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The Nominee We Deserve?
The Weekly Standard ^ | 02-01-2016 | Stephen F. Hayes

Posted on 01/24/2016 4:03:56 PM PST by brothers4thID

Do Republicans deserve to lose? Consider the state of play as we write this in late January, just days from the first GOP nominating contests.

The Republican frontrunner is a longtime liberal whose worldview might best be described as an amalgam of pop-culture progressivism and vulgar nationalism. His campaign rallies are orgies of self-absorption, dominated by juvenile insults of those who criticize him and endless boasting about his poll numbers. He’s a narcissist and a huckster, an opportunist who not only failed to join conserv­atives in the big fights about the size and scope of government over the past several decades but, to the extent he was even aware of such battles, was often funding the other side, with a long list of contributions to the liberals most responsible for the dire state of affairs in the country, including likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In short, he's an opposition researcher's dream. But Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars on political advertising this cycle and virtually none of it has targeted Donald Trump. He is poised to glide into the early-state contests having largely avoided the kind of sustained paid-media attacks that bring down candidates with far fewer vulnerabilities.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: canadian; establishment; gope; pearlclutchers; primary; rubio; strategy; trump
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To: brothers4thID
What we deserve:


21 posted on 01/24/2016 4:19:10 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

Years ago!


22 posted on 01/24/2016 4:20:04 PM PST by HotKat (Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason. Mark Twaing)
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To: brothers4thID

Steve Hayes sounds like a bitter liberal. These guys have been double agents for years. We keep losing as they secretly steer the ship toward the rocks.


23 posted on 01/24/2016 4:25:07 PM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: goldstategop

Trump has flip-flopped on every issue and every person in politics. Some of these flip-flops have been very recent and back and forth. There is only one consistency in his life: Self promotion.

He has flipped on immigration, healthcare, abortion, gay marriage, China, trade, tarrifs, international intervention, Hillary, Pelosi, the Tea Party, Cruz, Carson, Supreme Court justices, religious freedom, on and on.

Someone should start a thread documenting his flip-flops.


24 posted on 01/24/2016 4:25:56 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: brothers4thID

How an Obscure Adviser to Pat Buchanan Predicted the Wild Trump Campaign in 1996

The Week dot com ^ Michael Brendan Dougherty
Posted on 1/20/2016, 2:17:11 AM by WayneLusvardi

Imagine giving this advice to a Republican presidential candidate: What if you stopped calling yourself a conservative and instead just promised to make America great again?

What if you dropped all this leftover 19th-century piety about the free market and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs?

What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better healthcare at a reasonable price?

What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society something that appeals only to a narrow slice of Middle America. You simply promised to restore the Middle American core, the economic and cultural losers of globalization to their rightful place in America?

What if you said you would re store them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3385923/posts


25 posted on 01/24/2016 4:27:38 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Obama is living proof of the disaster of not sticking to the Wisdom of our Founding Fathers!!)
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To: brothers4thID

I think it is high time for some vulgar nationalism.

I am tired of being represented by multi-national politicians working for multi-national corporations.


26 posted on 01/24/2016 4:27:41 PM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

He has no fixed principle apart from gratuitous self-worship.

People know he isn’t a conservative and they don’t care.

For many of them, his take no prisoners mode can take down Hillary and what’s left of the Democratic Party.

What he does as President, they can worry about later.


27 posted on 01/24/2016 4:28:36 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: brothers4thID

I’m in my late sixties and have voted republican my whole life. Most would call me very conservative...

I’m not voting conservative or liberal or democrat or republican this year.

I’m voting to Make America Great Again!


28 posted on 01/24/2016 4:33:58 PM PST by babygene (Make America Great Again)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Would not matter, trump has become cultish like obama is


29 posted on 01/24/2016 4:34:36 PM PST by italianquaker
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To: brothers4thID

You are actually posting garbage from the Weakly Standardt ... they are totally irrelevant


30 posted on 01/24/2016 4:34:38 PM PST by Neu Pragmatist (Trump is the only one who will secure our borders . Vote Trump)
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To: Menthops

I think you meant “Bern baby, Bern.”


31 posted on 01/24/2016 4:37:22 PM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: Signalman

I just read that Joy Ernst is going to campaign with Rubio.
She was recently elected as senator from Iowa(?) after running as a Tea Party conservative. She has wasted no time turning into a Rino. So much for politicians wearing glass slippers. I’ll take my chances on Trump


32 posted on 01/24/2016 4:38:55 PM PST by hdstmf
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To: dforest

I’m keeping my powder dry but the so called independent journos in DC are losing their minds at the prospect of cozy relationships being disrupted.

98% of the left/right debate in DC is pantomime meant to overemphasize the importance of everyone there.

The Bellagio wants to dominate the Venetian in Vegas but they don’t want the competition to disappear completely or the Strip would decline in value incrementally. Similarly, any loss of power by the ‘ins’ regardless of party is viewed as a threat hence the unhinged ravings by these Fox News types.


33 posted on 01/24/2016 4:39:28 PM PST by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The Ends)
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To: dforest
The ads don’t mean a damn thing. People don’t even pay attention to them. When the ads are on they go to the toilet or the fridgy.

To most people nothing means a damn thing. They don't watch debates. They don't listen to speeches. They don't read articles. They generally get on board with the front runner so they can smile and think of themselves as winners.

34 posted on 01/24/2016 4:40:45 PM PST by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
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To: relictele

Yes, and it is becoming more obvious and more shrill.


35 posted on 01/24/2016 4:41:48 PM PST by dforest
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To: VanDeKoik

36 posted on 01/24/2016 4:42:18 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Rand Paul for VP/Sarah Palin for Chief of Staff)
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To: brothers4thID
...and vulgar nationalism...

It's called "patriotism," $#ithead...

37 posted on 01/24/2016 4:46:14 PM PST by papertyger (-/\/\/\-)
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To: Starstruck

The status quo has quit working because people know all on that list is election time BS and what we end up getting is nothing like the ads and debates.

There is no respect for the system because it has become a system that only rewards, and serves the interests of those in the establishment in DC.


38 posted on 01/24/2016 4:49:14 PM PST by dforest
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To: italianquaker

Your post 29 is exactly it. The world has seen this sort of thing before. See Thomas Sowell’s column “Do Emotions Trump Facts.”


39 posted on 01/24/2016 4:49:46 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: italianquaker
Would not matter, trump has become cultish like obama is

If promising to do the things I want that others won't even talk about for fear it will get attention is "cultish," sign me up and give me the pamphlets!

40 posted on 01/24/2016 4:50:19 PM PST by papertyger (-/\/\/\-)
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