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How, Pray, Am I to Reply?
From a friend:
I don’t share the establishment’s contempt for Trump but it is a fact that if he runs 3rd party and our candidate is someone like Jeb we are toast. I pray that Trump would have the wisdom to see what he would be doing. My fear is that Trump’s ego is so big that he will refuse to accept defeat and fight to the bitter end. I can really see it, especially if he continues to get traction in the primaries, gets a taste of being taken seriously then feels like it was “taken from him” by the establishment. Scary stuff.
I should think a No More Bush campaign would be a prime sponsorship opportunity for somebody.
Ultra conservative political consultant friend has reported that at a few dinner fundraisers he was a complete turnoff and considered quite unstable by attendees.
Who was, Valiuth or Trump?
I for one am glad to see the GOP being shamed for the way it has condoned illegal immigration over the past couple decades.
It is corrupt. There is no excuse for it. None.
Donald Trump is giving the GOP a golden opportunity to repent and reform its ways, but it appears that the GOP may be too arrogant and too frightened to sieze it.
Same way Romney could have repented of RomneyCare and turned that boat anchor into sails. “Believe me, I have tried it, and it simply does not work. Even I can’t make social welfare work, even in Massachusetts, and I am famous for making things work!” But no.
First, we need to listen to Trump’s following.
Republicans and conservatives cloister around serious discussions of issues. Democrats (and the Left) gather data and forge targeted relationships with all potential voters who may vote for them. They include emotional types who vote on whims and fancies. When the GOTV tweets and text messages arrive on election day, those particular emotional triggers are pressed. Our side must add these methods to our electoral tool kit.
The Trump voters give Republican survey takers and data scientists a rare opportunity to isolate, study, and target emotional voters who respond to a celebrity. How much of the passion for Trump is based on the immigration issue? Did some of these people also vote for Obama? If they know Trump from his TV shows, what about that makes them think he could be President? What else makes them consider voting for him? Where are they, who are they, etc.?
The early Trump phenomenon reminds us that Barack Obama’s election was not an endorsement of the far left wing policies he embraces. It was win for the cult of personality, an instant, populist celebrity for the American Idol era. Even after the “new” and “different” branding on Obama faded, his media superstardom remained intact for ethnic identifiers and low-information voters. The “serious people” — older voters who cast ballots for Romney — were still outvoted by a younger bloc which included late deciders and people swayed by advertising and media events.
We have had two consecutive highly successful midterm elections based upon the Tea Party emergence, and issues like Obamacare and other administration failures. How do we win the voters who skipped 2010 and 2014, but will cast ballots in 2016? Who are they? Do they want a smile or a scowl on their candidate’s face? Is it possible that there are both older, angry voters who can be won over by political arguments, and younger, politically unsophisticated ones eager to exercise their own social media power, who want a lively, positive, fresh new “outsider” personality in the White House for the next four years?
I don’t think Trump will run 3rd party unless he wins a very large portion of the delegates, and he is then pushed aside at the convention for a sure loser, i.e. Jeb Bush. Our other candidates need to remember Reagan’s 11th commandment, empathize with the truth underlying the anger over lawless immigration policies, and go to school on some of the other magic which is behind Trump’s early poll numbers.
I think you are right. Trump is getting most of his publicity over immigration. A recent Huff Post/Yougov poll showed 44% of Republicans agree with him, 45% think he is going to far but he has a point and only 7% think he is totally wrong. If you want to get Republican votes take Trumps message on immigration but not his over the top personality. That is where the majority of the party is, not “comprehensive reform” or illegal immigration as an “act of love”
Misthiocracy:
Treat him with the same respect that is due to every other candidate. He will be less likely to run 3rd party if he’s given a fair hearing in the primaries. Sadly, this ship seems to have already sailed. So soon Republicans have forgotten the Eleventh Commandment.
The 11th Commandment is treated like the other commandments, that is it is ignored.
Trump is a candidate the establishment cannot control, he has his own money and media. Therefore he must be destroyed before he destroys them.
Looking for Cruz, Fiorina to grab the issue away from him.
Agreed. I should have said, “How is he any more electable?” None of them were. Neither is Trump. His putative supporters claim he is. That he is in 2nd place in some polls tells us a lot about what the Republican party has become.
Actually I think it has something to do with sensible people waiting for the myriad number of candidates to narrow down to three or four; and it has to do with the visceral feelings invoked in illegal aliens; illegal aliens who commit felonies and get away with it; anger at the cheap labor at any price crowd including the Wall Street Journal; and someone saying something with which they agree but about whose real political history is unknown. Once the real Donald Trump is outed, his position will remain but he himself will be dismissed.