Trump heading for Republican 'coronation' as 2024 rivals struggle to stop him
As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flipped pork chops in front of the cameras at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, a plane appeared in the broiling blue sky.
Imagine the GOP being so desperate for a win, they just continue to let this guy rot them from the inside. It’s incredible the lack of balls every single candidate running against him has shown.
The only way I can figure it is he has dirt on everyone. Remember the russians hacked the DNC and RNC email servers but only released info from the Dems.
I don't buy that argument. That would only make sense if Republican voters actually care about "dirt" and would not vote for a politician who was tainted. But obviously we know that's not the case. Republicans who have been accused of everything from embezzling money to grooming children have done just as well in their elections, because their voters would still prefer a crooked Republican over the most saintly Democrat.
I used to work a couple blocks away from Trump tower. Right across the street is UN plaza. I have thought for a looong time now that Trump put cameras in rooms to get dirt on powerful people.
Putin owns the dirt. Trump was shown just enough to keep him in line and he's the primary conduit through which the GOP is controlled. Look at Lindsey Graham's flip to Team Trump. I believe that Trump showed some of Putin's kompromat to Graham and Lindsey decided to switch allegiances both to keep his career and further his own goals.
It's funny because the first group to denounce Trump as a maniac, and to basically accurately describe how fucked up he is was the GOP in 2016. They warned back then what would happen if Trump won, then he won and suddenly he was the best thing ever, and everyone disagreeing has been had by the deep state or something.
Even if they were the same people lol
It’s incredible the lack of balls every single candidate running against him has shown.
There's probably not much they can do. It's just the state of the Republican Party at this moment in time. And it's where the Republican electorate is. I hope the younger generations will burn this Republican Party to the ground and start over.
You know what happened to Republican candidates that took a stand against him?
They got primaried, and lost.
Why imagine when it is happening right now?
It's the primary voters. They still adore Trump, so the other candidates get thrashed of they saying anything truthful like "Trump is a narcissistic psychopath" or "the election was not stolen".
Somebody please get that rambling nursing home patient candidate away from any position of leadership
which one? you’ve just described them all.
That's the joke ;)
I have never been able to really comprehend why these people like him. He comes across like a bumbling moron. He's ineloquent, abrasive and probably just as stupid as he seems. He has literally no redeeming qualities yet millions of people act like he's the Messiah or something. I really struggle to understand how this guy of all the millions upon millions of people in the US is the only one who can illicit this type of response.
I think there are two distinct groups of people:
About half of Trump supporters just love him. They share some of the same personality traits. They believe in conspiracy theories. They're mad at the world. They want to "own the libs". They're not very educated, they're very tribal.
The other half do not like his personality at all, but they don't care because he's effective and they like his policies. He's a means to an end. These are the ones that are hurting the country so much more. They know that he's destroying the political system and they don't care, because they'll get what they want. They support Trump over DeSantis not because they like Trump as a person, but because they think Trump has the best chance of winning.
"He makes the left mad, so he must be doing something right!"
That's not hyperbole, that's the literal smoothbrain logic of Republican morons. So long as he irritates liberals, he's in the conservative good books.
It is deeply disturbing that Trump is still in the lead for the Republican nomination despite his multiple indictments, multiple sexual transgressions, complete ineptitude in things like economics, foreign policy, freakin' covid, and his open hostility towards democracy, rule of law, and the US Constitution. He openly used the presidency to enrich himself and his family at the expense of US taxpayers, American democracy, and world stability. His open love for dictators like Putin should be sending shivers down the spine of every anti-government right-winger, and yet they still rush to embrace this guy as their best choice. Their best fucking choice. The guy that doesn't even pretend that he doesn't want dictator-level power. I guess that's what the Republicans crave.
I'm not about to say this for condoning his actions, but as an observer in a southern red state: It's a lot to do with his brashness and no fucks given. Also the appearance of going into politics as an outsider to the system.
To them, his openness to a lot of his, eh, trumpisms, is better than how most politicians conduct themselves. I could be wrong, but it's the sentiment and vibe I get from the people that like him around here give off.
It's a lot to do with his brashness and no fucks given.
Probably says more about the electorate than Trump. The fact that "no fucks given" is a value worth celebrating and condoning tells you a lot about how sick this country is at the moment.
Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this, to save you from yourselves.
-Sideshow Bob
I think the republicans in the senate at least realize its very hard to unseat an incumbent president, so why waste their time and money putting up any real presidential candidate in 2024? Better for them to wait till 2028 to try and get power back, and by that time the trump cult will burn out in whatever way its going to implode and they can start over without that baggage. This of course assumes trump does not split the party into 2, if that happens all bets are off and the right wing of US politics might be dead for decades, its pretty obvious that if trump cant win the presidency that he will try to take the entire party down with him.. its how he operates.
We know Trump lied about the election. He staged a coupt to try to maintain power based on those lies which many of his followers are still paying the price. Hell the Fulton County DA just announced they have evidence team Trump was involved in voting systems breaches across several states.
To think this man is the right man to make your candidate says a great deal about the moral and ethical foundations of both republicanism, and the people that choose to support the party as they prop this traitor up.
I hope you all are paying attention. They don't quell calls for civil war in their ranks. In fact its celebrated as a rallying cry. Republicans are doing everything in their power to subvert democracy and steal our country from the rest of us.
I would argue at this point you cannot be a republican without being a seditionist seeking to install their christofascist dictatorship, whether that's subscribing to the whole bag or supporting as a single issue voter. If you guve them power you are responsible for what they use it for.
These people have been hopped up on so much lies and bullshit dressed up as "patriotism" that they are a very real threat to any American just trying to live their lives and get by. Ask trans Americans how the last couple of years have been as the target of their hate and bigotry.
[...] says a great deal about the moral and ethical foundations of [...] republicanism
That's just it. There are no moral or ethical foundations to it, just devotion to whatever the party or its talking heads hand down
That's what makes the GOP so fragile and so monstrous- it's all followers, none with ideas of their own and most willing to resort to (or accept) political violence over fealty to tribe or sect
The info about the voting machines was leaked to a journalist, not announced.
Coronation is the right term here. Republicans have abandoned democracy a long time ago
Every other candidate's campaign strategy is be #2 and hope Trump goes to prison. And it's always been that way. Who else was going to win a Republican primary? DeSantis? Please. He first started gaining attention by talking like Trump and literally aping his mannerisms. Just play this campaign ad he made where he practically gargles Trump's balls and he's toast.
Everyone is delusional if they think Trump is ever going to set foot in jail. He's a rich, old, white, ex president, he ain't going to jail ever. The system would never allow it. The best we can hope for is to keep him bogged down in lawsuits till a big Mac kills him.
Fulton County will put him in jail, that is unless the state steps in to stop it. But its a small enough, local jurisidiction that isn't playing large scale politics, only the small scale of being liberal and black in the south.
I certainly dispise both those people but that ad is witty as hell and I support that. Good morning time chuckle better than the normal depressing campaign ad.
I'm sorry but were we watching the same ad? It was not witty in the fucking slightest. It looked like a bunch of zombie lizards wearing human skin reading off teleprompters
Hey everyone, this poster likes entertaining fascists!
I'm honestly just flabbergasted. None of this is real. It's so surreal it's looped back on itself like 3 times and I'm not sure where we're at anymore.
Yeah it's hard to stop/defeat a guy when you are so busy fellating him at every chance.
Because any Republicans with any sense abandoned the party YEARS ago.
George Will was the last one out in 2016:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/george-will-donald-trump/index.html
What is left are the hard core, fact free, lunatics who, of course, are going to nominate a hard core, fact free lunatic to lead them.
What is left are the hard core, fact free, lunatics who, of course, are going to nominate a hard core, fact free lunatic to lead them.
That tells you a lot about almost half the population.
Really, it's only about 1/3rd of the population, it's just that it's near 100% of Republicans and 1/2 of voters.
The key is getting non-voters off their asses and to the polls, that's what terrifies Republicans more than anything else, it's why they fight motor voter laws, and vote by mail, and why they want to block people from voting at every turn by limiting voting locations, or voting hours, or making it illegal to bring food or water to people standing in line.
30% of the population will believe damn near anything.
In a sane world, we'd mention that this is why you must always doubt your own assumptions because only a fool is always confident, but fortunately for us the other side is babbling about Zombie JFK Jr and Jewish Space Lasers so it's pretty easy to figure out who is at least less wrong.
Its indicative of the decline of christianity, as cults get smaller and smaller they tend to weed out the moderates until there is a small core of hard core extremists who amount to essentially terrorists. This process has unfolded in many other countries and is just hitting the US now, it 20 year it will be all over, religiosity will be under 50% in the general population by that time.
It's hard and disingenuous to equivocate the population to the electorate. Over half of the U.S. population didn't vote at all.
2024 is going to be a repeat of 2020. The question is whether voters turn out for Biden or Trump.
What have american voters learned?
It's also about the laws and structure in place. If the right people and laws are in place, they could further undermine the election process and only allow some of the voters who would vote for Biden. Many R-controlled states have been working on this for years. Have they been successful enough?
intensely so; top tier politicians in texas and florida publicly state that their version of voter suppression is the only reason why they keep winning elections on tv, radio and internet.
it also works because the centrists/moderates only shake their head in disgust when it happens and do nothing else. martin luther king defined the phenomena best:
the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"
The question is whether voters turn out
foragainst Biden or Trump.
Nobody in America votes for anyone any more.
2024 rivals
That’s a lot of rivals.
The DNC will be slavering at the opportunity this presents them.
"It votes for Blue behind the screen or else it gets the Trump again!"
Thanks, pizza cutter.
This is GOOD news.
Yeah, I know some will think that is crazy, but I firmly believe that Biden will have an easier time against Trump than any other Republican.
I don't think it's good news for the US, that one of its major parties has fallen so deeply and its voters keep stroking that fire. Sure, Trump is probably the easier opponent for Biden, but there's something very, very wrong.
Trump is there anyways. He's not going away.
Better for Trump to be the GOP nominee and (HOPEFULLY) lose resoundingly to Biden, rather than some other more likable GOP candidate that squeezes out a victory. Republicans are still going to pull the same sleazy election tricks. They are still going to make the same attacks against the Democrats. They are still going to make the same lies.
At least if it is Trump doing the attacks, we know he has no support from a huge chunk of the country.
Pretty low standard for good news.
The only candidate trying to stop him has been Christie. And I'm grateful to him for his effort.
How is this guy not radioactive with the electorate like Boris has become in the UK?
Because unlike the UK, America’s far right party is mainstream. We have UKIP and the BNP and nobody listens to them. People support the Republicans.
I don't think that I agree about no one listening to ukip. So their height they were picking up MPs at bi-elections and had about 13% of the vote at General. The fear the Tories had of them splitting the right vote in my opinion was a key reason why Cameron put the Brexit referendum into his 2015 manifesto.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It was a moment that epitomized the state of the 2024 Republican presidential nominating race: Trump is far ahead in national polling, eclipsing Florida's governor and the rest of the field, who have so far been at a loss over how to narrow that gap.
But with Trump leading DeSantis by 34 percentage points among likely Republican primary voters in an Aug. 3 Reuters/Ipsos poll, and the rest of the field languishing in single digits, the fair this year had the air of a coronation rather than a beauty pageant.
A third said he was part of the "deep state," a term often used by conspiracy theorists to refer to people in government they believe are working clandestinely to manipulate national policy.
There is a narrow path for somebody to beat the former president, "but they have to generate excitement and come first or second in Iowa to make it a two-person race and persuade people they are more electable," she said.
At the state fair, that uphill struggle to catch up to Trump was on display amid the 90-degree Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) heat, pork chops on a stick, deep-fried, cream-filled Twinkies; foot-long corn dogs; and a staple of the event: a life-size cow sculpted out of butter.
They were greeted by about 200 people politely and warmly, although DeSantis had to speak over a half dozen women's rights protesters blowing whistles and under a plane flying a banner that declared: "Be Likeable, Ron!"
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Crown the fucker with a baseball bat? Absolutely!
