I'll let you know when I turn 67. Got a long way yet, and there's no guarentee that we won't all be in mohawks and road leathers riding the highways plundering and killing, all for a gallon on that precious gazzoline.
AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!!!
Posted on 12/14/2015 12:12:20 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Imagine for a moment if Donald Trump made the decision to run for president as a Democrat instead of as a Republican.
As Trump-mania continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, it's not hard to envision an alternate reality - one where the real estate billionaire is taking the country by storm as a Democrat.
In many ways, it would have been easier for Trump to enter the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. Trump was registered as a Democrat from 2001 to 2009 and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid over the years. (In fairness, he has donated a lot of money to Republican candidates as well.)
As a native of liberal New York City, it's not surprising that Trump has a much longer record of being pro-choice than he does of being pro-life.
"I support a woman's right to choose," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in 2000.
Trump was never a staunch opponent of gay marriage either until recently. In fact, Rick Santorum says that Trump chided him in 2011 for being "too hard-core" on gay marriage and abortion.
"I don't know anyone that shares that opinion with you," Santorum said Trump told him.
So it's not too hard to envision Trump running as a socially liberal Democrat. Indeed, it would seemingly be a far easier act for the thrice-married New Yorker to pull off than convincing evangelicals that he is staunchly pro-life and against gay marriage.
On foreign policy, Trump isn't all that different from Barack Obama. To the extent his foreign policy worldview is comprehensible, he comes across as the least hawkish candidate in the GOP field, with the possible exception of Rand Paul, even though rhetoric sometimes masks this. While he says he wants to increase military spending and "bomb the shit" out of ISIS, he regularly makes the case for reducing America's leadership role in world affairs and focusing on nation building at home.
"I'll tell you what, there is going to be nation building. You know what the nation's going to be? The United States, that's what the nation's going to be," Trump told me in September, speaking of his foreign policy outlook.
As Trump also repeatedly highlights, he opposed the Iraq war (though the first evidence of this comes from 2004, over a year after the war began). Such a position is far more endearing to the Democratic base than Hillary Clinton's support for the military action that removed Saddam from power.
Trump wouldn't be out of place on economic issues in a Democratic primary either. At this anti-Wall Street moment, Trump could paint himself as the insider who is ready to turn enemy of his class for the good of the country.
What's more, Trump has a record of favoring proposals that would be far more vexing to the one percent than anything Bernie Sanders has proposed. In 1999, Trump proposed a one-time 14.25 percent tax on wealthy Americans and trusts over $10 million. Even now he doesn't back away from that proposal philosophically, even though he says he doesn't intend to pursue it in the White House.
"At that time we could have paid off the entire national debt and we could have started the game all even," Trump told Sean Hannity in August, noting that the proposal was actually "very conservative."
Trump is also a supporter of universal health care, if not Obamacare.
"I am going to take care of everybody," Trump said on "60 Minutes" in September. "I don't care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody's going to be taken care of much better than they're taken care of now."
Trump even praised the single payer health care programs of Canada and Scotland during the first Republican presidential debate in August.
"As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland, it could have worked in a different age, which is the age you are talking about here," Trump said when asked by the moderators about his past support for single payer health care.
Of course Trump would have had to made the strategic decision to position himself to run in 2016 as a Democrat way back in 2010, before he went on his birther kick. You probably can't win a Democratic primary as one of the leading birthers in the country.
His rhetoric on immigration also wouldn't fly in a Democratic primary. But if he made the decision to position himself as a Democrat contender back in 2010, he would never have called for the deportation of all the illegal immigrants in the country. In fact, after Mitt Romney lost in 2012, Trump criticized the Republican contender's rhetoric on immigration as "mean-spirited," which suggests Trump's instincts on illegal immigration may be less harsh than what we are seeing today
"The Democrats didn't have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren't mean-spirited about it," Trump told Newsmax. "They didn't know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind."
But if Trump made the decision to run as a Democrat in 2010, he may be even better positioned to win the Democratic presidential nomination today than he is to win the Republican nomination. The Democratic field is far smaller and with Joe Biden's decision to not enter the race, there is no candidate opposing Hillary Clinton who people can actually imagine winning the nomination, even if Sanders could potentially threaten her in a few states.
Trump may have been that guy. He could have successfully branded Clinton as untrustworthy and even criminal over her email scandal and shady Clinton Foundation dealings, just like he negatively branded so many of his GOP foes. And it very well may have worked, just like it seems to have worked with "low-energy" Jeb Bush.
So it doesn't take too much of an imagination to envision a world where Donald Trump is on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination. In fact, it may even be far easier to get your head around than our current reality.
I'll let you know when I turn 67. Got a long way yet, and there's no guarentee that we won't all be in mohawks and road leathers riding the highways plundering and killing, all for a gallon on that precious gazzoline.
AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!!!
Really. That former-democrat Ronald Reagan guy sure was a disappointment. :)
Reagan was a Democrat. He switched parties. In 1964 he became the champion of the conservative movement when he gave his “Time for Choosing” speech. It remains one of the greatest orations of all time. in subsequent years Reagan also campaigned for conservative candidates and did radio broadcasts forwarding the conservative cause. He was an early Rush Limbaugh, if you will. He also had a track record to go on as a governor.
Reagan was no imposter. He remained ideologically consistent for years. No one doubted where he stood on issues.
When has Trump pushed the conservative agenda? Even now he brings his conservatism, judgment and sincerity into doubt. His statements are made without forethought. Ban Muslims! Yea!!!! It has great appeal but even now he has no idea how to do that and yesterday said that before they can come in they have to be surveilled and have some papers. Huh? That is not a policy. That is making it up as you go along.
On Thursday he said one of his first actions as President would be to sign an executive order that mandates the death penalty for anyone who kills a cop. He got tremendous applause! Maybe he should read and understand the Constitution first, then make sweeping, unconstitutional pronouncements.
Reagan was well versed in conservatism and the Constitution. No one doubted it. It is not that I have my doubts about Trump, I flat out don’t believe him.
Dude. It’s her job. She’s gotta pay the rent, right?
OHHHH! Touche!
Norm, if God lets us choose our experience in heaven, I want Fallout 5: The Atlanta Hub.
:)
It's a reasonable position. However, we have Elitist Choice #1, Elitist Choice #2, Elitist Choice #3, Elitist Choice #4, Elitist Choice #5, Elitist Choice #6, Elitist Choice #7, Elitist Choice #8, Elitist Choice #9, Elitist Choice #10, Conservative Choice #1 With Low Probability Of Successful Election, and Dice Toss #1 With High Probability Of Successful Election.
Gotta go Dice Toss, who's initials just so happen to line up with Donald Trump.
First of all, stick your demands where the sun don’t shine. I will comunicate with whom I want, when I want. Trump used emminant domain to aquire private property in the nineties. You support who you want, we may not see things the same.
I’ll settle for “Fallout: Skyrim - The Wrath of Lydia” ;)
After one look at Lydia, I can get with your scenario. :)
Well the upside for you is Piper ‘sorta’ looks like her At a distancce. during a radiation storm...sorta..
I like my 70 in screen in portrait mode idea. Lifesize Lydia in the gameroom ;)
One way or the other though, we are gonna be playing Fallout for real before long. I’m actually surprised we havent started the game yet.
Donald Trump just called Ted Cruz a “maniac,” which puts him in league with John McCain (Cruz is a “wacko-bird) and Harry Reid (Cruz is a “schoolyard bully”).
“Trump used emminant domain to aquire private property in the nineties.”
Prove it.
Honestly, after twenty+ years of mediocre, gutless wimpy GOP candidates who will NOT take the fight to the Liberal candidate - even stands still and takes a beating without fighting back- why not try something entirely different?
Both Bush presidencies got into bed with the libs and grossly expanded the government.
Seriously, why not step out of the box and try something unprecedented? Trump cannot at all be more damaging to the cause than the Bush family, McCain, Tadd Cochran, Mitch McConnell and John Boehnor.
Either something different and good occurs, or we get more of the same old same old.
Piper has an annoying voice though.
You are right you didn’t say it, exnavy did. I’m sorry about that.
My questions to you about post 35 should have been to exnavy.
No modern Democrat would ever have a slogan of Make America Great Again. No modern Democrat would tell the truth about how money men own politics on both sides and that the system doesn’t care about the individual.
Then of course no modern Republican would either which is why Trump is dominating the polls.
The political class is flat out arrogant and hostile to the very people it is supposed to represent and serve, and only one person in this race is saying what most know to be true. Doesn’t matter which establishment party politician wins they will wind up screwed.
GOP got the house, nothing changed... Got then Senste too nothing changed.. Now they want the White House? For what? Nothing will change other than the spin, functionally not a damned thing will differ.
The GOP wants to keep selling this country out on immigration because it’s what the payers want not the people.. Hell even with Islam they can’t put America first. Until they can better tell who is a threat and who isn’t not another damned one shoul be allowed in, this moratorium is common sense and not a damned one is willing to stand for it.
This article and those like it are idiotic. What is broken goes so far beyond the party narratives that it he fact crap like this gets printed shows just how broken the system is.
Show me one national democrat willing to even contemplate the notion Islam has a problem and then we can talk.
Trump represents the first time in decades money players won’t own the White House and that makes him a bigger threat than 100,000 terrorist willing to kill and die in our borders to both the parties and that is exactly why he’s where he is in the polls
“...something different..”
“Different” doesn’t equal “better.”
There is an unwilling to consider his past political affiliations, or his past and current policy positions. I see politically aware people, who possess the same knowledge that I do of whom Trump has supported, and they either are wearing blinders to avoid facing what they know is the truth, or they are not conservatives.
I do not trust Trump. He’s waved too many red flags.
BUMP!
WHAT damage can Trump do that is worse than Hillary or Obama or the GOP establishment who has fought the conservatives in the base far harder than they have ever attempted to fight the Dems?
What you posit is more of the same. Personally, I’ve had enough of that. It is only destroying this nation.
Now I have that stupid Beatles song in my mind.
Shouldn’t I trust someone who tells me everything I want to hear?
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