“Bathroom Law: He blew it.”
I don’t agree.
I DISAGREE with Trump (I certainly don’t want men using women’s bathrooms or vice versa), but I don’t agree he blew it. If he had answered otherwise, it would have given the media the biggest down-the-center-of-the-plate pitch they’ve ever had, and they would have used it to propagandize the issue and paint Trump as a bigoted neo-Nazi troglodyte. Trump’s attitude on the issue was “I don’t really care about this and... why are we paying attention to this ANYWAY?” - which might cost him voters among the hard right, but gain him MORE voters among the moderates.
I don’t get the difference between him saying something rational about muslim immigration that outraged all the right folks and this bathroom thing. I haven’t talked to one blue collar dem that isn’t outraged over the dem leadership over this issue.
Freegards
Indeed. Portraying oneself as a rigid and extreme social conservative might play well with a small minority, but most people are not extreme. I think most people don't care about a lot of these fringe issues, and wouldn't think about them at all if it weren't for the left exaggerating them and shoving them in our faces.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect or want Trump to come out as a bible-thumper on the issue - calling LGBTs sinners and saying that they’re ‘damned to hell’, but I would have preferred him just ducking some questions - perhaps saying that it’s a local issue and should be decided locally. Of course then he’ll be hit up with the same question regarding federal facilities. The best answer for that is the Rubio technique on Amnesty, which is to say something to the effect that we’ll have a ‘national conversation’ on the issue, and leave it at that.