Posted on 12/10/2021 11:22:22 AM PST by cotton1706
I’m still looking for this Trump threat to American democracy when they didn’t care to support his clear and legitimate win.
I’m still looking for this Trump threat to American democracy when they didn’t care to support his clear and legitimate 2016 win.
Democracy is in danger from 3 things:
First, it is in danger if the press and media report their political opinions as if they were facts. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even those who buy ink by the barrel or who speak with 50,000 watts behind their voice, but we require HONESTY about what the facts are in any given circumstance on the one hand, and the opinion of the person or company writing or speaking them on the other. That’s why there is a separate editorial page in newspapers, and why radio and TV opinions are supposed to clearly indicate when the words you are hearing or watching are opinion.
The second most dangerous thing is when individual reporters/broadcasters, or the companies for which they work, decide that rather than being even biased watchdogs over the words and actions of government and very influential people and organizations, they decide to become prime actors in our political process. Of course, each individual and organization can, in a free country, decide whether or not to become involved in the political process - but no one can simultaneously be involved in the process AND try to play the roll of an impartial reporter of the facts. That is outright deception, and is very dangerous to a free people.
The third most dangerous thing is when people who ought to know better constantly refer to our form of government as a “democracy.” We are decidedly NOT a democracy; instead, we are a constitutional republic.
In my most humble of opinions, the only entity that can end the Trump restoration is the man himself. Unfortunately at times it appears he is really trying hard to do just that.
Sad.
Donning flame retardant jacket.
....chosen a disastrous evenhandedness over moral clarity and covered President Biden (or perhaps Vice President Kamala Harris) like a normal politician instead of the republic’s last best hope.
I have given up having this discussion so we can agree to disagree despite the fact that you are reflexively assigning a motive I do not have.
Trump is Trump. I accept it and supported him vigorously. With that being said, any objective person could see that he could have played the image game and made it more difficult for the media to define him for the squishes.
Would it have made a difference? I don’t know. However, there are some pretty smart and fair pollsters that can make a good case that if he had only learned to bite his lip and fake it like Clinton we would not be having this conversation even with the cheating.
You can choose to believe what you wish to believe. There are parts of my job I really enjoy (like Trump did). There are parts of my job I really hate and dread. I clench my jaw and try to do the crap I don’t enjoy so I can do the parts I enjoy. Trump never spent time or gave a thought to playing the game (which I hate just as much as you) but I think in hindsight he will admit the truth of what I wrote above. He is about authentic as it gets and has no tolerance for BS, but I am not focused on his legacy, I am focused on the world I leave to my children and grandchildren and it would be far better if Trump had faked the politician shtick a little bit more or maybe just pulled a few punches here and there.
Politicians are liars and cheats, but they are not dumb. When Carville told Clinton how to act it worked. That stupid fake lip biting and all that “I feel your pain” bullcrap worked. I think many of us admire Trump because he was not a politician but it made it that much easier for the left and media to peel off the spineless jellyfish who surround us all. That is an absolute political fact.
If it is not any clearer than that or we cannot have an objective and reasoned discussion about it that is okay. I wish we did not live in a fake and superficial world, but we do. Would it have overcome the shenanigans in the election? Good pollsters have clearly illustrated it would.... even just 10% more among suburban women and he is in his second term now.
It is fine if you do not agree. Merry Christmas and I wish you all the best.
Trump needs to highlight reality and disprove the false, media-driven narrative ... check!
Where we part ways is in the conclusion. I think it is difficult to overestimate the shock and revulsion inside “normal” people. By 2024 they will have watched 12 our of 16 years as venal, chaotic and violent as any times in their lives. They will have watched their savings being swallowed by inflation. They will have seen the inversion of our system of justice where criminals are elevated and patriots imprisoned. I believe that Trump, should he decide to run again, needs to shine a floodlight on the differences between the economic and diplomatic security of his years versus the calamity of the Obama/Biden years with the simple message. “Yes. It is really bad now. But it doesn't have to be this way. You can make it all go away when you vote.”
Exactly. And we all know President Trump never get s unhinged.
They are political operatives for a ruling class faction.
What has changed is that now everyone knows it. Pretending otherwise is a political litmus test.
disastrous evenhandedness
/\
THIS is who and what they are despite all their alleged commitment to equity.
Evenhandedness is really a vice in their minds, so their call for equity is disingenuous.
Spit.
They are not “the press”. We don’t have one of those.
They are political operatives for a ruling class faction.
/\
What we do have are
Urinalists,
who pee on our legs while telling us it’s rain.
I think Ron DeSantis will be the next Repub candidate. And so do a lot of people I know. He’s smart as they come, personable, a strong governor who takes no shi-ite from anyone. Nice family man. Plus he has no TDS to overcome.
His most brilliant move was to go up to Brandon, FL to announce that companies in FL did not have to follow some idiot Biden rule that all employees had to be vaxed. Companies could choose for themselves.
“Let’s Go Brandon” in spades.
I wanted Donald Trump to run for office because he would never hold his finger in the wind to feel the wind blow and adapt to it.
I voted twice for Herman Cain because he was a businessman of faith who did not cater to the winds of change defined by the media. The same with Donald Trump. With all the vile filth coming from the Left, I knew we needed someone just as strong to stand against that. You cannot see that all of the media hype represented the 10% you base your argument on.
The crotch grabbing that Donald Trump told to Billy Bush was clearly referring to Gold-diggers who would do anything to become the next Courtesan of a Billionaire. That is Donald Trump was able to weed them out of the women he might have been interested in. Those were the same gold-diggers who the suburban women slutshamed in high school. All of the negative press is media hype. You should stop believing everything you read.
And a very Merry Christmas to you!
Wildcard: I heard DeSantis interviewed about 2 weeks ago. His wife is being treated for cancer. Sounds like chemotherapy. They have 3 kids who are fairly young. The time might not be ‘right’ for him to run. But the election is 3 years off and he probably doesn’t have to make a decision for at least a year.
Young JFK was elected with small kids.
That was when I was very young. Worked as a volunteer at Grand Rapids Republican office where they discovered I had a gift for raising money. The state Repub chairman came down one day, took me to lunch. He was going to offer me a job at State HQ in Detroit, but in the middle of lunch, Walter Chronkite came on tv and announced Kennedy was dead.
We looked at each other, and both went home to our little kids. We wanted to beat him, but didn’t want him dead. End of my career in politics.
I agree with your advice to him.
There is an interesting dichotomy on this board that is understandable. There are many who reflexively take any constructive criticism of Trump as an attack on Trump or lack of appreciation for him. There are many of us who very much appreciate him and what he did who wish he were still there.
After the emotion dies down in 5-10 years I believe most of this board will see it more like I do. Trump is Trump. There are few things I would change about what he wanted to do or his policies.
I am (like others have done) simply stating what is an observable fact to me. I wish he had played the game just a little bit more. I hate and despise the game as much as you and everyone else does, but it is “the game”. I wish I lived in a nation full of people who thought just like I do and could care less about their “emotions” or “how your four letter word made me feel” but that is not the world we live in (would need to move to China).
As much as I despise them you can make a clear and compelling argument that suburban women are now the deciding vote in the country (assuming a fair election). The media narrative is very important to this demographic and while Trump clearly wins on issues, he often lost on the media narrative of his personality. While much of that blind media hatred was beyond his control there were many times where Trump would derail a news cycle that he was winning by spouting off something I usually agreed with but wished he had kept to himself.
It is a simple fact that has nothing to do with what percentage of MAGA my blood is. Trump was a great leader. He was not my daddy, pastor, or advisor. He was doing a great job for my children with the things he could influence and policies he could make or implement.
Most of that “good for my kids” is now GONE. We can’t even stop them in congress.
Perhaps all of us (Trump included) should try and figure out “why”. There is the real world and there is the illusion we believe to be the real world. I think too many refuse to admit that most of the nation lives in the illusion of reality created by people who do not share or appreciate our “values”.
Trump could not have erased the media narrative completely but he could have tried to blunt it to the point that he could have gained just 10% of the “suburban women vote” even if he fooled them just like Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Oprah have done for decades. If that is too much to ask for the sake of my kids so be it.
As much as I love Trump the future of my children and grandchildren is most important to me. Their future is in really bad jeopardy right now so its only natural that I contemplate “what if” and considering that Trump may run in 2024 and would be certain to gain the nomination it is not just navel gazing - it matters now and to their future.
That is the real world FRiend. I don’t like it but it is real. I know a few of these feckless squishes and bet you do too. Recognizing that these voters exist does not make one a feckless squish - it means I want to win and want someone who will clench their jaw and at least try to do the part none of us like just like many of us do in our jobs or positions of leadership.
God bless and Merry Christmas!
See Tagline. Sometimes I hate it when I’m right all the time, (well, most of the time).
Democracy is endangered right now because one party defrauded the nation with a criminal election.
The Brandon Media is gonna Brandon Media.
I remember how they parked wheel-to-wheel and bombarded Sarah Palin into submission and out of Alaskan politics, after McLame coughed up the ball late in the presidential selection of 2008.
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.