Yes, I’ve been writing a lot about Donald Trump lately
Why?
It’s not just that he’s been the talk of the news cycle for a while now, although he has. It’s not just that he engenders a lot of discussion in the comments section, although he does. It’s not just that he’s a flamboyant personality who knows how to seize the spotlight, although he is.
It’s that his candidacy has acted as a sort of plaque discloser for some problems on the right that I’ve noticed festering—and often exploding—for many many years. I summarized some of what I’ve written on the subject here, but suffice to say it’s not new although it’s reached a fever pitch.
Now might be a good time to revisit this prediction I made right before the 2012 election:
One thing I believe is that, if Romney loses this election, the right will start tearing itself apart in anger. That’s another thing the left banks on, and””if indeed some of the polls are being rigged to favor Obama at present””it would also be one of the goals of such deception: to demoralize the right and cause the usual circular firing squad to begin. I already see some evidence of it in articles and comments from the right that accuse Romney of not wanting to win, of not going on the attack enough (as though that would elude the negative media spin), of not doing whatever it might be that the brilliant armchair strategists would be doing if they were running for president, an election they of course would win by dint of their brilliant strategy. If Romney loses, the RINO theme will rise again undiminished, and the hatred of the “Republican establishment.”
And then the aftermath of the election of 2014, and the impotence of the Republican Congress in the face of Obama, has exacerbated the feelings of anger a thousandfold. I’ve written before many times about what I think about that Congress, so I won’t repeat it here.
Right now I’ll just add that all of this is fueling the Trump fervor. Separating out that anger, and channeling it in the best way possible in order to produce a result that isn’t destructive towards conservatism, and that doesn’t end up helping the election of Clinton (or Sanders) in 2016, is my goal in all of this.
Carly has avoided the circular firing squad and that’s why she has focused on HRC.
That being said, I still think she will attack Trump at the next debate. Why?
1. He’s not a serious person and needs to get out. Or exposed and then taken out. He will blow up at her and it will not be pretty.
2. Too much upside to her. She’s a woman. Lots of female identity voters would move to her. And as former CEO of HP, she was his business equal. $90b in sales is a big number and HP has a giant market cap today.
I’m not at all sure Carly should continue attacking Trump. I also think she shouldn’t have gone after him on the “wherever” thing. Playing the gender card like that won’t win over any Democratic women to her side, if that’s her hope, and likely will send more irrational, disgruntled GOP types over to Trump. It sends some attention her way, though, so maybe that was her game plan.
Just to tag on to Cornhead’s remarks, of the many benefits of following this blog, the biggest so far has been the early heads up on Carly Fiorina. I say that as someone who was sold on Ted Cruz for months, and just finished reading his excellent latest book. As Neo previously noted, Cruz is near conservative perfection.
Well, there’s perfection. And there’s Carly.
Thank you Neo.
“And then the aftermath of the election of 2014, and the impotence of the Republican Congress in the face of Obama, has exacerbated the feelings of anger a thousandfold.” neo
Impotence? The Republican Congress’ refusal to oppose Obama and the dems on any issue NOT opposed/favored by their BIG donors… is what has “exacerbated the feelings of anger a thousandfold”.
And it is the repeated, demonstrated certainty (ad infinitum) by the GOP that they will NOT support but instead oppose any attempts to forward conservative principles addressing this country’s challenges, that makes “Separating out that anger, and channeling it in the best way possible in order to produce a result that isn’t destructive towards conservatism”… heretofore an exercise in futility.
Which begs the question; upon what factual basis might one imagine that this time it will be different? That finally the GOP will behave as Reagan would have wished?
At least for me, my wishful thinking died in Nov. of 2012.
Geoffrey Britain:
I choose my words carefully.
“Impotence” means “powerlessness” or “lack of ability” (I’m using it in the non-sexual sense here, the general sense).
That is exactly what they have been. Some of it is a lack of actual power, lacking 60 votes or a 2/3 to override, and political calculations around that. Some of it, on the part of some, is a purposeful abdication of the power they might have (power to shut down the government, for example). Some of that is not wanting to do certain things because they are against it philosophically (they are RINOs, etc.), but for some it is a realization of the realities of the way the legislature works.
This post was not meant to be an exploration of exactly what is happening with the Republican Congress post-2014. I’ve written about that many times in other posts. Suffice to say that the impotence is a combination of an actual lack of power and a purposeful unwillingness to use what power they have, and it is different for different members of Congress.
Then again re my comment @4:51 p.m., maybe Carly is the only Republican with the courage to take on Trump and read him out of the party.
I hope Carly Fiorina doesn’t continue her attacks against Trump. That would be a loser. She is just now gaining traction and she needs to concentrate on building up her own candidacy rather than wasting her political capital by attacking Trump.
No one needs Carly or anyone else to tell them about Trump. He is getting enough press to enable the voters to decide about him as the campaign season works itself out without any help from other candidates.
neo,
I too attempt to choose my words carefully. Nor did I have any sexual connotation in mind. The motivational factors are indeed as you cite.
That said, when possessing a congressional majority, doing essentially nothing, not even trying… is NOT primarily a sign of powerlessness but of intentionality.
I can’t remember the exact quote but to paraphrase; ‘I will not let my inability to change the things I cannot, be an excuse for not changing what I can’
I dunno — most of the people that I talk to in real life, or communicate with in blogging — we all know he’s a show-boat, fundamentally unserious, with a lot of baggage and doing it for the lulz, or whatever … but he is going out there and slashing away at the thickets of go-along-to-get-along politically correct BS. Likely he is not serious, or in it for the long hall, but his value is that by going out there and shooting from the lip, and NOT apologizing and caving in – he might be demonstrating to the public at large and other and more serious GOP candidates that you CAN talk about matters like crime committed by illegal aliens without taking a hit in the polls.
So, he has that value anyway.
Geoffrey Britain:
I’ve written on the subject of what the Congress has done and not done since 2014 many times before. It’s not as simple as you say, although what you say is certainly partly true and I agree to a certain extent. I don’t have time to search for all my old posts right now, but they’re there. If you’re interested, do a search and read them.
I’m hoping that the phenomenon dies out over time out of overexposure. I don’t think that will happen next week, but I don’t believe that it’s sustainable over several months.
That said, the “circular firing squad” is a sort of unavoidable necessity at this point. Geoffrey says all hope died in 2012. With me, it was the beginning of 2015.
“If we can just get the House, everything will be OK”
“If we can just get the Senate, everything will be OK”
(Hmmm, can we guess what’s next?)
I’ve found some of the post-2014 rage breathtaking. However, the common themes amongst the disaffected seems to be “We’re simply out of time for excuses. If we don’t have their attention now, we’re never going to get it”. I’m not sure I can argue with that thinking. Yes, they don’t have a 2/3 override capability. But there doesn’t seem to be even a symbolic appearance of resistance, either.
Does that justify the “let it burn” mentality? What else would get their attention? I don’t have an answer to that one. Trump is a terrible answer to this, but he is filling an opposition vacuum for an apparent lack of other substance.
We owe Trump a great debt — he has done a reconnaissance in force, and has found the areas of the enemy’s weakness — illegal immigration, political correctness, the lousy economy, and politicians who are all talk and no (or even worse) action.
Now let’s get together behind a great, appealing set of candidates and go, go, go!
I personally don’t find Cruz that personable (and he’s not a doer, he’s a talker) or Walker that interesting — after the debate I would go with Carly and Rubio as my first choice, but I’d certainly take either of them with her. Carly cuts the balls (pardon the expression) right off the “War on Women” BS, which is really about the only thing Hillary has to sell, and
The important thing is to BEAT HILLARY!
The record shows that you are in the Michael Medved camp of conservatives – afraid of your own shadow and cautious to a fault.
Hence in 2008 you pushed for McCain; and in 2012 it was Romney.
Yet the facts of history show that Rs win when they go to the mat making the conservative argument, and lose when they don’t.
As a Medvedian you will even argue AFTER LOSING! that your position was the right one, which makes less than zero sense.
In my opinion it’s a matter of courage as the sub-virtue to the other virtues.
We people out here are just waiting for you legion of Medvedians to finally, really, at last, grow a pair.
Now that would be a way to ;lose if you did! Then we would win even in a loss!
But still with the Romney and the McCain and the whole deal…
More depressing than Obama declaring himself dictator for life before 2016.
I’m left of center but the same thing happens on the left as on the right. Both want a ‘pure’ candidate who articulates all their views. Both sides hate the establishment candidates, which leaves a wide opening for candidates like Trump who have no actual voting record with which to label as RINO or whatever.
However, you have to ultimately try and pick the candidate who you think CAN win. Trump is apparently tapping into something conservatives love in a very populist no-real-solution way. But I don’t believe he can sustain it in the long run. If anything he will trip himself up on his own ego and thin skin over petty arguments. That leaves you with whomever is still in the running. I would say focus on a candidate who in polls runs well up against Hillary. Trump does not.
Here, let Karl Denninger explain it.
Trump is apparently tapping into something conservatives love in a very populist no-real-solution way
Yes, and, he’s a doer!
and, he gets results.
Carly F. not so much. Look it up.
Note: review the post ‘debate’ footage, Cruz makes a bee-line towards the Donald. He knows.
Neo,
We could argue about the word impotence here. And I’ve been reading your blog regularly since 2009 so I wouldn’t call you disingenuous. But, seriously, steve.c and Geoffrey Britain have hit it on the head.
Where’s the resistance? They win a majority in the House on promises of resistance and pushback. Then comes the submission. They win a majority in the Senate on promises of resistance and pushback. Then comes the submission.
Win, then rollover. I haven’t seen much more than a smidgen of token resistance. That’s not exactly impotence. That’s submission.
And like steve.c said, it’s left a vacuum for Trump.
Trump isn’t my candidate. And yet, I can’t help but admire the way he’s pulled the mask of the weak willed and cowardly men we’ve been supporting for way too long.
It seems Trump causes otherwise well meaning people from the same side to talk past each other. He’s not a serious candidate. In fact, he’s just the opposite. But he is a serious threat to the status quo, the entrenched nominally “conservative” politicians and the GOP.
And given their record thus far with regards to keeping promises and fighting for their constituents’ interests, I can’t say that I’m entirely sorry to see it happening.
Trump is the GOP’s own monster. They created him. They ignored their constituents, broke nearly every promise they made. Trump is what happened.
They can cry me a river.
Trump is the GOP’s own monster. They created him. They ignored their constituents, broke nearly every promise they made. Trump is what happened.
They can cry me a river.
Exactly. This:
DONALD TRUMP IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CRY WOLF:
“If there was ever a man who was suited for a national moment because of his flaws rather than his virtues, it’s Donald Trump,” Mytheos Holt writes at the Federalist.
I’m sure that from Trump’s superegoist point of view the whole situation….. “doesn’t get any better than this.”
“It’s better to burn out
than it is to rust
The king is gone
but he’s not forgotten.
Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.”
Is it possible that conservatives haven’t gotten much from their representatives because the latter are afraid of the race card? I can’t imagine a white president not being worried about impeachment if he issued such amazingly unpopular executive orders. Today, even if you have a minor disagreement with Obama, you can be sure of having a WaPo opinion writer attributing it to racism.
James Sullivan says “…Where’s the resistance? They win a majority in the House on promises of resistance and pushback. Then comes the submission. They win a majority in the Senate on promises of resistance and pushback. Then comes the submission.
Win, then rollover. I haven’t seen much more than a smidgen of token resistance. That’s not exactly impotence. That’s submission. ”
Right there, that’s why Trump is so hot right now. People are sick to death of the current republican party do-nothings.
He might be a narcissist blow-hard, but he gives off the vibe that he really likes this country, unlike our current narcissist-in-chief, & will do something to fix things.
Personally I doubt it, but as someone over on the Ace of Spades site said, he’s our SMOD (“Sweet Meteor of Death”) pick.
If our choices end up being Hillary! or Jeb!, why not vote for Trump and blow it all up…
Seven out of ten IOWA women have an unfavorable view of Trump. Women are 53% of the electorate. Walker is from a border state. I think Carson has the evangelical vote wrapped up. Carly is working the state hard and people like her. She is sweet in person and I saw her in Norwalk, Iowa.
Trump will not win Iowa; especially considering the vote is next year.
I can see Trump finishing third or fourth in Iowa.
Being a lifelong Nebraskan, I can tell you that the brash East coast persona really rubs a lot of Midwesterns the wrong way. That’s a fact.
Midwesterners.
Can’t believe you are under attack, Neo. But, I guess that is the nature of things these days.
I wonder if anyone has really thought about what they are demanding? GOP won the House; but what can you do with the House and no Senate, and no Presidency?
They won the Senate in 2014 and were seated in January of 2015. Good Lord! They have not turned the country around in seven months?
I am beginning to think some of the people who are agitating so hard would prefer a “Philosopher King”, which is just another name for a “benevolent dictator”. Do away with these messy politics, and let’s have some damn action. Eh?
I suspect that is how Trump envisions himself; because he is rich, and every one but him is “stupid”.
The problem is that “Benevolent Dictators” remain as Dictators long after the Benevolent component has gone by the wayside.
Now here is an illuminating thought: “If our choices end up being Hillary! or Jeb!, why not vote for Trump and blow it all up…” Thank you for that Fezastwin. I have been citing the Vietnam era parody; “destroy the village to save the village” to describe the thought processes that you just articulated. Was yours parody?
Richard Saunders: “he has done a reconnaissance in force, and has found the areas of the enemy’s weakness … political correctness”
This is why – as Ann points out – Carly Fiorina and other Republicans holding up the gender card to counter Trump will only fuel Trump supporters.
They already suspect Fiorina represents the politically correct feminist corruption of the GOP. A PC gender card would only confirm it.
Cornhead, whatever Trump is about, his supporters are playing at a different game than the usual electoral politics. The more that Republicans oppose Trump with politically correct colors and uphold politics as usual, the harder they’ll support his counter-candidacy.
Oldflyer: “I am beginning to think some of the people who are agitating so hard would prefer a “Philosopher King”, which is just another name for a “benevolent dictator”. Do away with these messy politics, and let’s have some damn action. Eh?”
My reference point for the phenomenon is the social conditions toward the end of the Weimar Republic.
As far as I can tell, the PPP (Public Policy Polling) poll is the most recent poll taken in Iowa. Here’s a summary of their results:
Trump 19%, Carson 12%, Walker 12%, Bush 11%, Fiorina 10%, Cruz 9%, Huckabee 6%, Rubio 6%.
It’s way too soon to make much of such close numbers, but I will say that Trump’s clear lead is both surprising and discouraging to me. I can understand him leading national polls, but I’d second Cornhead’s comment about Iowans’ reaction to Trump’s personality. That’s definitely not a match made in heaven, so if Trump’s doing well there, the others have a tough row to hoe.
I don’t know whether Neo has any readers in Iowa, but if we just take her as a generalization for people like her, they’d better start talking to their friends and family who support Trump. That, by the way, is how politics works in Iowa. People talking to each other. In general, that’s why candidates’ organizations matter so much. Maybe Trump will be an exception.
Trump will make a statement that will be completely indefensible. Based upon his personality and wealth, he is used to issuing edicts. We don’t have a king. He will blow up.
Cornhead,
Trump’s calling card isn’t defensible statements. It’s offensive statements.
Regardless of my opinion of Trump, there is something I’d like to point out.
When Megyn Kelly asked her question, I was seriously surprised by Trump’s response, and his “sort-of threat” about changing his reaction to her in the future. I was surprised because he could have EASILY handled the answer to his advantage, by saying something like, “Thanks for the question, Megyn! I HAVE said some things about specific, individual people, who have said or done certain specific things I thought were stupid or worse. I have also called individual men names. But I want to point out that I have a great many women who work for me, women whom I wouldn’t have hired had I not had total faith in their knowledge and professionalism. I have a daughter who is under intense pressure, as my daughter, to produce amazing results, and I can tell you that she has exceeded even MY sky-high expectations. I don’t believe in identity politics, and I think every individual human being has to be judged as an individual, and I refuse to accept stupidity and small-mindedness from a public individual without pointing it out when I feel the moment calls for it.”
Anything along that line would have been extremely useful to him, useful to Conservatism, and, I believe, true–he has a lot of women working for him, and he expects results from them.
Instead, he showed an emotional weakness, which the Progressives and other will exploit against him. And then he doubled-down on it, showing that it cut him.
Who on earth is advising him?
Minta Marie Morze:
I think that’s a very good point.
I think that Trump is temperamentally incapable of the sort of measured, diplomatic, smart reaction you suggest. One thing is very clear about Trump, and I think it’s a large part of what his supporters like about him: he has a certain nature and he is true to it. That nature almost requires that he shoot from the hip, that he double down, that he attack whenever he sees himself as having been attacked.
It makes him unsuited for the presidency. But it’s one of the main reasons why a lot of people support him for that office.Paradoxical but true.
The Democrats were always in favor of a tyrant. Support for the superior culture and economic lifestyle of slavery which boosted Democrat land owners, was the starting position, but it evolved over time. CW I did not end the culture or the ideology.
The reason why patriotic anti Leftists are now in favor of an effective tyrant isn’t because of messy politics. If it was political deadlock between the Rulers and the Loyal Opposition, most people would be satisfied. Most people besides the ones that profit from Planned Profit, that is.
However, the mobilization of the Left’s assets have frightened enough people that desperate times call for desperate actions. Or at least, that is the thought.
People have seen hints of the true power of the Leftist alliance, in ACORN, in the Left’s importation of child molestors, baby farms, and Planned Profit’s farming of humans. They have seen stuff they cannot reject due to political compromise.
But they are also not powerful enough, not smart enough, nor wise enough, to understand what the solution is. So they wish on a star for a benevolent dictator, to tell them what to do. That’s how humans are.
So in order to fight the Left, patriotic anti Leftists, become like the Left. They adopt similar strategies or tactics. Just as Spain became extremely cruel and xenophobic after kicking the Muslims conquerors out, after a few centuries of slave raids and concubine farming.
It makes him unsuited for the presidency. But it’s one of the main reasons why a lot of people support him.
Democrats have a solution to this. They take non viable Presidential power bases and reform them as cabinet positions. Like a parliamentary, power sharing.
A parliamentary system would provide Trump the War or the State or the whatever portfolio that would best match his talents and the compromise of the rulers.
Trump is an agent for the clintons. PERIOD! He about as conservative as soros. Sheesh how much of his past behavior does anyone need to see through his shtick?
I dunno – most of the people that I talk to in real life, or communicate with in blogging – we all know he’s a show-boat, fundamentally unserious, with a lot of baggage and doing it for the lulz, or whatever … but he is going out there and slashing away at the thickets of go-along-to-get-along politically correct BS.
Several grass roots insurgencies have developed in the US or perhaps the world, against Leftist tyranny, Sgt Mom.
They like Trump not because they are vassals of his corporate or money empire, but because those insurgent terrorist freedom fighters also fight via similar methods.
Cornflour:
I don’t think it’s surprising. Do the math: Trump’s support is at 19%, according to that poll. That’s a small percentage. It only seems large compared to everyone else’s support. But think of it this way: Trump is getting ALL of the protest, “let it burn,” anti-RINO, anti-establishment vote on the right. The rest of the vote, the other 81%, is divided among all the rest, the other 14.
Trump is an agent for the clintons.
The thing about the Left’s power is that this is not unfeasible. They can do it, but the question is who is the puppet master. Most Leftists are limited by ideological constraints, akin to religious dogma.
Neo, burning down the Left’s slave and human traffickers such as Planned Profit, is obtaining greater and greater popularity/necessity.
If people don’t capitalize on it, the Rulers might realize that the serfs no longer wish to be ruled.
I am in NE Iowa, and I and everyone I know (a small subset of the electorate) are not mesmerized by donald the blow hard. He is a saboteur seeking favor of a clintonista regime. He is a Perot spoiler, without Perot’s sincere convictions. You have to be, pardon my French, votre tete jusqu’yor ass. To see trump as a conservative. I trust no translation is needed.
We don’t have a king.
By what standards is Hussein not a King, a God Emperor even/
The problem is that “Benevolent Dictators” remain as Dictators long after the Benevolent component has gone by the wayside.
The problem is their successor normally, but the issue here is that you think your ruler isn’t a king while the others you oppose, know who their King is. They just don’t like it and want to put up their own on the Throne.
For you readers who don’t live in Iowa or Nebraska, the electorate is small. Media doesn’t make that big of difference. People talk. The bggest city in Iowa (Des Moines) is way smaller than Omaha. Recall that Obama, Howard Dean and Jimmy Carter just worked their way to wins in Iowa.
Sgt Mom; yes, I think that may be Trump’s redeeming factor – he isn’t afraid of being politically incorrect. And doesn’t seem to be hurt by it.
But, those that are supporting him may be supporting him because he comes across as angry and they see that anger in themselves; and think, gee, he “gets it.”
That anger isn’t someone I want in the White House.
The press, as they have done with his Kelly comment, will focus on too much of the wrong issues and he won’t be able to get much done.
Trump, being an Obama-narcissist, will focus on too much of the wrong issues (“can you believe she had the nerve to ask me that?!”) and get nothing done.
Personally, he isn’t my first choice. Actually, Trump isn’t my choice at all, first or otherwise. But, if he does, by some miracle, win the GOP nomination I will hold my nose and vote for him. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve voted for someone I didn’t want; but, the alternative is too dreadful to think about.
But, my biggest fear, and I think it is real, is that Trump will not win the GOP nomination and decide to run as a third party candidate (The Trump Party?) and thereby siphon off votes from the GOP and give Hillary (or whomever from the Donkey Party) the win.
But, I am hoping that it really is too early for such thoughts. Let me go hiking, get lost in the mountains, and not even think about the loss of our Republic. Riots in Ferguson, Baltimore with a higher murder rate than war-torn Baghdad, Kangaroo courts on college campuses because students have drunken sex, our national debt hitting astronomical numbers, US debt rating downgraded for the first time – and few blink! Millions illegally pouring across our borders, 100s of thousands more legally replacing US workers under the H1B visa program, etc. Yep, I think I’ll go for a long hike and maybe not want to come down out of the mountains. Unless, that is, they have another government shut-down and kick me out of the national forests.
charles:
I agree that Trump wouldn’t hesitate to run 3rd-party if he doesn’t get the Republican nomination. The effect would be Perot all over again: a Clinton in the White House. With Perot, at least his motive was not to elect Clinton. With Trump, I’m not sure whether his motive would be to elect Hillary Clinton or not; I just don’t know. What I do know is that he’d win either way in the sense that, if he runs third-party he gets a lot of ego-gratification, and if Hillary wins as a result (whether he intends that result or not) he wins because she is his buddy, he’ll give money to her, and she’ll do him a few favors.
He’s fine with it either way.
I see Trump doing the party lots of good — and fading in the stretch.
He can’t play well in fly-over America.
He’s got crippling baggage that is best brought out by the MSM and time.
Carly was a FOOL to even say a word. Her first gaff.
Obey the 11th Commandment — and let the MSM do what they do so consistently: attack the GOP.
Carly needs to entirely stay on her guns — pointed at HRC.
When she does so, she leaps in the standings. It’s really that simple.
%%%
The heart of the GOP can’t bear to end massive legal immigration. { Jeb, Christie, Huckabee, Rubio, etc. }
Yet the demographics are KILLING the GOP.
Turning American into a one-party state.
Coulter is one of the FEW talking heads to point out the obvious.
Immigration — LEGAL immigration is THE issue of 2016.
At this very moment, no end of Muslim sleepers are entering our nation. Bank on it.
The donald will stick his nose up anyome’s derriere if it adds to his bottom line. Its so obvious unless one is fill in the ____
Cornhead Says:
August 10th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
Good post, but I don’t think Dean won in Iowa. In fact, IIRC he made a medium sized setback into a tsunami with the famous “Yaaarrrgh!” during his post-tally speech.
Excusez-moi! Trump is a clintonista saboteur. What do any of you need to see through the donald?
Minta Marie Morse is reading and commenting? Neo, you have hit the big time now! Huzzah!
It occurs to me that the Trumpsters are doing to the body politic what too many frustrated black people do to their neighborhoods when their anger boils over: burn baby burn. It feels good at the time, but in the long(er) run it is very counterproductive.
We’ve all got maybe a year to vent our frustrations, and hopefully, by next summer, enough of us will be in a position to re-introduce The Donald to the real estate mogul business . . .
. . . unless he runs as an independent. That would all but prove that he *is* in cahoots with the Clintons [extra credit question: what’s a “cahoot”?], for all the good a proof would do at that point. It almost tempts me to just let it burn baby burn — except for my children and their children and your-all’s children.
Sigh.
Eric, nobody’s opposing Trump because they “represent the politically correct feminist corruption of the GOP.” They oppose him because he’s a narcissistic assh*le. Is that what you want, another narcissistic assh*le as President? Thanks, but no thanks! Do you really prefer Obama to McCain or Romney? Do you really not understand that getting a President you agree with someone 75% of the time is better than one you agree with 0% of the time? Do you really think that Hillary as President will screw things up so badly that the great unwashed masses will suddenly have an awakening and elect someone ideologically pure enough for you?
Well, let me tell you something, pal. I was with Goldwater in ’64 and I saw — it AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN! The LIVs will never wake up. The pajama boys will never wake up. Code Pink and NOW and the Sandra Flukes of this country will never wake up. No how, no way, not now, not ever!
So your (and all of our) choice is this: pick somebody you agree with 75, 85, 95% of the time, or continue electing Democrats and watch them turn the country we love into sh*t, just so you can say, “I told you so!”
Was Bill Buckley conservative enough for you? He said, “Support the most conservative ELECTABLE candidate!”
Do you not understand that winning isn’t the only thing, WINNING IS EVERYTHING!
BEAT HILLARY!
I flatly can’t see Trump going third party: Perot’s legacy would put any egotist off.
Being the laughing stock… a punch line for comics forever…
NO WAY.
I actually take Trump at his word.
Some times it works.
Hitler was as good as his word: he was an out of the closet anti-Semite with invasion ambitions. The man wrote a book on his ambit.
The TYPICAL fate of someone like Trump is to fade in the stretch and end up in the next Cabinet — Commerce, Treasury, UN, or some such.
Such a position is terrific for the ego — and the future bottom line.
Look what happened to HRC when she lost — pretty bitterly — to BHO.
Yes, she’s converted that status into BIG BUCKS. Unlike Trump, she didn’t even need to use financial leverage — political leverage would do.
This run is THE BEST way for Trump to get a seat at the big table… with Clinton scale connections… even if he is unable to get to the big chair.
He knows that he has no chance winning from a third party launch — which would cost him dear — so much so he could well end up in bankruptcy court during the next down turn.
HRC got out of a HUGE financial hole by taking the Sec State position.
Trump could also get out of a lot of sticky debts by being elevated into the Cabinet. This could take the form of having Uncle Sugar replace his old financing — so that he’d no longer be indebted to private parties. Naturally, the rate would be rock bottom. — How sweet.
Trump will continue to roll strong as long as he has a monopoly on the top issues: trade with Red China and immigration, legal or no.
It’s where his support is coming from — and you must note the silence on these monster issues from the rest of the field.
And both are BHO priorities — with HRC in league with BHO’s sentiments 100%.
Which would make it seem most improbable that Trump is a spoiler for HRC. He’s elevating the very issues that HRC wants to lie like a sleeping dog. !!!
He’s implicitly attacking the Democrat party right along with the GOP field. Don’t expect his support to falter any time soon.
He’s at the pole position because he has a MONOPOLY on the two biggest issues. It really is that simple.
Carly hurts herself when she starts yapping to Democrat themes about ugly women. The voting public is not interested in the defense of ugly, manly, women.
The public is NEVER going to be convinced that Trump hates women — when he’s been such a ladies man all his days — and when his ex lovers are still his friends. They insulate him — totally.
Let the MSM jump into that mud. All Republicans should stay out. ESPECIALLY Carly.
She has to be seen as THE candidate for president, not the FEMALE candidate for president. That’s a point superfluous to make.
Richard Saunders,
I’ve repeated my admonition and solution on Neo’s blog.
My admonition for Trump supporters is their radical passion is misdirected in the presidential election because the solution is not primarily in electoral politics and the GOP.
They’re blaming the GOP for the failure of the Right.
The solution is not the election of a GOP candidate, whether Trump, Fiorina, or Cruz. The solution is effective Right activism.
If the Right wins control, then the conditions will be set for the GOP to play their part. If the Right wins control, then the GOP will be held accountable and compelled to play their part. Without effective Right activism, elected office is insufficient.
As is, Trump is merely exploiting the market inefficiency created by the shortage of effective Right activism.
Conservatives need to defeat the Left with a full-spectrum Gramscian (counter-)march. But, instead of doing their part, conservatives keep putting it on Republicans while insisting wrongly that winning political office will fix everything else. They have the process backwards.
You’re right that the internecine revolt by Trump supporters will hurt. The Dems can sustain a radical purge because they’re cradled within effective Left activism. The GOP lacks that overarching social cultural/political structure due to the negligence of the Right.
Be that as it may, my point stands:
If, as suggested, Carly Fiorina and other Republicans resorted to a PC gender card to disqualify Trump, that would confirm to his supporters their suspicion that the GOP and mainstream conservatives – whom they already belittle as cuckservatives – are corrupted by feminism and other PC anathema, such that electing Republicans is no better than electing Democrats. They would dig in.
I’m horrified that Trump is still even being discussed anywhere but he is big in the polls. But yes, these polls are early and not a huge sample any way. People are angry, I think the right is confused and angry and is tried of pussy footing around. There’s something horrible happening in the country, with the left on the march with BLM and in the ME there’s ISIS etc. and then, the Iran deal and I guess people are overwhelmed. As you state, in a sense Neo in your post. But no way does Trump have staying power and I certainly won’t vote for him. I think it’s either going to be Ted Cruz or maybe Carly will surprise us all – she already has. But really it is too soon to say now what the deal will be. I think this Trump thing is just embarrassing though it is good for a laugh.
The problem is, once again, talking past each other. Some of us point out what Trump is doing right,with regards to fighting back.
That doesn’t make us supporters. I am not a supporter. But Trump is the GOP’s monster. Their actions, and inactions, their silence, their submission while holding majorities is the source of the anger.
Trump is the symptom, not the disease.
And until the GOP treats the disease, the party will tear itself apart.
We can talk all day about what kind of candidate he is. But that is missing the point. We can talk all day about whether he’ll play in Iowa. But again, missing the point.
He will burn out. But, oh, the damage he will cause. Most of it deserved.
If he’s just an egomaniac and wants to make it all about The Donald, it misses the point because he’s filling a vacuum with his bloated ego.
If he’s a crypto-Clinton pawn, it’s still missing the point. That makes him a tool being used to exploit the vacuum and weaken the GOP/Conservative access.
What’s important is that the GOP is facing an existential threat by a fundamentally unserious candidate, who is a serious problem. Because of their own refusal to do what needed to be done.
Trump is their own monster. Only they can fix it.
But they won’t. They’ll attack the wrong guy (Trump), until he does irreparable damage.
The Stupid Party
We conservatives keep projecting into the future and assuming maximum disappointment. It’s still very early. The other GOP candidates (and their supporters) should embrace the present and learn from Trump’s current popularity: the core issue is the need to reverse course on every front. It requires a projection of power and determination that won’t be distracted when one interest group or another announces how the candidate has offended them. Clearly Trump is posturing to steal votes from both the GOP and from Hillary in hopes of repeating the Jesse Ventura “success” story on a national scale. And if no other candidate is going to persuade on reversing course, he might just win.
Laura Ingraham also addresses the rise of Trump phenomenon in her column called, The Bush’s created Trump. I think for Laura, she is trying to speak to the GOP in her column more so than the base.
I believe Mark Levine and Rush are using Trump as a firewall to the Bush war chest of $120 million in which Bush will unleash on any Conservative who threatens to take his top spot.
There is an interesting thing about these polls and even Steven Crowder has picked up on it, can you find anyone who says they are voting for Bush? I can’t. Do any of you know anyone? How in the heck is he in 2nd and 3rd place? http://www.lifezette.com/lifezette/the-bushes-created-trump/
Letting off some steam here. My husband just got home and turned on CNN International News. They were discussing the Iran deal with a pro guy from some American Iranian group who kept saying that a Republican refusal to support the deal would embolden Iranian hardliners. Who provided the opposing viewpoint? Clips of Trump positions.
A guy who about 80% of Republicans don’t support, who has no experise in foreign policy, and who hasn’t even won a primary is telling the world what we all think. Thanks CNN.
I accidentally put this on the previous thread but was meant for this one:
Given what I’m seeing this morning about his west coast trip, I’m beginning to think we all need to worry a lot more about Sanders than HRC. A declared socialist and drawing huge crowds…I don’t like to think about what this means for the US. We all keep talking about the “drive over the cliff”; maybe we already did that and are now in free fall.
Neo: what’s your take on Sanders?? That would at least get us off the topic of Trump 🙂
The ONLY politician that is handling Trump correctly is CRUZ.
He’s obeying the 11th Commandment.
He fully recognizes that Trump is not a serious long term threat — and will ultimately fade upon MSM exposure.
In the meantime, Trump is the perfect foil.
His Democrat Liberal personal history means that what ever he spouts — no-one will conflate Donald with orthodox Republican politics. !!!!!
Both BHO and HRC have to be appalled to see Trump acing topics like trade-rape (Red China) ( Now with currency war, added ) AND wide open borders.
No-one is returning his volleys. It’s ace after ace.
Game, Set, Match.
Most all of the ‘debaters’ talked AWAY from these two hot buttons.
Carson, Fiorina, Cruz all did fine.
Trump walked off smelling like a rose. He managed to reframe Kelly’s barbs as Trump vs Rosie.
Once he did so, EVERYTHING Kelly retorted was within that context.
She was, de facto, defending crazy, ugly, lesbo, man-hating, 9-11 Truther, hyper-Leftist, Rosie.
Kelly did not counter-reframe the convo into all around female abuse by Trump.
Trump trumped her on that — straight off — by citing the huge number of female employees — HAPPILY working for him — all this time.
Bob Guccione he is NOT.
Trump can’t seriously damage the GOP brand — the GOP is doing a bang up job itself — along with the MSM.
Trump is such an obvious Liberal that he will fade in the stretch.
Too many are worrying too much about a man too talkative to not get his tongue in a jamb.
In the meantime, Trump needs to stay in as a foil to Jeb.
I’d love to see Christie, Perry, Huckabee drop out. They are NOT drawing support away from Trump, nor Jeb Bush.
They also have no shot at the big chair.
If, as suggested, Carly Fiorina and other Republicans resorted to a PC gender card to disqualify Trump, that would confirm to his supporters their suspicion that the GOP and mainstream conservatives — whom they already belittle as cuckservatives — are corrupted by feminism and other PC anathema
Probably true.
Liberty Wolf, Iran deal is too abstract to affect most Americans. Look at the Planned Profit video infiltration for what really impacts the body consciousness of America.
@Eric:
“As is, Trump is merely exploiting the market inefficiency created by the shortage of effective Right activism. Conservatives need to defeat the Left with a full-spectrum Gramscian (counter-)march. But, instead of doing their part, conservatives keep putting it on Republicans while insisting wrongly that winning political office will fix everything else. They have the process backwards.”
I am not and have never been a Tea Partier. However, I have been a close observer of it and its fate. My conclusion – seeing how the GOPe seemed to put FAR more effort into defeating TP candidates than Demos (including getting Demos to vote against them, pulling funding from candidates that even smiled at the TP, etc.) – is that the GOPe will continue to prevent effective conservative activism. Because that is NOT what the GOPe wants.
That is why I conclude that the GOPe must die FIRST (and Trump may be the means). Only then, per this working view, can conservatism have a real chance to change things through activism. Granted, a dangerous and tenuous chance.
If you think this is an incorrect conclusion, what would you have changed about the conservative/TP rise, then crushing (by GOPe and Demonrats) that could have made it successful?
Ymarsakar, Eric:
It is actually possible to say Trump was wrong to say what he did, and to say it as Fiorina said it (she said that women in general were upset by it), without “representing the politically correct feminist corruption of the GOP.” However, I agree that there are plenty of people who will see it that way.
This is what Fiorina actually said in an interview about it. Her emphasis was on the thin skin of Trump, which I think she should have stuck to. But I agree that Trump alienated a lot of women. However, I’m not sure how big his support was among women anyway.
That is why I conclude that the GOPe must die FIRST (and Trump may be the means). Only then, per this working view, can conservatism have a real chance to change things through activism. Granted, a dangerous and tenuous chance.
Many people came to similar conclusions when they saw what was done to Sarah Palin. Known and known unknown traitors were discovered in one’s town, even as the nation was fighting a foreign enemy.
How can the nation fight Islamic JIhad which has conquered for hundreds of years, when at home traitors are amassing power and sabotaging everything? But how can those traitors be defeaten, if the insurgency cells and resistance cells are themselves sabotaged from within?
By following the necessities of logistics in a military campaign, most rational or logical conclusions can be reached on this score as it relates to who should have priority on termination.
If you think this is an incorrect conclusion, what would you have changed about the conservative/TP rise, then crushing (by GOPe and Demonrats) that could have made it successful?
Most current insurgency and anti Leftist operations are conducted by 4th generational warfare cliques and non state actors. Witness ACORN and PProfit operations.
The thing that successful ops have in common is that their donor list and their donations goes through the internet, and thus part of their cellular system is based around the superior Command and Control system that is the internet itself. The Tea Party was partially corrupted by authoritarian and orthodox politics. If you play by political rules, then the corruption is easier to send over to the TP by the powers that be, because you’re using the same command and control they are using, the same funding agencies, or the same control pathways.
Eventually, the Left seeing that the TP could not be restricted entirely by orthodox means, used extra legal black operations, with the IRS only merely being one part of the whole spear.
The Tea Party needed a decentralized command and control system, along with untraceable funding, in order to guarantee that the cellular organization could not be suppressed via “large scale bombing”, “traitors within”, “subversion from with out”. That’s not feasible if you are running a political election campaign however. Elections have rules.
Running a 4th gen warfare operation on the net, doesn’t have rules necessarily.
Ymarsakar: Liberty Wolf, Iran deal is too abstract to affect most Americans. Look at the Planned Profit video infiltration for what really impacts the body consciousness of America.
I think you have something there. People are quite concerned about ISIS, though most don’t know what to do and Iran is concerning — however, it is also true that the PP videos hit people in the gut. Very, very disturbing…
@Yamarsakar,
Good points. At the time of the TP rise, it if had been or masked something different (a 4th gen radical element), it might have used the net effectively.
Today, massive evidence supports the conclusion that the net offers no privacy, so the time when it might have served an effective C3+ role has come and gone. That being the case, a 4th gen element today would suffer from lack of effective and time-responsive OODA loop.
And although Eric has not returned to this old thread, I do not see the right, *ever* devoting themselves to the same kind of long march that left did. The left is/was motivated in the decades long effort by its characteristic quest for total control of others. That’s a powerful motivator, and can be seen today wherever the left has succeeded (Palin, PC, Ferguson narrative, Chick-Fil-A, Hugo’s, GamerGate, and the hundreds more we could list). The right, broadly speaking (yes, there are exceptions) is motivated substantially by a desire for personal liberty and autonomy, which now does and would continually act against the termite/herd think and behavior requisite for the long march.
I’d like to hear Eric’s thoughts on how what he proposes could ever succeed given today’s starting positions.
My view remains that the right cannot win the current game, rigged as it is on all parts (Do you like our Hillary? No, then how about our Bernie or Joe models? If not, we’ve got a great Jeb! Or Rubio for you, etc.) So then the only hope would be a massive outside-the-rules game changer. Trump appears to be the only currently-visible chance along those lines.
For those who have read Asimov, it may help to think of Trump as the Mule.
Today, massive evidence supports the conclusion that the net offers no privacy, so the time when it might have served an effective C3+ role has come and gone.
Leftist intel sources store and monitor net traffick, but they lack the powerful analysts that can allow them to pinpoint targets for tactical and strategic offensives.
Something obvious like a 401 Tea Party organizing designed to get multi million dollar donations to the TP grass roots organization, was something the Left could easily recognize, freeze, target, gag, and suppress. As they did to the Walker supporters in Wisconsin for years without anyone, including the so called Republicans, knowing about it or caring about it.
And although Eric has not returned to this old thread, I do not see the right, *ever* devoting themselves to the same kind of long march that left did. The left is/was motivated in the decades long effort by its characteristic quest for total control of others. That’s a powerful motivator, and can be seen today wherever the left has succeeded (Palin, PC, Ferguson narrative, Chick-Fil-A, Hugo’s, GamerGate, and the hundreds more we could list).
The established crowd don’t have the motivation to upset the apple cart or rebel against their Leftist masters. They know which side of the bread the butter is on, they also know how much Leftist orgs like ACORN or PProfit pays out for “loyalty”. They also know or feel the consequences of disloyalty, as the Left likes to punish heretics and apostates, although not to the same degree as Islamic JIhad does.
But in light of that, I think GamerGate, VoxDay + Baen rebellion at the Hugos, are creating interesting 4 generational insurgency movements, which have successfully pushed back the Left. They are not united in politics, because politics is not their goal. Resisting the Left and making the Left suffer, is their goal. And in that sense, it becomes symmetrical to the Left’s normally asymmetrical warfare of Total Domination vs America’s Peaceful Election Eras. Now it is organizations created and designed to destroy the Left vs Leftist organizations created and designed to wage war on humanity. Because it is more symmetrical, the Left takes more damage.
Even the popularity of Trump was only the result of 4th generational movements creating a social space that promotes disgust and hatred of the Leftist alliance.
Hate is what was required, although that in itself does not make a controllable weapon in war. It takes an organization, but that organization cannot have a leader, because the Left is very good at subverting, suborning, blackmailing, terminating, or getting rid of “leaders”.
The internet has already been used as a successful Command, Control, Communications
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control#Derivative_terms
The Regime or any other top down heavy, pyramidal hierarchy based, organization could do little to nothing against it.
Some recent examples are flash riots or mobs. Something the National Guard could suppress, but they did nothing, they weren’t allowed to do anything. The police unions are grid locked and ordered to “let them riot”.
Rabid Puppies
Dethroning of Reddit Ceo by GamerGate and alliance.
Even Duck Dynasty and defense of the rancher that Reid wanted to steal the land from, were aided by internet based C4. Even as recent as 2008, during Sarah Palin’s campaign, the media could send a report and have it reliably be believed, even by the idiots with “political agendas” that are supposedly conservative. People fell all over themselves mouthing what their Leftist puppets told them to think about Palin’s two (edited and sabotaged) interviews with the media.
Planned Profit got hit by a video sting with an insurgency based C4 that was faster OODA wise than anything else in existence, other than Breitbart and O keefe’s ACORn stings.
Clarification, the Palin scenario demonstrates how superior the Left’s C3 was compared to ours, only a few years ago. Planned Profit and rancher stings/defenses are examples of a more evolved C4 created to defeat the Left’s area of operations, by circumventing blocks and superseding the speed of the Left’s OODA cycle.
Before, the media could put out a hit on anyone, and most people, including conservatives or Republicans here, would fall for it. Plop, they would and did.
Now a few years after that, they can’t even put up a sufficient defense for ACORn or Planned Profit in time. Big difference in OODA there.