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The Trump Spectrum
Inspired by this comment from @jameslileks.
- Never Trump: They truly believe he is so awful that even the chaos that would ensue after removing him from office does not outweigh the benefits of said removal. Examples: Bill Kristol.
- Anti-Trump: They too believe he is awful, but recognize that we are stuck with him. They may occasionally admit that he has done some good things, but usually only grudgingly. Examples: Mona Charen, John Podhoretz.
- Trump Skeptics: They don’t like him, they don’t trust him, but they are trying to keep an open mind. They criticize him frequently but try to keep it constructive. They probably didn’t vote for him but are trying to be gracious losers. Some of them may even concede that the good outweighs the bad but insist that the bad still needs to be addressed. Examples: Ben Shapiro, Most of NRO, I place myself here as well.
- Reluctant Trump: They don’t particularly like him, but they think we should give him the benefit of a doubt. They will generally cite Hillary Clinton as their primary (if not their only) motivation for voting for him. Examples: Andrew Klavan, Peter Robinson(?).
- Trump Defenders: They admit he’s made mistakes but either think the good outweighs the bad to such a degree as to make the mistakes not worth discussing, or they believe the forces aligned against him are so great that spending too much time on the mistakes is “piling on.” Examples: Victor Davis Hanson, Dennis Prager.
- Trump Apologists: The only thing he’s done wrong is not play by The Rules. Everything wrong with the administration is entirely the fault of his enemies. All critics are either pearl-clutching elitists and/or open borders globalists. Example: Sean Hannity.
Resolved: Groups 4-6 have a vested interest in believing that Group 1 is far larger than it really is and that Group 6 is a strawman. Groups 1-3 have a vested interest in the reverse, and I myself am far from innocent in this. As with many questions of this nature, reality is far closer to a bell curve. For both sides to accept this is the first step towards reconciliation.
Published in General
First of all, there were 17 candidates in the Republican field. How do you win a majority with so many candidates? Second, go ahead and try to remove him. I’ve voted a straight R-ticket since I was 18, but if the Republicans allow him to be removed from office I will never vote for a Republican again. In fact, I may vote for Democrats just to punish people like you.
Put me down as 3.51. . I voted for him. On my list of Republican candidates he was behind. Pataki, Carson, & Santorum, but ahead of Bush and Kasich. I voted for him, hoping for the best and fearing the worst.
I’m closest to what you might call an early Trump supporter. I sympathized with him early, but I ended up voting for Cruz. I was never anti-Trump. When I implied above that the split on the right was nowhere near 50/50 on Trump, I meant from the beginning of voting until today, not including the primaries.
Oh, stop it. Trump isn’t going anywhere. You’re just falling into the MSM trap. In fact, provided he stays healthy, I predict a Trump victory in 2020.
What are you basing that on?
Not sure that all Trump Support was center right, and I think Trumps level of center right support was better indicated in the primaries – he had more support than any one other candidate, but nowhere near majority support.
Yeah, primary results don’t accurately represent the pro/anti-Trump divide of today.
I was leaning anti-trump at the start, but I thought he brought up some good points. He was addressing real problems, even if it wasn’t exactly the way I would. I didn’t like a lot of the early criticism against him (especially Need To Know) because it seemed to be going after people who liked some of what he was saying rather than his flaws.
Who’s going to vote against the president who made America great again?
You’re right, but from CBS News (Nov. 9):
If voting for someone else in the primaries makes you anti-Trump, then I’m anti-Trump. No one here could plausibly put me in that category. QED.
The direction of the economy and jobs is positive. You can say that it’s just a continuation of a trend that began before his election, but if the general trend continues then his incumbency starts to look pretty safe. We shall see.
[insert snarky comment here]
I think that Trump will not be re-elected in 2012. Where there has been a vigorous primary challenge to a sitting president, that president loses in the general election. See Gerald Ford losing in 1976 after being challenged by Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter losing in 1980 after being challenged by Teddy Kennedy, and George H.W. Bush losing in 1992 after being challenged by Pat Buchanan.
NeverTrumpers like me love our country more than we love our party. I will do whatever I can to support a primary challenge to Trump. If he is knocked out in the primary, that would be the best of all worlds. If he isn’t knocked out in the primary, then hopefully he will lose in the general election as I love my country more than I love my party.
Maybe you’ll be doubly fortunate and get another chance to vote for Hillary. With help, she may even be sober by then.
Why is it that you believe a Democrat president would be better for the country than Donald Trump?
i know, you talk about your conviction that he suffers from a form of dementia … but if he makes it through 4 years, will you reassess at that time?
Why would you think very many people could live with Kasich??!?
The one guy who could reverse the primary challenge curse would be “Mr. 35 points underwater” Jeff Flake. He would make the perfect foil.
Simple. People who actually do love their country will vote for candidates like the Bushes, Dole, McCain, Romney, etc., even if those guys did not exactly thrill us. Of course we would have rallied behind (my Governor) Kasich.
It’s the pouty establishment types who would rather give the White House to a Democrat than win with someone who is “not in the club”*. I know Trump acts like a child at times, but he has nothing on the Never Trump crowd. Pro Tip: If the principles you hold so sacred end up putting an evil harridan like Hillary in office then your principles suck.
(*”Not in the club” to be delivered in the style of Thurston Howell III.)
@garyrobbins “I think that Trump will not be re-elected in 2012.” I don’t see any way to disagree with that statement.
2 is the best fit for myself. Sometimes I edge toward 3.
To be clear, I want Trump to be successful because I want what I’ve always wanted: an effective President who will improve American security, protect American interests, and improve American prosperity.
Hey, be nice to Gary! He loves his country more than his party! (I know this because he’s said so 42 times in this thread ;) )
I love my country, so I support Trump.
I believe that if we give power back to the Democrats, they will finish what Obama started: Destroying the America we love. That’s why I voted for Trump. And my Senators. And my Representative. And my Governor.
The curious Trumpistanian obsession with an irrelevant political footnote continuuuuuuuuuuues….
There is no danger that “we” will give power back to the Democrats. Democrats will take back power because of the current occupant of the White House (on the other hand, perhaps “we” – at least those of “we” who put him in office – will be ultimately responsible for Democrats taking power after all, then).
You’re in for a huge disappointment. This is why I never bought the “America is one more democrat away from being destroyed” argument. Eventually a Democrat will be elected.
Actually, Jeb! didn’t have nearly as much establishment support as previous Republican front runners, e.g. Romney and McCain. If the fix was really in for him, we wouldn’t have ended up with 17 people running for the nomination, because the fixers would have told many of those people to stay home.
You aren’t looking at it right. The Left, in their various forms, have all the time in the world to chip away at the foundation. Like that guy in Shawshank Redemption, they know that eventually they’ll win. The damage Obama did while he had Pelosi and Reid backing him was immense – the most since Carter. Was Hillary the “one Democrat away” that we feared? Probably not, if we had kept the Congress. But Hillary replacing Scalia with another Ginsberg, or worse (in my opinion) another Sotomayor would have created unimaginable damage as they overrode chunk after chunk of the Constitution.
Thankfully, we’ll never know, and God Bless Donald Trump for finding a way to defeat the Clinton Machine.
Even if that was all in the toilet, the Democrats would still have to:
1. Produce a candidate capable of winning.
2. Present a valid, popular case for affirmatively supporting said candidate besides “Trump is bad and I’m a woman.”
It’s pretty hard to see how they will manage to satisfy both conditions, even if you think the Republicans are a total dumpster fire.
hahaha
Never Trumpers like to pretend that it wouldn’t have mattered had Hillary won. To do otherwise would be to admit the truth that at least some good came out of Trump’s victory.