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The GOP doesn't have a Donald Trump problem. It has an angry conservative base problem.
The Week ^ | July 10th, 2015 | Damon Linker

Posted on 07/10/2015 9:19:09 AM PDT by Mariner

How do you solve a problem like The Donald?

That question is currently consuming the minds (and fueling the nightmares) of leading Republican power brokers.

And you gotta have some sympathy for their plight.

Actually, I take that back. It's entirely possible to have nothing but schadenfreude for what the GOP is going through. There is certainly a chickens-coming-home-to-roost character to Donald Trump's meteoric rise in the polls over the past couple of weeks. This is a party, after all, that has spent close to the entirety of the Obama administration stoking right-wing populism, encouraging conspiracy theories about the president and his policies, and deploying wildly irresponsible rhetoric about the dire threats posed to the nation by mainstream members of the Democratic Party. Trump's campaign, which is powered almost entirely by demagogic bluster and insults, is a kind of apotheosis of the party's strategy these past several years.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; gop; teaparty; tedcruz; trump
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The author contends the problem is not Trump, but the base of the GOP who are fearful, racist haters in the mold of the John Birch Society...first catalyzed by Goldwater and Reagan.

Knowing a few folks on the hard left, they really believe that.

1 posted on 07/10/2015 9:19:09 AM PDT by Mariner
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To: Mariner

They don’t just believe it, they know it.


2 posted on 07/10/2015 9:21:06 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: Mariner

The citizens are completely fed up with the perfidy of our elected officials who refuse to enforce the laws they have passed and took an oath to uphold.

The citizens are being killed by illegal aliens and the only answer our elected can envision is to legalize the killers.


3 posted on 07/10/2015 9:21:23 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Mariner

4 posted on 07/10/2015 9:21:36 AM PDT by Bobalu (If we live to see 2017 we will be kissing the ground)
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To: Mariner

It still has a conservative base? I thought we were asked to leave.


5 posted on 07/10/2015 9:21:49 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Mariner
It doesn't take a Trump to make the lefties believe that. However, a guy called Rush the other day with a valid point.

He compared the fuss about what Trump is saying with the beginning of Rush's career, where suddenly, a whole bunch of people figured out that someone was finally saying aloud what they had been thinking all along...and that they were no longer alone.

6 posted on 07/10/2015 9:22:39 AM PDT by Mygirlsmom (The only cleaning "Woman of the People" HRC has done in the last 25 yrs was wiping her server.)
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To: Bobalu

Yeah, but Trump is not a conservative. At least he wasn’t a few years ago.


7 posted on 07/10/2015 9:22:58 AM PDT by catfish1957 (I display the Confederate Battle Flag with pride in honor of my brave ancestors who fought w/ valor)
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To: Mariner

The GOP IS the problem.

Sooner or later there’ll be enough of us that either the Tea Party wing or an independent party will become a viable contender for nominating and electing high officials.


8 posted on 07/10/2015 9:23:44 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Mariner

The problem is not with the base. The problem is with the corrupt GOPe.

Donald Trump is willing to say what is on his mind, even if that upsets the delicate plans of the GOPe.

I say, make the GOPe sweat! And make the GOPe back off its corrupt campaign against Ted Cruz and Evangelicals and Tea Partiers.


9 posted on 07/10/2015 9:24:19 AM PDT by Menthops (If you are reading this..... the GOPe hates you!)
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To: Bobalu

Cruz/Trump works better for me.


10 posted on 07/10/2015 9:24:21 AM PDT by Signalman
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To: Mariner

I watched CNN last night to see Trump on the Anderson Cooper interview and the panel later discussed the Republican “crazy” base supporting Trump.


11 posted on 07/10/2015 9:25:03 AM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
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To: Bobalu

I don’t thin Trump or Cruz will play second fiddle to anyone.


12 posted on 07/10/2015 9:25:27 AM PDT by Bobby_Taxpayer
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To: Mariner

The strategic goal of Democrat Donald Trump is to split the base for a Hillary or other democrat win in 2016.

I amazes me as I watch this unfold, so many simply REFUSE to consider Trump’s political history verses his current ‘hardcore’ rhetoric.

The sooner we waking up to the fact we’re being punked and manipulated, the sooner we can find a truly conservative candidate.


13 posted on 07/10/2015 9:25:48 AM PDT by EBH (There's a sucker born every minute)
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To: catfish1957

Maybe not, but his straightforward attacks at political correctness is like a breath of fresh air in a stale, smoke-filled Leftist-dominated room.


14 posted on 07/10/2015 9:26:04 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: Jim 0216
Sooner or later there’ll be enough of us that either the Tea Party wing or an independent party will become a viable contender for nominating and electing high officials.

I have thought those thoughts too, but look what the 3 party system did to the UK.

15 posted on 07/10/2015 9:26:12 AM PDT by catfish1957 (I display the Confederate Battle Flag with pride in honor of my brave ancestors who fought w/ valor)
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To: Mariner

No “conservative” would be supporting Trump


16 posted on 07/10/2015 9:27:57 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: Signalman

Cruz/Palin works best for me.


17 posted on 07/10/2015 9:28:22 AM PDT by gwgn02
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To: Bobalu

I’d prefer Cruz/Trump to Trump/Cruz... The Donald cannot help but throw verbal hand grenades and cause an awesome and important fuss with his unexpected statements. That’s perfect for the VP slot! (Right Joe?) But the President needs to be thoughtful, an exceptional speaker, measured, and patient. Cruz may be the best example of those traits of any President in the modern era, possibly even including REAGAN.


18 posted on 07/10/2015 9:28:23 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: Bobalu
This is something I have been watching....Cruz/Trump ticket...I don't care which one is Pres or which one is V.P. but this ticket tells me something....

(1) We have a strong Politician that knows his way around government, smart, likable, doesn't need a lobbyist in his pocket...and can stand up and say what he thinks, and will take someone to listen to his ideas and reason everything out...

(2) Then we have a person who is NOT a Politician who has built and butted heads and is not owned by anyone, who speaks his mind, knows money matters, can stand up and be heard....

This is something that is refreshing to me, I haven't seen this in a long time....

19 posted on 07/10/2015 9:29:04 AM PDT by HarleyLady27 (Send 'slob boy of the oval office' back to Kenya ASAP, and save America...)
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To: Jim 0216
Maybe not, but his straightforward attacks at political correctness is like a breath of fresh air in a stale, smoke-filled Leftist-dominated room.

Cruz would be filling the same bill, if the MSM wasn't so obsessive in their attacks on him.

20 posted on 07/10/2015 9:29:09 AM PDT by catfish1957 (I display the Confederate Battle Flag with pride in honor of my brave ancestors who fought w/ valor)
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