Well-said and well-thought, Joe. I think there are concentric rings of Trump's support, like Dante's circles of hell. It the center are the truly delusional, the Q-Anon Pizzagate JFK-is-still alive nutballs. In the middle are the MAGA true believers, the marginally less crazy ones who think he was sent by god to save America. But the outer, and largest ring, is occupied by those whose support was epitomized by a response I saw the other day to an article about standard tax deductions: vote Trump if you want to keep your deduction. It's transactional. The pietistic Mike Pence agonized over withdrawing from the Trump campaign after the Access Hollywood tape came out, but ultimately stayed in exchange for, y'know, the vice presidency. Mitch McConnell supported a man he loathed, who mocked him and slurred his wife, in exchange for three Supreme Court seats. Evangelicals backed a twice-divorced rapist casino owner with a porny hooker-adjacent wife in exchange for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Rich guys accepted chaos, corruption, incompetence, general shamelessness and the debasement of the United States on the world stage in exchange for a lower top marginal tax rate. And legions of others, like that commenter, are happy to flush our 247-year-old experiment in freedom and democracy down the crapper in exchange for $48.56 in tax savings.
I doubt if the mainstream media has the power anymore to change this race, as The Washington Post clearly did in Watergate. Most of Trump's backers are convinced they publish nothing but lies and fake news. HOWEVER, I haven't given up hope that there are enough longtime but traditional Republicans to give Nikki Haley a chance of making this a race. NH Governor Sununu is predicting Haley will win his state's primary, and now that Chris Christie has bowed out, she just might. Almost all of Christie's supporters will now likely vote for Haley. IF Haley does catch fire, the Democrats will be sorry. Polls show she would wallop Biden and I think they're right. Though she almost never mentions it, Haley WOULD be the first woman President, and she would certainly appeal to Democrats who feel Biden is too old. I KNOW this might sound pollyannaish, but at least for now, the voters still have a voice.
Well-said and well-thought, Joe. I think there are concentric rings of Trump's support, like Dante's circles of hell. It the center are the truly delusional, the Q-Anon Pizzagate JFK-is-still alive nutballs. In the middle are the MAGA true believers, the marginally less crazy ones who think he was sent by god to save America. But the outer, and largest ring, is occupied by those whose support was epitomized by a response I saw the other day to an article about standard tax deductions: vote Trump if you want to keep your deduction. It's transactional. The pietistic Mike Pence agonized over withdrawing from the Trump campaign after the Access Hollywood tape came out, but ultimately stayed in exchange for, y'know, the vice presidency. Mitch McConnell supported a man he loathed, who mocked him and slurred his wife, in exchange for three Supreme Court seats. Evangelicals backed a twice-divorced rapist casino owner with a porny hooker-adjacent wife in exchange for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Rich guys accepted chaos, corruption, incompetence, general shamelessness and the debasement of the United States on the world stage in exchange for a lower top marginal tax rate. And legions of others, like that commenter, are happy to flush our 247-year-old experiment in freedom and democracy down the crapper in exchange for $48.56 in tax savings.
I doubt if the mainstream media has the power anymore to change this race, as The Washington Post clearly did in Watergate. Most of Trump's backers are convinced they publish nothing but lies and fake news. HOWEVER, I haven't given up hope that there are enough longtime but traditional Republicans to give Nikki Haley a chance of making this a race. NH Governor Sununu is predicting Haley will win his state's primary, and now that Chris Christie has bowed out, she just might. Almost all of Christie's supporters will now likely vote for Haley. IF Haley does catch fire, the Democrats will be sorry. Polls show she would wallop Biden and I think they're right. Though she almost never mentions it, Haley WOULD be the first woman President, and she would certainly appeal to Democrats who feel Biden is too old. I KNOW this might sound pollyannaish, but at least for now, the voters still have a voice.