Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Madiel]

"The Media have been falling all over themselves misconstruing what I said . . . ."

How sweet. The normal expression is doubling over. With laughter.

[Brian]

So, one of my friends got passes to tomorrow's Trump rally and invited me...

[Ken B]

So, one of my friends got passes to tomorrow's Trump rally and invited me...

I do not, in person, know a single Trump supporter. I expect I see them in shops etc, but do not know any.
That tells me nothing about Trump, but something about me.

[Que]

Trump just told a crowd in Atlanta that "Belgium is a beautiful city."

Well, let's hope he doesn't order the invasion of the wrong countries, like his predecessor Bush....

Q

[Spineur]

I do not, in person, know a single Trump supporter. I expect I see them in shops etc, but do not know any.

I lived 14 years in the US and still have many friends there.  None of them including the hardcore republican are Trump supporters.  The republican I know will either vote libertarian or not vote at all.  I also wonder where are the Trump supporters.

[Rinaldo]

So, one of my friends got passes to tomorrow's Trump rally and invited me...

Be safe!

(wear a hat)

[Brian]

I do not, in person, know a single Trump supporter. I expect I see them in shops etc, but do not know any.
That tells me nothing about Trump, but something about me.

I met a Trump supporter when he sat next to me on an airplane last year. He was a doctor and the inventor of some medical supplies, but he was also a boor: he drank about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogated me on politics while I was trying to read my book, talked about his love of Trump, and encouraged me to get in bed with the friend I was visiting, who is devotedly married.

Well, let's hope he doesn't order the invasion of the wrong countries, like his predecessor Bush....

Hey, Belgium is a beautiful city!

Be safe!

(wear a hat)

My friend has a Trump hat, which he bought on eBay as a joke. It's a good thing he does, because he is a racial minority and would otherwise maybe not be safe.

[Karl Henning]

That's it:  El Tupé's campaign claims that they have support from Latinos and blacks, but it's just the hats worn as a safety precaution.

[Madiel]

Hey, Belgium is a beautiful city!

Indeed. Many years ago my family lived in the suburb of Antwerp.

[Mookalafalas]

I was talking some while back about Trump as the intellectual leader of the GOP.  I was assured smarter heads would always prevail behind the scenes.  I find it even less likely now than I did then.  Of course everyone in the party organization has probably got more smarts the Donald, but if the de-facto leader of the party refuses to follow any but his own lead, then what happens? It seems the party elders just want to pretend he isn't there. It was pointed out last week (Talking Points Memo) that the home page of the GOP didn't even mentionTrump.  He is so toxic now that most party leaders have begun refusing to even talk about him--their soon-to-be official candidate.  It's mind boggling. I had assumed it could only get better, but now I think it can only get worse.  I can't imagine this continuing through November.  As a liberal democrat I was initially pretty delighted, but as Matt Bai points out this week (and others before him), it's not funny anymore.  It was recently predicted--assumed even--the fighting would get ugly.  However, I don't think it is; Trump has no surrogates, no real team, and no more credibility (for most of us, anyway). I think he is just going to become shriller and more pathetic, and then dark and disturbing.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-gop-leadership-sit-down-100000380.html

[28Orot]

I was talking some while back about Trump as the intellectual leader of the GOP.  I was assured smarter heads would always prevail behind the scenes.  I find it even less likely now than I did then.  Of course everyone in the party organization has probably got more smarts the Donald, but if the de-facto leader of the party refuses to follow any but his own lead, then what happens? It seems the party elders just want to pretend he isn't there. It was pointed out last week (Talking Points Memo) that the home page of the GOP didn't even mentionTrump.  He is so toxic now that most party leaders have begun refusing to even talk about him--they're soon-to-be official candidate.  It's mind boggling. I had assumed it could only get better, but now I think it can only get worse.  I can't imagine this continuing through November.  As a liberal democrat I was initially pretty delighted, but as Matt Bai points out this week (and others before him), it's not funny anymore.  It was recently predicted--assumed even--the fighting would get ugly.  However, I don't think it is; Trump has no surrogates, no real team, and no more credibility (for most of us, anyway). I think he is just going to become shriller and more pathetic, and then dark and disturbing.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-gop-leadership-sit-down-100000380.html

I persoanlly don't believe in the current political arrangement. You really need a monarch with absolute power to really do what is necessary to fix all the problems, or at least effectively tackle them. The president of the united states is limited by terms and power sharing that literally takes large chunks of power away from him to effectively govern. I think I just realized that the entire system of 4 years president and goodbye is worthless.

[Karl Henning]

I was talking some while back about Trump as the intellectual leader of the GOP.  I was assured smarter heads would always prevail behind the scenes.  I find it even less likely now than I did then.  Of course everyone in the party organization has probably got more smarts the Donald, but if the de-facto leader of the party refuses to follow any but his own lead, then what happens? It seems the party elders just want to pretend he isn't there. It was pointed out last week (Talking Points Memo) that the home page of the GOP didn't even mentionTrump.  He is so toxic now that most party leaders have begun refusing to even talk about him--their soon-to-be official candidate.  It's mind boggling. I had assumed it could only get better, but now I think it can only get worse.  I can't imagine this continuing through November.  As a liberal democrat I was initially pretty delighted, but as Matt Bai points out this week (and others before him), it's not funny anymore.  It was recently predicted--assumed even--the fighting would get ugly.  However, I don't think it is; Trump has no surrogates, no real team, and no more credibility (for most of us, anyway). I think he is just going to become shriller and more pathetic, and then dark and disturbing.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-gop-leadership-sit-down-100000380.html

Few things rang so very hollow a note in my ears, as when the word started to spread that, supposedly, now that El Tupé has discouraged all competition for the primaries process, he was going to . . . become more "Presidential."

[Todd]

I was talking some while back about Trump as the intellectual leader of the GOP.

He isn't the intellectual leader of the party.  That hasn't changed and won't change. 

I met a Trump supporter

Almost sounds like the start of a joke. 

There are party regulars out there who support Trump.  I know that local elected Republican committee members are Trump "supporters" because that's what they need to be.  They don't necessarily support him or his policies, but they are working to set the rules for delegates for Oregon so that they must vote for Trump in every round at the convention to try to assure an orderly convention.  The thinking here is to keep the convention uncontested, hold their noses, and then focus on other elections.  Local elections have taken on a greater importance.  There's a big push to try to unseat unelected governor Kate Brown (which will most likely fail) and to start focusing on state representative and state senate races in advance of 2020, when Oregon may gain a seat in the House.  Republicans can't win US Senate races in the state, and the congressional districts are safely gerrymandered in favor of Democrats.  (The third district will go Republican about the same time that Prince William becomes President.)  Oregon's situation is different than more contested or redder states, to be certain, and I'm sure there are devoted Trump supporters somewhere, I just haven't met any.

You really need a monarch with absolute power to really do what is necessary to fix all the problems, or at least effectively tackle them.

Derp.

[Ken B]

The Mookster

I was talking some while back about Trump as the intellectual leader of the GOP

Not at all. His main ideas -- protectionism, some kind of vaguely defined isolationism -- have not been part of the GOP mainstream in 75 years. Still aren't. Trump is a pitchman who decided the GOP was ripe for a coup de main takeover. And he was right! But he's hardly the brains-trust, and those who might reasonably described as such, such as Romney, Ryan, Kristol, are in varying degrees  anti-Trump.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I met a Trump supporter when he sat next to me on an airplane last year. He was a doctor and the inventor of some medical supplies, but he was also a boor: he drank about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogated me on politics while I was trying to read my book, talked about his love of Trump, and encouraged me to get in bed with the friend I was visiting, who is devotedly married.

I wonder if we can construct a syllogism out of this:

- All Trump supporters are "boors who drink about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogate Brian on politics while he is trying to read my book, talk about their love of Trump, and encourage Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

- The person traveling next to Brian was a "boor who drank about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogated Brian on politics while he was trying to read his book, talked about his love of Trump, and encouraged Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

- Therefore the person Brian was visiting is not a Trump supporter.

[Ken B]

I wonder if we can construct a syllogism out of this:

- All Trump supporters are "boors who drink about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogate Brian on politics while he is trying to read my book, talk about their love of Trump, and encourage Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

- The person traveling next to Brian was a "boor who drank about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogated Brian on politics while he was trying to read his book, talked about his love of Trump, and encouraged Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

- Therefore the person Brian was visiting is not a Trump supporter.

Class is very strongly associated with Trump support. You assume this shows a shortcoming amongst Trump supporters. I suggest a class prejudice is at work.

Take this big to-do about Trump's rudeness. That's a class driven perception. I keep promising/threatening friends I will write up an explanation of that, and if I do I will link it here. In short: many people see demands that Trump apologize as insincere attempts to assert a social superiority. The appealing response to that  perceived illegitimate demand is "hell no". (This has its roots in Jacksonian democracy: an honor culture which is also strongly egalitarian.)  You often see what you think of as Trump doubling down on rudeness; they see Trump standing up to a tactic. "Give'em hell, Harry" -- Harry Truman in 1948 has some resemblance to Trump in this regard.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Class is very strongly associated with Trump support. You assume this shows a shortcoming amongst Trump supporters. I suggest a class prejudice is at work.

Take this big to-do about Trump's rudeness. That's a class driven perception. I keep promising/threatening friends I will write up an explanation of that, and if I do I will link it here. In short: many people see demands that Trump apologize as insincere attempts to assert a social superiority. The appealing response to that  perceived illegitimate demand is "hell no". (This has its roots in Jacksonian democracy: an honor culture which is also strongly egalitarian.)  You often see what you think of as Trump doubling down on rudeness; they see Trump standing up to a tactic. "Give'em hell, Harry" -- Harry Truman in 1948 has some resemblance to Trump in this regard.

We all await your explanation. The people who support Trump have legitimate concerns. They have been left behind, and they don't understand why the American Dream has failed them. I believe, however, that their current idol is likely to fail them as well. For all his pretense that he is "one of them," he's just another .01 percenter who has treated numerous people who work for him (or who have taken his fraudulent "courses," etc.) despicably. Should he be elected, I expect the buyers' remorse to far exceed anything we've seen yet. But as they say, vox populi, vox populi.

[Todd]

They have been left behind

Not all of them.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Not all of them.

Perhaps not, but you explain his appeal to "boors who drink about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogate Brian on politics while he is trying to read his book, talk about their love of Trump, and encourage Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

[Todd]

Perhaps not, but you explain his appeal to "boors who drink about five little travel bottles of Jack Daniels, interrogate Brian on politics while he is trying to read his book, talk about their love of Trump, and encourage Brian to get in bed with the friend he was visiting, who is devotedly married."

If he shared the Jack, no problem.  The point of the linked article is that the class-based myths regarding Trump supporters are, well, mythological.  Right wing populism appeals mostly to whites who think they are getting a raw deal, even if they are doing well.