Posted on 08/09/2015 6:22:53 AM PDT by don-o
To understand the rise of Donald Trump, youd do well not to fixate on the fact that hes running under the Republican banner. During Thursday nights Fox News debate, Trump made it clear that failing to secure the GOP nomination wouldnt stop him from exploring an independent candidacy. And honestly, hed be crazy not to. Trump is very far from a Republican regular. He represents an entirely different phenomenon, one that bears little resemblance to garden-variety American conservatism. Thats why Republicans shouldnt fool themselves into believing that one lackluster debate performance will send him packing.
Go to almost any European democracy and you will find that the parties of the center-right and center-left that have dominated the political scene since the Second World War are losing ground to new political movements. What these movements have in common is that they manage to blend populism and nationalism into a potent anti-establishment brew. One of the first political figures to perfect this brand of politics was the very Trumpian Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian media tycoon who rose to power as part of a coalition of right-of-center parties in the mid-1990s, and who has been in and out of power ever since, dodging corruption charges and worse all the while. More recently, the miserable state of Europes economies has fueled the rise of dozens of other parties. Britains Labour Party has been devastated by the rise not only of the leftist Scottish National Party, but also by UKIP, a movement of the right that has been growing at Labours expense by campaigning against mass immigration, and by largely abandoning what had been its more libertarian line on the welfare state. UKIPs leader, Nigel Farage, has a penchant for bombast that endears him his working-class base, which might sound familiar to you.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
“Trump made it clear that failing to secure the GOP nomination wouldnt stop him from exploring an independent candidacy. And honestly, hed be crazy not to.”
Absolutely right.
Flip the finger to Rove and Preibus. Move on. We’ve got a country to take back and the pantywaists will only hold us back.
To read later
Nordic? Innuit?
Fascinating comparison. I've heard of this Nigel Farage fellow. I can't think of one Trump-like statement that has gotten him into hot water.
Yet, the Men Seeking Men mediums treat him as if he did utter the types of statements that Trump has.
Conclusion? It's not about what Trump says. It's about what he represents. He has the potential to upset the apple cart. The good ol' boy network.
Sarah Palin never said anything nearly as outlandish as The Donald but she got the Trump treatment virtually from the minute Juan McCainez announced that she was his Vice-Presidential pick.
Trump isn’t going away because the media are fixated on him. If he’s the story, he’s the frontrunner.
He’s New York city’s go-to conservative. Really. You can’t make this stuff up!
Palin was vanquished because Juan prohibited her from defending herself. Trump suffers from no such disadvantage, and he is self-funded too! Popcorn!
Just kidding, God! Just a little humor there. Trying to lighten things up a bit. I know You're not happy with the way things are going down here, either.
Yeah, its from the leftist slate. Ironically, the left wing pundits are figuring out Trump a lot faster than the right wing. One of the very few exceptions is conservative tree house.
The analogy I like is that Trump is the honey badger candidate. He has nothing to lose, plenty to gain and to quote the video...honey badger doesn’t give a s-—. And here’s the kicker: the people who support his candidacy don’t really give a s-— either. They’re the politically disenfranchised working and middle class. They have nothing to lose by supporting someone whose inclination is to burn the current political establishment to the ground.
RE: Your tagline...Do you really believe that? If so, what is the point of your participation here?
Let's go back even further. Quayle used an alternative form for spelling potato, and the media-elite used that and schemed to throw the nomination to relatively unknown GWB.
My (totally unscientific) guess is that 75% of US citizens are mad as hell about losing control of our future potential, at the same time we've lost control of the political process. I can't see this group settling for an establishment mouthpiece now that Trump has stirred the pot.
He's another factor (thinking as I type again). Nobody's talking about the outrage Constitutional Conservatives feel about the good ol' boys stealing that election for Cocharan. The huge majorities were not that we trust the elite. It was one more chance. If the RNC/elitists rig the selection process, I can't see a majority of conservatives voting for an establishment lapdog. That's another reason to stick with Trump.
How's this for a line...."Stick with Trump, Stick it to the RNC"
End of weekly clear-my-mind rant.
Well said. Stick With Trump, Stick It To The NRC.
"Or it could be that he (Trump) realizes that the forces that have pushed him to the top of the GOP primary fight are far bigger than just the Republican Party"
Wow, nicely said!
What I want to know is where are the polls? There were practically daily national and state GOP presidential primary polls by the major polling companies up until the debate.
Then, when said companies are usually tripping over themselves—starting on the night of the debate—to get post-debate polls out to show how things have changed. Yet here we are four days later with nary a peep.
I can only believe that the polls have not yet shown the Trump drop they were looking for—though after yesterday, they may
Yes. Trump has tapped into a movement that is beyond politics. That’s why the pollsters are having a hard time nailing down his support. It’s all over the place. And many are not even political and couldn’t tell you the principles of conservatism or liberalism. But they hear terms like China is ripping us off. And lets make America great again, and it makes sense to them. They don’t want to learn about 10 point plans or 2020 visions or whatever the latest BS the advisers come up with (that never get enacted anyways).
So the political class can mock all they want. At their own peril. Trump is not going anywhere.
Once again - Trump acts in a logical way vs. rolling over and ceding defeat to the GOPe/RINOs/other Leftists...
You noticed that to?
If he was down even 2% in the polls it w/b all over the media 24X7.
Going to be an interesting year.
Yes.
1. Entertainment.
2. Persuading others to think twice before casting a ballot that, generally speaking, is not only useless but is used as a weapon against us.
We tolerate just about any measure of horrors and thievery because we get that one in one hundred millionth voice in deciding who gets to implement those horrors. I have a problem with that arrangement.
Lets use infanticide as an example of how this works in reality. For over 40 years now infanticide has been legal. We hear all manner of sweet lies from conservative politicians regarding how they’ll end the slaughter. They never do, and its by design. But we continue to vote because, gosh golly, this time will be different! It never is and so long as conservatives play a game we have zero control over, we never will.
And here is a key point: we don’t do other things that would be more effective and more fulfilling because we remain in thrall to the electoral process.
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