Why we're still stuck in Trump's world
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Why we're still stuck in Trump's world
There is a madness running through our nation's public life. Our country seems nearly powerless to counteract it because it's built into the structure of American politics, the belief system of Republican voters and the polarization of opinion in Congress.
The past week epitomized Donald Trump's continuing dominance of the public conversation and the extent to which we simply take for granted his threats of violence, his overt racism and the eagerness of many in his party to revert to attacks on George Soros that, at a minimum, carry overtones of antisemitism. The coming week is likely to give us more of the same. The news media will stay focused on what a grand jury in New York may or may not do, and on the accelerating pace of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith's investigations into the former president's role in the 2021 insurrection and Trump's handling of classified documents.
The journalistic obsession with Trump is certainly part of the problem. "I can't tell you the number of calls I've gotten from reporters asking me about the implications of Trump being indicted," Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, told, well, this reporter. "They were asking me about the implications of something that's unknowable because it's without any precedent in our history."
But there is something the Trump - obsessed news media did not cover because it didn't happen: There were no widespread Republican criticisms of Trump 's unhinged attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as an "animal" and "a degenerate psychopath," no official GOP condemnation of Trump's wee-hours-of-the-morning threat on Friday that an indictment could lead to "potential death and destruction."
On the contrary: Violating his party's incessant claims to believe in states' rights and local control, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote to Bragg demanding materials related to the investigation of hush-money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. It's bad enough to be silent about Trump 's abusive rants, but to make a chamber of Congress part of Trump's defense team reveals the depth of the rot. Unfortunately, the incentives and current architecture of politics make it unlikely that any of this will change. Two studies this month highlighted why. Let's start with an analysis of all 435 congressional districts conducted by the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California in conjunction with the Atlantic. It found that 142 of the House's 222 Republicans represent districts with low levels of racial diversity and that are dominated by White voters without college degrees.
As a result, wrote the Atlantic's Ronald Brownstein, "the energy in the party over recent years has shifted from the small-government arguments that drove the GOP in the Reagan era toward the unremitting culture-war focus pursued by Donald
Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis." What Jordan is doing, in other words, represents the prevailing attitudes of his caucus. Another study released last week, by Alan I. Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, traced the dramatic change in the makeup of the American electorate over the past 40 years. The study, published by the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, found that "racial and cultural issues, rather than economic ones," have driven the enormous gains Republicans have made with noncollege Whites.
In the meantime, Abramowitz noted in an interview, Democratic gains with White college-educated voters reflect the decay of what had once been the political base for more moderate Republicans, particularly in the Northeast. Again: The pressure in the party is to the cultural right - and toTrump. No wonder thatTrump's favorability among Republicans in the latest YouGov poll late last week stood at 78 percent, compared with 34 percent among independents and 12 percent among Democrats.
Even Republicans who are fully aware of the damage Trump is doing and the cost of Trump-backed candidates to the party's electoral fortunes thus hold back from criticizing him. "They know this is disastrous, but they are reluctant to speak up, and they don't know how to stop it," Abramowitz said. Which just allows the show to go on.
Ayres, the Republican pollster, sees his party as divided among 10 percent "Never Trump " voters, 30 percent "Always
Trump ," with the remaining 60 percent in a category he calls "MaybeTrump." The Maybe Trumpers are open to alternatives, he said, but having voted for Trump twice, "you will never, ever get these folks admitting they made a mistake," meaning they do not take kindly to criticisms of the former president. This is why Trump's rivals for the nomination have been so reluctant to take him on directly. The Republican Party's swing voters are in a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil mood.
A substantial majority of the country would like to be done with Trump and the nastiness he sows. Many Republican leaders may quietly agree, but their electorate and the nature of the places they represent push them toward timidity. Until the incentives change or the party's leaders discover the fortitude to defy them, we're stuck in the world that Trump's neuroses create for us.
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That picture doesn't go with the Post piece. It goes to a WSJ article that I'm very interested in.
How did that happen?
i guess i hit the wrong button. it seemed like a reasonably bland picture so i left it up. since it bothers you i will put something else up.
I'm subscribed to the WSJ. If you want that article, I'll print it out for you.
I can see anything in the Wall St Journal through the chicago public library. In this particular case they havent put this article up there yet.
The simple answer is many liberal progressives have TDS and can't move on. Or you they lack the strength of character to not allow others to control the narrative for them. There are huge dollars in whining about trump and the media knows it and their followers are too stupid to turn off the spigot.
Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush with people like you any longer. Trump is not "kept alive" by Democrats or progressives or "TDS", he is kept alive by all the MAGA and the Republican politicians that need their votes. They are the vast majority of those who have ever voted for him and they will be the only ones to vote for him again, be it in the Republican primaries or in the general election.
The idea that Republicans and MAGA want to move on from Trump but TDS wont let them is ridiculous.
You will vote for Trump in 2024 wont you, if the alternative is a Democrat you dont agree with? Just spit it out. Put your cards on the table.
After reading that bullshit, one must ask the question. Just who in the fuck do you think you are to judge ANYONE?
And yes the media and you yourself keep him in the spotlight. Next we'll see a report how Trump uses three sheets of ass wipe instead of two. How did that work for you in 2015-16?
Dont be a clown. The future of our country is at stake.
If I ever want to know what where Trump is, what he is doing or what he said I have to go no farther than to come to NT. Of course they spin it more than going on a tilt a whirl but it is amusing how they talk about nothing but Trump and then blame Trump being on peoples minds on MAGA.
Donald Trump stood there on stage saturday night in waco texas, his hand over his heart, as a recording of Jan 6 defendants (the so called J6 Choir) singing the national anthem played. Please tell us which Republican leaders of any sort have voiced public objection to such a travesty?
Thats all I want you to do, tell us which Republican leaders are criticizing Trump for his behavior at his Waco rally. Or for that matter which republican leaders have criticized him for having Ted Nugent stand on stage and call Zelensky a "homosexual weirdo". Please give us their names.
You can read my comment to other guy. The idea that "TDS" is keeping Trump alive in politics is ridiculous. "TDS" people, if any existed, dont vote in GOP primaries or attend Trump rallies, or schedule him to appear on right wing media, or send him money.
Try to get back to reality.
When you have Brandon the Human Fuck Up Machine in the White House; and are still obsessed with Trump 24/7?
Trump is not president!
Democrats have run this country in the ditch in every way imaginable; and want to be rewarded for it!
Try concentrating on getting rid of the mighty mental midget you installed in the White House; and the Democrats in Congress that are wrecking this country. Then you can fixate on Trump all you want!
You should have thought of that in November 2020. That you think it can get worse than it is now with Trump is laughable. Do I want to see him get the nod? Nope. Would I care if he did? Nope
It amazing how the drug addicts keep blaming the pushers for their addiction, and not that fact that they are weak and lack self control, it is the MAGA's and republicans fault that we are fixated on trump, they force CNN, NBC etc. to post 20 articles a week about him. WAA, WAA, WAA, poor us, the bad orange man will ruin everything.
Here is the major reason we keep seeing what we do................
Trump Derangement Syndrome: What is it -- and do you have it? | CNN Politics
TDS is the wind in Trump's sail. Own it.
With only 10 percent of Republicans "never Trump", his path to nomination is pretty smooth. The 60 percent "maybe" will largely fall in line the more and more likely his win becomes as the campaign progresses.
Trump says this is "the final battle'. Maybe he's right. If he is allowed to seriously run for president with the shroud of "traitor" hanging over him (quite reasonably) America will be in a new existentially threatened territory.
As someone who twice voted for Trump because there was no rational or sane alternative, I believe it's time for a change. The best bet for the country is DeSantis and/or Haley.
Once he declares in a few weeks, I'm pretty sure he will be a worthy opponent to Trump. He won big in Florida, and there is no logical reason to think he won't catch on nationwide to an electorate who are weary of Trump's bluster and bullshit. I'm sure I am not alone in thinking this way.
In the meantime, the Dems better give some serious thought about replacing Old Joe and Ms Giggles....they're not wearing well with the public as the blunders continue to pile up.