Debating the veracity of polls is fairly tedious guys.
Trump doesnāt want the presidency, it has been widely reported, according to kasichs camp, that he offered Kasich control over domestic and foreign policy if he went on the ticket, while he would take care of āmaking America great againā he will torpedo his campaign on purpose over the next few weeks to ensure he doesnāt get it. Cosying to Putin and disparaging the dead soldiers family is all intentional. This was all just a big publicity stunt to improve his brand. Little did he know it would coincide with a period of deep disatissifaction with establishment politics, which identifies with him purely because he has never been elected.
But whatās happened over the last week has been a shock to even his biggest detractors. Previously it was believed he was a smart man and merely playing at being a buffoon. The last week shows that heās not playing at anything, he genuinely is an utter buffoon, an out of control, highly dangerous and unbelievably self-unaware one.
Heās totally out of his depth now and faces the real prospect of not just becoming a laughing stock (heās pretty much there already), but making his ābrandā utterly toxic forever and cementing his legacy as a byword for fascism in the US for decades to come.
In a big way. I read the twitter replies to one of Trumpās tweets on the subject. Fascist is a jaded term but it is the only word that seems to fit what they are. The Republican establishment have completely lost control and look likely to be devoured by the movement that has brought Trump to prominence. That in itself isnāt a bad thing. But the collapse of the centre right is going to bring about the rise of the far right. It is inevitable. 2020 is going to make this year look mild.
I havenāt , but its understandable why a simpleton would think that.
I am not a Trump supporter, never have been, nor will be. Unlike you, I have a vote and it wonāt be going to Trump. What I have done is comment on the race as it unfolds, as the facts change my opinion changes.
Trump has been making outrageous statements since the Republican primaries began, but it didnāt stop him crushing all opponents. His voting base donāt care, they are so angry already that inappropriate or mean spirited language is irelevant to them. Blue collar and low to middle class voters have seen their wages stagnate, good paying jobs moved overseas, and an unbelievable rise in the inequality gap between the super rich and the rest since the finnacial crisis ended. The hope and change Obama promised has resulted in a boom for the 0.1% who hold financial assets, and a negative impact on everyone else. Even the black community who were most fired uo by his win are worse off now than they were 8 years ago.
Anyone thinking Hillary will improve that situation is delusional.
I think your problem is that Trump isnāt far right enough. A common point you make is that Trump isnāt a conservative, heās a liberal.
And yet one of the laughable red herrings you love to introduce about the āmisrepresentationā of Trump is the āliberal mediaā.
And itās been pointed out ad nauseum that thatās alright in terms of the freak show that is the Republican primaries and the people who vote in them, yet you continue to mistake that with a general election.
You were one of the last to realise Trump had the Republican nomination in the bag.
You said he was unelectable and then, when the other Republican candidates pulled out, you immediately changed your mind and said heād win in November.
You said Trumpās strategy and popularity had nothing to do with race. You were quite clearly wrong.
You said Trump would move to the centre once out of the primaries, and that āhe hadnāt far to pivotā. He hasnāt, heās doubled down on his far-right stance, and it turns out he would have had a hell of a long way to pivot.
You said Trump would destroy Clinton in the debates. Heās now trying to weasel his way out of participating in them, like he did when the Republican field narrowed.
But you āknowā about politics, as you constantly proclaim to the forum.
Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for Governor of California in 2010, and Mitt Romneyās chief fundraiser in his presidential bid, has not only endorsed Clinton, but says she will go out and raise money for Clinton. Whitman is a HP exec and one of the richest women in the US. She spent $140m of her own money in the 2010 California governorās race, which she lost to Jerry Brown.
The Republican party needs to split, itās as simple as that. An economically caonservative / socially liberal party, and a party for the religious wingnuts.
I predicted on March 22 that Trump would win the Republican nomination.
Subsequent to that there were serious efforts mounted by the Republican establishment to try and defeat Trump, all of which failed. That emphasised how utterly hopeless the current Republican leadership is, Trump was there for the taking if they had the balls and got their act together. In contrast, the Democrats managed to defeat their maverick candidate, using whatever it took.
This has been a very unusual election cycle, the most traumatic since the 60s at the time of the Vietnam war. I wouldnāt expcet you to understand that, as my dog lying next to me knows more about US politics than you do. There are a lot of angry people out there, and not just Trump supporters. Young people are angry, as witnessed in the support for Bernie, an old school socialist. Black people are angry that the hope and change never happened, in fact things are worse. The entire center of the country is angry at seeing their industries gutted and moved abroad.
Trumpās popularity has nothing to do with race, itās to do with Americans who want to have back the country they grew up in. Where hard work was rewarded, but if you were able but unwilling to work, then tough shit, donāt expect free shit. Where law and order was respected, and if you break the law, you face the consequences.
Trump merely had to run as a centrist to defeat Hillary, who has moved so far left (not that she has a notion of implementing Bernies platform) she would be unelectable against any decent centralist Republican. What is killing him is a campaign team that canāt control his messaging. The Khan debacle a good example, all that needed to be said was āI am saddened and angry at the death of your son, and all the other sons and daughters who died and were injured in an illegal warā.
The debates havenāt started. Donāt count your chickens.
Itās unsurprising that an ambassador for big business would support Clinton. Big business wants the status quo, they want to be able to do whatever they want, regardless of the impact on the country they are incorporated in. They want to have all the legal protections of being a US based corporation, while using every accounting and taxation legal loophole in the book to pay no taxes in the US (or anywhere which is the case with many).
If Clinton is elected, nothing willchange, thatās what the voting public have to ponder. Trillions more in debt issued to pay for more food stamps, while the big corporations gut the country and contribute to the Clinton foundation. What a scam that is.
Do you also specialise in predicting victories in hurling matches for teams who are 10 points up with five minutes to go?
āAngerā, āan unusual election cycleā. Again, what wonderful, spectacularly obvious insights. You really have to live in the US to know that, or maybe not.
As for the issue of race, today is Wednesday. Thereās no point arguing with you if you are completely convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that itās Sunday.
Voter ID laws, of course, are nothing to do with race. And of course the party of Trump, who laughably claims the election is rigged against him, would never attempt to rig elections in their favour, apart from the fact theyāve been doing it for years.
A federal appeals court decisively struck down North Carolinaās voter identification law on Friday, saying its provisions deliberately ātarget African-Americans with almost surgical precisionā in an effort to depress black turnout at the polls.
More fractures in the GOP. Cruz at least nailed his colours to the mast and said fuck Trump, but Ryan has endorsed him. That despite his rather laughable earlier protestations that the Republicans canāt defend race baiting.
I wonder how, or perhaps more importantly through whom, the Republicans are going to resolve all of this. If Trump wins, will the party support him? And if he loses, will the base still support the party? Fascinating stuff. The fragmentation of the centre continues.
Libertarian economics is just as cult-like in its appeal as Trump.
Of course I would expect you to think too much regulation, rather than too little, was the cause of the financial crisis.
Libertarians think regulation is the problem with everything, which is why most of them would like to get rid of the Civil Rights Act, because, hey, the market should decide on whether racism is good or bad.
Republican party has engaged in gerrymandering - was over in US recently and was a good piece on NPR about it. Democrats will now seek to do something similar but wonāt have element of surprise
Iām pro-market pal, not pro-business. If you actually understood libertarian economics, which you were critical of earlier, you would already know that, but I suspect the difference is lost on you. Liberals think government is the answer to everything, but itās government intervention, in what should be free markets, that has us in the global economic mess we are in. The growth of extreme right wing sentiment (and extreme left wing sentiment, who demand more and more free stuff for sitting on their ass) is a direct result of the failures of crony capitalism, only a return to free markets will save us, but that wonāt happen as long as politicians of all flavors are beholden to the banks and largest corporations.
