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Posted on 08/29/2015 4:04:49 PM PDT by Red Steel
THE Donald Trump phenomenon is a great gift to pundits because it can be analyzed and criticized in so many different ways. But two shorthands seem particularly useful. First, Trump is essentially using the Republican primary to run a third-party campaign, not a right-wing insurgency. Second, Trump’s appeal is oddly like that of Franklin Roosevelt, in the sense that he’s a rich, well-connected figure — a rich New Yorker, at that — who’s campaigning as a traitor to his class.
-snip-
In certain ways this narrowing can be good for the republic. Elites can have wisdom that populists lack, certain ideas deserve suppression, and multiparty systems are more likely to hand power to extremists or buffoons. (It’s a good thing for the country that neither Henry Wallace’s effectively pro-Soviet leftism nor George Wallace’s segregationist populism outlived their respective third-party bids.)
-snip-
it seems like he could actually fight his fellow elites and win.
He won’t, of course, but it matters a great deal how he loses. In a healthy two-party system, the G.O.P. would treat Trump’s strange success as evidence that the party’s basic orientation may need to change substantially, so that it looks less like a tool of moneyed interests and more like a vehicle for middle American discontent.
In an unhealthy system, the kind I suspect we inhabit, the Republicans will find a way to crush Trump without adapting to his message. In which case the pressure the Donald has tapped will continue to build — and when it bursts, the G.O.P. as we know it may go with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Only the NYT finds it bizarre that a billionaire is rubbing shoulders with the common man and listening to their concerns.
Very seriously....There is only one billionaire in America who speaks out against “free trade” and this is Donald Trump. All the other ones must be benefiting from it or are afraid to speak up due to it being bad for business.
Which college professors speak out against “free trade” and these loser trade deals we sign like the recent TPP of Obama and the Republicans. I have never seen a trade deal that lowers our trade deficits. They always do the opposite
He did not “inherit” $200 Million from his Daddy, not that there is anything wrong with that unless you’re an envious Democrat who thinks Life isn’t fair and you think certain people are lucky enough to win Life’s Lottery.
Donald was in Business with his Father and ran the Company after he Retired. It is a Privately Owned Family Business and Donald had been there from the start helping his Father build it.
One thing about street fighters, they usually start out Poor and work hard to improve their lives and the lives of their Families.
My Dad did, and we were from Brooklyn and living in abject Poverty when I was Born.
The same goes for my Mother’s Family and my three Uncles. Our Families had nothing including running Hot Water, but they scrapped, saved and worked hard to improve our lives.
If you think Trump was born with a Silver Spoon, you are mistaken. If he was, what difference would it make? It just means he came from a hard working Family.
Heck, I don’t even know what your point was. I give up.
“Traitor to his class” is a meaningless phrase here in the United States because we do not have a codified class or caste structure like in Europe or India. There are no Nobles and Commoners. There are no high caste Brahmans and low caste untouchables. This sort of thinking is poisonous drivel perpetuated by the democrats, which are the American Revolution counter-revolutionaries.
He is not a traitor to the rich elite. He still believes in Kelo, for instance. He still believes in paying off politicians for favorable laws and stiffing your competition is a good thing, he’s proud of that.
Other than that, he has no class.
Trump still lives there, he’s pretending to slum it right now
“First, Trump is essentially using the Republican primary to run a third-party campaign”
In other words, Trump has hijacked the Republican Party, something I’ve long advocated as a far more realistic power play than forming a third party from scratch.
“Tough guys don’t act all hysterical and overcompensating like Trump.”
You mean tough guys like Yeb Bush?
You think Jeb Bush is tough? Based on what?
Oh, nick....Trump asked me to post this......just for you ;-)
“You think Jeb Bush is tough? Based on what?”
Because Yeb doesn’t act all hysterical and overcompensating like Trump.
“Trump inherited $200 million from his daddy. How many street fighters do that?”
Only the tiniest percentage of very smartest lucky ones! LOL!
Does it confound you that most people in this nation do have at least a dim understanding of the breadth and depth of political and financial corruption emanating from places like NYC and DC?
Trump has demonstrably navigated those putrid swamps for decades.Of all we citizens, he knows where all the stench starts.
Who is most knowledgeable/better positioned to clean it up before another devastating civil war breaks out?
Because you are an absolute fool, if you think we are not on the very brink of anarchy.
BTW, are you going to crawl on broken glass, if need be, to vote for Trump if he is the Republican nominee?
You mean in before nick gets carried away? eheheheh.
So if Trump has ‘hijacked’ the Republican party perhaps it deserves to be stolen away.
more like 20 million, but anyway. He could have lived on a yacht his entire life but didn’t.
Also he has run a major business for decades without serious scandals or criminality.
I don’t even know what your point was....Nick doesn’t know either.
That’s two. I’ll keep count as the Replies roll in.
His father died worth 250-300 million . He had 5 kids and a wife . Donald did not get 200 of that . And even if he did , he turned it into billions . Good for him and all the folks who got jobs as a result .
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