The Politics Thread

[Roman]

the problem is these republicans are so scared of all the down ballot races and losing the Congress that they won't come together to kick this psycho. this has been building for decades. this needs to happen. that party needs to be broken down to the stump and rebuilt with moderate conservatives who actually don't see race or color or gender or preference. and they need to jettison FN and the Limbaughs and Co. of the country. 

[DramatistDreamer]

If people don't know who Steve Schmidt is, one aspect of his resume was that he was once in charge of helping Sarah Palin become VP. In other words, he is not a Democratic operative. Listen to what he has to say, it's quite enlightening, although it's certainly what many of us already know and/or suspect but it's interesting hearing it from the mouth of a Republican.

 

Edited October 12, 2016 by DramatistDreamer

[Ms. Quartermaine]

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/10/11/trump_tells_supporters_wrong_election_day.html

 

Trump tells supporters to get out and vote November 28th.  I don't know if he corrected himself. 

[marceline]

They can't remove him from the ticket. He would have to step down and even if he did that they would have to essentially have a new convention to name a replacement. They don't have the time for that. Early voting has started and Trump's name is on those ballots. I predict we'll see a whole new wave of attacks on early voting because of this.

[DramatistDreamer]

The GOP needs to acknowledge the fact that they created the circumstances and environment for a Trump to become their nominee. A schism within the party has been in place for about a decade- the Tea Party (which the GOP was happy to run loose as long as they were a thorn in Obama's side) kicked it into drive, the Birthers (again, the GOP was content to let them run wild as long as they were problems to Obama) opened up a path for Trump to launch a political career, Mitch McConnell's insistence that his sole focus would be making President Obama a one term President (how did that turn out?), fools like Ted Cruz and his fixation with goverment shutdown, facilitated by the GOP's environment of overall obstruction and incredible lack of civility in government.

 

This will sound harsh but the Republicans need to experience the full consequences of what they have wrought. If they are to salvage their party and not let it become history as other political parties in the past (the Whigs, etc) then they will probably have to 'start over' whatever that means. Part of that starting over, may mean accepting an irrevocable split within their party and accepting and setting the terms for some sort of political divorce within the GOP.

[GMac]

I see what y'all are saying, and agree with you.  But a part of me is genuinely concerned about the consequences of all of this for our country.  How can we know for certain that the fallout of this will be contained within the Republican Party?  Will it bleed out and infect other parts of the government and our democracy?  I guess I'm freaking out a lil bit, y'all.

[marceline]

It's already bled into other parts of the government and our democracy. That's how we ended up here. I think the first job of the GOP will be to try and get the tea party under control. I don't know how they do that though. 

[DRW50]

The real problem for America is that the GOP won't bother to look at the consequences - they will just do what they did in 2009 and be all about hating and opposing the POTUS. The GOP should have taken a long look in the mirror in 2009 and again in 2013, but they didn't have to. Part of that is down to the public always giving them second, third, fourth, and fifth chances. A lot of people either believe the hate and the hype, or are suckered into thinking it's not a big deal (I still remember how many in the media swore up and down that the Tea Party was all about taxes and were going to usher in some kind of age of a new fiscal-focused GOP). Until Republicans lose the Senate, are significantly reduced in the house and in state legislatures, and keep losing, nothing can change. 

[marceline]

I'd like to think they'll lose a chunk of the house this year but I'm not hopeful. Until we fix gerrymandering the GOP will always have an advantage and we won't even have a chance at that until after the 2020 census.

[DramatistDreamer]

The Trump campaign must be extremely desperate or stark raving mad to think they'd got on at the Apollo. Maybe both? 

 

Apart from this article needing a good editor (e.g. poll, not pole), I really don't think it's accurate to claim that Trump made a 'concerted effort' to reach out to the African American community. It was more for the benefit of White voters who were unsure of voting for someone like him and found many of his views/speech distasteful.

 

The Apollo Theater says no to Donald Trump rally

[DramatistDreamer]

This might cheer you up a bit, @marceline 

 

 

 

 

[marceline]

Once again my city does me proud. They actually started marching to the Board of Elections before sunrise this morning. One thing Cleveland knows how to do is turn early voting into a party.

 

Obama's going to be here Friday. Mom and I are going to try to see him. She even went to the beauty shop today so she could get coiffed for her boy.

[Wendy]

Putin ally tells Americans "Vote Trump or face nuclear war". Yeah, this election is completely off the rails.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

Clownish figure indeed! Makes me wonder whether some of those Russian political figures might be taking those daytrips to the poppy fields of Afghanistan. 

[dragonflies]