"... at the mercy of the same powerful forces — 'elites' — that his followers believe themselves to be victimized by. Hence the insistent refrain: 'When you say Trump is evil and foolish, you are saying that we who voted for him are evil and foolish.' That doesn’t follow logically, but this line of thinking is about divine transubstantiation, not politics. Mr. Trump’s proposition to his followers is straight from the Bible he has probably never read: 'If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.'... Republicans who still believe that Mr. Trump will be the instrument of their political salvation in 2024 — or who are cynically willing to go along for the same reason — are much more likely to find him the instrument of their political destruction. And perhaps it is time for these dinosaurs to meet their asteroid. The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country."
"Why Trump Could Win Again" by Kevin D. Williamson (NYT).
Trump is expected to announce his candidacy today.
Posts
164 comments:
Williamson, who I'm pretty sure is a Catholic, thought using "transubstantiation" as some kind of cheap political argument was a good idea. Go to Confession, Kevin.
Trump is bleeding support. The only people left are the delusional die-hards who worship him... blindly... extolling on him super-human powers of 4-d chess & superman/spiderman kingmaker. When faced with failure - he either 'meant to do that', or it's a grand conspiracy against him and only him...
Too much time in the echo chamber?
Despite Trump's many flaws, his ideology is simple: America First, patriotism, domestic workers first, protect the borders, be tough on crime, etc. It's all meat-and-potatoes 20th century center politics. Protestant Christianity was also the default 20th century USA ideology -- and periodically viewed as a cult too, just a huge one.
Trump is an average 'angry guy yelling at his TV' about unpleasant world events. He sees and speaks from his own perspective and interests, and doesn't care about collaboration or what others think. That's not a dual nature, that's putting action ahead of anxious second-guessing. Trump is simply not into paralysis by analysis or self-reflection.
This is a wasted effort. The struggle is on the state level to stop the mail-in and harvesting fraud. Trump will lose in 2024 because he can’t beat the fraud.
Biden photographed in a Mao jacket yesterday. Get the message? It’s out in the open now. You’re being taunted.
Trump went from being the cure to a desease to being the desease himself.
I'd be lying if I said Trump didn't help this... transmutation along.
From the people who wants everybody vaxed, boosted and not asking questions.
Wow. Kevin Williamson is a very good writer, but this is just deranged nonsense. I wish Trump would step aside. He's far from a godlike character, and more importantly, he's too flippin' old and a proven electoral failure. But I would sure as hell vote for him over any democrat and most republicans.
Trump is more like Dave Chappell, raising topics few others dare.
Why would I even waste a second reading an idiot that labels voters a “cult” for choosing other than Hillary in ‘16 and Joe in ‘20? Fuck the Times. Fuck Kevin Williamson.
"The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American...."
Now there is some great analysis from a nut writing in the NYT. The NYT is the enemy of the people. Trump got that right.
Since I attended so many Trump rallies, I know that his calling out the Fake News was always very popular. I expect Ron the Second to do the same but in a smarter way.
Hey, Ron the Second! I just came up with it. I love it. Feel free to use it.
One of the most bizarre aspects of Trumpism is the insane belief that that you can win by purposely turning off voters.
Last week Kari Lake literally told those the supported John McCain “to get the hell out”. That probably cost her the election. She seems to be fairly bright. I would love to know what prompted her to do this.
On this august blog you have members of the Trump Colon Cowboy brigade spending more time ranting against GOPe then they do against the Progs.
In his four years in office Trump did all he could do to alienate himself from independent voters - the very people who put him over the top in 2016.
Politics 101 is to expand your coalition, not reduce it, yet the Trump cultist seem to think the latter.
I think it was John Podhorotz who said yesterday on the Commentary podcast that these people (Trumpists) are just bad at politics.
Things I notice, since the mid-terms:
1. The Progressive Left Democrats and Establishment GOP are colluding together to 'eliminate MAGA' - this is reported as a news item. While there are sitting Senators and Representatives in office, that are there from the MAGA ticket.
2. No comment is necessary on the defunding-of-candidates issue during the race.
3. McConnell makes no secret (therefore) of being willing to lose, potentially both houses, to be in an extremely weak position politically, for the benefit of his party's constituents, if it means that it also weakens Donald Trump, the leader of his party.
4 Having eviscerated the Tea Party twice, McConnell has once again consulted the Playbook of Treachery to give the citizens what they don't want, good and hard. I would imagine he already has the votes locked up in his own byzantine paranoid plan.
5. My prediction is that the media is going to do what they're told, and deny Donald Trump airspace. The only thing I've seen from Trump since the election are written quotes and tweets, usually mis-characterized unfavorably. I have not seen his face on the news. They're going to freeze him off the airwaves, watch it happen.
Trump was promoted by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to sow chaos in the 2016 Republican primaries. Until the people who did that - politicians, media, and their financial backers - are outed and ousted from political life, we won't have a clear view of Trump, any politician, or any public issue.
So what. Trump has more than one skill set. The New World Order guys kill one and another one stands right back up and attacks their Army of corrupt thieves from the flank. In the end it will be last man standing.
Lose some weight, Big Kev, ya fat tub of goo, you.
"The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American"
In major states, the current GOP ran DeSantis and Zeldin and Kemp--what's depraved and anti-American about them? Oz was more "deformed" than Fetterman?
Of course, the anti-Trump rhetoric aims to add fuel to EverTrumper passions, making DJT ever more useful as a Dem tool. It has worked for a few years now, but the 2022 debacle seems to be sobering up at least a few "cultists." The masochists among them may persist, but most don't like the losing at the hands of the yuuuge loser.
Kevin Williamson once ended a column screeching at poor people in dying Kentucky towns to “Rent a damn U-Haul.” He, like Chris Stirewalt formerly of Fox News, Bret Stephens, David French, and so many other National Review-type conservatives, are running from their roots, their evangelical, redneck, Scots-Irish backgrounds. They yearn for cleansing from their shameful DNA and use cleverly-worded columns to gain acceptance into a club they crave membership in … the articulate, moralistic (but in a different way), progressive DC elite. They’ll never find it though they will get pats on the head and a cup in the hand to carry around as the smirking left grind the organ.
I have the same roots and I recognize the recesses of my upbringing. But I choose the Jim Webb and J.D. Vance model: love your roots, don’t cut them off. Prune the dead branches, don’t cut the vine at the trunk. There’s a reason that Scots-Irish culture developed and there’s a lot there to cherish.
AMDG said...
One of the most bizarre aspects of Trumpism is the insane belief that that you can win by purposely turning off voters.
And the people on the right that are attacking Trump supporters instead of Trump himself are in for a surprise, when those people, (I am one) get to the point where it really doesn't make a difference whom you vote for, when they hate you anyways. Let it burn.
On this august blog you have members of the Trump Colon Cowboy brigade spending more time ranting against GOPe then they do against the Progs.
No, we have you lefties ranting about Trump 24/7. Trump still lives in your heads.
A third party run by Trump could certainly fulfill his apocalyptic/victimhood worldview: destruction of the eGOP (albeit for one election cycle), and giving the dems the White House again.
The thrill of going down in flames and taking as many as possible with them will be a big motivator for his backers.
Sure, let’s go back to the previous version of the GOP: what the country really needs is a a party willing to sell out Americans because “muh free-market economy” to balance the democrats who are willing to sell out the American people for the (illegal) votes. Of course both types of sellouts love the kickbacks, bribes and graft.
What does "anti-American" even mean? Are people who believe that the United States is racist, sexist, homophobic, fascist, imperialistic, corrupt or whatever "anti-American." A lot of Democrats believe that the country is actually evil, not insane or sick, but malevolent. Are these people also "anti-American." It's Thanksgiving time, so get ready for the lectures about how the Whites committed genocide against Blacks and the Native Americans. Those lectures are going to sound pretty "anti-American."
Isn't Trump the least "anti" American person around?
AMDG: "One of the most bizarre aspects of Trumpism is the insane belief that that you can win by purposely turning off voters."
This is, of course, a complete fiction.
That Kari erred by allowing that moment to get away from her is something she likely regrets but compared to the negative impact of the GOPe-ers collaborating with the democraticals at all levels makes the McCain comment shrink to close to nothing.
Whats most important to McConnell and the GOPe-ers, represented well at Althouse blog, is to work with Schumer to deliver another couple of big policy wins to Biden.
Since the jig is up I am assuming it will be a huge corrupt funding package for Ukraine, increases in H1B for foreign workers for McCarthy's and Luntz's l Silicon Valley masters and more climate change money because like the Ukraine money it can be skimmed all the way down.
This too will be blamed on Trump because at this rate the GOPe is going to play that card for the indefinite future.
I said it to my German and other international colleagues at work, right after his election and I’ll repeat it here: Trump is like chemotherapy chemicals. In the right dosage, as long as it’s killing the cancer, that’s good. In the wrong dosage, when it starts actually killing the body, that’s bad. I think we’re at the wrong dosage level right now.
Sebastian: "It has worked for a few years now, but the 2022 debacle seems to be sobering up at least a few "cultists."'
Spoken like a true NY Times devotee. Liz Cheney would be proud of you.
The Left: Trump Trump Trump.. more Trump!
Trump's faithful: Trump Trump Trump Trump... More Trump!
The rest of us: Exhaustion.
AMDG: "On this august blog you have members of the Trump Colon Cowboy brigade spending more time ranting against GOPe then they do against the Progs."
Some people have noticed how the GOPe have purposefully and intentionally failed us for decades and are unwilling to "see" the Emperors New Clothes as that same GOPe collaborates directly with the D's.
But congrats on your coming Murkowski win.
The Never-Trumpers will never forgive Trump for proving them wrong in 2016. It really is that simple. They worked against Trump for 4 years of his Presidency to try to reclaim their dignity in the 2020 election. They succeeded in defeating Trump, but it is a pyrrhic victory as they are now the fluffers of the Democrats.
Here is the history they do not want to admit- none of the other Republicans who ran in 2016 would have beaten Hillary Clinton, and none would have defeated her in 2020 either- it would have been a landslide re-election for her. If Clinton had won in 2016, the Supreme Court would be, at least, 5-4 for the Democrats (Kennedy might not have retired).
The sad reality is that Trump can't repeat that success from 2016 either. For a Republican to win the Presidency again, the country will need to suffer the depredations of the Left long enough to come to our senses, if we ever do.
This writer is a fucking moron.
“Politics 101 is to expand your coalition, not reduce it, yet the Trump cultist seem to think the latter”.
He literally had the highest vote total of any republican in history in 2020. It ain’t hard to find the numbers if you care to look.
Yeah, let's keep Crypto Mitch. That's the ticket. Rinos to the rescue. Just keep the corruption alive in Congress. They are thrilled you all feel the same way. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/dirty-mitch-take-mcconnell-received-2-5-million-crypto-laundromat-ftx-senate-leadership-fund/
AMDG,
You want Trump gone, all you have to do is defeat him in the 2024 primaries, assuming he does run. What is wrong with that path of ending his political career? Why do you find it necessary to get rid of him right this instant?
Look, I think, if DeSantis runs, he will defeat Trump handily- I do think the voters are ready to move on. You, however, are being very hypocritical when you write:
"On this august blog you have members of the Trump Colon Cowboy brigade spending more time ranting against GOPe then they do against the Progs."
What exactly is it that you are doing that is different in kind?
The right way to get rid of Trump is to deny him the nomination at the ballot box.
Here is your Uniparty. Enjoy the downfall....https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/uniparty-action-schumer-meet-mitch-mcconnell-push-ditching-maga-republicans-video/
I'd love to hear what Williamson thinks is a worthy political platform for a reborn Republican party, once the secure borders, energy independence, traditional values of family and individual freedoms, belief in American exceptionalism, adherence to rule of law, and expansion of the American dream to include all the people Democrats continue to corral into victimhood paddocks are rooted out.
I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for Trump in 2020 if it had been necessary. Since then, given the (in my opinion, highly questionable but whatchagonnado) result and his quixotic pursuit of a different outcome, I've been hoping he'd retire from politics and use his remaining populist capital to bring votes in for candidates who seem to feel as I do. I might not get my wish.
I suppose I could hope or assume that Williamson isn't talking about me - if I gave a flying bleep about his approval.
Amazing that both parties now believe their opposition as "anti-American." God help us if both are correct.
Well put M Jordan! The insane, ranting, unending, mind melting response to Trump sure looks like ethnic hatred to me. How dare those Scots Irish peasants get above their station! They must be cuffed back into place and damned quick. Nothing is more important than that they learn to behave and not contradict their betters. Back to the farm serfs!
@ john.
Agreed- Trump is in full-ego mode. Destruction mode. No longer the super-hero - he is the super-fat-paranoid blob-villain - starring in the D-movie where everyone has exited the theater - but his blind faithful are still in line hoping to get in.
It's a lose-lose for all of us. But Trump's ego wins. The media(D-hack) on stand-by laughing and drooling. I wonder how long it will take for Mika and Joe to ditch their hatred and give Trump the soft-glove treatment? The suck-all-the-air-out-of-the-room treatment? Already it looks as if the corrupt left are ditching efforts to "indict" him.
No problem for Trump. He and his billionaire family can walk off into the sunset... while the nation burns.
I find Williamson insightful many topics - he's the reason I ever subscribed to NR - but on Trump he has a huge blind spot. Not that Trump is wonderful - I've never never believed that - but neither is he the worst thing - the Hitler in waiting - that could ever happen.
Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "The Left: Trump Trump Trump.. more Trump!
Trump's faithful: Trump Trump Trump Trump... More Trump!
The rest of us: Exhaustion."
LOL
You aren't part of the "rest of us", you are a charter member and member in good standing of the Left/GOPe team crying "Trump Trump Trump Trump.. more Trump!".
And, as far as the misnamed (because of course it is) "Trump faithful" group, I will continue to repeat the same question I ask everyday which is never answered: Just show me the potential republican candidate who will give us "Trump policies without Trump".
Go ahead.
But if you are going to say DeSantis, be prepared to share some links which demonstrate conclusively that DeSantis is on board with Economic Nationalism and America first in the economic and foreign policy realm.......which, of course, would go completely against what ALL of DeSantis' biggest donors (Wall Street/Hedge funders and 90% of the GOPe-ers) want.
So go ahead. I'm waiting.
Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "The rest of us: Exhaustion."
Once again, as always, speaking for everyone instead of yourself. It's an amusing tic with you.
Spiros: "Isn't Trump the least "anti" American person around?"
Yes, but the McConnell/Romney-ites at Althouse blog are going full Cheney with their criticisms so its kitchen sink time.
Ironically, Trump has enough real flaws that you don't really need to make up stuff about him just because you want him gone. But like the leftists the GOPe-ers are now fully emulating, Trump has become the Center of the Universe for All Things Wrong In The World and If He Would Just Go Away All Could Be Right Again In The GOPe Paradise Garden.
Reading some of the commentary here is like turning on MSNBC or reading Democratical Underground....and not from the usual Althouse lefty suspects.
The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country."
Could not agree more.
Perhaps for different reasons though.
I would love to see pedjt come out and say the he is forming a MAGA Association (not" party") for the purpose of supporting "Country First" candidates at all levels of whatever party.
It would ask people to contribute directly to candidates. Not via act red or wi blue or party pacs.
Some call me a dreamer.
John Henry
The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country."
Could not agree more.
Perhaps for different reasons though.
I would love to see pedjt come out and say the he is forming a MAGA Association (not" party") for the purpose of supporting "Country First" candidates at all levels of whatever party.
It would ask people to contribute directly to candidates. Not via act red or wi blue or party pacs.
Some call me a dreamer.
John Henry
Throughout all this who's been focused on personality rather than issues?
Quayle: "I said it to my German and other international colleagues at work, right after his election and I’ll repeat it here: Trump is like chemotherapy chemicals. In the right dosage, as long as it’s killing the cancer, that’s good. In the wrong dosage, when it starts actually killing the body, that’s bad. I think we’re at the wrong dosage level right now."
Fair enough, but this analogy is incomplete until its explicitly stated that its the GOPe cancer along with the left cancer that is killing the patient and the GOPe cancer is being ignored by the Althouse Blog "doctors". Not just ignored, praised and lauded.
Which causes the lefty cancer to smile knowing the patient has been well "conditioned" psychologically.
You go to the World Series to root for your team. When your team and you lose, you accept you got beat. If you got any decency, you congratulate the winner and hope to come back stronger, you don't stamp your feet, claim fraud and whine about it, anyway back in late 40's and early 50's that's how we did it. In today's world, especially Politics whining and claiming fraud seems to be the new method. Here's an instance when even I wish for the "good old days" Democracy was almost 80 years younger and still putting its feet on the ground. Robert Zimmerman sang it OK "the times they are a changin.(but there is still a lot of Jew bashing going on because they aren't backing the losers strong enough, its being stated) It's really simple math, you back losers, you will probably lose. Come back with a better game and better players, no participation trophies just work harder and appeal to the masses.
Bitter Clinger: "Sure, let’s go back to the previous version of the GOP: what the country really needs is a a party willing to sell out Americans because “muh free-market economy” to balance the democrats who are willing to sell out the American people for the (illegal) votes. Of course both types of sellouts love the kickbacks, bribes and graft."
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!
You're not supposed to say that! That's Double-plus Ungood Thinking to the GOpe-ers.
In the future, as the McFailures/GOPe continue their multi-decade sellout to all things global/dems/left, you must always remember to say that its all Trump's fault at all times.
In that way your democratical "friends" will continue to invite you to parties and you won't have to answer any questions about those icky Deplorables.
In 2022 there is no Trump. There is only "Trump" as defined by peoples' prejudices, vanities, and need for social affirmation.
If you doubt this, I just overheard people talking about how he "banned Muslims" from coming to the US.
I used to find Williamson interesting when he wrote on economics. But I immediately stop reading any piece that cheapens and undermines itself with words like "cult," "Big Lie," "insurrection," and the like. That type of "short-cut" language indicates to me that the author refuses to confront fact with fact, and thus fails Argumentation 101 (personally colloquially thought of as "Change My Mind.")
Obviously, the Republican Party has its well-documented problems; even with that brief Trumpian two-year [slim, very slim] "majority," any party that had/has to create legislation pleasing both Rand Paul on one end of the "right-ish" spectrum, and the "Maine Ladies, McCain, and Murkowski on the other, was doomed to please no one and, ultimately, fail. The Dems ran into something similar (finally!) with "The Squad."
However, it's the majority party that chooses each chamber's leader, that sets the agenda, that forces votes, that manages the committees, etc. So, I'll take what I can get from the Republicans, if only to obstruct the destructive economic, social, national defense, and financial plans and programs of the Dems.
"Why would I even waste a second reading an idiot that labels voters a “cult” for choosing other than Hillary in ‘16 and Joe in ‘20?"
Just so. "Compared to who?" is really the first question when discussing Trump's presidency.
That said, Trump's primary run has a strong smell of rope-a-dope in the service of DeSantis. The tell will be how much of his own money he spends on it. I'm guessing not much.
That's such a terrible reading of Trump and "followers." Trump is attractive because he makes political use of a Don Rickles sense of humor.
No organization can stand up against it because it's able to put the organization into question, something new for the deep state and its guardrails.
On the other hand Trump is a nice guy outside the battle of politics. It's almost as if sincerity was his thing, and its opposite is his political foe.
The hidden meaning the The Emperor's New Clothes is that there are hidden meanings.
Shouting Thomas said...Biden photographed in a Mao jacket yesterday. Get the message? It’s out in the open now. You’re being taunted.
They were ALL wearing that creepy shirt. All of them. The message of the creepy shirts / MAO Jackets was...we are now under one world order. And our current installed senile President went along with it and happily put on the required uniform.
The only guy I can think of as President that would refuse to dress in the Mao jacket... is Donald J. Trump.
That Trump drives some people nuts is not Trump’s fault. The people who can’t abide anyone else favoring Trump over the other shitty options is a new phenomenon. The civil war within GOP right now is Base vs Leadership and the leadership, JUST LIKE DEMOCRATS, wants to make Trump the catalyst because it obscures the actual issue. MAGA is a concept ANY Republican could run on successfully like Desantis did without calling it that or being seen with Trump. I’m a true believer in America and our virtues and strengths. Trump was just the best option available for me getting what I wanted from government. My patriotism predates Trump and will endure with or without him but I will not tolerate nevertrumprrs taking over the party or the process. The proved their cowardice and willingness to lose to “purge” Trump.
Fine. But you can’t purge all us voters who despise GOPe. We will win. And we don’t need Trump to do so.
Trump and his Ever-Trumpers would rather trash DeSantis than trash the left.
That's all I need to know.
AMDG: "On this august blog you have members of the Trump Colon Cowboy brigade spending more time ranting against GOPe then they do against the Progs."
You're right AMDG. I see no real difference between the GOPe and current Progs. By GOPe I mean McConnell, Romney, Murkowski, Collins, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Bush family, Cheney family... but I think GOP Gov of Maryland Larry Hogan is the RINO poster boy.
Both like war. Both waste tax money. Both live above the laws they impose. Both have screwed up our economy. Both have supported and implemented, measures that have corrupted our voting system. Both support propaganda pumped out by the MSM, and censorship coordinated by Big Tech. Both sold out the middle class to China. Both support never ending funding and expansion of NATO.
We'll see how cozy DeSantis gets with the GOPe. Photo ops with any of the RINOs mentioned above will hurt him in a primary against Trump.
The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country."
WTF!!!????!!
Which party, and which movement within that party, is trying to make America great again? Which party is trying to preserve traditional values and customs? Which party is trying to protect parental rights?
Which party is trying to fundamentally change America? Which party is pushing deviant sexuality on our children?
Kevin D. Williamson has taught himself to write in such a style that one of his essays now has been published in The New York Times.
It would be great if Trump announced he’d retire from politics in exchange for McConnell, McCarthy, Romney, and Murkowski resigning from Congress.
Williamson is tiresome. He’s George Will without the bow tie and big back account.
The Conservative Wriyers need to go as well.
An awful lot of people who voted for Trump weren't enthusiastic about his candidacy in the very beginning and a lot are disappointed with him now and getting tired of his antics.
People who still support Trump and people who still support the Republicans and expected them to win bigger last week assumed that voters would look at the state of the country now, draw the obvious lesson and vote Republican in large numbers. It looks like that turned out not to be true. It also looks like Trump would lose if he ran again.
But was the assumption really irrational? Did you have to be blinded by cultic devotion to Trump to think that way? I think the problem was not taking the cultic behavior of Democrats into account. That people are so blinded by Trump hatred and abortion fears that they would let the country go to hell is, for want of a better word, irrational, but it looks like a fact and maybe a deciding one in elections.
Judas Priest, can the NYT's ever shut up about Trump? Its two years to the 2024 election. What is this, Hit piece number 4,322?
Tax funded hooker, I promise not to insult you if you stop insulting me.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Trump and his Ever-Trumpers would rather trash DeSantis than trash the left.
That's all I need to know.
11/15/22, 10:07 AM
And YOU are great at trashing Trump supporters, which ARE on the same side... and that is all I need to know. We aren't the same.
Unless millions of right wing voters suddenly materialize out of thin air, the Trump campaign will be a great squandering of money and goodwill. Try to run the Electoral College numbers and show me how DJT has a path to 271. He is fatally flawed.
And Kevin Williamson is a hyperventilating nitwit.
A week ago Dems were wondering - with Trump gone, who are we going to use to make us look good?
I was all-in on Trump when he delivered/could deliver.
But politics is a knife fight, and only democrats seem to understand that.
Now? What have you done for me lately?
If you can't help me win then I will throw you away like moldy bread.
In his four years in office Trump did all he could do to alienate himself from independent voters - the very people who put him over the top in 2016.
Trump is alienating everyone now, but I don't think that statement is true. People who hated Trump in 2020 went on hating him and came out in bigger numbers in 2020. Some voters who picked him in 2016 fell away. Maybe they just weren't interested in politics. Maybe they believed too much of the media propaganda. Maybe too much Trump being Trump and saying Trumpy things wore them out. Covid threw everything off.
But I don't see Trump's policies alienating him from independent voters. His policies gave them more reasons to support him than to vote for Biden. Indeed, his popular vote totals went up from 2026 to 2020. The Democrat vote -- real and fraudulent -- went up more. If you were hung up on Trump's behavior or actually thought Joe Biden was honest, decent, and competent you voted against Trump, but if you could see behind all the antics, you weren't turned off by his administration.
"at the mercy of the same powerful forces — 'elites' — that his followers believe themselves to be victimized by. Hence the insistent refrain: 'When you say Trump is evil and foolish, you are saying that we who voted for him are evil and foolish.' That doesn’t follow logically" Maybe that's why we aren't saying it. We have a way simpler argument. "People like Kevin Williamson and all those imaginary elites are saying that we are evil and foolish. Directly. They have a million excuses like Donald Trump, but that's the fact regardless of excuses. They hate and despise us and want to punish us and say so often."
Ampersand said...
Unless millions of right wing voters suddenly materialize out of thin air, the Trump campaign will be a great squandering of money and goodwill. Try to run the Electoral College numbers and show me how DJT has a path to 271. He is fatally flawed.
Show me who DOES!!??!! With the GOPe trashing 75 million voters, there won't be one for anybody on the right.
"But you can’t purge all us voters who despise GOPe. We will win. And we don’t need Trump to do so."
I hope you're right (that we will win). But even if you're not, we're done being bought off with the every four year culture war Mau Mauing that never shows any results while the rest of the time, the GOPe sends American manufacturing to countries where they allow slave labor and American blood and treasure to wars every fucking where. If we vote for you no matter what you do, you'll never do anything for us. So shape up or lose. Luckily, it looks like Hispanic and Black voters are starting to come around to this way of thinking as well. The Dems have been playing this same game for decades, except on that side of the fence, it's "they'll put you all back in chains" instead of "we're going to ban gay marriage".
Im more a democrat now. Blow the country up. Eliminate every institution. Let every illegal in. Supply them with a credit card and a gun.
We finally agree.
Inga, shake?
I admittedly have vacillated on Trump until the swamp invaded his house. His house!!!!
And then it surfaced the King of Swamp creatures Mitch McConnell supported the Murk over the R candidate in Alaska. That confirmed it matters not which party is in charge.
Joe Smith: "Now? What have you done for me lately?
If you can't help me win then I will throw you away like moldy bread."
Sounds practical. Now, who are you turning to that will deliver the same policy positions that you desire without the "Trump baggage"?
Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "Trump and his Ever-Trumpers would rather trash DeSantis than trash the left.
That's all I need to know."
We have pointed out the obvious which upsets and befuddles you.
DeSantis is being supported by the very GOPe-ers and Wall Streeters that opposed every economic/America First, immigration/border security, foreign affairs and military policy that Trump advanced.
You stamping your feed and demanding obeisance to DeSantis isn't going to work. Why not just show us where DeSantis has committed to delivering in those policy areas listed above.......
.....and if you can't, then take a hike.
DeSantis is the guy? Well, then prove it.
Lurker21: "That people are so blinded by Trump hatred and abortion fears that they would let the country go to hell is, for want of a better word, irrational, but it looks like a fact and maybe a deciding one in elections."
"Trump hatred".
It ain't just a far left/democratical thing anymore.
And along with that goes subservience to the GOPe. At Althouse blog, it appears darn near axiomatic.
"The Trump cult theology....."
This is written by someone who does not see subtly in political choices, but rather dogmatic ideology. What democrats and the left have failed to see and continue to fail to see is that Trump is a means to an end. A way out of the dogmatic cultish ideology of the left and a return to a constitutional republic . THAT is his only attraction for the electorate. He said what he was going to do and he put that in motion. What scared the elites of the political left was the abrupt and possibly permanent interruption of graft. What scared the die hard left voters was his policies. Those policies that the left has embraced has brought us closer to war than at any time under Trump.
In order to be a Democrat you have to embrace dishonesty and believe in your heart that everyone else does too.
“The Democratic Party, which once valued fairness and justice, has, alas, been torching the American Dream. Democratic politicians, school boards, governors and even US Supreme Court justices are pushing “equity” over equality, “anti-racist” bigotry over colour-blindness, and mediocrity over merit. Literacy and math scores are plummeting nationwide, while black and Hispanic kids are falling further and further behind — and yet progressive Democrats are far more interested in bringing crackpot racialist theories into our classrooms. In other words: they choose indoctrination over education.”
—- Asra Nomani
Again Wendy - you can cling to Trump. That's on you. You are free to do as you please.
I want to beat the left.
After being called a "never-Trumper" for 4 years - all while I voted for the guy 2 times and supported him.
Yeah - If "Ever-Trumper" feels - well, however, it makes you feel - that's on you.
Kari Lake was just done in by McCain/Pence/Liz Cheney Republicans in AZ. I'm sure Mitt Romney is relieved.
Extended counts. Massive absentee voting. Ballot harvesting. Funded post election ballot curing efforts. Machines going down in GOP concentrated districts. The election fiascos in AZ extend from McCain Republicans who run Maricopa.
The re-elected GOPe AZ Treasurer Kimberly Yee received more votes that Hobbs or Lake. Sure.
And Tea Party/MAGA supporters are supposed to just reunite, shut up, and vote for the next GOPe candidate. You think the poor white people that live by Dave Chapelle in Ohio are going to go along with this program??
What does Ron DeSantis have to say about all of this?? I don't hear anything. He also made campaign appearances with Kari Lake. How come that didn't work? He's got the new Midas touch...
It’s snowing outside my window right now. It’s to warm to stick, thankfully, but we live in Virginia, dang it! The far northwest corner of the state, but we are a southern state, you know.
If this a sign of a bad winter, then I feel for the people who live in New England and northern states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. The politicians they’ve elected fought off pipelines and now it’s looking like a cold winter is on it’s way. Of course elections have consequences, and freezing is one heck of a consequence.
(btw - not that I want Trump indicted - I do not) I know it's BS.
But you can glean a great deal watching the chess moves of your enemy... Trump wants his supporters to take their eyes off the corrupt left.
All while Trump craps on... not the enemy - but the future.
Ampersand: "Try to run the Electoral College numbers and show me how DJT has a path to 271. He is fatally flawed."
Tell us your alternative and then show us the path to 271 for that candidate.
“The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved…”
Hey, wait just a minute… are we talking about a political party or Harvey’s schwanstuker?
If it’s not Trump, I am going to take a lot of convincing that I am not just voting for a deep state/neocon figurehead with a different flavor of uniparty. How many million more votes did we get in our “ass kicking”? Five or six, I think.
It’s easy- pound away at Trump for every loss and ill.
He’s bound to crumble, eventually. Right?
At least I know what he did.
Can he do it again?
Depends on who you want to believe.
I don’t believe the Left. Their media.
Their elite.
I’ll wait…
The Forgetful Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "After being called a "never-Trumper" for 4 years - all while I voted for the guy 2 times and supported him.
Yeah - If "Ever-Trumper" feels - well, however, it makes you feel - that's on you."
It seems like only hours ago our Althouse Blog Commissar was decrying the continued discussions around Trump.
Well, it was hours ago. Those sorts of things are difficult to remember. You know, like how McConnell openly funded opponents of republican candidates.
So very difficult to remember.
Kari Lake made a few last minute mis-steps. What is this strange obsession with telling potential voters they are not welcome? McCain is dead. Get over it.
btw- I am super bummed she lost. I liked her ability to take on the hack-D press. I hope there are some lessons there for others.
Thank you Wendybar for this: "And YOU are great at trashing Trump supporters, which ARE on the same side... and that is all I need to know. We aren't the same."
I have not trashed Desantis. I'm trashing Karl Rove and Williamson and McConnell and Romney and Ronna McDaniels and McCarthy and the RGA and the RNC and the DSCC and Doug Ducey. I'm willing to sit in CA and watch the primaries unfold and if Desantis is the man so be it. If the base sticks with Trump I'll probably join them. The thing that unites both men besides the (R) is THEY FIGHT. Those others I named are weasels working WITH democrats to sabotage their own party so we don't get too many people in congress who want to make America great.
Can't have THAT can we?
Althouse Blog Commissar: "(btw - not that I want Trump indicted - I do not)"
Oh no. Of course not. Why, you would never! I mean, you were only referencing it in a sly way just the other day, but you would never enjoy it or want it to happen.
Heavens no. Perish the thought. Why, you're a regular Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell in that regard. A team player all the way!
Totally believable in every way. Thanks for your support.
I want to beat the left.
How? Sabotaging candidates that speak nicely about Trump isn't going to get you the votes to "beat the left." Now Katie Hobbs is in charge of the NEXT two or three elections in AZ. Is that helping? Governor of PA will be a D. Is that helping? GOPe snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and elevated the abortion-loving Murkowski over conservative AK candidates. Is THAT defeating "the left?" Putting down every republican that doesn't agree with you is not defeating the left: it is BEING the left.
Make it binary. Is supporting Kari Lake or supporting Katie Hobbs the best way to "beat the left?" Curious minds want to know.
Gusty Passing Winds wrote:
"Kari Lake was just done in by McCain/Pence/Liz Cheney Republicans in AZ. I'm sure Mitt Romney is relieved."
Yeah, it's never Trump's fault. It's always someone else's fault.
It's not ever trumper that pisses me off, Hunter Biden, it is you calling us Trump Humpers. YOU keep ragging on Trump supporters instead of going after the policies. We are going after the policies. We aren't the same. You stay in your elitist bubble. When it bursts...don't blame us. Blame your hatred of us.
- you can cling to Trump. That's on you. You are free to do as you please.
I want to beat the left.
11/15/22, 11:18 AM ''
YOU are acting JUST like the left. I guess if you can't beat them, you join them??
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Thank you Wendybar for this: "And YOU are great at trashing Trump supporters, which ARE on the same side... and that is all I need to know. We aren't the same."
I have not trashed Desantis. I'm trashing Karl Rove and Williamson and McConnell and Romney and Ronna McDaniels and McCarthy and the RGA and the RNC and the DSCC and Doug Ducey. I'm willing to sit in CA and watch the primaries unfold and if Desantis is the man so be it. If the base sticks with Trump I'll probably join them. The thing that unites both men besides the (R) is THEY FIGHT. Those others I named are weasels working WITH democrats to sabotage their own party so we don't get too many people in congress who want to make America great.
Can't have THAT can we?
11/15/22, 11:44 AM
EXACTLY!!!
I voted for Trump twice.
If he runs and DeSantis does not... I'll vote for Trump.
If both of them run I'll vote for DeSantis.
And if just DeSantis.. of course I'll vote for him.
But I dang well won't vote for no Democrat.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Trump and his Ever-Trumpers would rather trash DeSantis than trash the left.
That's all I need to know.
You are a dishonest childish hypocrite.
What did "evil and foolish" ever amount to? Charlottesville, "fine people," a lie. Trump had nothing to do with anything that happened there. Like the fake kidnapping of Whitmer by the FBI years later, it was an attempt to foment violence that could be blamed on Trump with an obliging media. Now something is finally coming out in this regard about J6.
Alicia Machado, Khizr Khan, Mexican judge, Mexican rapists, groping (possibly wanted or consensual ("if they let you") after a possibly unwanted or nonconsensual kiss). Am I missing anything? As Pres, Trump may have continued to say foolish things from time to time, although nothing really comes to mind; evil even less so. His actions were not evil or foolish; they were a solid B or B+, especially in comparison to senile guy. I can truly never get this idea that Trump is Hitler. This is the hostage video script that the woke demand everyone read if they want to keep a job; is this where so-called conservatives want to stand?
But having said all this, Trump is old and "2020 was stolen" was always a stupid way to run a railroad. It's kind of impressive the way voters got rid of almost every politician who made that a top issue.
“Whats most important to McConnell and the GOPe-ers, represented well at Althouse blog, is to work with Schumer to deliver another couple of big policy wins to Biden.”
Oh boy these next couple years are going to be fun reading here in the comments sections with Drago fighting with all the former Trump supporters, now “GOPe-ers” here. Gotta get more popcorn.
And perhaps it is time for these dinosaurs to meet their asteroid. The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country."
Suddenly, I have a desire to vote for Trump. I was always willing, but this makes me actively want to.
Odd that Trump holds no responsibility for his fuck-ups.
I detest mosquitos
Isn't this the guy who cucked hard to get hired by the liberal Atlantic and then got fired anyway?
The infighting among former Trump supporters and Trump cultists is music to the ears of us on the left. A cult breaking apart is a messy business, I suppose.
Drago has asked me to explain how a non-Trump Repub would have a path to Electoral College victory. My answer is that a strong candidate who demonstrated intelligence, integrity, competency, and respect for all citizens would have a chance to win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina, and Maine. Trump will lose all but one or two of those states.
Shouting Thomas said...This is a wasted effort. The struggle is on the state level to stop the mail-in and harvesting fraud
Ballot harvesting should be illegal everywhere. But where it's legal, anybody can do it. If the Democrats do while the Republicans don't, whose fault is that?
While we are infighting about hating Trump....Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates are at the G20 telling us how the world is going to change after the reset, that Obama promised in 2007...Congratulations suckers. We can fight all we want, but we are fucked. And you can Thank Saint Obama and the GOPe for stopping them...NOT. Trump tried, but MEAN TWEETS!! Enjoy the downfall you all have been fighting for!! https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/world-will-look-differently-gone-transition-wefs-klaus-schwab-great-reset-world-leaders-g20-summit-video/
As Time passes it is clear that the latest GOPe attempt to destroy Trump is failing.
If Desantis wants a future at the national level he needs to distance himself from this effort. Rubio and Cruz are already doing that.
As this effort fails you see the childish immature hypocrites lash out at Trump and his supporters with increasingly childish name calling. The real problem here is the GOPe and the traitors that are working with the Democrats to eliminate the TEA party. Really we will be better off when you jerks. Go join the democrat party and get it over with.
We are not going back to CoC open borders endless wars free trade with China.
Desantis will convince us that he will put Americans First or he will lose.
And he will not convince us he supports Americans First by attacking Trump or by having his Corporate toadies do it for him while he hides like a coward.
We remember how you people acted in 2012 all too well. If Desantis supporters think they are anything other than Romney 2.0 supporters right now they are just stupid.
My wife has a favorite Kroger cashier she goes to ... Bridget is her name. They've talked politics in recent years. Bridget is conservative and a Trump supporter. Last visit my wife asked her if she'd voted yet?
"I don't know who to vote for," she said. "Is Trump running?"
She then confessed the only times she has ever voted in her life are 2016 and 2020 because she was voting for Trump.
How many Bridgets are out there? Millions. The Trump-hating Right hates them and never counts them in their fake analyses. They all should be repudiated: Erick Ericson, Noah Rothman, Steve Deace ... the whole boiling of them. You want to get on my shit list? Just be a "conservative" and post an anti-Trump tweet. Will Chamberlain ... I'm looking at you.
Trump shook up the world. He brought millions into the process that were barred from it in the past. Every institution in America rose up against him and them. The fear of him is worldwide. And it's a proxy fear. What they really hate is the proles. The non-elites. The people.
I used to call myself a conservative. At the moment I'm a populist but that can change when the times call for it. Populists need a new strategy to win because the institutional forces are so against them. I have one: Proles to Polls. Pretty good, eh? Next election we'll see the Dems "Souls to polls" and raise them. In the small towns and hidden areas of America we've got more proles than they've got souls. We'll win. Then maybe I can go back to being a conservative.
Wow. 14 posts by Drago in just one Althouse thread. That's a new record for him.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Again Wendy - you can cling to Trump. That's on you. You are free to do as you please.
I want to beat the left.
No you don't.
You have never posted a single strategy or path to "beat the left."
All you do is bash the TEA Party/MAGA candidates and supporters.
You aren't even acting like a Cruz 2016 supporter. They had legitimate points.
You are acting like a Romney 2012 supporter. You are cheering as corporate money washes in and the media attacks republicans. You are cheering as Mitch McConnell spends millions attacking Republicans and pulls support from candidates all over the country.
You and Mitt Romney and McConnell and the rest need to go join the democrat party.
Or you can grow up.
Ampersand said...
Drago has asked me to explain how a non-Trump Repub would have a path to Electoral College victory. My answer is that a strong candidate who demonstrated intelligence, integrity, competency, and respect for all citizens would have a chance to win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina, and Maine. Trump will lose all but one or two of those states.
That is just as shallow and stupid a statement as all the other name calling.
I know you think it was a good effort.
That is the problem.
Inga said...
The infighting among former Trump supporters and Trump cultists is music to the ears of us on the left. A cult breaking apart is a messy business, I suppose.
It is music to your ears because you are stupid.
But you support an obviously corrupt rapist.
This level of morality heavily correlates with low level IQs.
DeSantis is the guy? Well, then prove it.
Hopefully he will. If he doesn’t there will be someone else. On another Althouse thread on another day I expressed my belief that DeSantis as the front runner two years out was going to be a challenge for him. Eight years ago there was a lot of buzz over outgoing Virginia governor Bob McDonnell as a potential Republican presidential candidate, until Obama’s DOJ indicted him on alleged corruption charges. He was convicted, but the Supreme Court ruled — unanimously! — that Obama’s DOJ was attempting to criminalize normal politics.
So will the slimy Merrick Garland find a novel way to apply lawfare to DeSantis? I’d not bet against it. Plus the newsmedia will be digging through trash cans and turning over rocks looking for dirt — and making up dirt, as needed — to bump him off. Frankly, I hope he’ll still be around in 2024, but I doubt it.
wendybar said...
Ampersand said...
Unless millions of right wing voters suddenly materialize out of thin air, the Trump campaign will be a great squandering of money and goodwill. Try to run the Electoral College numbers and show me how DJT has a path to 271. He is fatally flawed.
Show me who DOES!!??!! With the GOPe trashing 75 million voters, there won't be one for anybody on the right.
The GOPe isn't trashing all 75 million.
There are a million or so McConnell supporters in there who held their noses and joined all those sweaty icky gross unwashed Republican TEA party types and voted for Trump. They agree with the Media and the CoC Billionaires that Trump and his supporters need to stop putting up these terrible candidates though.
They are happy to tell us how awful we are and that we shouldn't expect these low quality candidates to get any support for the NRSC or the RGA though. And if these low quality candidates lose well that is Trump's fault too.
The GOPe really has a good gig. They shit strawberry ice cream and want you to know that.
Blogger Achilles said...
As Time passes it is clear that the latest GOPe attempt to destroy Trump is failing.
If Desantis wants a future at the national level he needs to distance himself from this effort. Rubio and Cruz are already doing that.
As this effort fails you see the childish immature hypocrites lash out at Trump and his supporters with increasingly childish name calling. The real problem here is the GOPe and the traitors that are working with the Democrats to eliminate the TEA party. Really we will be better off when you jerks. Go join the democrat party and get it over with.
We are not going back to CoC open borders endless wars free trade with China.
Desantis will convince us that he will put Americans First or he will lose.
And he will not convince us he supports Americans First by attacking Trump or by having his Corporate toadies do it for him while he hides like a coward.
We remember how you people acted in 2012 all too well. If Desantis supporters think they are anything other than Romney 2.0 supporters right now they are just stupid.
11/15/22, 12:11 PM
————-
1. The person most responsible for destroying Trump is himself.
2. You are faced with a dilemma. You cannot have both an American First agenda and Trump. He cannot deliver it because he is unelectable. For the 10 millionth time, the people that decide elections, the independents, despise Trump and will not vote for him.
3. At what point does it dawn on the fools of the Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade that the only thing Trump cares about is Trump. His problem with DeSantis isn’t that DeSantis is promoting a competing agenda. His problem is that DeSantis is overshadowing him. The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help.
4. In 4 years DeSantis turned a battleground state into red bastion. In 4 years Trump chased always constituencies with his impulsive behavior and cost the Republicans the Senate twice.
lonejustice: "Wow. 14 posts by Drago in just one Althouse thread. That's a new record for him."
Inga and a couple of other Althouse lefty Usual Suspects used to keep track of the number of posts by non-leftists. I guess that's just a thing some do, usually those on the left.
!!!???!!!
Ampersand: "Drago has asked me to explain how a non-Trump Repub would have a path to Electoral College victory."
I did not ask for a generic. I asked for a specific name and a specific path.
That you did not, or could not, do so explains much.
Gunner: "Isn't this the guy who cucked hard to get hired by the liberal Atlantic and then got fired anyway?"
Yes. And it didn't take long.
“It is music to your ears because you are stupid.”
No one is stupider than a person who remains in a political cult that has no chance of winning elections and actually seeing their goals for the US realized.
Mike Wolff 11:50
JD Vance garnered (sorry) Trump's support. He won - despite not kissing Trump's ass. Or did he kiss it too much? Such a delicate tight-rope act - to kiss or not to kiss Trump's ass... is it ever enough?
I really wanted Kari Lake to win - but her odd past (she used to be an Obama supporter, and some of her miss-steps along the way) (and the freaky way they count the votes in AZ) a cluster-f.
Her loss is not on me. I was her cheerleader. Again - not enough for the Trump loyalty test?
I hoped all of the R's would win - even the candidates who were not so swift. Doug Mastriano was a poor choice. I never said so out-loud until now - and I still hoped he would win. Is that not enough Trump-Loyalty?
Mastriano was a kook - and probably the worst candidate of the entire season. Didn't the Dems make his candidacy possible by promoting him in the primary? I think so. That's a problem, folks.
Russia Collusion Truther and Hillary/FBI Hoax Dossier Dead Ender Inga: "Oh boy these next couple years are going to be fun reading here in the comments sections with Drago fighting with all the former Trump supporters, now “GOPe-ers” here. Gotta get more popcorn."
This is a necessary and inevitable battle going on and will continue until a political realignment stabilizes. The same battle is happening on the dem side but you don't see or hear it as much because you stay within a cocoon of approved messengers. Which is true of most voice-actuated democraticals.
If you were an inquisitive person, which you are demonstrably not, you would be plowing into what is happening at the grass roots level with Latinos, young black males and the remaining working class whites of the dems and why they are moving towards the populist right. Not that you would understand it of course, but at least you would be aware of it.
Remember, we are coming off an election in which half the voting nation voted republican...in the middle of a republican civil war.
You should ask yourself how it is that the dems couldn't leverage an absolute advantage across the board including massive funding disparities, 95% media control, complete tech/social media control and corrupt voting practices to keep their house majority?
Quite frankly, I'm shocked the dems didn't win the House given what we now know.
Blogger Achilles said...
As Time passes it is clear that the latest GOPe attempt to destroy Trump is failing.
If Desantis wants a future at the national level he needs to distance himself from this effort. Rubio and Cruz are already doing that.
As this effort fails you see the childish immature hypocrites lash out at Trump and his supporters with increasingly childish name calling. The real problem here is the GOPe and the traitors that are working with the Democrats to eliminate the TEA party. Really we will be better off when you jerks. Go join the democrat party and get it over with.
We are not going back to CoC open borders endless wars free trade with China.
Desantis will convince us that he will put Americans First or he will lose.
And he will not convince us he supports Americans First by attacking Trump or by having his Corporate toadies do it for him while he hides like a coward.
We remember how you people acted in 2012 all too well. If Desantis supporters think they are anything other than Romney 2.0 supporters right now they are just stupid.
11/15/22, 12:11 PM
————-
1. The person most responsible for destroying Trump is himself.
2. You are faced with a dilemma. You cannot have both an American First agenda and Trump. He cannot deliver it because he is unelectable. For the 10 millionth time, the people that decide elections, the independents, despise Trump and will not vote for him.
3. At what point does it dawn on the fools of the Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade that the only thing Trump cares about is Trump. His problem with DeSantis isn’t that DeSantis is promoting a competing agenda. His problem is that DeSantis is overshadowing him. The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help.
4. In 4 years DeSantis turned a battleground state into red bastion. In 4 years Trump chased always constituencies with his impulsive behavior and cost the Republicans the Senate twice.
Inga is just jealous that Republican voters have an actual say in who the nominee is.
I guarantee that if Trump is railroaded out of the party, I will sit on my hands in 2024 and simply won't vote. If he loses fair and square, that's one thing, but this smells a lot more orchestrated by the donor class to me.
i’m personally done voting. let the dems control everything and drive our country into the ground. look what they did in two years? another two and you won’t recognize it. it’s a wasted effort when people on this blog seem to think that our votes even count. they don’t..it’s over unless republicans start cheating the way the dems do and i don’t see that happening. i read comments astounded that people here are gleeful that they elected more incompetent war mongers that are good with giving away whatever money we have left to foreign countries. it’s like who the heck do they think is gonna pay their government salaries when the worker class crashes..which is currently happening and exactly what they voted for? the lack of self awareness is amazing. i think it has to crash for half the country to understand that all of us..including them..are being sold down the river and that they are celebrating their own demise. kudos to the media propagandists..man did they ever succeed at their job.
Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "Mastriano was a kook - and probably the worst candidate of the entire season. Didn't the Dems make his candidacy possible by promoting him in the primary? I think so. That's a problem, folks."
The major problem was Doug Ducey telling Mastriano right off the bat in the summer that he "wasn't our kind of people" and that he would be getting no support at all from the Republican Governors Association.
Then, on top of that, McConnell funded Karl Rove's crew to cut commercials for Oz's Senate Campaign that purposely made the democratical gov candidate in PA (Shapiro) look good.
Now, the Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed) STILL doesn't know that, though its been pointed out many times, and I suspect come tomorrow he will once again not know that again.
AMDG: "2. You are faced with a dilemma. You cannot have both an American First agenda and Trump."
It looks pretty clear that you cannot have both and American First agenda and DeSantis because every single one of DeSantis' advisory team and major funders are profoundly anti-America First.
So, who else you got?
Inga's wisdom:
No one is stupider than a person who remains in a political cult that has no chance of winning elections and actually seeing their goals for the US realized.
Inga prefers slavery "where you will own nothing and be happy." You will enjoy, Inga. You will make a perfect subject of "the Great Reset."
The art of politics is appealing to the majority.
Winning 48 percent of the vote and then playing the victim is aggressively unattractive, regardless of whether your name is Mitt Romney or Donald Trump.
3. At what point does it dawn on the fools of the Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade that the only thing Trump cares about is Trump. His problem with DeSantis isn’t that DeSantis is promoting a competing agenda. His problem is that DeSantis is overshadowing him. The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help.
Cute with the insults to Melania. You sound like a good Democrat. Dishonest, sarcastic and nasty.
Inga I do admire the way democrats stick together at election time, and that the financing of campaigns is generous and somewhat indiscriminate. The rift between swamp creatures of GOP distinction and the base is an ongoing thing that has little to do with Trump and nothing to do at all with cultism. The same insiders killed off the Tea Party movement or grifted the members without providing the structure and support the movement needed to help elect GOP.
And that's the maddening difference. When the shit hits the fan the GOPe will sacrifice its members to exclude anyone liable to rock the gravy boat in DC. They couldn't avoid Trump's presidency because they had no power over that process. But they sabotaged it once Trump was sworn in. They, however, can and do meddle in House and Senate races to the point of absurdity as detailed many times by the republican voting people on this blog.
Go ahead and crow about how we suck at getting along within our party. But that proves it's not a cult because there is no dissent allowed in a cult. The only being I hold in reverence is the God of the Bible. It's too bad you are such a sick individual you can't discuss politics without alleging religious devotion to a leader, when all we really did was vote for one to be president, not pope, not god, president.
AMDG
"Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade" - lol
1:19 - that is how it is done. Thank you.
Tim in Vermont - 1:20 - zing.
+ Tim- Trump's mouth ruined Trump. You know this.
Didn't the Dems make his candidacy possible by promoting him in the primary? I think so.
Unlike your statements and questions in and around this one, this clear writing is comprehendible. Yes, democrats elevated Mastriano in the primary. It's too bad they are so awash in cash they can waste it meddling in GOP primaries. Too bad so little of this is ever reported contemporaneously too, as it would be nice to know who was financed by the DNC but they love their dark money on that side. And then Rove and Crossroads GPS ran ad after ad supporting Shapiro the democrat challenger; and the RGA led by Trump-hating Doug Ducey worked with McConnell and the RNC to starve Mastriano of any financial support.
Why? How does this help the GOP in the long run?
To all the Trumpers- how does he earn the votes of the independents that he spent 4 years alienating to the point that they are reluctant to support candidates he endorses (Lake, Balduc, Walker, Masters, etc.)?
Like it, or not, these are the people who decide elections and these people reject election deniers.
Had Trump not dumped on DeSantis with his silly "DeSanctimonious" 2 days before an election on live TV - mmmmmm I might still be on board.
Then after DeSatnis smoked Crist - and the whole state of Florida went Red, Trump wet the bed over it.
Not a good look. In fact, such a bad move, he lost me. I didn't leave Trump - Trump left me.
Notice all the Democrat governors who will line up to run in 2024 and beyond. No one on the left is out trashing Newsom of Polis. (etc...)
Strange how the democrats have this thing called..... discipline.
“Inga is just jealous that Republican voters have an actual say in who the nominee is.”
How did that work out for you? Red trickler.
lonejustice said...
Wow. 14 posts by Drago in just one Althouse thread. That's a new record for him.
Wow. I am shocked you could count to 14.
I guess that is easier than rebutting anything he said.
And that isn't a record for him in one thread.
Not even close.
AMDG: "To all the Trumpers- how does he earn the votes of the independents that he spent 4 years alienating to the point that they are reluctant to support candidates he endorses (Lake, Balduc, Walker, Masters, etc.)?"
Reverse that question onto yourself: How do you GOPe-ers convince the Trump base voters to support your next Romney/McCain nominee? Oh, that's right, its not Romney or McCain, its going to be DeSantis....who has all the same advisors and funders as Romney/McCain. Almost as if they know something that you don't.......
AMDG: "Like it, or not, these are the people who decide elections and these people reject election deniers."
It's like reading a transcript of an episode of The View.
Althouse Blog Commissar (self-appointed): "Had Trump not dumped on DeSantis with his silly "DeSanctimonious" 2 days before an election on live TV - mmmmmm I might still be on board."
LOL
Seriously. Funny stuff.
You should have let DeSantis know when it becomes known that he was alerted to the Mar A Lago raid early on and then started coordinating with Paul Ryan and Mike McCarthy to set DeSantis up as the stallion the anti-Trump GOPe forces are going to ride into 2024 on, that Trump might decide to take a shot at DeSantis for doing that. Particularly since it could be argued Trump helped drag DeSantis over the finish line in 2018 against a meth-head sex addict who keeps waking up naked next to his male johns.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Had Trump not dumped on DeSantis with his silly "DeSanctimonious" 2 days before an election on live TV - mmmmmm I might still be on board.
Then after DeSatnis smoked Crist - and the whole state of Florida went Red, Trump wet the bed over it.
Not a good look. In fact, such a bad move, he lost me. I didn't leave Trump - Trump left me.
On the one hand I agree. Trump should have waited 2 days although that ad was egregiously bad and I would have said so in privte. It made me vomit
But the comment about that particular ad was offhand and a one off before the election.
There was no sustained attack by Trump against Desantis. And he loudly and repeatedly supported Desantis the entire campaign after that one comment. Trump told people to vote for Desantis on 100's of occasions.
You are just being dishonest if you cite this one comment as the reason to leave Trump. It is a pathetic excuse. Nobody is going to buy it.
The GOPe and the media are running a sustained attack against Trump and his supporters.
And we have all noticed that Desantis is just following the Romney 2012 playbook. I would absolutely have described Mitt Romney as a Sanctimonious asshole too.
AMDG said...
To all the Trumpers- how does he earn the votes of the independents that he spent 4 years alienating to the point that they are reluctant to support candidates he endorses (Lake, Balduc, Walker, Masters, etc.)?
Like it, or not, these are the people who decide elections and these people reject election deniers.
This is a stupid analysis. I guess dishonest works as well.
Trump got 75 million votes.
All of your "moderate" candidates got far, far less than that. You continue to repeat this as if it was some sort of insight. It is just a stupid misrepresentation of what actually happened.
Congratulations Inga, I could not have said it better myself: "No one is stupider than a person who remains in a political cult that has no chance of winning elections and actually seeing their goals for the US realized."
lb said...
i’m personally done voting. let the dems control everything and drive our country into the ground. look what they did in two years? another two and you won’t recognize it. it’s a wasted effort when people on this blog seem to think that our votes even count. they don’t..it’s over unless republicans start cheating the way the dems do and i don’t see that happening. i read comments astounded that people here are gleeful that they elected more incompetent war mongers that are good with giving away whatever money we have left to foreign countries. it’s like who the heck do they think is gonna pay their government salaries when the worker class crashes..which is currently happening and exactly what they voted for? the lack of self awareness is amazing. i think it has to crash for half the country to understand that all of us..including them..are being sold down the river and that they are celebrating their own demise. kudos to the media propagandists..man did they ever succeed at their job.
11/15/22, 1:31 PM
This^^^ At this point, I am with you. They keep doubling down on the hate that the left has shown us for 6 years. They can lie with the Progressive dogs they seem to emulate now.
“Go ahead and crow about how we suck at getting along within our party. But that proves it's not a cult because there is no dissent allowed in a cult.”
Who said normal Republicans are in a cult? It’s the Trumpists who are the cult members. The Trumpublicans have run the Republican Party into the ground. Now if any normal Republicans have enough courage to dump the Trump once and for all, the Republican Party just might be able to rebuild. It’s your choice. If you choose Trumpism, we Dems will continue to win election after election.
I know very few like Inga and I never agree with her but her statement about remaining in a losing cult is probably one of the best short takes on the 2024 process that I have seen anywhere!
Russia Collusion Truther and Hillary/FBI Hoax Dossier Dead Ender Inga: "How did that work out for you?"
A narrow House majority, a narrow majority of governorships and a narrow minority of senators thanks to Mitch McConnell's working closely with Schumer to ensure dems kept their narrow majority.
Why do you ask? Couldn't you just look that up for yourself?
Lets just say this: it worked out better than your lies about russia collusion and your defense of Biden showering with his daughter.
AMDG said...
To all the Trumpers- how does he earn the votes of the independents that he spent 4 years alienating to the point that they are reluctant to support candidates he endorses (Lake, Balduc, Walker, Masters, etc.)?
Like it, or not, these are the people who decide elections and these people reject election deniers.
11/15/22, 2:18 PM
SPEAKING as an independent who still thinks Trump is the guy for the job, I disagree with you. I know quite a few independents like myself who have been voting for Republicans who ALWAYS let us down. TRUMP tried, against all odds, including from his own party. He fought for us. The Rinos fight for themselves. They don't care about us...only about getting reelected...so good luck. Push us out. At this point, what difference does it make?? WHY would I vote for a party that HATES me??
AMDG said...
1. The person most responsible for destroying Trump is himself.
I just left this here to remind people how stupid AMDG is.
2. You are faced with a dilemma. You cannot have both an American First agenda and Trump. He cannot deliver it because he is unelectable. For the 10 millionth time, the people that decide elections, the independents, despise Trump and will not vote for him.
I know you want to blame Trump for McConnell and Doucey backstabbing republicans all around the country.
But it wont work. We see you.
3. At what point does it dawn on the fools of the Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade that the only thing Trump cares about is Trump. His problem with DeSantis isn’t that DeSantis is promoting a competing agenda. His problem is that DeSantis is overshadowing him. The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help.
Again, just a reminder of how AMDG is not just stupid and dishonest, but also tied up in tribal hatreds that cause him to attack groups of people he sees himself superior to.
4. In 4 years DeSantis turned a battleground state into red bastion. In 4 years Trump chased always constituencies with his impulsive behavior and cost the Republicans the Senate twice.
See. All Trump's fault. Trump is the only person in the Republican Party that did anything wrong. Except for all of those "low quality candidates" that weren't worth the Republican party supporting. They are icky too.
You are feeling your oats right now because the discussion is being instigated by the media and the GOPe to get rid of Trump. But you can see where the Republican base is actually at when you see that even Lyndsey Graham is calling McConnell out.
The only way you are going to beat Trump is to go after the GOPe harder than he does. Given the last 6 years that is probably going to be a tall task because Trump looks like he is ready for a fight.
I hope someone comes in and beats Trump.
That means someone closer to Pinochet is in the race.
Achilles: "And that isn't a record for him in one thread.
Not even close."
No kidding! I can do 14 standing on my head, while in back to back to back meetings!
inga is the perfect example of why our country is done. she is actually gleeful at her party winning..tee hee double digit inflation..stock market crash and huge recession looming.. 13 marines killed in afghanistan for nothing….wheee! we won! we stick together with our cohesive totally destructive agenda! and we can kill babies at birth in california! what’s not to love about someone that supports that
The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help.
I was wondering when I'd read the stupidest take on this Trump/De Santis fight.
The scuttlebutt is that Murdoch is throwing his media weight behind DeSantis and has told Trump he won't support him. Now, Murdoch has a lot of power, money, and influence, but if Trump picked up steam during the primaries, you'd see the NY Post, WSJ, and the rest fall into line. But he seems to be going after Trump for now, and if he keeps up the pressure...well, it will be interesting to see if Murdoch's media empire is as strong and influential as he thinks it is.
Here's the main problem for Tea Party/MAGA returning and reuniting the GOPe.
How do you get yourself to return to the master's plantation once you've successfully escaped, and even hog tied the master on the way out? Seems the only way that happens is if they recapture you and beat you into submission, which seems to be happening right now.
I can't do it. I was never under the delusion the swamp was going to drain voluntarily, and I did not expect a 2022 red wave.
If DeSantis beats Trump in a primary, and can show he is Joshua continuing toward the promised land, I'm in.
If he asks Tea Party/MAGA voters to return to Egypt voluntarily...my guess is a shitload will choose to wander in the desert...as free people.
. It’s your choice. If you choose Trumpism, we Dems will continue to win election after election.
11/15/22, 2:46 PM
You mean STEAL election after election. We see you.
"The fact that Casey DeSantis is way hotter than Melania (Steven Tyler in drag) does not help."
Jim at: "I was wondering when I'd read the stupidest take on this Trump/De Santis fight."
Indeed. We've reached the point where the GOPe-ers are nearly indistinguishable from the far left loons in their "hot takes". I imagine they have wanted to say Joy Behar-like stuff for years and held back but now that they've been given the GOPe-er/Legacy Media "go sign" they are unleashing like its the Democratic Underground.
I encourage those who are so adamantly sure that Trump had nothing to do with the semi-defeat in the mid -terms and is a sure winner in 2024 to find a mountaintop somewhere and spend some time meditating on what it takes to win an election. Trump should have won in a walk-away in 2020. He did not. Why? Because regardless of whether we agree with his policies or not, his personality and actions are alienating to the middle of the road voter who creates the winners and losers in American elections. When Mitt blew his chance against Obama you all thought it was because he was such a shlub. Now Trump gets whipped by a half vegetable and you think it wasn't his fault. You see the faulty logic here?
MSNBC has done us the service of making a list of Trump endorsed candidates who lost.
minnesota farm guy: "MSNBC has done us the service of making a list of Trump endorsed candidates who lost."
Allies should always stick together.
“You mean STEAL election after election. We see you.”
We see your paranoia.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
AMDG
"Trump Colon Cowboy Brigade" - lol
1:19 - that is how it is done. Thank you.
Mature and intelligent.
minnesota farm guy said...
"I encourage those who are so adamantly sure that Trump had nothing to do with the semi-defeat in the mid -terms and is a sure winner in 2024 to find a mountaintop somewhere and spend some time meditating on what it takes to win an election. Trump should have won in a walk-away in 2020. He did not. Why? Because regardless of whether we agree with his policies or not, his personality and actions are alienating to the middle of the road voter who creates the winners and losers in American elections. When Mitt blew his chance against Obama you all thought it was because he was such a shlub. Now Trump gets whipped by a half vegetable and you think it wasn't his fault. You see the faulty logic here?"
While you're up on that mountain meditatin'. Think a this; 81 million votes? C'mon, mate. were you born yesterday?
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