Posted on 02/03/2016 9:11:54 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
As far as I can tell, Donald Trump's grieving process works more or less completely in the reverse order from what you would expect from a rational human being. Immediately after the event, Trump was more or less in acceptance mode, saying he was proud of finishing second, he loved the people of Iowa, he was going to come back and buy a farm there.
Then he went into depression, secluding himself for an uncharacteristically long time from twitter and the media.
Working backwards, he skipped over bargaining and went straight to anger, blaming the media and their unfair treatment of him.
Then this morning, he went into denial mode, basically saying that the Iowa loss never even happened and there should be a do over.
But if you look deeper into Trump's twitter rant this morning, and you have some understanding of both his neuroses and the cynical way he plays his followers, you can see that Trump has already decided how he will react to a loss in the GOP primaries, if he suffers one: he will refuse to accept the results and run third party.
Look at what Trump is doing here. He is complaining about a series of events that are, by any objective measure, ordinary politics, and he is treating them as evidence of "fraud" or that the results of Iowa were somehow completely illegitimate.
As Trump always does, he is clearly pre-complaining about anything even potentially damaging to him as the result of "unfair" treatment or a fixed, "unfair" process. If he should lose New Hampshire, he will do it again, even though the RNC booted National Review from the upcoming debate in order to mollify him (and yet allowed an openly anti-Cruz moderator onto the stage).
Trump is prepping his followers to bolt with him for a third party run if he loses the nomination. In fact, if he loses New Hampshire and South Carolina, he may just do it pre-emptively. I suspect this is a decision he has already made. Now, I know that he will probably not be able to get on the ballot at this late date in many states, but the point will not be to win, it will be to damage the Republican nominee, which has been Trump's goal from the beginning of this process.
Personally, I think a three way race between Cruz/Rubio, Trump, and Hillary will end up pretty well for the GOP. There's a lot of evidence that a majority of Trump's support comes from disaffected Democrats, and there are plenty of Democrats who are less than enthused about voting for Hillary.
I just wish that if Trump were not man enough to accept the will of the electorate, that he would go ahead and declare that he's running third party and save us all a lot of trouble.
He probably has. He just needs to find an acceptably populist Democrat to run with him. Maybe Webb?
At this juncture, if he does, he will have just handed the White House back to the ‘Rats.
Monday night, he gave a really good speech. I am not a fan of his at all, but I was left thinking that if he would continue showing that kind of maturity moving forward, I could live with the guy. I wouldn't expect his substantive message to change, but at least see a diminution in the kind of weird reaction he has to criticism.
So he took that fine performance -- which even the anti-Trump establishment grudgingly admitted was good -- and tossed it right back out the window. And for no good reason at all. What does it accomplish? There's nothing wrong with ticking off and making uncomfortable elites who cling to bad policies. But when you're ticking off people to no purpose, it's just plain stupid.
I'm sure his hardcore supporters will scoff at this, with the "we don't need support from your kind" type of response. But the reality is that he does need to broaden his support if he wants to win both the nomination and the general election.
Not if Bloomberg runs. 2 indys,democrat,republican anyones race
I hope not. Trump going 3rd part is the only way I see a Presdident Hillary. In the words of Obi Wan: “In that case the Emporer has already won.”
We certainly couldn’t handle Trump as president.
As I stated before, there was nothing out there that has Trump claiming a third party run, so the whole thing is as you know BS.
Trump in the news is ONLY concerned about Cruz’s violations regarding the campaign and even then never suggested a third party anything, so the third party issue is AS YOU KNOW bunk.
Meanwhile I did respond to Cruz who I donated four times to that I can not think about voting for him anymore. For me he has Rubio status at this point.
Sad to see all this come to that.
If Trump goes third party, and Bloomberg fourth party, and if Rubio gets the Republican nomination, and if Bernie the Democratic party nomination, do you think Hillary goes fifth party, and in that case, what are the chances Gary Johnson the Libertarian wins?
Man, he has tiny fingers.
I think sore loser laws keep him off the ballot in a lot of states, like Texas.
********************
Sore Loser Laws apply mostly to state races, etc not Presidential races.
Sore loser laws apply to presidential candidates in only two states: South Dakota
and Texas. But such a run would be a negative, imo.
https://ballotpedia.org/%22Sore_loser%22_laws_for_presidential_candidates
CW's code name is "Heidi".
so you came onto a thread about a subject that you allege is BS and rather than cite your reasons WHY you think its BS, you bring a 3rd party into it, merely to run that 3rd party down?
As I said, very interesting.
One Trump to rule them all, One Trump to find them,
One Trump to bring them all and in the darkness bind them...
Politicians massage the truth. Adults understand that and don’t act like crybabies.
I’ve said from the very beginning that that was what he would do, and he will do it and hand the office to the Democrats. For him, this is all about him and only about him.
But your concern troll status is duly noted.
If that happens, Hillary/Bernie will be able to ram through legislation that will never be undone. And they'll appoint 2-3 Justices to the Supreme Court who will not only reverse Heller and destroy our Second Amendment rights, but establish a whole bunch of new Constitution rights to benefits and other things that will destroy us.
Oh yeah, they'll also toss the Citizens United decision and reinstitute the Equal Time doctrine. That will wipe out conservative talk radio, and prevent conservative groups even from buying ad time to get their message out. The only thing people will be able to hear during campaigns is whatever the MSM tells them.
It may be cathartic to say "destroy the GOP", but the reality of what that means is that we'd be flushing the country.
"fifth party" could have more than one meaning...
There’s still time. The man you put so much hope into, took flack for, and made a fool of yourself for, has come unhinged and is dragging you down with him. There’s still time to disavow your support for him and save face. I won’t even demand you apologize for smearing a true conservative and abandoning principals for a conman. A lot of people have been conned by him. You’re not alone. Heck, I’ll even apologize for saying derogatory things to Trump supporters because you will prove that you’re sensible after all.
Good one!
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.