Posted on 10/05/2015 3:41:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When he’s right, he’s right.
And it’s … interesting that he’s contemplating his own political mortality this way.
“There’d be a major collapse of the race, and there’d be a major collapse of television ratings,” he said from his office in Trump Tower. “It would become a depression in television.”
Mr. Trump said that a presidential campaign without him would become so “boring” that he would struggle to pay any attention to it.
“I wouldn’t even be watching it probably, and neither would anybody else,” he said.
Debate ratings would indeed collapse. I’m not sure what he means by a “collapse of the race,” but it’s true that the hole left by Trump once he’s out wouldn’t easily be filled by anyone else, and I don’t just mean in terms of personality. Read this description of “middle American radicals,” whom John Judis identifies as the stereotypical Trump voter, and ask yourself who else on the GOP side fits this particular bill:
[Sociologist Donald] Warren called these voters Middle American Radicals, or MARS. “MARS are distinct in the depth of their feeling that the middle class has been seriously neglected,” Warren wrote. They saw “government as favoring both the rich and the poor simultaneously.” Like many on the left, MARS were deeply suspicious of big business: Compared with the other groups he surveyed—lower-income whites, middle-income whites who went to college, and what Warren called “affluents”—MARS were the most likely to believe that corporations had “too much power,” “don’t pay attention,” and were “too big.” MARS also backed many liberal programs: By a large percentage, they favored government guaranteeing jobs to everyone; and they supported price controls, Medicare, some kind of national health insurance, federal aid to education, and Social Security.
On the other hand, they held very conservative positions on poverty and race. They were the least likely to agree that whites had any responsibility “to make up for wrongs done to blacks in the past,” they were the most critical of welfare agencies, they rejected racial busing, and they wanted to grant police a “heavier hand” to “control crime.” They were also the group most distrustful of the national government. And in a stand that wasn’t really liberal or conservative (and that appeared, at least on the surface, to be in tension with their dislike of the national government), MARS were more likely than any other group to favor strong leadership in Washington—to advocate for a situation “when one person is in charge.”
Are those Ted Cruz voters in the making? Not really. Cruz hits some of the same notes about cronyism in D.C. that Trump does, but Cruz’s message is less about class and blue-collar economic anxieties than about individual liberty and anti-government “conservatarian” ideology. Entitlements, price controls, and guaranteed government jobs are not, shall we say, core planks of the Ted Cruz worldview. So if Cruz isn’t inheriting these voters, who is? Maybe they’ll go to another “outsider,” but Fiorina seems too traditionally big-business to hold onto Trump fans over the long haul and Carson’s running a campaign that’s more about “healing” and “ending political correctness” than it is about expanding the middle class’s slice of the pie. Frankly, the guys who seem best-suited to picking off these populist voters are Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, who aren’t as allergic as Cruz is to expanding government to help middle-class families, but both of them are seen as such niche social-conservative candidates, I think, that they’re not going to pull voters from outside that band of the electorate this time around. Which means Trump is right — for many of his voters, his departure from the race really would cause a sort of “collapse.”
Again, though, why is he even talking about the idea of a race without him in it? Hmmmm:
Ben Carson and Donald Trump are tied among GOP voters in Pennsylvania, a new poll finds.
Carson and Trump each receive 18 percent support from registered Republicans in the Keystone State, according to the Mercyhurst University Center for Applied Politics poll on Monday…
Mercyhurst’s poll also found that Carson is the best-liked GOP presidential candidate among Pennsylvania Republicans.
Hey, it’s just one poll, right? Not exactly: If you missed it over the weekend, IBD found Trump seven points behind Carson in a new national poll, the first time he’s trailed anyone since Trumpmania erupted this summer. Of the eight national polls taken since the second Republican debate, Trump has reached 26 percent just once. His average is down to 22.8 points, less than six percent ahead of Carson. He’s down in the early states as well. He told one of the morning shows last week that he wouldn’t hang around the race if his numbers disintegrated and he ended up polling at one or two percent, but no one’s wondering about that scenario because we all understand that it’ll never happen. Trump’s base of “middle American radicals” should guarantee some sort of floor well north of one percent — 10 percent, maybe. Maybe a bit more. The question is, though, what happens if the non-MARS segment of his base starts peeling off and he’s left with only that floor of voters? Will he hang in there even if he’s stuck at, say, 15 percent in poll after poll, or will he decide at some point that he’s gone as high as he can and now it’s time to find a reason to bow out before he starts taking actual losses as people go to vote? We’re not going to know that until we have a week or two where someone besides Trump is steadily leading in multiple polls. How eager will he be at that point to do three or four interviews with cable news each day knowing that every one will open with questions about him trailing? This is why he’s starting to think about the race without him in it — at some point, when the questions shift from “Why are you winning?” to “Why are you losing?”, this will cease to be fun. And once it’s no longer fun, that’s when I think he pulls the plug. Maybe we’re closer to that point than we realize.
It just goes to show how the nation has been pulled around against its will for at least the last 60 or so years, maybe even longer.
They want it to seem voluntary so it’ll be no blood on their hands
You smell the same rat that I do then.
He’s right....
OK say it does happen. What one(or two, three) candidates becomes the NEW populist Trump?
Trump’s having fun poking the entire establishment in the ass with a sharp stick! Hilariously refreshing!
Wrong. He's talking about it because he was asked about it, and he answers questions directly. When Trump says he would quit if he got down to around 1% like some of the other guys ("I'm not a masochist") he's not hinting he is thinking about quitting; he's saying they should quit.
Trump is right.
Then you should probably keep on keeping on.
The best part of Trump's candidacy is the thumb in the eyes of pundits...all.
The second best part is when he actually addresses an issue with his policy attached. His policies make sense...I think...some with a bit of polish to be named later.
The most boring part is the daily dose of All Star Wrestling rhetoric. If he were to get elected President it would be nice to put that in the attic.
The hit job on his wonderful wife back fired badly forcing 5 retractions. The establishment is desperate!! Trump has not even started. When he does it will be scorched earth on paid advertising. These Gope are not realizing that if they were to succeed ( which they will never do) — THEY CAN NEVER WIN!! If Trump wins the nomination, WE CANT LOSE!!
**** “Wrong. He’s talking about it because he was asked about it, and he answers questions directly. When Trump says he would quit if he got down to around 1% like some of the other guys (”I’m not a masochist”) he’s not hinting he is thinking about quitting; he’s saying they should quit.” *****
Exactly!
I love thw way this guy says it
https://intellectualfroglegs.com/playing-the-trump-card-against-a-crooked-gop-ifl-10-05-15/
The more the media beat up on Trump the more I like him.
I totally with what Trump says here, as with most of what Trump says. He’s the only energy source for me in this otherwise boring group of candidates.
The depth of malevolence against a free and prosperous America is probably deeper than we know. But there is also a very deep desire in America to see her right herself and become a free Constitutional republic once again.
Trump represents a true threat to the status quo of continuing (”creeping”) tyranny. There is definitely a spiritual-war component to all of this and the “dark side” has many deceived lieutenants who are fiercely opposing the prospect of Trump’s victory.
A victory for Trump in the GOP primary almost certainly guarantees Trump in the WH. Trump in the WH will almost certainly mean a BIG change in the direction of the ship of state, away from the shoals Obama has us headed for, to open water towards a much better and brighter future.
A better and brighter America means a better and brighter world especially for our friend Israel. There are many dark forces who hate the world and especially Israel. The battle definitely has a spiritual dimension.
The media got tired of going after Trump, so the went after Melania Trump for being HOT, the showed a picture of her dressed up in a low cut evening gown.
We could see why Trump is so jazzed about her, she is ONE HOT MOMMA, someone post that PIC.
I don’t think the GOPe cares if they win the presidency. They would rather have a Democrat than an outsider who will clean out the stables at the RNC. They get to stay in charge and use the Democrat president to scare conservatives into donating and voting for Pubs in Congress.
well she would be by the far the best looking first lady in history and she sure as would be a lady compared to what we have now.
STFU you egomaniac! If you drop out, Cruz will take over. Right now, Cruz’s support is pretty much taken by this blowhard.
It is totally appropriate that this was posted on “Hot Air”.
By 2017 we will have had eight years of one arrogant, narcissistic, in love with himself giant ego in the White House, and we don’t need another one for another eight of the same sort of so called “leadership”.
Trump is nothing other than a currently populist version of that giant head known as Obama.
That is precisely correct and is the key to understanding virtually ALL activities of the GOPe.
In a 2-entity system, the job security of entity #2 is exactly the same as the job security of entity #1. There is no principle as important as preserving the dual-place power structure.
That’s all there is to it. The GOPe is browbeaten by demographic reports forecasting a permanent liberal voting majority and they see the near inevitability of infinite migration. They are browbeaten by endless social media and traditional media attacks on every front. Their view is to surrender, lose, and thereby accept a permanent #2 status as the best way to hang on to their grift channels.
I've never seen a situation where nearly everyone (but the majority of voters) want a guy to quit.
It just goes to show how the nation has been pulled around against its will for at least the last 60 or so years, maybe even longer.
posted on 10/5/2015, 3:45:54 PM by Don Corleone
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.