Posted on 06/19/2024 7:01:22 AM PDT by ksm1
I've been on FR since the Bush years, first as a lurker and then more active during Obama and the initial Tea Party movement. Throughout that time, there always has been active and for the most part respectful debate on FR, that sometimes got a bit heated but we all basically wanted the same thing for the country, even if it meant different ways to get there.
With the Trump years, I was skeptical of Trump at first in 2016 since he was an unknown, but then he won me over when he was actually President. You can find my posts from his years in office where I defended him. That said - there was enough left on the table, like a number of bad hires who kept undermining him, that I wanted to see a competitive primary and a candid discussion on both his record and what would be different this time around if he gets the nod.
Well that's when things got weird. We never had that discussion. It just became a yelling match, and if I wanted to do that, I'd just go join those Palestine weirdos on college campuses. No thanks.
Guys, Bob Good had an excellent 100% conservative voting record. Trump primaried him for his one and only crime which was endorsing DeSantis, even though after the primary, Bob Good came to visit Trump during his trial in NYC.
This isn't giving me any confidence that Trump has learned from his mistakes of bad hires and bad endorsements. We should have completely dominated the 2022 midterms but a number of bad endorsements sabotaged us. Dr. Oz? Seriously? Yes Arizona had some shady things with their election, but there were a bunch of other cases where Trump endorsed a weak candidate - OR, he's been backing people who DO win and then vote RINO when it counts. We can't keep saying "we want better people in Congress" and then let things like this slide.
Why I care: the grassroots activist right has always played an important role. I saw during the Bush years on FR that we'd organize campaigns to write letters to Congress to push for our values. Same during the Obama years, which is how we prevented Obama from doing a lot of gun grabbing and so forth. There was minimal of that during the Trump years. It was just "trust the plan". This isn't helpful. Politics was meant to be an active process that citizens participate in. During the Trump years, it seemed to turn into just a spectator sport. That's not how this is supposed to work.
Is this really what we want, no real political power because we actively are pushing RINOs into office to replace conservatives, but at least we "own the libs" with snarky internet remarks? Is this really the best we can do? And look, I know the left is unfairly attacking Trump, but Trump or ANY Republican needs to get pressured from the right as well, so he actually does what we want. I know the left is going to attack Trump, or anyone to the right of Rachel Maddow for that matter, but it's really getting frustrated that any pressure for accountability *from the right* is dismissed or actively trolled.
Bob Good shouldn't have even been in a competitive race. He was as solid as they get. This is getting ridiculous.
“Meanwhile, Trump said he’d win the war in 24 hours by giving Ukraine everything that Zelenski asks for.”
He asserted that it would boil down to his established relationships with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I know Zelensky very well, I know Putin very well—even better—and I had a very good relationship with both of them,” he said.
What is it with RDS supporters and the allergy to the truth?
$50/bbl MAGA oil and it is over.
Except he substituted blind faith in him for it.
Let’s see. Profoundly ignorant of US and international history, science, culture, law, everything else. Humiliates his serial trophy wives by cheating on them with whores. Walks away from businessness disasters by declaring bankruptcy (see his Atlantic City investments). Meretricious taste in architecture and in general (he does dress appropriately). Associates himself with people like Michael Cohen, Scaramuchi (briefly was WH Press Sec), et al. Either very low standards or dismal at judging people. He has a bad habit of giving his opponents the sticks to pound him with, due to careless use of language and excess ego. Does not seem to know how to work with Congress, and seems to prefer making enemies gratuitously to making allies. He is “the most investigated” because he operates very close to the line, and sets himself up for it, partly because he thrives on conflict. Seems to be disdainful of bothering to prepare ahead of times; thinks he is so brilliant he can wing everything.
My point is that we (at least I) know this is what we get with Trump, yet we are better off with him. I feel no need to pretend he is better than he is. I’d vote for him a thousand times over the Dems’ stable of communist nuts and grifters. The top Republican alternatives have their own flaws, without Trump’s guts, charisma, and electability. Trump lacks overarching principles, but does have common sense about important policy issues (trade, avoiding wars, getting the US out of dependency on foreign production, packing the judiciary when he has the chance, etc.).
Ron DeSantis has a proven conservative record that turned Florida from a purplish state which he won by about 1 percent to a deep red one he won by 20 percent. He has major legislative and cultural achievements for conservatives.
Trump still promotes the vaccine, encouraged lockdowns (as well as "15 days to stop the spread"), opposes pro-life laws like the one Florid a passed, and has opposed conservative policy positions on numerous other issues.
RDS should have come against the lawfare and J6 crap
He did. Apparently, your "leaders" forgot to tell you that.
this is a binary race
the RINOs make that argument every time. Let's look at the "binary" logic:
"If you don't vote for Trump, you're voting for Biden."
Well, if that's true, then if you don't vote for Biden, you're voting for Trump.
So what logically follows is that if you don't vote for either, you're voting for both. Which is entirely self-contradictory.
you either vote with the deep state or back Trump at this point.
See the above, and read it again.
Trump has done nothing about the "Deep State." He's done nothing but empower them. He surrounded himself with them. Why am I supposed to believe the second time aroudn will be any different?
I hate Trump so much that I voted for him twice.
No, you actually don’t. Massie is one of the best in Congress.
The Constitution is precisely what real conservatives are trying to conserve. Unfortunately, there are too many pseudocons around.
You didn’t answer the question I posted there … which tells me I understand Massie perfectly well.
Florida has the best election security laws in the country. But you’re not allowed to know that because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
DeSantis said that as president, he would look at the J6 cases. He thinks a lot of them are innocent and a lot of others were overcharged.
As a governor, he has no power to do anything about the J6ers rotting in Federal prisons except condemn it, which he has done. Do you want him to interfere with the Federal process?
If so, why don’t you ask the same of the 49 other governors?
Massie wrote about it on his Twitter page.
Which part do you contest? That Trump has personal flaws? Or that he is the only viable candidate on the stage right now who would improve the economy, etc? The other R’s were never electable. The D’s only want more debt, war, DEI, immigration, crime, perversity, and dependency.
Otherwise, my post 165 addressed a response similar to yours.
Then post it here. I don’t do Twitter.
“I want to see the rule, it’s not printed yet, it’s not been read, but I anticipate voting for this rule,” he said. “When people want to express their ideology, the floor of the House on the actual final passage of the bill is the place to do that. What do the 13 of us owe the rest of Congress? We owe them an honest shake and a playing field that doesn’t change.”
He voted against it on the floor.
The guy who implemented 15 Days to Stop the Spread, who added $8 trillion to the debt, who proposed an infrastructure bill that spent more than the Democrats' proposal? That is the candidate who will improve the economy?
I judge people by their actual record.
“I voted for it before I voted against it.” — John Kerry Massie
I grew up in and worked in politics as a volunteer and professionally for many years. I do not trust the reporting as to Trump’s endorsement of an opponent of Good. I am certain that there is something that was not revealed in the major news coverage. As the old saying goes, those who talk do not know, and those who know do not talk.
“I wonder what the cumulative drop in IQ across FR was after reading your post?”
No more than than thinking Ron DeSantis has what it takes to be President. 😉
He had a national stage and didn’t mention election security at all, did not mention mass censorship at all and it is obvious that he could care less about the Floridians locked up in the gulag.
As the one time second highest profile GOP and obvious successor to MAGA he chose to not rail against any of the lawfare as it was politically inconvenient. The lawfare would’ve stopped with unified GOP condemnation.
When the other governors ignore this stuff on national TV over and over again while running for POTUS-I’ll ask them too.
He is the fruit of being handed complete control over a state on a silver platter thanks to MAGA. Similar to the House members that refuse to heel despite being handed House control thanks to MAGA-his future election chances at the federal level are dim.
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