There are 4 comments.

1. Member
   contrarian

   1. “If you’re the most miserable you’ve ever been… ” It’s a real phenomenon. More people are seeking treatment for depression. Partly, it’s that the people most upset about Trump are more likely to ruminate about politics until they think they need therapy – and partly it’s that there’s never a day without a Trump news story designed to outrage them
   2. My theory on Rand Paul: he was… ‘cavorting’ with his neighbor’s wife and he doesn’t want it to become public. How else do you explain a beating of such severity which the victim wants to play down.
   3. About the tax bill… NO PHASE IN! Trump should issue a veto threat. On the other hand, getting rid of SALT deductions is excellent. So is expanding the child tax credit.
   4. Yes, Trump is inflating democratic turnout. That doesn’t have to be a disaster. He builds intensity in his favor too – and as Monica Crowley pointed out, he can switch blue collar workers to red. If Republicans play their cards right, this could be just a case of purple states trending blue and red turning into blue and red states respectively.
   5. Currently, the Republicans aren’t playing their cards right.They’re depressing their base in two ways. They’ve gotten nothing passed and after 2 years, just tax cuts isn’t going to be enough. Also, the nudnicks griping about Trump need to understand there’s a good way and a bad way to criticize him. You can point to a particular thing he did, and say it’s bad. That’s fine. Don’t say that he’s unfit in a way that implies that the people who voted for him are stupid. That’s not okay.
   6. If you’re critical of him because you’re unable to see past his personal behavior and character, then I’m sympathetic. That’s how my mom feel, but she just isn’t political at all. At any given point she may be able to name 2 current cabinet members, but not 3.
   7. What I find uber annoying are Republicans who seem just as upset with departures from orthodoxy as with his gaffes & loutishness. ‘Trump isn’t a free trader. Trump doesn’t want to pare back entitlements. His foreign policy is pulling back from our traditional leadership role. The way he pursues these cultural issues is loutish, divisive, and unproductive.‘ Boo hoo hoo. Look what I just found… I think of these people as ‘Kristol-ized conservatives‘ because they’re frozen in amber. There were Eisenhower Republicans, then Reagan Republicans, and now Trump Republicans. The idea that movement conservatism was eternal was silly. Political ideologies aren’t timeless philosophies. They’re a collection of views you can build a coalition around. Each of the four things they don’t like is important to maintaining the current coalition. If it really is intolerable to them, they can go to another party or belong to none at all.
2. Coolidge
   Jeff Hawkins

   Kristol, whom I heard lamenting that the GOP is no longer a “Center-right” party is engaging in confirmation basis.

   Trump isn’t keeping people from under 45 voting 2 for 1, it’s the Republican brand, REGARDLESS of Trump. They think Bill Kristol is just as big a racist who wants to hurt poor people as much as Trump, etc.

   The cultural perception: Democrats are cool, they’re for young people, they give people stuff, they aren’t religious, they want to fight unfairness, they’re the smart people who go to college. Republicans want to hurt people, are greedy, don’t want black people to get ahead, etc, they’re the dumb people who want guns and can crack at any moment.

3. Member
   contrarian

   JeffHawkins (View Comment):
   The cultural perception: Democrats are cool, they’re for young people, they give people stuff, they aren’t religious, they want to fight unfairness, they’re the smart people who go to college. Republicans want to hurt people, are greedy, don’t want black people to get ahead, etc, they’re the dumb people who want guns and can crack at any moment.

   That has been the perception for a long time too. Arguably was like that in the Clinton years – maybe even before that. When Obama was reelected in ’12 a liberal friend of mine (great guy- just awful politics) said, “Hopefully, this will teach Republicans a lesson: they need to become accepting of people not like them – black and brown and gay people.” That was when Romney was the nominee. Although the ‘autopsy’ Priebus conducted sort of agreed with him, the Republicans I know weren’t taking that as the lesson.

4. Coolidge
   Jeff Hawkins

   contrarian (View Comment):

   JeffHawkins (View Comment):
   The cultural perception: Democrats are cool, they’re for young people, they give people stuff, they aren’t religious, they want to fight unfairness, they’re the smart people who go to college. Republicans want to hurt people, are greedy, don’t want black people to get ahead, etc, they’re the dumb people who want guns and can crack at any moment.

   That has been the perception for a long time too. Arguably was like that in the Clinton years – maybe even before that. When Obama was reelected in ’12 a liberal friend of mine (great guy- just awful politics) said, “Hopefully, this will teach Republicans a lesson: they need to become accepting of people not like them – black and brown and gay people.” That was when Romney was the nominee. Although the ‘autopsy’ Priebus conducted sort of agreed with him, the Republicans I know weren’t taking that as the lesson.

   Yeah but view it as a gradual takeover. 8 years of Clinton playing dirty and having a 24 hour news cycle, 8 years of Bush, who stole the election from Democrats in their narrative (they always win re-election in their narrative too), 8 years of Obama. That’s 24 years, two generations, and a huge media expansion of the echo chamber. I think some of our pundit class are in a bubble here on just how much cultural power there is and the momentum is still on their side because in addition to the drumbeat, our sources are now “Discredited” as part of these narratives (Faux News etc).