself on issues. Understanding things like the impact of immigration on employment levels. Trump supporters don’t want this. They want easy answers, based on “common sense.” They want platitudes that confirm what they already think.
There is a way forward. The whole mess is because the Republican Party made a deal with the Devil, thinking they could control the knuckle-walking right. Keep telling them that this is the year of their deliverance, just one more big push, and no more gay marriage, abortion and secular atheism. Also, vegans. Took the dimwits about thirty years to catch on, but they did, and now they are pissed!
The way forward is for the Republican Party to repent, ditch the Troglodyte Right, and settle into the honest but modest power of the Loyal Opposition. An honorable, worthy and patriotic course, a center right party that does not reject change but only insists on prudence and caution.
Me? Tequila and bongwater, why do you ask?
Careful what you ask for, elucidator. Plenty of folks like me who became democrats precisely because the republican party went nuts (my phrasing). Make them a reasonable party without the baggage of the lunatic fringe and the religious right and they could win people like me.
Coke Zero and McDonald’s cheeseburger.
Fine!
We need honest conservatives, we need to subject our projects to analysis and criticism, because we be human. Also, we need someone to blame. If we need the votes of people who press for an English as a second language program for gay whales, we need to be able to say “Well, the Republicans won’t let us do that, darn shame, maybe next year, if you vote for us…”
Isn’t that exactly what you’re saying they’re doing to their fringe guys?
J’accuse!
Politics will continue to be practiced by human beings, angels have no politics.
Also, their fringe guys frequently want to kill folks.
The pundits are clearly confused because THEY know that they are much smarter than everyone else and can’t understand why the voters aren’t acting as the pundits are expecting (demanding?) they act. And the pundits are too smart to figure out that their personal biases and spin might be the reason the voters find the pundits unbelievable. Shocking.
The answer is simple. The potential voters don’t believe the pundits. Nor do they believe the news media. Polls this far out might point to a trend, maybe.
The bottomline is that the candidates who get the most votes at the party conventions will head the parties. The candidate who gets the most Electoral College votes will become the next President. Same as every other national election.
And in your brain, you know they’re insane.
Ah, memories of 1964. 
When LBJ was the peace candidate.
You do a lot of talking “for” people. You don’t think they might have a problem with that? I think I do.
Brute strength and intellectual insight are not analogous. In fact insight is what took us beyond that and separated us from animals and nature. It makes us human.
When was the last time someone used their diploma to degrade threaten and intimidate you, and why would it be appropriate to blame education itself for that? You have a very low opinion of your fellow citizens. “Loopholes” political connections, lawyerism, I can see. But just “That dude bullied me with his big diploma”?
Coming out against thinking, and using words like elitist, aristocratic and condescending, is an old ploy.