Posted on 02/13/2016 12:50:30 PM PST by TBBT
Few professional analysts seriously expected six months ago that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. But after Tuesday night, it is a clear possibility.
How much of a possibility? To get that answer right, it is important to understand some things about the Trump phenomenon.
Perhaps most important, Trump's campaign is not a Tea Party phenomenon. While there's been a tendency to try to lump Trump in with various G.O.P. insurgencies of the last few years, that role is best filled by Sen. Ted Cruz, who really occupies the "Tea Party lane" of the G.O.P. primary more cleanly.
Instead, Trump is a part of a much older insurgency within the G.O.P., dating back to the 1992 Pat Buchanan campaign and even to some internal debates within the Nixon administration. Candidates in this vein, such as Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Rick Santorum, have argued from varying angles that the economic libertarianism of the G.O.P. is a tough sell, and should be pulled more toward an economic populism that allows for increased redistribution and for helping the "little guy" who has been left behind in the era of globalization. It is because of this confusion that so many of the early attacks on Trump - from questioning his conservative bona fides to making fun of the way he talked - fell flat. Trump's voters simply didn't care about these things.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When you get squishy on Trump because of whatever cruzes/bushes/kasiches/rubios/ super pac has said that day. Go listen to Trump.
Everyday he has a rally telling you what he things believes and desires those not listening are willfully ignorant and little quisling losers (mark levin).
By the way he is going to win so start figuring that into your calculus
Sorry but my tolerance for the those living under the illusion that this government is constrained by anything written down is to strain credulitt so far we can't have an honest conversation.
We don't have a constitution those who think we do are morons. We have constitution when it constrains Americanism thats it... ask the unborn about our wonderful constitution.
What I've notice here is lots of conservative have no internal fortitude to have such a thing as a constitution.
I've been here a while and you know why I stay is ... not because of the extereme insights into the furture or human nature but for the love of this wonderful nation.
A nation is its people not its government - government sucks
Guess what? we don't want Cruz and most of us would take him if he was better then Trump but he is not and hence we will stick with the superior option. What is about to happen will redefine how campaigns are run for the next 2 decades.
Watch dispassionately if you wish to learn anything
Because I don’t wet myself over Trump like most of the posters here does not make me a troll. And no, I would not vote for Hilary, which I thought I made clear. And yes Trump would be better, but it matters not as he can’t beat her. And I don’t so much hate Trump as I do the idea of him as the nominee. Trust me, come August and September Trump will become a byword here as he betrays the conservative base on issue after issue. He is just not sincere and his record is one of financing and voting for Democratic pet issues (as well as losing other peoples’ money).
Levin has more credibility in his little finger. Trump is all New York with its boiler rooms and Wall Street snake oil salesmen.
Well, time will show I’m right. I just don’t know which shoe will be the first to fall. Most likely Trump will walk back his position on illegal immigration; and then when any one calls him on it, his toupee will fly off his head as he scolds them for remembering what he said.
The comments after the article are more telling. They are solidly Trump supporters.
I see and we should be flattered to be listeners of his increasing crappy show. I've got a place for his little finger and just where he can shove his credibility.
I've listen to him for many years off and on and he is definitely lost the very perspective he accuses everyone else of engaging in.
Now we are going to see aren't we? That is the nice thing about this election so many things are becoming clear. Like the pimps of punditry and their willing Johns.
Phonies are being exposed why be afraid of the light. Or must we hide in our bunker in some basement of a none disclosed bunker. oops! Yeah Marks a phoney I said it!!!!
If you could buy Levin at what he is actually worth and sell him at his sanctimonious prime - you'd make money. As it is you'll go broke looking to him for anything that will happen. I'm sure he has another book to sell about you - lawyers yeesh.
I'll take the weird real estate maven over the crazy raving lawyer any day.
We watch Trump we know what he says we don't need the likes of the media or Mark to tells what we have heard or seen.
We are social - media and we are watching
Frankly I'm tired of false media driven conservatives telling us how conservatives are supposed to be - honestly the talk show radio media has been replaced by story comments - more fun less time and you can do it in the bathroom.
Rush, Levin,Savage who/whatever they say about anything - means what really? Nothing usually you just get pissed off an that it no solutions just anger.
Well I"ve been angry since Clinton(Bill) and what has that gotten me . Nothing! except ....
More blabber from people who have a vested interested in blabbering. Jim Robinson is the only guy I know really doing a damn about it and thank god for the first time in my life. Tomorrow I'll be able to support him.
Have a restful and good night
Thanks for being a Freeper. Sorry we see this as differently as we do but oh well
For many conservatives, Trump offers the chance to destroy the GOPe. That is what the pundits do not understand.
Old Gay Lady BS. Big whoop.
.... Just wait until the general. He will be skewered.
Without a doubt for a multitude of reasons. Not convinced he will get the nomination.
You Trump-hating fools would prefer to see our Republic descend into a third world Hell hole under ‘RAT rule rather than vote for Trump.
History will judge you, condemn you, and then defecate you like the human waste you are.
Turns out it was a glass ceiling and Trump brought a jack-hammer.
I almost flamed you and then realized you were talking about Levin and not Trump. The bullets are flying so fast and furious it is hard to keep straight where they are coming from.
add, libertarians, folks who work for a living, folks who are patriotic, folks who just want to take care of the US and not the rest of the world, folks who don't profit from the skim of globalism, folks who want to be able to get things done without horendous bureaucracy and pay offs to the "rent-seeking" class that inhabits the global order...
I don't think they quite get how deep wide and rich the vein against GOPeeism runs.
You know, I’m not on the Trump Train, simply because I don’t trust the guy. He says great things that I agree with but I question whether he is truly a conservative.
Having said that, these stories about his support, about how he’s about to implode, how “any day now” he’s going to collapse onto himself (much like a star collapses and becomes a black hole) are getting a bit tiresome.
The man keeps climbing in the polls and I believe he has touched a nerve that has bothered many Americans, across the political spectrum.
Americans, both D & R and those supposedly in-between, are tired of illegal aliens streaming across our borders with no accountability, bringing crime, diseases and a general disrespect for the rule of law yet demanding that we allow them to “come out of the shadows”.
Those same Americans are also tired of being told that they are somehow “Islamophobic” for simply wanting to keep their country from becoming Sharia-compliant. Given recent events of ISIS-sympathetic people committing acts of violence against Americans and citizens of other countries, these same Americans are tired of being told that they are bigots for not wanting so-called “refugees” from parts of the world that are sympathetic to Islam being practiced in its “true” form.
Those same Americans have had it up to the moon with America and “free trade”. Now, I’ll admit I’m not that up to speed on the arguments for and against. I believe regulations, taxation and unions play a part in the discussion (mostly for free trade) but one thing I am tired of is going to my local any-store and seeing “Made In China” on dang near everything. What? We can’t make notebooks, pens, paper and steno pads? We can’t make tables, chairs, sofas and loveseats? We can’t make jeans, t-shirts, shoes and socks?
I believe this is why Donald Trump enjoys such high and, I’ll dare say, rabid support among his supporters. He’s a business man, not a politician so many believe he will actually do what he says he will do. For the sake of the country, if he gets the nomination, barring any GOPe dirty tricks, let’s hope he will make America great again.
I will vote for Trump but you all have to know that he is just a ploy by Clinton...he's destroying Cruz and anyone else....even if Trump isn't the pub candidate he'll have done his rat job destroying all the other pubs and he'll probably run third party...
what a country....we can't even run our own candidates now...
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