Why Exalt Trump ?!
I would like someone to explain why Trump is consistently so very overrated. His "Trump Derangement Syndrome" addlepated sycophants claim he is a formidable opponent possessing multidimensional gaming skills far beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. This I understand, the TDS affliction is powerful and highly contagious within a reasonably well defined segment of society. And, no known effective vaccine is extant, at least I haven't encountered it for an age. But beyond those predisposed to ignore Trump's obvious flaws, why do others give him credit where none is due?
I am baffled by, for example, George Conway. There is no evidence that anyone (excepting those inflicted with TDS) has ever been seduced by Trump into believing anything he has to offer. In the world of con artistry he is, at best, a third rate carnival barker barely able to manage the ring toss or duck race booths.
Trump doesn't have the skill or temperament to trick, or seduce a mark. Trump is only able to bully a target that is ignorant, stupid, or both, and only for as long as Trump possesses some metaphorical bludgeon he can use to beat the poor victim into submission.
Being compared to Con Artists by the (political) opposition gives Trump license to gloat and bask in the glory of outwitting all those that oppose his magnificence. We really need to refine the narrative to better describe Trump's true character.
Comments
beware ye the rabbit hole
Beware ye the rabbit hole, my friend.
The sociopolitical morass of the Washington, DC area has entered an anErisian-chaotic nature the likes of which make Quantum Cosmology quite simple, straightforward, and easily understood by comparison. Moreover, any effort to understand Quantum Physics (the basis of Quantum Cosmology) is far more likely to result in useful results than wasting one's time, effort and brainpower upon that which will never be understood. Examples of the latter include the Washington, DC culture and the entire set of human cultures of the Middle East. (Karma really can be a bitch, can't she?)
Alternatively, I recommend that you relax and listen to the music.....
[video:https://youtu.be/3LCB_RdfdXc]
Merry Christmas, RIP!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Thanks Than, enjoying the concert
One for you ...
[video:https://youtu.be/aO9eR-tWtiY]
thank you, janis b!
Merry Christmas and happy Saint Stephen's Day (12/26) to you, !
[video:https://youtu.be/W-s0lFpflQw]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Great musical lyrics Than, thanks
Here they call it Boxing Day. Originally, “it is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in areas of worship to collect donations to the poor.”
Today, in practice, it is a day to shop for bargains. I didn’t dare leave home ; ).
(No subject)
Cheers RIP!
The louder and more scandalous, the easier the disease is transmitted. The appetite of many Americans craves garbage.
“Trump doesn't have the skill or temperament to trick, or seduce a mark.” He doesn’t have to, with such a supportive cast (mostly media).
But it’s holiday time, so cheers, peace and love to all!
[video:https://youtu.be/5dlrXCYrNYI]
Ignoring the obvious, that's a Dem trick, isn't it?
You may have missed the 2016 election results, P.R., but Commander Cheeto garnered 63 million votes. Maybe you think they are all smelly Walmart shoppers but they aren't. I aren't one of Trump voters either but he successfully conned, if that is your preferred phrase, lotsa people into voting for him. Anyone voting for H. Rodent Clinton was also conned into believing that conniving bitch is good for Amerika.
Going up against Trump politically is a lot more formidable than perhaps you prefer to imagine. But, boy howdy, you got that wrong. Furthermore, Commander Cheeto is a cinch for re-election as long as the economy holds steady.
George Conway's tweet is as stupid as Nancy Pelosi et. al. are. He makes no sense. Kellyanne would be better off buying earplugs for home visits.
Maybe the bar is set very low but this ain't no limbo contest. Trump plays the game very well, even if you (and I) don't like his policies.
Like CNN, some people don't believe their lying eyes when they see impeachment fervor fizzling like a spent firecracker. Maybe they don't want to comprehend that Demonratic persecution is actually favoring Trump, augmenting his war chest and uniting a previously fractured party into supporting him. Even Mittens won't vote against him.
The physics of the parallel universe are beyond my ken, but El Trumpo is winning every battle so far contested by the Dems in the universe in which most of us dwell.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PTEqZURh4o]
Sobering fact.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
The confusion ...
But it is not him that is doing the winning. That's the problem, I can't figure out how this is happening. It's clear that the democrats haven't a clue what to do. But, this all goes far beyond the realm of incompetent politicians.
We have drifted far from reality (read "cause creates effect"). There is no way to say anything meaningful about how Trump's babbling nonsense gets "processed" by the lumpenproletariat that constitutes his (seemingly invincible) base. There is no rational way to connect the behavior of Trump to the response of people I meet in the everyday world.
RIP
About this
Democrats are not unhappy about what he's doing. Look at how bills they have helped get the republicans passed as well as confirming the right wing judges McConnell is putting up.
In the last defense bill democrats gave Trump every thing he wanted with no restrictions. More money for the global hegemony. More for the wall and letting him take money from the military. There were so many things that democrats once stood against, but not now. And they passed the bill without it being discussed in front of us. Plus they just gave "the most dangerous president evah" more power to spy on us by passing the effing patriot act with no votes from republicans. And NAFTA 2.0 with no protections for American workers.
Oh they have a clue alright. Trump gets to dismantle what's left of the country with the full permission of both parties. He's appointing people into cabinet positions that are supposed to go through congress first. He is moving a few agencies out of Washington to parts unknown and not fully staffing many others therefore dismantling lots of agencies. He is attacking social programs and defunding others such as Medicaid. Have you heard any democrats say something about those issues? The things he is doing used to be congress' job, but Nancy can't bother to impeach him for the most dangerous things he's doing. The UN has laws on how immigrants are supposed to be treated, but he's just laughing in everyone's faces. Why? Again both parties want him to. And they are just following the orders of their donors. Just wait for the economy to crash again...we are in for a very rough time. Democrats can remove Trump from office by letting the primary play out legally. But they won't cuz if ByeDone or Warren doesn't win they are just fine with Trump getting a second term.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
"dismantling lots of agencies"
My last few years at UNK involved me documenting the the EPA failing to track radiation in the environment (An integral part of its mission, by the way.). Trump has just speeded up and normalized the lack of professionalism that was already seeping into our regulatory agencies.
Either no one believes me, or no one cares, or maybe ... both.
Sigh,
RIP
It is easy to see how he wins from an electoral college
Point of view. Pretty damn hard to lose the EC when you garner 84.3% of the counties in the country. He appeals to rural people, not urban people, even though he is the penultimate urbanite.
If the Dems wanted to really beat Trump, they need an EC strategy. Make sure Trump doesn't get to 270. That will require a third candidate getting some EC's to prevent Trump from getting the magic number. That could have happened easily last time. Could have happened with Nader and Bush and Gore. Just run popular democrats in the states Trump won last time. And let everyone know that the Democratic strategy is to have the house and senate elect the President and VP and get to a parliamentary system like most of the rest of the Democratic world.
A 3d candidate
would dilute the anti-Trump vote, enhancing Donald's chances of winning the EC. Even if DT didn't win outright, he would win (based on current House D-R numbers) in the House as it selects the president as Rs have a majority in 26 states -- a bare majority is all that's needed to win in the House.
Not if the leading contender drops out of a state
Trump would likely beat the leading contender in and the leading contender then gives the electorate a choice of a different Democrat against Trump. This is how it worked commonly before 1850. There is no requirement that a candidate run in every state. You basically run your best Democratic candidate in every state against Trump and other Democratic candidates drop out. Then when Trump fails to get to 270, the House picks the president and the Senate the VP.
If you want to oust Trump the right way, that is how you do it. You don't do this stupid impeachment shit.
Right now the Republicans have an advantage in the EC. This is how the Democrats turn the EC into their advantage since they control the House. And likely will in 2020.
If Sanders and Clinton had cared about beating Trump, Clinton would have allowed Sanders to run against Trump in the Midwest where he could have beaten Trump. Of course, Sanders would have had to agree not to run in a state where Clinton was likely to beat Trump.
Again, there
are a couple of major problems with your idea. First are all the political issues involving coordinating with a willing 3d party not to mention public perception matters. Donald and the Rs would be screaming about election rigging, gross unfairness having to run against not one but two candidates essentially.
Second, you keep repeating, misleadingly, that the Dems would call the shots in the House, as they currently have the majority. Yes, in overall numbers. But in the presidential selection process where the election is thrown into the House, the 12th Am clearly states that each state shall count for one vote, so the House members from each state would caucus to determine their vote. If a state is controlled by Rs, they would automatically vote for Trump, being the lockstep fall-in-line party they are. This would be true even if the Dem candidate got more EVs and more PVs in the general election. Even if the Dem had 5m or 9m more votes.
Currently the Rs have a majority of members in 26 of the 50 states, so a majority. Even with Ds winning some more House members in the 2020 election, it would still take quite a Dem sweep to overcome this current R state majority for 12th Am purposes.
The Dems should thus not want the next election thrown into the House. They can beat Donald straight up, assuming no major 3d party candidate, if they just choose wisely. Biden would be problematic however. Boot and Bloomberg too.
26% of eligible voters
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
26% was enough. QED
El Trumpo is negative
10 pts in approval ratings, 42% approve/52% disapprove, so it can hardly be said he's a shoo-in for re-election, despite surface appearances of the economy and Dem gloom and doom about nonexistent impeachment backlash.
If he's "overrated" at all, it's in this area of re-election. Too many fraidy-cats on the left seem too inclined to assume a favorable outcome for the big bad Donald, whereas the reality is he will need another near-miracle EC result to finish ahead. Because this time it's shaping up as a 5 million PV margin for the Dem nominee.
The political wind does not bend to your wishes
nor to mine. You seem tobe3 ignoring the steady rise in Trumpian favorability and the decline in impeachment support in the public. Tim Pool has made about 6 videos on the subject. He makes the same point I am quite well.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcZhn-1iaDQ]
Here's a heads up. Another poll favoring Trump:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPmG2VYArc4]
Trump has overcome previous overall negative ratings.
More on the looming Democratic disaster.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPQ2UJsY124]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96UdHhz_qws]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuWPBjFiv9o]
And, while you may be sickened and depressed by Tim's posts, face the facts--or don't. To ignore the truth is to be unprepared for reality. All this Dem happy talk is built on whipped cream, good only until it melts and dribbles away.
Prediction: Repugs sweep House, keep Senate, keep Trump in 2020.
What matters
are the actual facts, not what some blogger says are the facts or would like the facts to be.
As shown, Donald's approval numbers remain steady at 42%, about where they've been for the past 3 yrs. Disapproval at 52%. That's 10 points in the red for the Don. Not a great place to be heading into a re-elect year.
The strong anti-Trump sentiment across the land will drive people to the polls this coming year. It will be much less about how great or middling the Dem nominee is, within reason.
I'm less concerned about the actual election outcome going for the Dems than whether Donald will accept such outcome. I think it's at least as likely as not that he will resist leaving office, as he falsely shouts that the election was rigged.
I have no idea
Lots of people believed what he was selling and now will vote for him again because of the economy. Lots of the comments I read on my local news site say that their 401Ks are doing much better than during Obama's tenure. Low unemployment numbers even if they are low paying jobs. They love his deregulation of every industry because "who needs those regulations that just cost companies money?" The religious ones have given him a pass for his adultery. His lying. And every thing else that 'Christians' are supposed to be against.
But then there's the other option of voting for Herheinous and it's easy to see why people voted for him. Will he be reelected? If the dumb democrats go with ByeDone than you betcha he will be. But then.....
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
2016 election
And the bloody Brits only get one Mouldwarp at a time! Howcum we keep getting smacked with two??!!??
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
This is crux
of the problem
he never "sold" anything. He has never had a consistent "message". It isn't as though he had a master plan and then he developed a "tale" extemporaneously. There is no coherence, or directionality to Trump, other than his diehard adherence to, and expression of, his ego.
In all things (regarding his life's work) he has been a useful idiot and nothing more. He is a drifter, not a grifter. The only reason he hasn't bottomed out is that he inherited so very much and for whatever reason the sycophants (leeches) have chosen to allow him to live rather than chosen to suck him dry.
Trump's only real "asset" is his unbounded narcissism. This can only be classified as an asset in a carefully controlled environment. Without his sycophants (for the lack of a better word or image) he would be a disturbing wreck on the side of the road.
RIP
Trump ran to the left of Hillary
on economic issues and he told them that he'd stop the wars and bring the troops home. "Great health care" and many other campaign promises. He may have been discombobulated on the campaign trail, but people liked what he said. I see comments about this every day like I said. You asked what his supporters see in him and I told you. Hang out on KSL some time and see what I'm talking about. I myself never listened to him so I'm just going with what others say about him.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Let me try to clarify
where I am coming from (or maybe going to?). You wrote, "You asked what his supporters see in him and I told you" and I don't doubt you at all.
What confuses me is how could they see these things in him. This is like the flip side of them not understanding how I could support Sanders and think positive thoughts with regard to AOC holding higher office. While I suppose it is true that "Trump ran to the left of Hillary on economic issues...", the truth is, Trump has never, in any meaningful way, made, or kept a promise, in his life. His brain does not function in that realm of wavefunctions.
My comments are me thinking aloud in a WTF state of confusion.
Trump wasn't "discombobulated" on the campaign trail, Trump is "discombobulated" full stop. People liked what he said because if he said something they didn't like all they had to do was wait a short time and he would contradict himself saying the opposite to which they would agree. This, by the way is the real reason he is incapable of being properly sworn in in a court of law.
As I said in the beginning; Trump is not a con artist, he has none of the required skills or abilities, at best he is just a bully (thug, mafioso wannabe) and while your comments address why is supporters support him, there is no way any of that support is the result of thought connected to the reality of the thing called "President Trump". I have no faith in the people of the USofA using anything like critical thinking to deal with this anomaly as we plunge headlong into the abyss resembling "Idiocracy".
RIP
Well, it's charming
I suppose to consider that Americans use "critical thinking" in picking their prez.
I know, right?
It was the first time I smiled all day.
You are looking at Trump voters from your POV
and trying to figure them out from it. I too don't understand how they can continue to support him after what he has done. But do many of them even know about the worst things he is doing? The things he is attacking and dismantling are not for the benefit of most Americans, but for his donors. Eventually everyone whether or not they voted for him are going to be hurt. Lots of the younger generation will eventually need SS and Medicare, but will they be there for them when they retire?
It took decades to see the damage Clinton did. Less time for Obama and it'll be even less time for what Trump has done. By that time he will be gone from office...
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Trump had a way of occasionally telling truths no one else would
With the media against him from the day he was inaugurated, this is harder to see now, but it was very obvious during the 2016 campaign when no one thought he had a chance of actually becoming president.
When Trump took on JEB about 9/11 having happened on his brother’s watch, making nonsense of any claim about Dubya having “kept us safe,” I thought to myself, “Huh — I’ve been waiting fifteen years for top Democrats to utter that simple truth, and along comes this supposed clown and buffoon and isn’t afraid to throw it right in a Bush family member’s face on national TV.”
There was also some campaign speech when Trump questioned why we only talk about the thousands of American soldiers killed in our wars, but don’t talk about the millions of people who live in those countries whose lives are lost or ruined.
Here’s Tucker Carlson on truths Trump has told as president:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp71VWgqURQ]
That's on the mark.
We forget those things, but he said things about the mess we were facing as a nation that made people think he had a plan. Words of hard truth they wanted to hear from a candidate. And none would dare say them.
And the 2016 election environment up-ended things, too. Sixteen of the 17 Republicans in the Primaries were paranoid freaks hating on various groups of people, promising to take our armies and go kill them all. But the one thing they all hated most was Trump, the Outsider.
On the Democratic side there was constant and continuous deception, cheating, sabotage, and the two-faced savagery and greed of Hillary. Nobody wanted to vote for another loathsome politician exiting the third decade of crushing Neoliberal austerity. The Democrats had stabbed blue collar workers in the back, without first building a safety net for them. That was a truly ugly thing the Neoliberals did when they knew the horrendous outcomes caused by the social changes they were forcing on Americans workers by eliminating their jobs and skills. Decent nations that embarked on globalism made sure the people who would lose out had access to long term subsidies to support them. You don't just throw a class people in the garbage and then ignore their suffering and suicides.
That was the butterfly moment. It's never going to go back the way it was. And more consequences lie ahead.
Americans who were fine with the lying sociopaths running the Democratic Party voted for Hillary. The rest voted for the Outsider, Trump. Many are too disgusted with our fake democracy to vote at all. But one day, when there is a uncorrupted and principled candidate running for President, the People will spontaneously rise up and vote in historic numbers. That will signify that we turned a corner and walk a new path of our own making. Until then....
the American Mouldwarp
Medieval English had a word for a character like Trump's: a mouldwarp. The essential sense of all the legends is that the Mouldwarp would gain power as the head of the nation via Satanic power, and would flee from the nation when confronted by God to die by drowning. But while the Mouldwarp ruled, all would be incomprehensible confusion.
Henry VIII was often considered to be the Mouldwarp of his generation, always sniffing the air and probing about with his nose to try and find out which way to go.
(The word "Mouldwarp" is derived from the term "mole", the animal.)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Thanks,
now, I suppose, I shall of necessity spend a bit of time perusing the old texts ... hum ... mouldwarp ... you say ...
RIP
The Donald --
can sometimes achieve approval ratings in the forties, which is what he has now thanks to impeachment. He won an election because Hillary Clinton lost one, which wasn't much of a feat given Clinton's disdain for anyone living in what the Important People call "flyover country." We need to stop making the mistake of thinking that the Democrats want to win elections badly enough to sacrifice their core beliefs, which are Republican core beliefs.
His style of governance is to give lots of power to Republican Mafia-types, firing them now and then and replacing them with other Republican Mafia-types. He's basically an entertainer who makes money by letting people use his name. Through his business practices he probably lost about 40% of what he got from his daddy. He's one thing you might expect from a country ruled by sharks.
He's one example among many of what can be expected from a country where belief is what one does to belong to a group.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Only in America
could a candidate who wins by 3m votes be considered to have lost the election. But overconfident and overly cautious she was, and so WI, MI and PN were lost. I would have thought she would have learned the lessons of overconfidence from her 2008 race. But some are just stubbornly set in their stupid ways I guess.
As to approval ratings, 538's most recent post of polling averages on this question has Trump still at 42%, about where he's been the past 3 yrs. So, actually no backlash boost from impeachment.
I seem to recall, Wok . . .
. . . that you predicted a surge of opposition to Trump if he were impeached.
From Paul Street at TruthDig: It seems he agrees.
NeoLibs and Dems help Trump do what he does.
Not sure how many follow Paul Street or agree with him, here at C99, but he has two articles up which seem to say very much the path of this discussion.
Sigh, sigh, sigh.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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I too follow Paul Street.
Thanks for the link.
He did this great interview with Chris Hedges that was re-aired recently. His insights and information are unique and very streamlined for great effect. Very emphatic. He is also way out in front of the pack in terms of understanding where things are going
I'd say he has influenced my thinking lately more than anyone I've been reading.
No answers or ideas from either of them.
The world is not the same as it was in 1935. Whining about how it used to be doesn't do a damn thing to change the situation.
At least Yang's idea of a universal basic income gives people a floor on which to build or maybe take some risks. AI and robots are going to keep on taking over human jobs and they will be able to do almost all jobs better than humans.
And I have yet to hear any of these people suggest that corporate charters be taken away or be reduced to a number of years and then renewal be only on a showing of significant benefit to society or the public. That might have some effect. At least it would take away the vehicle by which the rich get extraordinarily rich. But how you do this when corporations are global, I do not know. They would just incorporate somewhere else.
Something no one has mentioned is racism...
Here in the south (and I suspect much of our nation) racism is alive and well, and they hated Obama primarily for his color....calling the bank supporter a socialist. I think some of Trump's support is Obama blowback. Football is a big deal here and it is like that team mentality creeps into their daily lives. They are on the Trump team. Well this year they are flying Trump 2020 flags, wearing MAGA hats, and sporting bumper stickers. He will sweep the South again.
The other issue I didn't see or notice in the comments is fact that the democratic party is trying it's best to re-elect Trump while pretending to fight him.
Your question is valid because any thinking person (except perhaps a greedy 1%er) has to oppose his policies from deregulation to the raping of parks and wilderness areas to coups all over the world to tax cut for the wealthy and cuts food stamps to space force and so on. However I would argue we don't have a nation of thinking people but a populace of misled, brainwashed, and propagandized working poor just trying to get by with less and less.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Except for local
fellow Southerner Jimmy Carter in '76, the South has been lost to the Dems ever since they promoted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Rs winning the South is already baked into the electoral strategy.
I would like to see a viable Dem candidate for office down there call out Trump's blatant and substantial immorality -- the barely veiled racism, the misogyny, the mistreatment of innocent children at the border -- doing so in clear right/wrong terms drawing from the teachings of the Prince of Peace and the Bible. Make his supporters at least squirm a bit in trying to defend him. Let their hypocrisy be exposed for all to see. It's not the whole strategy but it should be an important part of it. Instead too often we get cowed conservaDem pols who are reluctant to run too hard against Trump for fear of alienating potential supporters.
The Dem nominee for president still won't win down theyah, but at least it would make it safer for the anti-Trump voices to be heard.
Down theyah?
Tells me you are the problem not the solution.
People do not have to think like you do. I get so tired of hearing that people are not voting in their self interest. YES THEY ARE. And they are smart people and they have critical thinking. Many have advanced degrees. Many in STEM. Rural and suburban people do not share the same interests as urban people or if they did they would move to the cities. What is important to them is not what is important to you. And the religious stereotype is just not accurate any more.
It is just that they hate your fucking ideas and your condescension. If you treat them like deplorables they are going to give you the finger.
And it will continue to stay this way in the south and west and every other state where there is a large rural population. This is not about north and south. This is about urban and rural and suburban.
Wow, what an
overreaction. Calm down. I hope you don't have any guns in the house.
Your low-information white rural voters currently supporting the Trump (formerly Republican) Party are dwindling in number as they age and die out. Good luck going forward. They will have to be more aggressive and creative at suppressing the vote.
Many suburbanites -- and I am one (and also part Southerner btw) -- share many of the same views as urbanites. We just don't like the urban traffic, noise and air pollution.
Many southerners are fixated on getting their news from Fox and Trump exclusively. Which means they are getting lies, misinformation and political views from the extreme Right. Very few down there (there-- is that better?) have STEM degrees, not "many". A state like Georgia has experienced an influx of college-educated people from out of state, true, but for the rest of the region the southern states rank low in college degrees as a percentage of the population.
I don't know about "deplorables" except as a term a candidate for the presidency shouldn't use in public. But I am not a candidate for president (in this cycle). So let me add that the GOP has been turned into a cult party of pod people who are loyal not to the country but to their fearless leader. They will defend him for anything he says or does or tweets. They are beyond reason. A deplorable situation for sure.
Now, do you have a response to my post(s) rebutting your ridiculous idea of Dems running a primary and secondary candidate to fiddle with the EC vote?
Interesting Point of View You Have
I really get irritated when people describe this area as the Dixie of Oregon. Like you say, it is not about north versus south it really is about rural versus suburban. I made a point of "slumming" about a bit to gauge just how rural this place is compared to south central Nebraska. I found it to a bit worse than I had expected. Rural Nebraska is bad, but here is worse in so very many ways. So while you are so very wrong about the fact that "they" do in fact vote against their self-interest you are correct about that being the result the rural / suburb dichotomy. However religiosity seems do be much enhanced in the rural setting compared to the urban setting, at least in the regions I have traveled in the past four decades from Nebraska to the west and to the north.
I have found a lot of very smart people that are not real sharp with respect to critical thinking however. This would be related to my professional as well as avocational experience.
Your "What is important to them is not what is important to you." is almost comical if it weren't so far off the mark except for some very specific examples I am reticent to discuss. As for your, "It is just that they hate your fucking ideas and your condescension.": I found most instances of animosity were in reaction to condescension instantly killing dialog, and cohesion. My experience has been that "they" don't hate the ideas as much as the perception that those ideas might be imposed upon "them".
RIP
I can't add much to the much better posts
on here already, but that never stopped me. The one thing that Trump tapped into was the contempt the "old time" republicans felt for today's republicans, and "old Time" democrats felt for democrats today.
For the republicans, beating up on democrats and consolidating power has become the main purpose of the party. It doesn't matter what Trump says as long as he signs the bills the party wants, appoints the judges, closes the departments and keeps people whipped up, it's all fine. Lets face it, this is kind of nearing the endgame for permanent republican rule. They have accomplished so much since the 70's to destroy whatever was right and good in the USA. So even a RW rabble rouser with the vocabulary of a dull 12 year old is acceptable as a leader.
Democrats have hitched their star to the wealthy and a bunch of special interest social causes. Often they fail in their timid, nuanced attempts to make a difference. They failed to change direction under Obama even when they controlled the house and senate. They were thwarted by the minority party easily. And, of course, the media treats every thing Trump does with solemn contemplation and all seriousness.
So is he overrated judged in the light of what he's accomplished? 2 SC judges, maybe 3, wholesale dismantling of past democratic wins, endless boons to the wealthy, and all the rest seem pretty big.