They were crazy before the terrorist attacks in Paris. Since then, it’s like crazy on speed and steroids. And it seems to me that, at the moment, the entire Right is sorting itself into pro- and anti-Trump factions. You’re either fer the Donald, or you’re a RINO.
A comment on Hot Air sums it up:
At this point, I can’t think of a single thing that Trump could say that would keep me from voting for him. I want him to triple down on the PC police and stick it up their rears. The PC crap must be rejected NOW! And Trump is the one to start that process. PC is the antithesis of free speech which is the foundation of freedom. Who besides Trump, and especially if he is POTUS can do it? If he can do nothing more than to kill PC and the GOPe, I will be happy as a pig in slop and he will have done more than any politician in the past 100 yrs. The more PC incorrect he speaks, the better because it shows who has the balz and who are the hos of the GOPe and the CoC.
You remember Hot Air, the site founded by Little Lulu Malkin and written these days by Allahpundit, Ed Morrissey, Mary Katharine Ham and a few others. It used to be where the wingnuts went to get their hate speech talking points straight. Now Allahpundit is trying to explain to the plebes that no, there really weren’t thousands of Muslims in Jersey City celebrating in the streets on 9/11/01, as Trump claims he saw. But judging by the comments, most of the readers are not falling into line. The heirs of Little Lulu are now RINOs and squishes, according to several commenters.
Trump is like the best wedge issue ever.
Some wealthy Republicans, alarmed that their once-reliable toady machine is running out of control, are spending millions to discredit The Donald. The problem is that what “discredits” Trump is exactly the stuff the mouth-breathers love about him. Steve M:
Oh, brilliant: You’re going to tell angry Republican voters that Trump really can’t deport all the undocumented immigrants and register all the Muslims, policies those angry voters desperately crave? While you’re at it, why not tell some pre-schoolers that there’s no Santa Claus? That’ll go over equally well.
This is one more reason we ought to raise taxes on the rich: because when it comes to spending money on politics, the rich have no damn sense. We need to save them from themselves.
Meanwhile, the “Third Way” crew is clinging to their sinking raft of “both sides are just as bad.” Charles Pierce on the Sunday Morning Bobblehead shows:
After a pretty good bipartisan dose of the old boogedy-boogedy, Dickerson brought out the panel, and we heard this from Ruth Marcus, scourge of teenaged potty-mouths everywhere.
“This was a very ugly week for Republicans in terms of their response on refugees and I think it was something that was exacerbated by the failure of President Obama to explain to people that we weren’t crazy to be nervous but to understand their nervousness and to explain it away.”
… Holy Third Way No Labels! If that isn’t the perfect distillation of the vaporlock caused by Beltway conventional wisdom, I don’t know what is. (It’s even worse than the hairball Fournier coughed up on the same subject, over at the Overlook Hotel, where my man Chuck Todd always has been the caretaker.) Apparently, it either has escaped Ruth’s notice, or she thinks it’s impolite to mention, that the Republican party is completely out of its mind, and that its current front-runner, the Libidinous Visitor, is one step away from invading Ethiopia. How in Broder’s name is the president in anyway responsible for the xenophobic rantings of a party gone mad? I know the president has mad Kenyan telepathic skillz, but what precisely would Ruth have him say? “Only worry a little, Americans. We are extremely unlikely to be overrun by exploding Syrian toddlers”? Jesus, these people …
Speaking of toddlers, do you realize that so far this year more Americans have been shot to death by toddlers than have been killed by jihadis?
Nate Silver reassures us that Trump can’t become POTUS.
Right now, he has 25 to 30 percent of the vote in polls among the roughly 25 percent of Americans who identify as Republican. (That’s something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.) As the rest of the field consolidates around him, Trump will need to gain additional support to win the nomination. That might not be easy, since some Trump actions that appeal to a faction of the Republican electorate may alienate the rest of it. Trump’s favorability ratings are middling among Republicans (and awful among the broader electorate).
News media are confounded by The Donald. They have long politely overlooked conventional lies, such as claims that cutting taxes will reduce the federal budget or that Democrats hate Jesus. Now they’re covering a national candidate who is spewing lies at unprecedented rates (except perhaps by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, both of whom seem to be fading). If someone bravely corrects The Donald and explains that what he is saying is demonstrably, verifiably, I’ve got it right here in black and white not true, he just repeats his lie even more loudly.
And people like the Hot Air commenter eat it up, because he is showing them the universe as they want it to be. They’re not going to give that up easily.
I’m disappointed by the number of democrats who’ve bought into the ‘threat’ of Syrian refugees. Perhaps I missed it, but the crowd who want to deny sanctuary in the country haven’t committed to funding sanctuary in other countries. If the House GOP was to offer to appropriate about what we spent in a week in either of the previous wars, they’d be able to quell the cries of xenophobia. But if that plan has been proposed, I missed it.
More to the point of the post, the Donald is pursuing a vainglorious strategy. The base word, vainglory, means “worthless glory.” Numerically, a pivot to the crazy zone in the primary dooms the Donald in the general election. The short-term triumph of a victory in the primary is doomed for three constituencies he’s affected with a scorched earth policy of lies and insults.
A lot of GOP voters who are for Carson or Bush or Rubio will refuse to vote for Trump. They won’t vote for Clinton – they just won’t show up to vote – and this will have a devastating down-ticket effect. Independent voters will reject the lies and venom, even if they are inclined conservative. Clinton can create enough doubt about the risk of a loose cannon who has NO idea how Washington or the rest of the world works. Trump might just motivate minority voters to vote AGAINST the Donald.
The composition of the electoral college puts any GOP candidate at a disadvantage. To overcome this, the survivor of the GOP primary has to be able to unite & excite the GOP – and not just the crazies. He’s got to appeal to the independent voters and he’s got to demoralize the democrats and discourage blue turnout. With every passing week, the polls indicate Donald will prevail in the primary. This ensures a Clinton victory (yes, I’m for Bernie, but I can read polls.) The question is – will the GOP survive to 2020?
I know a few Fox watching, Jesus loving hardcore conservatives who agree with everything Trump says..But they say they won’t vote for him because he doesn’t have the constraint and tact they expect from a President.
I don’t agree with anything Trumps says, but I do share that same sentiment that he doesn’t measure up as presidential material. When he did his little skit on Ben Carson’s pathological disease where he stepped aside from the podium and started illustrating with his belt buckle..He portrayed himself as nothing more than a stand up comic ( and a bad one at that). He’s just a monster ego who is adding to the degradation of the office of the Presidency.
“At this point, I can’t think of a single thing that Trump could say that would keep me from voting for him”
Really? What if he said:“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.†what if he said that? Where do these turds come from? I saw video on CNN last night of an angry mob at a Trump “rally” the vitriol and anger on their faces was really over the top.
“Nate Silver reassures us that Trump can’t become POTUS”
Maybe by the numbers he can’t but keep in mind the republicants are not by any stretch of the imagination above stealing an election!
Brilliant line, and very true: “..the rich have no damn sense. We need to save them from themselves.”
I was feeling confident during the Summer, but now, not so much. There’s no f’-ing way the Donald could win in a legitimate election. But an election where every Republican is simultaneously foaming at the mouth with hatred of everything decent and cowering in existential fear under the bed? Every one of them will vote, just like in the mid-terms.
The Democrats? We may end up with a highly competent, but totally unlikable candidate who “triangulates” in her sleep; a hold-your-nose moderate because the Party fears nominating an actually exciting, inspiring “Bern”.
We better hope all those Goppers take themselves out during unfortunate assault rifle cleaning mishaps.
Do you realize that so far this year more Americans have been shot to death by toddlers than have been killed by jihadis?
That fact, right there, is the essence of our stupid.
Love the Hot Air comment, btw. I think somebody already is “a pig in slop.”
If the stakes weren’t so high, this would all be HIIIIIIIIIlLARIOUS!!!
The more Trump doubles down and shows his ass to the MSM and the GOP establishment, the more ass his rabid followers want to see.
I’m starting to wonder, hefty as Dumb-‘n-old t-Rump is, how many asses he has?
And the GOP establishment, after t-Rump, (Loony) Doc Carson, and (Tailgunner Jr.)Ted Cruz have stretched reality into some new angry Reich-Wing “Twilight Zone,” is going to have – and currently is having – a tough time selling their base Rubio, Jeb (…), or any of the other candidates who, at best, no matter how loony they seem to be trying to get to keep up to that ‘Terrible Trio,” will be seen as the blandest tofu after the reddest of Fascist meat.
Well, after decades of ratcheting-up the fear, hatred, and bigotry, how can the Dr. Pavlov’s of the GOP establishment be surprised when their rabid canine base snaps it’s jaws onto the femur of reality, and tries to drag it into their own alternate universe?
And yet, they are.
Proving, once again, that they also live in that same alternate universe. One that they once thought they ruled, but one now devolving into complete chaos.
Entropy is king!
Let’s hope that this either brings the GOP down completely, to reform into a rational conservative party, or splinters into groups – each with its own hates, fears, and bigotry.
Otherwise, this country is doomed.
I am not ready to dismiss the idea that Trump could be elected Prez. There is a lot of crazy going on out there. I don’t think he will and I hope he won’t but what does that mean?
As for those toddlers killing people, were they good guys or bad guys and did they get the guns legally?
“Only a good baby with a gun can stop a bad baby with a gun.”
Yay, America! And here I was worrying that I don’t know what to offer around the family table, when it comes time to say what I am thankful for. Armed good babies!
(Also, Nate Silver.)
An armed nursery is a polite nursery!
Reminds me of a National Lampoon article from the early 70’s…It was called the Vietnamese Baby Book.. Under the entry of baby’s first word was…Medic!
Hey, a little off topic…but..
I just watched President Obama award Medals of Freedom to a group of very worthy American. I didn’t think I could feel pride and gratitude for any recipient of that medal after Bush cheapened its meaning and value by awarding it to a bunch of his crony war criminals.
I guess we do heal from the shame and disgrace that Bush brought upon our nation.