How is it possible?

BG9 said:

Sybil said:
From a world wide perspective the Donald Trump situation is not unusual. Unfortunate but not unusual. Most come from the right, a few come from the left but all are Nativist and Autarkist and at least skate the boundaries of ideologically racist. Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage are all part of the same trend as Trump.

But in the rest of the world, I believe the above represent marginal parties whereas Trump represents one of our two major parties.

Trump has not won the primary and so he does not officially represent the Republican party. He's won a spot on the stage for the first debate and that's it.

BG9 said:

Sybil said:
From a world wide perspective the Donald Trump situation is not unusual. Unfortunate but not unusual. Most come from the right, a few come from the left but all are Nativist and Autarkist and at least skate the boundaries of ideologically racist. Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage are all part of the same trend as Trump.

But in the rest of the world, I believe the above represent marginal parties whereas Trump represents one of our two major parties.

The systems differ but in terms of percent of population it is probably a similar percent. Le Pen in particular has a real chance of making it into the runoff in the next French Presidential election.

dos_centavos said:
If I recall correctly, Herman Cain had a huge lead until he got to the debates.

Cain is their House Negro. He's reinforcing the beliefs of the deeply racist tea party and of many Republican party primary voters. Malcom X had little say on the "House Negro." So he's useful and they can tell others "see, we're not racist, we support Cain."

However, in an election, I wouldn't count on these racists voting to put Cain in office.

BG9 said:

dos_centavos said:
If I recall correctly, Herman Cain had a huge lead until he got to the debates.

Cain is their House Negro. He's reinforcing the beliefs of the deeply racist tea party and of many Republican party primary voters. Malcom X had little say on the "House Negro." So he's useful and they can tell others "see, we're not racist, we support Cain."
However, in an election, I wouldn't count on these racists voting to put Cain in office.

Me neither, as he's not running in this election.

There are surprisingly some Black Republican out there that consider themselves to be conservatives that seem to have a yearning for Abe Lincoln's Republican party.

BG9 said:

dos_centavos said:
If I recall correctly, Herman Cain had a huge lead until he got to the debates.

Cain is their House Negro. He's reinforcing the beliefs of the deeply racist tea party and of many Republican party primary voters. Malcom X had little say on the "House Negro." So he's useful and they can tell others "see, we're not racist, we support Cain."
However, in an election, I wouldn't count on these racists voting to put Cain in office.

BG9 said:

dos_centavos said:
If I recall correctly, Herman Cain had a huge lead until he got to the debates.

Cain is their House Negro. He's reinforcing the beliefs of the deeply racist tea party and of many Republican party primary voters. Malcom X had little say on the "House Negro." So he's useful and they can tell others "see, we're not racist, we support Cain."
However, in an election, I wouldn't count on these racists voting to put Cain in office.

the black guy is Ben Carson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOQEhtcaQFw

tjohn said:
Support for Trump is an indication of the deserved low regard most of us have for too many politicians these days.

I spoke to a Republican business acquaintance yesterday. He said he keeps running into people who say they do not like Donald Trump but would vote for him.

dave said:
Watch the Bloomberg focus group talk about Trump. Basically Trump is viewed an outsider at a time when people are tired of career politicians. Also, Jeb needs Trump because without Trump, Walker gets all those votes.

Many of those in the focus group said they were for Trump because he was not a politician and is a successful businessman. Many of them when asked about their second choice said Ben Carson.

Lots of people voted for Ross Perot even though he was a paranoid nut. He actually said that George H. W. Bush was going to send thugs to disrupt his daughter's wedding.

Trump is seen as a "strong leader" who is decisive and accomplishes what he sets out to do. If one accepts the right-wing world view that the Country is going to Hell because of illegal immigration or abortion or the Gays or Obamacare then Trump is as legitimate a candidate as, for instance, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz.

It's a little bit scary because that kind of thinking has led to dictatorship.

BaseballMom said:
He's a stalking horse. Jeb will look saintly when all of these clowns fall away.

conandrob240 said:
I hope that's true. I don't like Bush but at least he has experience, intelligence and (so far) a respectable professionalism and dignity. It's simply astonishing to me that anyone can think Trump is an acceptable choice to represent our country.

Tell that to Terri Schiavo's husband. JEB is just like the pack. He favors defunding Planned Parenthood and in a slip of the tongue said he doesn't know why we have to spend so much money on women's health.

To be clear, I know there is a difference between Herman Cain and Ben Carlson.

My point is that Herman Cain and Hillary Clinton had significant leads in the polls early on after they announced. So I don't put any credence in Trump's early lead.

Don't Panic! (Donald Trump Edition)

Over the past few decades, how many times have you heard variants of this pearl of wisdom from political pundits?

“The American public is sick and tired of politics as usual.
They're angry at Congress and angry at the president. You can almost feel it
out on the campaign trail. That's why _______ is getting so much support. He's
different. He doesn't represent politics as usual. He taps into that anger.”

We heard this about Herman Cain (and a cast of thousands of others) in 2012, Rudy Giuliani in 2008, Howard Dean in 2004, John McCain in 2000, Pat Buchanan in 1996, Ross Perot and Jerry Brown in 1992, Gary Hart in 1984, John Anderson in 1980, etc. etc.

Do you notice how many of these folks won their party's nomination? Let's see: carry the one, ten plus three equals....oh yeah. That would be zero.

Look: we're in the silly season right now. It's August. Congress is about to go into recess. We still have six months before anyone actually votes. Nobody's paying much attention to the Republican race except political junkies. News is in short supply. And whatever else you can say about him, Donald Trump makes good copy. For now, everyone's got the popcorn out and they're enjoying the show, right along with Ant-Man and Mission Impossible.

So, sure, Trump is a political outsider channeling voter anger blah blah blah. That's not exactly a daisy fresh strategy. Nor a winning one. But Trump is like a housing bubble: you know he's going to burst, but he can last a lot longer than you think. That's what happening now: it's been seven whole weeks since Trump announced his candidacy and he's still polling well. ZOMG! So a lot of pundits have decided he's the real thing and are writing columns apologizing for writing him off earlier.

They will regret that. Seven weeks is nothing. Every candidate on the list above lasted longer than seven weeks. But they all flamed out eventually. So will Trump.

The only advice I have on presidential campaigns that's genuinely useful is this: Don't panic. In the end, the bubbles will all burst, fundamentals will take center stage, and the winner will be someone fairly ordinary. In this case, it will almost certainly be Jeb Bush or Scott Walker, though there are a few other possibilities too.

But Trump? Nope. So hold off on those apologetic columns for a little while longer. You won't be sorry.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum

dos_centavos said:
To be clear, I know there is a difference between Herman Cain and Ben Carlson.
My point is that Herman Cain and Hillary Clinton had significant leads in the polls early on after they announced. So I don't put any credence in Trump's early lead.

To be clear I understood the intent behind your post, it was BG9's reply that I was responding to.

LOL ridski

To be clear, I thought Herman Cain's campaign was an excellent pomo performance.

dave23 said:
To be clear, I thought Herman Cain's campaign was an excellent pomo performance.

His endorsement of Colbert's campaign and subsequent appearances on his show was my favorite part.

Cain had neither the ego (though he was close) nor the money nor the white reactionary constituency. Go Donald!

ridski said:

dave23 said:
To be clear, I thought Herman Cain's campaign was an excellent pomo performance.

His endorsement of Colbert's campaign and subsequent appearances on his show was my favorite part.

I liked the smoking. And the guy was flat-out funny, in a sideways way.

BG9 said:

dos_centavos said:
If I recall correctly, Herman Cain had a huge lead until he got to the debates.

Cain is their House Negro. He's reinforcing the beliefs of the deeply racist tea party and of many Republican party primary voters. Malcom X had little say on the "House Negro." So he's useful and they can tell others "see, we're not racist, we support Cain."
However, in an election, I wouldn't count on these racists voting to put Cain in office.

Wow.

Hahaha said:
I believe that The Donald is an operative from the Democratic Party.

You may be right (though, I'd suspect that if he is, he doesn't realize it).

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-trump-phone-call

conandrob240 said:
There's a difference between honesty and directness and having absolutely no filter. One is great, the other might possibly be amental illness.

It's called narcissim.

Yes, that was the mental illness I had in mind.

And I guess that's sort off my point. I can hate everything other candidates stand for but that's their right to believe what they want.

I can't get behind someone with narcissistic personality disorder, out there denigrating individuals and groups of people being a candidate to represent this country. I understand from a philosophical,perspective reasons people would get behind someone like him but, again, no matter how much I liked someone and agreed with them, I'd draw the line at being okay with certain behaviors. Trump has clearly crossed that line

I think many of Trump's supporters appreciate that behavior. They agree with not just what he says about immigrants, but what he says about the other Republicans running.

Who agreed with what he said about John McCains service to this country

conandrob240 said:
Who agreed with what he said about John McCains service to this country

You want names?

Could anyone agree with something like that? that's my question.

conandrob240 said:
Could anyone agree with something like that? that's my question.

Of course. You think Trump is the only person in the country who thinks that way? He said that stuff and is STILL polling at double Jeb's numbers.

At this point, that comment is old news.

I get that people agree with him on things I never would. but when you do something as extreme as stating that a POW who gave years of his life to his country, who sacrificed himself so others could go free before him, I can't imagine anyone agreeing with Trumps tirade against that man. I'm no Mccain fan politically but I can't even imagine discrediting his sacrifice.

But now I officially give up. And pray we aren't dusting this thing off in a few months if he gets the party nomination

Trump is to Christie

Like immigrants to teachers

Gotta hate someone

Donald Trump’s Six Stages Of Doom