Posted on 12/31/2017 1:10:42 AM PST by JLAGRAYFOX
I’m still undecided. The Democrats are very enthusiastic. They are winning state seats in Iowa, Georgia, New York, and other areas that were red for decades. I am waiting on Pennsylvania house seat in March to see how things are going. That is a seat that was red for 40 years and now it is a toss up.......I am not optimistic like some on here. I see this being 2016 again but the Republicans are the ones with their head in the ground. Obviously I hope I am way wrong.
Nobody thinks they will take the Senate.....it’s the House that’s in jeopardy.
At the risk of sounding like John Madden on a Sunday, if we can get more people voting "R" than they can get to vote "D", it'll be awesome.
The key to awesomeness is "conversion." We are well-positioned but we need to take action, otherwise we will face the "choice" of voting for little "r" swamp critters or (with all due respect) candidates not ready for prime-time like Moore.
If done correctly, this "conversion" can become the feedstock for a Deplorable farm system like the Tea Party started a few years ago.
One of the key and many times unsung elements of Trump and Deplorables, is that the coalition he put together has the potential to unite heretofore un-united individuals. Minorities of all stripes (blacks, hispanics, gays), union guys, and others used by the statists for decades suddenly seem willing to jump on the Trump Train. While many Patriots may chafe at the thought of working alongside some of these masses, I'd rather have Peter Thiel and Ben Carson in my boat than McCain or Mittens.
Yes, Trump won the Electoral College by a wide margin yet the vote margin of victory in PA, WI, and MI were but a few hundred thousand votes. That's too close for comfort in my book. Republican voter registrations are up in many key states. This is a very positive development. However, the disarray on the left is masking movements like the "ground game" in Alabama....they're not dead yet.
Here is an actual example of the oppsition: New Democracy, a Democrat 'centrist' project that is aiming to (re)convert lapsed Democrats. Sure, they SAY the right things, like:
On immigration, for example, Democrats should stick to their guns in supporting a humane path to legalization. But we also should take seriously public concerns about the breakdown of public order and the impact of low-skill immigrants on native workers’ jobs and pay.
But THEIR TRUE INTENTION is found right below that paragraph (emphasis in bold added):
Most important, we need to engage voters where they live and refrain from writing any off. Even in the toughest places, rural communities and small towns, Democrats should show up and make our case. Practically speaking, we don’t need to convert GOP-leaning voters en mass, just win enough on the margins to tip elections our way.
True, we also need for Trump to keep on the agenda. I sense lots of people who will see weakness on illegal immigration as a broken promise a-la "read my lips". I think convictions may help, but that's akin to giving a starving man a bag of Swedish Fish instead of sustained nutrition.
So while Trump needs to do his bit, it is vital that we keep up our efforts to bring as many into the fold as possible, from all walks of life: tax collectors, Samaritans, patriotic yet lost Democrats, etc. This will help not just to offset Democrat advances, but the inevitable falling away of RINOs and other third-party attempts from the likes of Willard et al.
The ways to cut into the dem areas that Mitt Romney (what an elitist idiot!) refused to bother with are jobs and getting Hispanic gangs out of their territory. Safety and a paycheck.....two things they lost a lot of during the past 16 years of unrestrained invasion.
That scared LOTS of Dems and #NeverTrumpers. It scared Dems because they realized their decades-long spousal abuse of minorities was being challenged. #NeverTrumpers didn't like the prospect of rubbing elbows with some minority who worked construction.
The gang violence requires a sober assessment of drug laws and illegal immigration - something the Uniparty already settled.
Upon reflection, there is slightly more I would add. I said that the only thing that deplorables can do is to hold Trump’s feet to the fire, on his promises to drain the swamp. But there is more that we can do, which addresses your point more directly.
Conservatism *used* to be the place where adults would debate issues based on reason, principle, and deep abstract evaluation. I remember plenty of vigorous debates, both publicly, and also in college, about issues such as drug legalization, universal basic income, gay marriage (then, it was arguments about the legal role of “partners”), and so on. Conservatives would discuss these issues as adults, whereas the left would act like intellectually stunted spoiled brats. Conservatives would often disagree with each other, but would do so without rancor or dismissal.
Today, conservatives are seen as closed-minded. And I don’t think that is an unfair characterization. It isn’t the conclusions that we reach that make us closed-minded, but the process. We dismiss, and make fun of, anything that does not meet our definition of “conservative”, but, to the rest of the public, this makes us seem unthinking and backwards. Without access to any kind of effective means of propagating a counter-narrative, that view becomes entrenched.
Conservatives need to do more than just reach out over water coolers and dinner tables. We need to embrace what we used to embrace — well thought out arguments, reason-based convictions, etc. We need to be willing to challenge our own preconceptions, and each other, in a way that makes use of the fact that, generally speaking, we are far more intelligent, and far wiser, than those who oppose us.
We should be the ones publicly debating the pros and cons of UBI (and other issues, but this is a big one among young people). You want to effect the marginal voter? In my opinion, this is how you do it. We cannot compete on the battlefield of propaganda. We cannot compete in public schools, universities, Washington DC, advertising, culture, high tech, the media, and so on. But we can go back to competing on, and dominating, the battlefield of ideas.
Gillespie hates Trump.
Everybody knew that.
He is a Never-Trumper.
Establishment, McConnell GOP all the way.
One of the reasons he lost.
Re: “ah, but what were the turnout numbers? 45% vs 44% of what?”
It doesn’t matter what the turnout numbers were.
In Virginia, the candidate with the highest percentage wins.
Re: “What does that have to do with anything.”
As Yoda says: Everything!
If you claim Gillespie lost because he did not support Trump, then you need to explain why Trump got a smaller percentage of the Virginia popular vote than Gillespie got.
Re: “not sufficient to prove any point regarding relative support for President Trump (or lack thereof)...”
A large majority of the Comments on this thread claim that Gillespie lost because he rejected Donald Trump.
I was responding to, and rejecting, that basic theme.
If you support that theme, if you think Gillespie would have won with Trump’s support, what fact does prove that Trump has strong relative support in Virginia?
I was responding to, and rejecting, that basic theme.
From what I've seen, rejecting President Trump has been a sure way to alienate the conservative base for any GOP candidate. It's been seen repeatedly—most prominently with Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, whose popularity totally collapsed when he began to indulge his #NeverTrump impulses.
The President certainly had bona fide coattails for Congressional candidates in the 2016 general election, and in 2017, his popularity with the GOP base has been further confirmed in the "deplorable" enthusiasm seen for pro-Trump GOP candidates in several key federal and state special elections.
I therefore dismiss the notion that President Trump has been an electoral drag in 2017 in any meaningful sense; indeed—at least in my experience—quite the contrary appears to be the case.
Nobody thinks so but, even A-holes like Larry Sabato was on TV this morning prognosticating his pedantic and vapid boo chit.
He claims there could be a blue wave “If this/If that” and the dems could very well take both the Senate and House.
People take this jerk off seriously
Re: “I therefore dismiss the notion that President Trump has been an electoral drag in 2017 in any meaningful sense...”
I agree.
My point was that Trump had no political coat tails to offer in Virginia in November 2017.
Gillespie was clearly a Never-Trump candidate, but it did not damage Gillespie’s voter percentage at all.
If I have it right, the essence of your argument is that the best (only?) means of retaining and widening Trump support is through prosecution and convictions of Dems. Anything short of that will lead to the loss of pre-existing, deeply-held Deplorable support and media-driven wave of ignorance-inducing narratives, brainwashing heretofore centrist Republicans and independents.
I agree, that if Trump loses his reelection bid, the game is over. So Trump has to attack now. And yet, no Dems or Swamp critters are in jail (or under indictment), the Wall hasn't been built (or hasn't started). Further, while Republicans won a special election in Kansas and Montana, the Republicans lost the election in Virginia (though Gillespie was a Swamp guy) and Alabama. I will grant you that the loss in Alabama was accompanied by a collapse in public suppport for Moore, pulled funding, and attacks in the statist media, and is likely a harbinger of 2018 midterms. But that doesn't erase the fact that Moore didn't help himself with his absence from the campaign for a football game right before the election and the interview with the 12-year old girl. Not to mention that Moore had lots of pre-existing baggage that didn't resonate with the electorate. By contrast, Trump had baggage, but his quirky campaign style turned that baggage into an asset (sometimes).
However, on the plus side we have Gorsuch, tax cuts, regulatory relief, and a growing economy and stock market. CNN is synonymous with #FakeNews and their ratings are down. Further, there is a segment of the electorate that pushes back against the statist - remember the anti-Antifa people and 4chan publishing of CNN personnel's addresses and phone numbers. In fact, after a few Antifa rallies where they got their heads handed to themselves, they've gone back into their parents' basements.
Yes.. we don't have any newspaper, or network news to trumpet successes. But in all honesty and candor....if the media and the Swamp are as bad as you state, convictions of high-profile Dems like Hillary would be spun by the media (and the McConnell/Ryan wing of the Democrats) as Trump acting like a banana republic dictator, regardless of the evidence.
Indeed, my suspicion is that Trump knows this, but hasn't called off the dogs yet. Sessions is quiet but legal work takes time and requires silence. I bet some of the Dems are feeling the heat, which is why we get stories in the media about the importance of Sessions and Mulehead being fired...I mean, would the Slimes and Compost really have the Republicans best interest at heart? Personally, and politically, I would trade a Hillary conviction for The Wall. Further, I bet many Deplorables would take that trade...why? Because their lives aren't enhanced by Hillary behind bars vs the reduction in crime and other ills accompanying reduced illegal immigration.
Finally, I am in full agreement on the need of Deplorables to get back into well-reasoned and articulated arguments. A strong philosophical underpinning is vital to success of any movement over the long-run. However, we need to master new media and the elevator speech. Yes, understanding Universal Guaranteed Income and its ill-effects is vital, including why Milton Friedman support it (btw, his support was all about shrinking the swamp...he didn't articulate that people had a right to UGI). But this isn't the 1970s or 1980s...we have to acclimatize. In close, as Kurt Schlichter wrote recently:
... Trump is clearly willing to use all his powers to beat the living liberalism out of our enemy. Wait, this is where the Fredocons loosen their bow ties and stutter, “Why…we can’t…Professor Wellington Wimpenheimer IV would not approve…it’s so mean…oh, well I never!” Wake up. Man up. If you ever want to win (and maybe someday even kiss a girl) you need to get real. They hate us, and we either win or we spend the rest of our miserable lives as Boxer the Horse, slaving away to fund the welfare state under the lash of the Left until it decides it’s time to pack us off to the glue factory.
Thanks for listening.
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