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While I’ll agree with you that Texas is pretty Akbar, I must disagree with you about Trump (though what Trump has to do with an article about Bob Dole criticizing Ted Cruz, I don’t know).

Trump wouldn’t even be IN this race, let alone mid-pack, let alone in the lead since pretty much the day he declared, unless there was something hideously wrong - and there IS. What’s wrong is that TPTB in the Republican Party have, for all of my life (and I first became aware of politics late in Nixon’s Presidency when I was in grade school) tried to push down and eliminate the conservatives. No one here can, or is willing to, dispute that. To them, Reagan was an utter disaster - despite winning the 2 biggest landslides in half a century, bringing the Soviet Empire to its knees and reinvigorating the US economy like nothing since gearing up in World War II. The last several elections, we’ve been lied to - repeatedly and unashamedly - by the GOPe. People understand that we need a BIG change, and electing another politician (even someone like Cruz, who irritates the Hell out of the Establishment) is not viewed by many as going far enough. They want a wrecking ball, someone who will utterly destroy the status quo, and someone who actually has the guts to say what’s on his mind. So far, the only guy fitting that bill is Trump.

Now, do I think that Trump is perfect, or even close? Nope. But what I DO think is that no Dem, NONE OF THEM, can be elected in 2016 or this country is quite simply done, over, finished, kaput. Trump, for all of his many faults, is winning over a lot of people who haven’t voted for a while, and even a fair number of blacks and Hispanics who would normally be guaranteed Dem voters. IOW, he’s got a REAL chance to win - and there’s almost nothing that he won’t do to make that happen, like criticizing Billy Jeff’s philandering to shut Hillary’s pie hole. Who else would have the cajones to do that? Cruz (for all that I REALLY like him - and that was backed up with a contribution to his campaign) hasn’t and probably won’t if he is nominated. Trump is a master street brawler, and will simply destroy the Dems and the media that blindly supports them, and the people will love him for daring to say that which is on everyone’s mind.

He may not be a doctrinaire conservative (well, I’ll concede, he ISN’T one), but he IS a nationalist. I WANT someone who values this country and the well-being of its citizens (emphasis on that last word, by the way) more than an ideology or a party. To someone like him, ideology and party are TOOLS, to be used if appropriate and needed, and to be put back in the shed if not, for possible later use. He has a history of doing what he thinks will work, and it is a pretty damned good record. Now he’s applying it to politics instead of real estate or entertainment. So what’s the problem with that?

I don’t see him becoming a dictator of any kind - in fact, if anything he is likely to hang it up after 4 years because he’s tired of the boredom of the job and wants to go back to running half a hundred businesses, or maybe to spend some time enjoying his grandkids and the fruits of his labor.