Posted on 07/21/2015 8:00:31 PM PDT by iowamark
Let’s have a reality check on Donald Trump for just a minute.
He is a Hillary Clinton donor. Many of Trump’s supporters rationalize that by saying he is a good businessman and had to give to Democrats.
He is also a donor to a host of other Democrats. “Well,” they say, “he lives in New York City. If he lived in a Republican state he would not be.”
He has supported a Canadian style universal healthcare system. His supporters believe he has evolved.
In 2012, he said Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” immigration scheme was too harsh. Again, his supporters say, he has evolved.
Trump had been a supporter of abortion rights and told MSNBC he was evolving on gay marriage. His supporters say those are not their issues.
When Trump said he’d never asked God for forgiveness, his core supporters said they thought religion was supposed to be a private affair anyway.
When Trump said McCain was not a war hero, his core supporters applauded because Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 60% had called them hobbits, racists, and more.
Essentially, his supporters do not care that Trump’s past actions align with the Democrats from immigration to healthcare to social issues to donations. They don’t care, because Trump is causing problems for a Republican Party that they’ve decided does not care about them. His supporters’ excuses are rationalizations about his behavior, not necessarily sincerely held beliefs by his supporters.
With the GOP back in charge of Congress, lobbyists are having a field day. Profits look to be up.
The GOP told its voters that if they elected them, they’d stop Barack Obama. Instead, they gave Barack Obama a blank check to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a fight with him.
They told the base that they’d hold Barack Obama accountable. Instead, they did not blink in approving his replacement for Eric Holder.
They told the base they would stand up against crony capitalists. Right now they are set to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank.
They told the GOP that they would fight against Obamacare. When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% said they should stop funding it, they left footprints on his back as they ran over him to stand shoulder to shoulder with Barack Obama.
When the Republican leadership told their voters and the nation that they’d oppose amnesty, they went straight to Washington to not only authorize it, but call anyone who disagreed with them racist. Many of the Republicans flat out lied on the issue and could not even be bothered to seal the border first.
With the Iranian deal, again the Republicans let Barack Obama out maneuver them. “The reality is that right now Trump is the only candidate in the GOP who matters because he is the only candidate creating significant buzz.”
So here comes Donald Trump who is not just running against Barack Obama, but he is running against Republicans in Washington too. He says out loud all the things a significant minority within the GOP thinks. And let’s be honest. It is a minority. Trump at 24% in the ABC poll is probably his high water mark. But almost a quarter of the Republican voters like him. Mitt Romney could not get above 25% in the polls until January of 2012 and couldn’t stay consistently above 30% until March of 2012.
Outside of the twitterverse, I have yet to meet many voters who are with Trump to the polls. Instead, I hear things like, “He’s the only guy telling it like it is, but I don’t see him as President.” The one person I know well who is going Trump all the way believes both parties have so completely failed and his vote doesn’t matter, that he is willing to go with Trump as a protest vote. In other words, Trump is a symptom of something larger in the minds of some Republican voters. Salena Zito has more on that issue.
Recently, Donald Trump has said several times he might run as a third party. Republicans do not get elected when there is a strong third party. Trump’s third party, like all third parties, would not get the White House, but it could stop the GOP from getting the White House.
The rhetoric and attacks against Trump and his supporters are condescending and sound fearful and resentful. The reality is the condescension and rhetoric is what much of the Washington Republican establishment feels for a great deal of the base, even those who are not on Team Trump right now, but share their concerns. The Establishment has created a situation where a minority of its base, but a minority that could be influential at the polls, wants to burn it all down.
The only solution the GOP really is going to be able to offer is a candidate who is not seen as a hand picked successor to the Washington crowd. That probably hurts a guy like Jeb Bush. But getting the nominee right sets the parameters for a potential Trump third party bid. How those parameters are set decides between a John Anderson third party and a Ross Perot third party. The former is not fatal to a GOP bid. The latter most assuredly is.
The best way for the GOP to get to that point right now is to start talking about the other candidates. It is not just the press focused on Trump right now. The supporters of all the other candidates are talking about him too. The reality is that right now Trump is the only candidate in the GOP who matters because he is the only candidate creating significant buzz. Rick Perry and Jeb Bush are the two candidates who, right now, are working very hard to set themselves up as the anti-Trump for when the flirtation ends.
The supporters of all the candidates would be wise, if they really think the base needs to move on from Trump, to present their candidates as voices of change who will change Washington — not just attack Trump and his supporters. That only makes Trump stronger and his supporters more likely to bolt a GOP many of them already see as just another corrupt Washington institution.
Reagan was once a democrat and a union official.
Yes people do change with age. I know I have. I was a JFK fan and a democrat in my 20’s. I have gone door to door in Chicago distributing brochures for the democratic party. Then Carter made a republican out of me, and I have looked back.
Once I was 100% against universal healthcare. Then I had this most excruciating pain in my chest cavity. The pain was so bad, I was wishing my wife would shoot me. She took me to hospital, and they did emergency surgery for Cholecystectomy. The surgeon did the old fashion way and I was in hospital for 4 days. When I got the bills, I was happy I had health insurance.
But then I was thinking what if I had no insurance? It would wipe out my assets. What if another person has the same problem but has no insurance. What if he/she can’t get admitted to the nearest hospital? So I evolved into everyone having catastrophic hospital insurance.
Now for some wise words from Jim Rob:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3314982/posts
If Trump doesn’t apologize soon...
Jim Robinson
Posted on 7/21/2015, 6:09:30 PM by Jim Robinson
If Trump doesn’t apologize soon for speaking the truth about the criminal illegal aliens invading our country and for shoving it straight back into that RINO traitor’s face we’re going to have wimpy hyperventilating GOP-e RINOs flooding the emergency rooms all around the country.
McCain (of the treasonous Gang of Eight and McCain-Feingold fame) shockingly admitted himself that he’s no hero. End of big story.
And for crying out loud, the America-hating communist traitors on the left (WashPost, etal) have been dumping on McCain’s hero status for decades, not to mention all their years of directly aiding and abetting the communist enemy in Vietnam (et tu, John F’n Kerry).
Those who have never met a commie they didn’t love have absolutely no standing whatsoever to complain.
Don’t look now, but McCain’s litte dog McGrahamnesty is piddling all over the floor at FOX News headquarters.
Traitor too strong a word for McCain?
Well what else would you call a so-called Republican Senator who knowingly and willfully enters into criminal conspiracies with the America-hating left to subvert the constitution? Let alone directly aiding and abetting the enemy as they illegally invade our country over the porous borders that he and his partner in treason (FUBO) refuse to secure.
None dare call it treason?
My searches do not show it to be previously posted. Do you have a link?
I would write in a candidate before I vote for trump
Add me to your list.
Trump bit@h slapped Linda today.
If Trump stays in primary process to the bitter end, he could win GOP nomination. And he has a good chance to defeat Hillary. Trump has no Whitewater, Benghazi, deleted emails, foreign donations to Clinton foundation, and Monica scandal to deal with.
My only problem with Trump is he might bolt the GOP due to constant attacks by the gang of 14. Then he could go 3rd party, and it won’t matter whom the GOP nominates, you have your first woman president in 2016.
Now we have 16 candidates.
15 Christians plus 1 worshipper of Mammon.
You know you don’t have to vote for Trump to enjoy the show.
Did you not enjoy Trump dropping the hammer on Linda today?
to present their candidates as voices of change who will change Washington
I don't think lip service is going to play in 2016.
He is a business man on the largest scales who had to grease the wheels to get his projects through.
He and Cruz are about the only two who could win against ANY Democrat right now.
Cruz hasn’t gotten known yet, I hope he does in the debates get himself going.
“And, just how is Trump any different than what we now have in office? I agree with you - wise words indeed.”
Pathetic. Here are a few ways:
(1) Worked in the real world and became a billionaire, creating massive wealth for many others.
(2) Through his foundation (run by his son — and he never talks about it, it’s even hard to track down), gave over $30,000,000 to St. Judes Childrens Hospitals. Incidentally saving many kids lives on the way.
(3) Quietly backed a Vets facility in NYC to the tune of $10,000,000 (again, hard to track down, but there is a thread about it here).
(4) Set up a hotline for vets to call re the horrible way they are treated under Obama.
So, has obama done any of those things? Even close to just one of them?
But yeah, Trump is just like Obama. /spit
/Still prefer Cruz, but sick of the TDS I see here
If the GOP nominates ¡YEB!, I don’t care if Hillary wins.
She may in fact be the lesser evil, she would get far less cooperation passing the very same things that would sail through for ¡YEB!
Lindsey doesn't give lip service to just anyone. He's no slut.
Actually I agree with you there and have said the same thing myself, ¡YEB! would be worse than Hillary, the RINO’s in congress would bend over backwards for him.
Oh, and a few more:
Brought the whole illegal immigration/crime discussion to the fore.
Along with Cruz, put enough pressure on obama that the flags at federal installations will FINALLY be at half mast over the murder of 4 Marines.
Took on that GOPe POS Lindsey Graham.
But yeah, he (and his ally Cruz) are just like obama. Uh huh.
Have you confirmed that with the chamber of commerce?
People that donate to both parties are sniffing for influence, i.e., crony capitalists funding rotten politicians so that they can squeeze just one more billion dollars out of a corrupt system. NOT admirable. And until the last 4 years, Trump gave more to Democrats than Republicans, many far-lefties, including Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel, Dick Durbin and "Friends of Weiner."
He is having lots of fun though. That's obvious.
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