American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

You mean the dumbest administration in history, with the lowest amount of awareness and foresight in history, didn't see the reaction to one of their moves coming? No.....

and yet, despite all the idiotic moves that they do, their base has not eroded. Not. One. Bit.

So, its no wonder they do stuff like this; it doesn't matter to their base, who are too dumb to understand what is going on apparently...

Gobsmacked at how dumb people are...honestly. They complain about "big government", all while cheering on an Autocrat installing a kleptocracy in the White House.

its f'n insane...

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Their base isn't really the issue though, they do need the less extreme 2012 Romney republicans too in order to have any hope of winning in 2020. They need at least some showing of them to keep congress in 2018. Eroding that support is possible and I suspect, perhaps optimistically, that it is indeed happening quietly.

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Their base isn't really the issue though, they do need the less extreme 2012 Romney republicans too in order to have any hope of winning in 2020. They need at least some showing of them to keep congress in 2018. Eroding that support is possible and I suspect, perhaps optimistically, that it is indeed happening quietly.

i disagree

if their base was as angry at the craven move to end an ongoing investigation into possible foreign manipulation into the presidential election as democrats are, there would be more pressure for members of congress to go against the party line.

the members of the house toe that line because they fear losing their seats in the next election cycle as a result of GOP PACs punishing them by funding rivals in their districts.

if Trump's base turned on him, and added pressure on their members of congress, there'd be many more defections in the house and senate...

the ridiculous trumpcare/ryan care plan for example, might not have gone through if more of the GOP base were angry and lobbied their member of congress to vote against it... as it stands now, many of those members simply kicked the can to the Senate to make changes and try approving through the reconciliation process and not a vote in the Senate.

if the GOP base was fracturing a month ago for example, Trump might have understood that he couldn't fire Comey as the pressure and examination of his policies would skyrocket.

[JackJack]

Boy. Do I miss Obama.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

the ridiculous trumpcare/ryan care plan for example, might not have gone through if more of the GOP base were angry and lobbied their member of congress to vote against it.

There have been protests in GOP districts from constituents, many of them Republican, that have bordered on open revolt. Many GOP congressmen have cancelled public appearances as a result. This has been going on for months and was a direct response to their attempts to reduce health care coverage. Now they've done precisely that, and apparently were applauded by Democrats (in a rather cynical and tone-deaf gesture) for taking that politically inexpedient step, as if to say "thanks for giving us your seats". How did you miss all of this?

[transplant99]

This will be marked as the beginning of the end for Trump.

It was exactly the same thing for Nixon after the Saturday Night Massacre. When he fired Cox he misread the backlash it would cause among the people of the country. Those same(but different obviously) people will react very much the same way now IMO and when Republican Senators and Congressmen start hearing/seeing their own popularity start to plummet, they will abandon the good ship Trump in waves.

This is going to be ugly though. Lots of decent people will be left in its wake in varying states of disrepute.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by transplant99

This will be marked as the beginning of the end for Trump.

It was exactly the same thing for Nixon after the Saturday Night Massacre. When he fired Cox he misread the backlash it would cause among the people of the country. Those same(but different obviously) people will react very much the same way now IMO and when Republican Senators and Congressmen start hearing/seeing their own popularity start to plummet, they will abandon the good ship Trump in waves.

This is going to be ugly though. Lots of decent people will be left in its wake in varying states of disrepute.

I hope you're right.

Not sure which decent people you're referring here though?

[Fuzz]

How is there not one smoking gun yet to impeach this turd? Why has no one at the IRS leaked his tax returns? Surly there are people who have access to them, and if they found Russian connections it would be worth bringing to the DOJ or FBI? What in sam hell is going on here? How is Trump still in power?

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

There have been protests in GOP districts from constituents, many of them Republican, that have bordered on open revolt. Many GOP congressmen have cancelled public appearances as a result. This has been going on for months and was a direct response to their attempts to reduce health care coverage. Now they've done precisely that, and apparently were applauded by Democrats (in a rather cynical and tone-deaf gesture) for taking that politically inexpedient step, as if to say "thanks for giving us your seats". How did you miss all of this?

I didn't miss any of that... in fact i commented on the singing by the democrats as an homage to what the republicans did to the democrats when bill clinton was in office...

ZERO democrats voted for that bill btw... it just so happens the GOP don't need the Dems to support that Bill... so the "tone deaf" comment is a bit odd?

As for "open revolt", i'll believe it the next election cycle.

My contention was the GOP base is too dumb to understand what is going on and that's what gives the Trump administration license to do the idiotic moves that they done...

you countered "the base doesn't matter"...

As far as I can tell, its still a democracy, despite what Trump has done to try destroying that... Their base is what got Trump elected, despite the best efforts of the GOP establishment to cut him off at the knees...Trump's election showed how powerful that base could be on the GOP side of things

We'll see at the midterms about whether Trump's base matters or not and whether the Democrats singing Goodbye was prescient or premature.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Itse

I hope you're right.

Not sure which decent people you're referring here though?

What i mean by that is before this whole house of cards comes tumbling down, Trump and his circus will throw anyone and everyone under the bus. There will be an attempt to make certain people patsies is my guess. None of them will have deserved it, but it will happen. Lots who do deserve whats coming will get caught in it as well, but there's always innocents caught in the crossfire of these things.

This is such a classic case of the old saying,

"those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it" or however it went.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How is there not one smoking gun yet to impeach this turd?

Well, it's possible that the FBI was on its way to finding said smoking gun... and now the director has been fired and will likely be replaced with a sycophant. Draw your own conclusions.

Why has no one at the IRS leaked his tax returns? Surly there are people who have access to them, and if they found Russian connections it would be worth bringing to the DOJ or FBI?

Because they would go to prison. Anyone who wrote the story about them would also go to prison. Their editor would also go to prison. Full stop. The penalties for publishing any part of a federal tax return, no matter how you happened to come upon it, are severe.

What in sam hell is going on here? How is Trump still in power?

It turns out it's super hard to get rid of a President, even if he's clearly awful.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Well, it's possible that the FBI was on its way to finding said smoking gun... and now the director has been fired and will likely be replaced with a sycophant. Draw your own conclusions.

Because they would go to prison. Anyone who wrote the story about them would also go to prison. Their editor would also go to prison. Full stop. The penalties for publishing any part of a federal tax return, no matter how you happened to come upon it, are severe.

It turns out it's super hard to get rid of a President, even if he's clearly awful.

I guess I'd suggest leaking it to Wikileaks, but they appear to be owned by Russia so that might not work. I dunno, I just figure there must be some way for someone to get the info out there. People have risked prison for much less.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How is there not one smoking gun yet to impeach this turd?

There have been numerous things that could have triggered an impeachment. The problem is that impeachment proceedings have to be initiated by the House, and they seem to be perfectly fine with everything Trump is doing.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Party before country.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Trump is still popular enough with the base that many GOPers are likely worried about getting primaried. But again that 30% and below approval is Nixon territory, so that's risking a slaughter if he's still the President in 2018. I also don't think impeachment will have anything to do with Russia, it will be the emoluments which is miles easier to do, and obviously choosing Russia is admitting their own complicity in ignoring it, whereas emoluments allows them to blame Trump and paint him as corrupt.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by New Era

Party before country.

May seem that way right now...but i believe(hope?) todays events changes that narrative in the not to distant future.

This is or will be a catalyst for all Americans of all stripes to look at things somewhat objectively IMO. When they do i think chances are good they aren't going to stand for what is happening.

[GGG]

Even in the slaughter scenario there are probably 150 seats in the house that are untouchable regardless of how bad trump is. This means the only election is the primary. So for the house members the risk of being primaried by a trump vs being primaried by anti-trump will determine their path forward.

The California system of a combined primary could really solve a lot of issues with the safe seats.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I guess I'd suggest leaking it to Wikileaks, but they appear to be owned by Russia

Julian Assange used to have his own talk show on Russian state television... I'd say that cat's out of the bag.

[FlamesAddiction]

Facts don't matter in the post-truth era. The news cycle is so fast and people lack the attention span to stay focused on one issue.

My bet is that Trump posts a bunch of tweets about surveillance, Crooked Hillary, bad hombres and Obama. Then everyone becomes distracted again.

Nothing he has done to this point has stuck to him. I don't see how this is suddenly a game changer.

[DuffMan]

Wow, nice dictatorship, America, great choice.