Trump Is What Happens When A Political Party Abandons Ideas

[Darkwind]

I didn't vote for Trump. But not because he was to right wing but because he was to left wing.

The only party that is completely out of ideas is the Democrat party. They no longer have anything but their hatred to keep them warm at night, and they have completely abandoned any kind of positive, forward-looking agenda.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Trump Is What Happens When A Political Party Abandons Ideas

No he/it isn't. The GOP and its members have plenty of ideas. Its membership just don't put much effort into rigorously, soundly evaluating their merits and demerits and they have no regard for the feedback of people who do.

 

[SmokeALib]

Democratic - the party of bad ideas.
Republican - the party of no ideas.
Trump is neither. Thus getting no help from either.
I appreciate the guy for diving head first into this mess for the betterment of America.

 

[Flopper]

When my grand

When our parents and grandparents were growing the only countries that really had to compete for trade, good jobs, and capital were in western Europe, north America and Japan.

So you know what? It was just easier. Easier to get a good job and a nice house with disposable income to spare.

We have to compete with the rest of the world today. China and all the former European colonies are prepared and able to work harder or cheaper than us. So although the cake is bigger it's tougher to get your slice. If I was 21 today I would probably be pretty pissed too tbh. Free trade has lifted billions out of poverty but the relative losers are angry and want easy answers.

Rather than face this reality we have people like Trump, Sanders, and Corbyn in the UK telling everybody that things can magically go back to how were when we all ran the world and everybody else was a poor communist farmer.

We all need to face reality, rather than wallowing in echo chambers that tell us that the world is some giant conspiracy that can be overcome.

After WWII, Europe and much of Southeast Asia were in no position to compete with the US, militarily or economically. We build a worldwide market for our products and for years we prospered as no country had. However, that could not last forever. Our customers became our competitors. Countries like Japan, South Korea, and eventually China embraced American capitalism. There low priced labor and years of hardship created a workforce that the US could not match. The US had to play to it's real strengths, innovation, technology, a high skilled workforce, and vast capital. This made millions of lower skilled workers redundant. Those golden years for the US after WWII are gone forever and we will never return to them because that world no longer exist.

 

[tigerred59]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article for Politico endorsing Donald Trump for president. It was a tongue-in-cheek effort—I “supported” Trump only because I thought he would lose to Hillary Clinton, disastrously, and that his defeat would cleanse the Republican Party of the extremism and nuttiness that drove me out of it. I had hoped that post-2016, what remained of the moderate wing of the GOP would reassert itself as it did after the Goldwater debacle in 1964, and exorcise the crazies.

Trump was a guaranteed loser, I thought. In the Virginia presidential primary, I even voted for him, hoping to hasten the party’s demise. In the weeks before the November election, I predicted a Clinton presidency would fix much of what ails our country. On November 8, I voted for Clinton and left the ballot booth reasonably sure she would win.


Needless to say, I was as dumbfounded by the election results as Max Bialystock was by the success of “Springtime for Hitler.” For two months after Trump won, I couldn’t read any news about the election, and considered abandoning political commentary permanently. It wasn’t just that Trump disgusted me; I was disgusted with myself for being so stupid. I no longer trusted my own powers of observation and analysis.

Almost everything that has happened since November 8 has been the inverse of what I’d imagined. Trump didn’t lose; he won. The Republican Party isn’t undergoing some sort of reckoning over what it believes; his branch of the Republican Party has taken control. Most troubling, perhaps, is that rather than reassert themselves, the moderate Republicans have almost all rolled over entirely.

Trump has turned out to be far, far worse than I imagined. He has instituted policies so right wing they make Ronald Reagan, for whom I worked, look like a liberal Democrat. He has appointed staff people far to the right of the Republican mainstream in many positions, and they are instituting policies that are frighteningly extreme. Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Scott Pruitt proudly denies the existence of climate change, and is doing his best to implement every item Big Oil has had on its wish list since the agency was established by Richard Nixon. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is actively hostile to the very concept of public education and is doing her best to abolish it. Every day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions institutes some new policy to take incarceration and law enforcement back to the Dark Ages. Trump’s proposed budget would eviscerate the social safety net for the sole purpose of giving huge tax cuts to the ultrawealthy.

And if those policies weren’t enough, conservatives—who, after all, believe in liberty and a system of checks and balances to restrain the government to its proper role—have plenty of reason to be upset by those actions Trump has taken that transcend our traditional right-left ideological divide. He’s voiced not only skepticism of NATO, but outright hostility to it. He’s pulled America back from its role as an international advocate for human rights. He’s attacked the notion of an independent judiciary. He personally intervened to request the FBI to ease up on its investigation of a former adviser of his, then fired FBI Director James Comey and freely admitted he did so to alleviate the pressure he felt from Comey’s investigation. For those conservatives who were tempted to embrace a “wait-and-see” approach to Trump, what they’ve seen, time and again, is almost unimaginable.

And yet as surprising as this all has been, it’s also the natural outgrowth of 30 years of Republican pandering to the lowest common denominator in American politics. Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas, demonizes intellectuals, degrades politics and simply pursues power for the sake of power.

continue reading...
‘Trump Is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’

YES. Trump happened because Dems are out of ideas

 

[Theowl32]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

Still waiting for that country run by some black person that is a success.

All of them are disgusting cesspools.

Why is that?

Is it related to the reason why it is so hard to pronounce the word ASK? What is with that? I think we need to have an investigation.

You think scientists have discovered what the MISSING LINK is, but they cannot possibly tell us. I mean how much does science ignore anyway? A lot.

As it is, history of your race is certainly not taught.

It obviously does not bother your ignorant brain that blacks are still enslaved by blacks. We know, we know. That does not count in your little ignorant mind.

You ought to pretend that it does not bother you though.

Now, back to that little three letter word.....ASK.



That woman there, may be able to help YOU PEOPLE out a little.

 

[Dale Smith]

At the very top there are no differences between the two parties. The CFR allowed Carroll Quigley to sit in on their meetings and read all their white papers. They are "The Deep State" and this is why nothing ever changes for the better. It's all in his book "Tragedy And Hope".

“The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.” (Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p. 324. 1966.)

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy” (Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966.)

 

[Wyatt earp]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

So who does, the bum down by the river smoking a dubbie?


.

 

[tigerred59]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

Still waiting for that country run by some black person that is a success.

All of them are disgusting cesspools.

Why is that?

Is it related to the reason why it is so hard to pronounce the word ASK? What is with that? I think we need to have an investigation.

You think scientists have discovered what the MISSING LINK is, but they cannot possibly tell us. I mean how much does science ignore anyway? A lot.

As it is, history of your race is certainly not taught.

It obviously does not bother your ignorant brain that blacks are still enslaved by blacks. We know, we know. That does not count in your little ignorant mind.

You ought to pretend that it does not bother you though.

Now, back to that little three letter word.....ASK.



That woman there, may be able to help YOU PEOPLE out a little.

Still waiting for that country run by some black person that is a success. ......Ever here of a country called America? Obama left office with a 57% approval rating!!!
Deflect much, now do you?

 

[tigerred59]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

So who does the bum.down by the river smoking a dubbie?



.

English, you shit for brains mf, english??????

 

[tigerred59]

Democratic - the party of bad ideas.
Republican - the party of no ideas.
Trump is neither. Thus getting no help from either.
I appreciate the guy for diving head first into this mess for the betterment of America.

Dive head first into what? Scandal after scandal after scandal...get your head out his ass, its already too crowed!!

 

[Wyatt earp]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

Still waiting for that country run by some black person that is a success.

All of them are disgusting cesspools.

Why is that?

Is it related to the reason why it is so hard to pronounce the word ASK? What is with that? I think we need to have an investigation.

You think scientists have discovered what the MISSING LINK is, but they cannot possibly tell us. I mean how much does science ignore anyway? A lot.

As it is, history of your race is certainly not taught.

It obviously does not bother your ignorant brain that blacks are still enslaved by blacks. We know, we know. That does not count in your little ignorant mind.

You ought to pretend that it does not bother you though.

Now, back to that little three letter word.....ASK.



That woman there, may be able to help YOU PEOPLE out a little.

Still waiting for that country run by some black person that is a success. ......Ever here of a country called America? Obama left office with a 57% approval rating!!!
Deflect much, now do you?

Polls? How about your mesiah losing over 900 seats...


.

 

[Wyatt earp]

It's true that Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas but the party in question wasn't the GOP. Democrats lost almost every important election in the last eight years and they are still playing by an old 60's playbook where they think propaganda and wishful thinking can win elections in the age of information. Democrats never bothered with fly over country because they thought the rubes weren't as smart as metrosexuals. Democrats thought Florida was a given because there were so many Hispanics but the Hispanics voted for Trump. Democrats depended on skewed and fraudulent polls and fake news because they thought they were smarter than the average voter and they ignored facts relating to Hillary. Now the democrat party is eating it's own by blaming Nancy Pelosi for the crushing defeat in the special election in Georgia and the MSM is kind of backing away from the Trump/Russia connection because Americans know it's a sham. The sad news for liberals is that the democrat party is on the verge of collapse because they are plumb out of ideas and agenda and the only thing they have left is hatred.

What is killing our party are the candidates we put up to run.....plain and simple. Keep in mind, please the elections that we've lost lately, all safe gerrymandered white GOP districts and anyone on the outside looking in would find these loss'es very impressive......all close!! Now could a GOP candidate do that is a liberal district? Fuck no!!

They could if they got the right message across, but the left drilled it into their brains that the cops are the enemy, rich people who provide jobs are their enemy, only the government can save them from their self's


Got to remember Regan got a landslide and took everything except Minnesota.



.

.

Listen, trying to penetrate a white conservative brain is like tying to close a Trump twitter account....never gonna happen, impossible to do. As for this cop shit and rich people shit
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't 'Create The Jobs'

...bad cops are not good for the country:
Post Nation
A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him.
A “friendly fire” incident in which an off-duty St. Louis policeman was shot while coming to the aid of fellow officers has taken on racial overtones after an incendiary claim by the injured officer’s attorney: The officer was viewed as a threat because he was black.

So who does the bum.down by the river smoking a dubbie?



.

English, you shit for brains mf, english??????

Economics...?



And you need pictures?

 

[2aguy]

Yep....I voted for Trump because of what he promised to do.......as opposed to what I knew for sure hilary was going to do to us........

We now have Gorsuch...and after the 5-3 split on the recent Supreme Court decision...I can't wait for kennedy and ginsberg to retire.........Just that one thing made Trump worthwhile.....and he is actually keeping his promises.......which is another bonus.......

Keep being pissed off democrats...keep being violent, keep trying to murder republicans........we need to kick more of you out of office.....

 

[easyt65]

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article for Politico endorsing Donald Trump for president. It was a tongue-in-cheek effort—I “supported” Trump only because I thought he would lose to Hillary Clinton, disastrously, and that his defeat would cleanse the Republican Party of the extremism and nuttiness that drove me out of it. I had hoped that post-2016, what remained of the moderate wing of the GOP would reassert itself as it did after the Goldwater debacle in 1964, and exorcise the crazies.

Trump was a guaranteed loser, I thought. In the Virginia presidential primary, I even voted for him, hoping to hasten the party’s demise. In the weeks before the November election, I predicted a Clinton presidency would fix much of what ails our country. On November 8, I voted for Clinton and left the ballot booth reasonably sure she would win.


Needless to say, I was as dumbfounded by the election results as Max Bialystock was by the success of “Springtime for Hitler.” For two months after Trump won, I couldn’t read any news about the election, and considered abandoning political commentary permanently. It wasn’t just that Trump disgusted me; I was disgusted with myself for being so stupid. I no longer trusted my own powers of observation and analysis.

Almost everything that has happened since November 8 has been the inverse of what I’d imagined. Trump didn’t lose; he won. The Republican Party isn’t undergoing some sort of reckoning over what it believes; his branch of the Republican Party has taken control. Most troubling, perhaps, is that rather than reassert themselves, the moderate Republicans have almost all rolled over entirely.

Trump has turned out to be far, far worse than I imagined. He has instituted policies so right wing they make Ronald Reagan, for whom I worked, look like a liberal Democrat. He has appointed staff people far to the right of the Republican mainstream in many positions, and they are instituting policies that are frighteningly extreme. Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Scott Pruitt proudly denies the existence of climate change, and is doing his best to implement every item Big Oil has had on its wish list since the agency was established by Richard Nixon. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is actively hostile to the very concept of public education and is doing her best to abolish it. Every day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions institutes some new policy to take incarceration and law enforcement back to the Dark Ages. Trump’s proposed budget would eviscerate the social safety net for the sole purpose of giving huge tax cuts to the ultrawealthy.

And if those policies weren’t enough, conservatives—who, after all, believe in liberty and a system of checks and balances to restrain the government to its proper role—have plenty of reason to be upset by those actions Trump has taken that transcend our traditional right-left ideological divide. He’s voiced not only skepticism of NATO, but outright hostility to it. He’s pulled America back from its role as an international advocate for human rights. He’s attacked the notion of an independent judiciary. He personally intervened to request the FBI to ease up on its investigation of a former adviser of his, then fired FBI Director James Comey and freely admitted he did so to alleviate the pressure he felt from Comey’s investigation. For those conservatives who were tempted to embrace a “wait-and-see” approach to Trump, what they’ve seen, time and again, is almost unimaginable.

And yet as surprising as this all has been, it’s also the natural outgrowth of 30 years of Republican pandering to the lowest common denominator in American politics. Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas, demonizes intellectuals, degrades politics and simply pursues power for the sake of power.

continue reading...
‘Trump Is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’

You are hilarious.

Trump ran on ideas, promises he has been keeping, while Democrats have been stuck on' Russia, Russia, Russia', hate, false, accusations, and conspiracy theories.

Chuck Schumer just recently - FINALL - stated 'when you lose elections you don't blame others, you blame yourself'.

That-s one helluva overdue flip flop.

Democrats have been / are crooked, criminal, cheating, lying, obstructionists...but according to you and other snowflakes it is Trump who has been the disappointment.

Bwuhahahaha.

Trump has been the adult in the room while the libs have been the child throwing a tantrum in the corner.

 

[dblack]

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article for Politico endorsing Donald Trump for president. It was a tongue-in-cheek effort—I “supported” Trump only because I thought he would lose to Hillary Clinton, disastrously, and that his defeat would cleanse the Republican Party of the extremism and nuttiness that drove me out of it. I had hoped that post-2016, what remained of the moderate wing of the GOP would reassert itself as it did after the Goldwater debacle in 1964, and exorcise the crazies.

Trump was a guaranteed loser, I thought. In the Virginia presidential primary, I even voted for him, hoping to hasten the party’s demise. In the weeks before the November election, I predicted a Clinton presidency would fix much of what ails our country. On November 8, I voted for Clinton and left the ballot booth reasonably sure she would win.

Looks like your shenanigans backfired on you. Frankly, I think this strategy had more influence on the election than anything the Russians did, and we need to be talking about it with the same gravitas. You fucked up the democratic process. Thanks a lot!

 

[Mac1958]

‘Trump Is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’

Interestingly, that's a title that could be pointing the finger at either "major" party.
.

 

[iceberg]

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article for Politico endorsing Donald Trump for president. It was a tongue-in-cheek effort—I “supported” Trump only because I thought he would lose to Hillary Clinton, disastrously, and that his defeat would cleanse the Republican Party of the extremism and nuttiness that drove me out of it. I had hoped that post-2016, what remained of the moderate wing of the GOP would reassert itself as it did after the Goldwater debacle in 1964, and exorcise the crazies.

Trump was a guaranteed loser, I thought. In the Virginia presidential primary, I even voted for him, hoping to hasten the party’s demise. In the weeks before the November election, I predicted a Clinton presidency would fix much of what ails our country. On November 8, I voted for Clinton and left the ballot booth reasonably sure she would win.


Needless to say, I was as dumbfounded by the election results as Max Bialystock was by the success of “Springtime for Hitler.” For two months after Trump won, I couldn’t read any news about the election, and considered abandoning political commentary permanently. It wasn’t just that Trump disgusted me; I was disgusted with myself for being so stupid. I no longer trusted my own powers of observation and analysis.

Almost everything that has happened since November 8 has been the inverse of what I’d imagined. Trump didn’t lose; he won. The Republican Party isn’t undergoing some sort of reckoning over what it believes; his branch of the Republican Party has taken control. Most troubling, perhaps, is that rather than reassert themselves, the moderate Republicans have almost all rolled over entirely.

Trump has turned out to be far, far worse than I imagined. He has instituted policies so right wing they make Ronald Reagan, for whom I worked, look like a liberal Democrat. He has appointed staff people far to the right of the Republican mainstream in many positions, and they are instituting policies that are frighteningly extreme. Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Scott Pruitt proudly denies the existence of climate change, and is doing his best to implement every item Big Oil has had on its wish list since the agency was established by Richard Nixon. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is actively hostile to the very concept of public education and is doing her best to abolish it. Every day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions institutes some new policy to take incarceration and law enforcement back to the Dark Ages. Trump’s proposed budget would eviscerate the social safety net for the sole purpose of giving huge tax cuts to the ultrawealthy.

And if those policies weren’t enough, conservatives—who, after all, believe in liberty and a system of checks and balances to restrain the government to its proper role—have plenty of reason to be upset by those actions Trump has taken that transcend our traditional right-left ideological divide. He’s voiced not only skepticism of NATO, but outright hostility to it. He’s pulled America back from its role as an international advocate for human rights. He’s attacked the notion of an independent judiciary. He personally intervened to request the FBI to ease up on its investigation of a former adviser of his, then fired FBI Director James Comey and freely admitted he did so to alleviate the pressure he felt from Comey’s investigation. For those conservatives who were tempted to embrace a “wait-and-see” approach to Trump, what they’ve seen, time and again, is almost unimaginable.

And yet as surprising as this all has been, it’s also the natural outgrowth of 30 years of Republican pandering to the lowest common denominator in American politics. Trump is what happens when a political party abandons ideas, demonizes intellectuals, degrades politics and simply pursues power for the sake of power.

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‘Trump Is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’

trump is what happens when identity politics has run it's course and the elite are abusing their position. he is a reaction to 8 years of obama shoving a highly liberal agenda down the countries throat.

nothing more, nothing less. and when you claim you hate him to start and only endorse him cause you felt he'd lose, you're far from unbiased and we have more then enough "100 reasons why trump sucks" articles already out there.

keep it.

 

[Foxfyre]

I pretty much agree with a lot of you. The Republicans have largely been the permanent political class as much as the Democrats. Their only redeeming factor has been that they represent people who are mostly not Democrats and who want smaller, more efficient, more effective, less expensive government and more liberty and opportunity for all.

The Republicans only redeeming quality is that they represent those who still resent being forced into a kind of slavery for the benefit of those who want the government to feed, house, clothe them, provide everything they need, and make them feel good. The Republicans represent those who believe in fiscal sanity, who deplore 20 trillion dollar national debts, and who believe in personal responsibility and accountability.

Thus the Republicans throw the people a different kind of bone than the Democrats throw to their base.

I hope the 60 million of us who are hanging in there with President Trump continue to do so. If we allow the opportunists and haters to destroy him, we may have lost the last hope we have to stop the steady slow decline of America.