Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The other Republicans should be doing likewise, instead of trying to ingratiate themselves to the next generation of Democratic voters.
Clayton, your error lies in thinking that the Repubs are are a separate political party seeking to advance a semi-coherent set of policies. in reality, the GOP is the Washington Generals to the Demo Globetrotters. togther, they are a single party working to centralize all power in a corporate state. consider the utter refusal of Boner and McConnell to seriously oppose Obama after their huge 2014 election win. note also the Corker bill recently on the Iran deal, which ensures that Obama needs only 34 senators to push the agreement through.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump is to Republicans what the Symbionese Liberation Army was to Leftist revolutionaries.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump says the mean things Leftists think Conservatives say, like in that short-lived tv show with Henry Winkler as the conservative radio talk show host. Or Wally George.
John Cunningham is talking about "establishment", especially Washington, D.C. Republicans (eGOP), which doesn't necessarily include people like Scott Walker. But if you look at him or any other plausible candidate, you'll find they're all for more immigration, e.g. Walker, before a unbelievable battlefield conversion a little while ago thought the only problem was with illegal immigration, and that we just had to make it so the illegals could do it legally.
ReplyDeleteTed Cruz, well, he's in D.C. now, and says many good things, but "IT" people like Clayton and myself will have to engage in false consciousness to support and vote for a man who wants to increase the annual H-1B quota by "500%" (and that's quoting from his own press release, no interpretation needed).
Anyway, Trump is dangerous to the eGOP and politicians like Walker because he's tapping into an issue that's very important to the base, probably right now the most important (sure is for me), and is conspicuously alone at the national level. We've known how important this is since W started a major campaign after the 2004 elections and the backlash was so severe the party had to close down one of their phone banks because upgrading wasn't worth the effort, support from us little people had cratered so badly, and we are/were a very, very important source of money.
The ever eeeevil VDARE suggested we're seeing the results of a "donor riot":
"In some ways, you can interpret the GOP’s history in the last 20 years as a kind of donor riot. The donors just simply refuse tolerate any kind of restriction on immigration at all. They go straight to the candidates, and above all to the consultant class, and tell them they won’t spend money on elections.
Remember, Mitt Romney spent over a billion dollars on this last election. His campaign was very clearly run to maximize donations, not to get votes.
That’s how the consultants typically run these campaigns. They’re parasites.
I was saying that we haven’t been on the offensive for 20 years, but actually there were scattered offensives at the state level, most notably in 2010 in Arizona. All kinds of states tried to put in measures to try to drive away illegal immigrants—because they’re desperate, because of the fiscal impact it has on them. This movement achieved a real momentum, and it was a major factor in the Tea Party election in 2010 when the Republicans succeeded in getting 60% of the white vote, regained the House and only very narrowly failed to regain the Senate.
But the amazing thing was that, immediately after those elections, when various state level people won saying that they would do this, that, and the other, was that they came in and undid it!
In every state, these major pieces of legislation were not put through and in some places they were actually dismantled, with the active enthusiasm of the major donors in each state.
The GOP politicians weren`t even capable of looking at the election results and saying: we need to do this again. Their only interest was the short term, keeping their donors happy.
I can’t think that the Republican Party can survive this way. It can’t have its donors and its voters. It has to choose one or the other.
There's a lot more good stuff in that article including a lot of supporting links, it's a version of a talk the author gave, "read the whole thing" if interested.
I think the Republicans are too beholden to their corporate sponsors and need their contributions to finance their campaigns to remain in office. Remaining in office is their focus, not promoting conservative values.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Donald Trump is not the answer to the country's ills. He'd make a lousy Commander-in-Chief.
When Are Republican Leaders Going To Decide To Win?
ReplyDeleteRepublican leaders are winning, and have been winning for years. They're just not playing the same game as you. Eric Cantor, for example, is a big winner:
http://www.newsweek.com/eric-cantor-lands-34-million-investment-banking-job-267924
The GOP and Fox News exist to harvest and re-channel conservative energy. They do not exist to pursue conservative goals. Do you suppose, for instance, that Fox is virtually silent on immigration because Roger Ailes misunderstands his market?
http://www.kausfiles.com/2015/03/18/fox-makes-it-easy-for-amnesty/
The relevant question isn't when Republicans will decide to win, but when conservatives will recognize their role in this farce. Probably never.