The New American Politics thread

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Makarov

(1) Megyn Kelly: I've always regarded her as the worst kind of Coulter-esque Uncle Tom conservative opportunist, but She seemed sincere and quite reasonable in her attacks on Trump's mysogynism.

Seriously? I took it as her carrying out a hatchet job on behalf of her boss. Ailes has a sort of symbiotic relationship with the RNC from what I can tell; he has a voice in a communications role while they use his network to push their base towards or away from certain viewpoints. It's clear that the GOP understands that they can't nominate Trump; it would be embarrassing. I think he's a joke and I understand why they want to do that, but it was pretty clear that he was being targeted by the moderators.

[Vulcan]

One reason they don't want Trump is that he's not beholden to the Koch brothers or seemingly anyone else. Not that I'm a Trump supporter in anyway.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Trump is a tool, but he made the best point any Republican has had in at least a decade when he explained how easy it was to buy politicians

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...ald-trump-buy/

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Trump is a tool, but he made the best point any Republican has had in at least a decade when he explained how easy it was to buy politicians

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...ald-trump-buy/

Had to laugh at this

Last weekend, GOP contenders Cruz, Rubio, Walker, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina attended a private meeting of elite campaign donors at a retreat in Southern California organized by Koch Industries chief executive Charles Koch. At the time Trump tweeted: “I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?”

[Senator Clay Davis]

Trump gets the boot from a big conservative event in Atlanta today over his comments. I'd say this is the beginning of the end but his supporters as you might expect are putting this all on Kelly and saying she can't take some heat back after she put it on the Donald, and that who cares, it's just the PC police doing their thing again. Might be a slight dip in support, might be a bump for him. We'll see

But here's the thing...is that what you want your President to be? If Putin or other world leaders are going to be hard on him, he's just gonna come over the top with childish, petty antics that showcase the maturity of a 12 year old boy? If nothing else we can expect Trump's campaign to continue to be racist and sexist with a flagrant disregard for respecting anyone who isn't on their knees for the Donald.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Seriously? I took it as her carrying out a hatchet job on behalf of her boss. Ailes has a sort of symbiotic relationship with the RNC from what I can tell; he has a voice in a communications role while they use his network to push their base towards or away from certain viewpoints. It's clear that the GOP understands that they can't nominate Trump; it would be embarrassing. I think he's a joke and I understand why they want to do that, but it was pretty clear that he was being targeted by the moderators.

Trump is running in conjunction with the RNC, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be on these debates.

This is actually pretty shrewd in my opinion. Trump gets to be the early 'front runner', taking all the heat and absorbing all the bullets that would otherwise be fired at more legitimate candidates.

By doing this, most of the other candidates are spared the scrutiny and media coverage that would derail their own nomination hopes. Herman Cain occupied a similar role last election cycle, however, Cain wasn't enough to keep the spotlight off of guys like Rick Perry and actually served to hurt their campaigns.

Trump is a special kind of mountebank though. Amazingly, the RNC found someone even less electable than Herman Cain, but without the need to develop a vehicle for him to be a distraction. Trump is a natural smoke screen; the tip of the crazy spear that makes all the other crazy 1) look less crazy and 2) less obvious.

News media don't have to spend any time doing research, Trump is right on the surface. He's a perfect media darling, a black hole for negativity and criticism, helping to shield the other candidates with his massive media pull.

It's a great strategy. I mean, since Trump has entered the race, have we heard anything about Rick Perry's virulent racism, or Chris Christie's outright Fraud? Or Mike Huckabee's desire to use federal troops to prevent abortions? Or the abject failure Scott Walker has been as governor of Wisconsin?

Nah, instead we get to talk about a loud mouth trust-funder with a bad toupee.

Very shrewd game plan.

[CroFlames]

At first I was confused as to why anyone was supporting Trump, but I think I finally understand.

Folks are tired of politicians being bought by lobbies and business. Heck I'm not even an American, and it GMG watching Washington being run by everything and everyone except the people elected to do so. Such a broken system.

Trump, although far from infallible, is the most likely to run his platform without interference by big money donations. One problem though: no platform.

[Senator Clay Davis]

This is incredible.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

That cannot be an official statement from the campaign, can it?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Everything online suggests it is indeed the official statement. I think he wants to get the Erickson guy to apologize for dis-inviting him which would be a major win for him. Either way he seems unlikely to ever apologize for anything. It's his calling card.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

This is incredible.

*as dictated by Trump himself

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

That's hilarious. They should have just let the "Blood coming out of her..." go. Denying that's what he meant is just ludicrous.

[MissTeeks]

Uh oh:

@CNNPolitics: #Breaking: @realDonaldTrump's campaign says it has fired top political adviser Roger Stone http://t.co/6OZtrfIwim

Stone is saying he quit.

[MissTeeks]

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Either way he seems unlikely to ever apologize for anything. It's his calling card.

I don't think his narcissism allows him to apologize.

[Lanny_McDonald]

The thing about Trump is he is a tool to move the center line for the upcoming electorate. He makes a lot of outrageous claims that allows the real candidates to shift further to the right than the usual election cycle would allow. Trumps extreme views allow the more centrist candidates to shift their views further to the right of the spectrum and not come out looking like to total loons. Sadly, that shift right might be too much for the average voter to think is acceptable and it may hurt the Republicans (who are bat#### crazy for the most part). For insterests like the Koch the brothers the inclusion of Trump in the mix is a very good thing as it legitimizes the shift right they are trying to promote.

The major problem with American politics is that the electorate is so grossly ill informed. The two parties play culture war games and the average voter is too stupid to recognize the issue does not impact their life in any shape or form. For example, the abortion issue is bull####. Whether someone woman down the street has an abortion does not affect your life in any shape or form. The cost is next to nothing. Conversely, the issue of education, or lack there of, is massive and impacts the entire nations. When the average person reads and writes at the 3rd grade level, and the competing nations read at a university level, we are working from a dramatic disadvantage in the world marketplace. But we talk about stupid issues like abortion and don't think about the failings of our education system. How good is that for the country? The system is broken and until that changes the United States is a country headed into the toilet and a period of endured servitude.

[Mr.Coffee]

I would agree that the education and apathy level of the average American voter is a huge problem, but I'd argue that if the majority of Americans had a good level of education, revolution may be on the table as well so as to overhaul the existing broken system.

Also don't take this to mean that Americans aren't educated, there are some of the smartest people in the world coming out of that country, it's just that they are in the minority. And for that matter I'm not sure Canada is all too far behind.

[Vulcan]

According to this chart the US education level isn't that terrible in comparison to other countries while Canada's is one of the highest in reading (6th), math and science.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...cience-reading

[Thor]

[2Stonedbirds]