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It was just silly, private, locker room talk. It means nothing.
Gary:
We were talking about Nate Silver a long time ago. My thoughts were poorly formed.
My point was his predictions were really bad in 2018.
I’m not saying none of those people are worth listening to, but few are and I don’t see the point of emphasizing analysis of the electorate.
There are far too many “non-public goods” produced at the federal level. Zero value added.
The complicated tax code where Congress auctions off tax brackets and deductions. Zero value added.
The Fed pushing the economy around to supposedly help us. This is a disaster. They are all dumber than the guys that ran GOSPLAN. Look around.
Every single Government actuarial system is a fiscal nightmare. Theft and destruction. That is all that is.
Let’s ask some basic questions for once.
This guy is really smart and he hates Trump. He never says anything good about him.
Truth.
I loved Reagan. Trump is no Reagan. I’m not looking for perfection or a fantasy utopian ideal. I am looking for reasonably decent. Even Jeb Bush would have stood by Kavanaugh as his father did with Clarence Thomas. I agree with you about Israel and that is something I like about Trump, however he has been a fool over China and Korea. I believe we could have someone like Nikki Haley who would be very effective at implementing conservative policy without the clown show. But I suppose that is too much to hope for because we apparently have to vote for Trump or we get the Democrats. It really didn’t have to be this way.
So many say Trump isn’t perfect but jump all over anyone who points out those glaring imperfections and accuses them of not having a rational thought process. That is ridiculous and implies a sort of Trump love that is not good. I am a Republican but I have standards and can’t stand to be constantly put into a position to make a binary choice by foolish primary voters. (I live in Virginia and voted for Corey Stewart who I found to be disgusting. People on here told me “he wasn’t so bad”. He was a terrible candidate when we could have had Freitas but the Trumpers wanted Corey. Now we have Governor Coonman and a rapist Lt. Gov.) I will probably vote for Trump but I don’t delude myself about him.
Actually it sounds like something that a man with Trump’s history with women would do. The comment about shooting someone in Times Square was Trump bragging about the dumb loyalty of his supporters. You should take note.
I got 2017 right. We went from holding a 2/3 level in the Virginia House of Delegates to holding a seat by a coin flip.
Doug Jones beat Roy Moore in Alabama.
I got 2018 right. The Democrats won 40 seats in the House. We lost formerly safe seats like SC-2, OK-5, GA-8 and NM-2. We were wiped out in Orange County. We lots in Suburban Philly, Atlanta and nationwide. We lost women. We lost the college educated. For the first time since 1964, a majority of Arizona’s congressional delegation is Democratic.
According to Pew, in 2018 for the first time in mid-term elections, there were more voters who were Generation X or younger, than voters who were baby boomers or older.
in 2020, if we stick with Trump, we will lose the Presidency, the Senate, more seats in the House, and more Governorships.
If we stick with Trump we will lose the Upper Midwest that we won by 77,000 votes over 3 states.
In prior years, Republicans carried Arizona by 9 points, but Trump won Arizona by only 3 points. In 2020, Arizona will go Democratic for only the second time since 1948.
We will lose Florida. We will lose North Carolina. We will lose Georgia. And we may even lose Texas, at which point the game is over for decades to come.
Compared to Trump, Kasich looks like Cininnatus.
I’ll take less central planning, welfare, and statism.
“Sounds like something that … [he] would do.“ And I am sure the liberal media moved heaven and earth to try to find a real case. If they had, of course, they would have run with that story, not this silly business of guys topping each others brags.
You say that you loved Reagan, yet you unashamedly violate his 11th Commandment. Are you sure you loved Reagan?
Trump is indeed no Reagan. Reagan talked about eliminating the Departments of Energy and Education, and lifted not one finger in the effort. Donald Trump is the most aggressive deconstructor of the administrative state in America’s history -granted that’s a low bar, but one that Reagan didn’t even attempt to clear.
That strikes me as unrealistic. Clarence Thomas was not subjected to the extreme level of vitriol that was leveled at Kavanaugh. Reagan abandoned Robert Bork, and Reagan was a more stalwart conservative than GHWBush, right?
So you would prefer continued appeasement and ignoring of North Korea’s and China’s bad acts? Define “fool.” Explain how “Trump has been a fool over China and Korea” differs from the fools that Clinton, Bush, and Obama were over China and Korea. Use examples and show your work.
Are you sure you’re not looking for a fantasy utopian ideal? Your criticism of Trump seems to me not based on Trump, but rather on your fantasies. Face facts: Trump has been effective at implementing conservative policy and in promoting America’s interests abroad.
I am fascinated by all of the stuff people think Trump has done, but the media never proved it.
Remember that long article in the New York Times about the Trump family taxes? There were other analysts that said it would go nowhere, and that is exactly what has happened.
It means Petty has issues.
Reagan’s hands were tied on a lot of things for a bunch of reasons. He had the political guts to stop inflation and crush the Commies. Then the demographic bubble went through, so everything took off.
I don’t think his example applies very well today.
I also don’t think over idealizing about what he actually could do makes any sense.
I just heard something about this. Trump had to stay out of it for way longer than he would otherwise because of the nature of the process. Then he let them have it big-time.
The Russians have leverage over Trump.
Trump is working with the Russians.
Trump knows he is an International criminal and he’s going to run for POTUS anyway.
All of this is while the IRS is giving him a two decade long colonoscopy.
There were smart people banking on this stuff for dozens of months. I never understood it.
Donald Trump is only one ratchet click away from Ronald Reagan. Remember how some folks thought it was terrible that a man who was divorced and remarried would become PotUS? How far is it from actor to reality TV star? Every time I see the two compared, I think, “Natural progression.” Now, some of y’all Reagan idolators are going to be upset about that, but I’m just saying it’s a slippery slope when one starts relaxing one’s standards.
@garyrobbins — In other, much shorter words, you got 2016 wrong.
Also, you don’t say anything about the Republicans increasing their margin in the Senate in 2018.
There are, of course, no absolute laws in politics. However, it is pretty close to an absolute law that if elements within a party wage a civil war against that party’s incumbent President, whether they defeat him or just weaken him, they guarantee a victory by the other party.
A conservative would say such a civil war is to be avoided at all costs. Yet such a civil war is what you are hoping for. That’s why I call anti-Trumpers “conservative-ish” rather than conservative.
A conservative would point out that Trump won once, when the case against his candidacy — inexperience and unpredictability — was much stronger than it is now.
A conservative would tell the anti-Trumper to stop hammering on the hull of the lifeboat, even if it is leaky and some of the wood is questionable. The anti-Trumper (as the water rushes in): “Haha! I was right all along! Glub glub …”
During the three week period from the last debate and election day 2016 Trump was assiduously laying the groundwork to challenge the integrity of the election he was confident he was going to lose. He was saying he, and by extension his supporters, should not trust the results if it went against him. Today we have a Democrat named Stacy Abrams from Georgia who is doing the same thing about her gubernatorial election, dumping acid on the foundation pillars of our democracy. His flunky Michael Cohen told Congress he does not believe Trump will accept the election results and will refuse to leave office if he loses in 2020.
I believe Trump is a pathological narcissist who primarily ran for President to gratify his insatiable craving for attention and flattery than for any altruistic or patriotic motive.
Beliefs are funny things. They don’t have to have any basis in reality.
You might be right, maybe I’ll end up like Winston in 1984 and finally start loving the very stable genius.
Don’t take it too far. I would be satisfied if people would see him as he is, not how they imagine him.
Why did Trump get elected? How did it come to this?
How much does Paul Ryan make, now? Jeff Flake? etc.
No. He was laying the groundwork to counter the Dems if they cheated themselves to a win. Big difference between that and pouring acid on the foundations of democracy.
Apples and oranges. Learn your fruit.
Ah, the guy who lied verifiably under oath multiple times and would do anything to lessen the amount of time he has to spend wearing a sundress and pleasuring the Aryan Nation guys on his cell block. Good source. Really adds strength to your assertions.
Unlike any other politician out there, running for president or not. For the love of Cod, I’ve seen Kasich being praised in these comments. That certainly lends credibility to your arguments. Perceptive. We all have a bit of narcissism in us; it’s on a spectrum, like any other human foible. I believe the clinical term you’re looking for is not pathological narcissist but malignant narcissist. And if Trump were a malignant narcissist his children would not be as healthy and grounded as they are. If there’s anything pathological going on on this thread, I think it’s the NT-ers. I don’t know how your narrative voice sounds in your head as your typing your comments, but the narrative voice I hear in my head reading your comments sounds like you’re only moments away from foaming at the mouth.
Lighten up, Francis.
I get that Trump is going to do some populist / statist stuff, but Kasich is far worse. He lost his mind after he went to Morgan Stanley. I get that you lose the drama, but no way. Most of those Bulwark types want the GOSPLAN nonsense, IMO.
You just described 90% of the politicians in Washington D.C. and possibly the entire country. The great thing about Trump is that he had already achieved wealth and fame, big motivators for many politicians, before becoming president.
I believe Trump is much more extreme in his narcissism. I think there are politicians that run primarily to get something done or changed, e.g. Reagan and those that primarily run to be somebody, e.g. Clinton. Trump does not scare me today as much as he did during the opening weeks of his administration, when he was ranting about his crowd being bigger than Obama’s crowd and such, but I still believe he is so flawed he does not deserve reelection. We are a nation of a third of a billion people, we could do better than Donald Trump.
This is a waste of time. Bill Clinton effectively believed in nothing. “The era of big government is over.”
They are all liars. 43 was a liar. Obama was a liar.
It’s better to worry about why populism and socialism is taking over.
Who’s fault is this? How did this happen? Has there been any conservatism on net since LBJ?
I really recommend watching the interviews of Jeffrey Gundlach on Yahoo finance. Watch that and get back to me.
Trump is headed towards defeat, while Reagan was re-elected in a landslide.
I was already a lawyer during the Bork and Thomas hearings. Reagan never withdrew the Bork nomination, and H.W. stood with Thomas.
Unless the Democrats nominate a socialist, Trump will do something that only Jimmy Carter has done since the 22nd Amendment was adopted in 1951: having his party lose control of the Presidency after only one term.
Trump is the Anti-Reagan.
Reagan was the Greatest President of the Twentieth Century, Trump is the worst Republican of all time.
Reagan led with inclusion, a large smile, and an open hand. Trump attacks anyone who refuses to bend the knee.
And, while Reagan was divorced, Nancy Reagan never had naked pictures of herself on the front page of the New York Post kissing another naked woman.
We’re still a long way out.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/11887/ronald-reagan-from-peoples-perspective-gallup-poll-review.aspx