Posted on 03/04/2016 4:09:28 AM PST by elhombrelibre
Donald Trump had by far his worst debate of the 2016 campaign on Thursday. He was defensive and vulgar, evasive and condescending, rude and imperious. He moved drastically to the center on immigration, repudiating his position on H-1B visas on stage and saying “everything is negotiable,” including the border wall and the fate of illegal immigrants already in the United States. He defended his calls for expansive torture and the killing of civilians related to terrorists, saying the military “will do what I tell them” even if his orders contradict the law. He dismissed his opponents as “little Marco” and “lying Ted” and bragged about his manhood. Over two hours he provided reams and reams of material for Hillary Clinton’s ad writers. And through it all he was cheered by a raucous and heckling audience that seemed to have been transported straight from the courtroom scene in “Encounter at Farpoint.”
The spectacle made me ill. On screen I watched decades of work by conservative institutions, activists, and elected officials being lit aflame not only by the New York demagogue but by his enablers who waited until the last possible moment to criticize and try to stop him. And even then it may be too late.
I sometimes wonder whether Trump chose to run as a Republican because he identified the GOP as the weaker of the two parties. His politics line up favorably with Democrats, and he has supported Democrats in the past. But the Republicans had been so buffeted by 20 years of inattention to the costs of globalization, by the growing estrangement of traditional constituencies who have lost status and resources in the twenty-first century, by the mistakes and narrow-mindedness of the party elite, that clearly the party of Lincoln was the easier mark. Trump called the bluff of the Beltway establishment. He proved that the ghost of Jack Kemp doesn’t move the party base. The ghost of Nixon does.
There was no winner at the debate, but there was certainly a loser: The GOP. It started this election cycle in a strong position, and is now on the precipice of nominating a political neophyte, a caricature of everything liberals hate about Republicans, whose unfavorable ratings are sky-high and who loses to Hillary Clinton in practically every poll. The best hope of the anti-Trump forces is to somehow prevent him from winning the number of delegates necessary to secure the nomination outright, and deliver the nomination to someone else at the party’s convention. I’m skeptical. It’s a last-ditch attempt, and if the party wants to nominate Trump, that’s its choice. But in doing so it would crown as the heir to Lincoln and TR and Eisenhower and Reagan a man who every day finds new ways to polarize, repel, infuriate, exhaust, shock, and horrify.
Which one are you clear on, the old one or the new one?
ah yes, H1B v1.0
You done with the yoga, elhonmbre? LOL! :)
Wiki should change Trump’s color to orange. That would really drive the Cruzies up the wall. LOL.
Why would that drive anyone up a wall. The Donald is orange. It would be funny.
It’s your man that’s proving he’s malleable despite being a 70 year old irascible geezer.
You typify the intellectual level of a Trump supporter.
Let’s see how the lawsuit turns out for the 5,000 he screwed. By the way, no one got a degree from his scam university.
Tough questions are one thing, adversarial attacks are another.
When any moderator “corrects” a debatee, rather than ask questions, you do not have a debate. You have an attack.
Cruz just had his CPAC adoration festival. I could hear the Beatles girls screaming from two rooms away. Thing is, Trump does that three times a day, every day !
What's entertaining about SOME of the cruzers is the level of naivety.
When I was listening to the debate last night, I heard the $5000-an-hour alien hairdo say that somebody gave Trump University 15 grand.
I rolled my eyes immediately. What sort of retard would do that, other than sMegma "Air Blonde" Kelly, complete imbeciles, or Trump-haters like elhombrelibre? :)
Good post. The only rational reason to vote for the otherwise liberal Trump was his strong position on borders and immigration. If he is now “flexible” on that, there is no need for him in the White House.
Interesting map. It leaves off caucus states Iowa and Alaska at least. But I guess there’s no real way to do a county breakdown for those.
His recent flip flop on ordering service members to commit war crimes, for example, killing families of terrorists, is a perfect example of why he's becoming a joke. His willingness to now support H1-B visas is another example of how transparently malleable (Jimmy Carter's word) Trump is and can be while maintaining a fan club who can claim he's the toughest on the border and immigration. The list of contradictory positions continues to grow. The films of Trump arguing with Trump are hilarious. But quoting him is considered a lie. Too funny. We have to consider the possibility that Trump merely wants to amuse us, right?
Trump’s orange color is another part of why he’s a great joke. He’s the caricature of a conservative, which isn’t all his fault. He’s new to conservatism. We should be no harder on him, such a recent convert, for not knowing how to be conservative than we would be to Bruce Jenner for not knowing how to be a woman. Both are preposterous and Trump knows it.
Why can't you get an original thought in your head, elhombreesclavo?
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Possibly, it’s something you learned watching reality TV and your star, Bill Clinton’s pal Trump.
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