Trump cheats at golf - the ONE and ONLY politics thread

According to P.P.P., 70 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters in South Carolina wish the Confederate battle flag were still flying on their statehouse grounds. (It was removed last summer less than a month after a mass shooting at a black church in Charleston.) The polling firm says that 38 percent of them wish the South had won the Civil War. Only a quarter of Mr. Rubio’s supporters share that wish, and even fewer of Mr. Kasich’s and Mr. Carson’s do.

Nationally, the YouGov data show a similar trend: Nearly 20 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters disagreed with the freeing of slaves in Southern states after the Civil War. Only 5 percent of Mr. Rubio’s voters share this view.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-supporters-for-intolerance.html

Twenty-freaking-percent of Trump supporters think freeing the slaves after the Civil War was a mistake!?! These people are dumber than the red dirt they've got stuck between their toes.

 

"Only" 5 percent. LOL.

 

I can't even get my head around this.

I assume it's a states' rights stance in a significant number of cases, which doesn't make it much better.

 

You can't? Have you not been observing the Republican party for the past few decades?

 

I really love this idea that Boomers began their lives with this reputation of being peace-loving anti-establishment hippies and are now closing out their lives rallying around Donald Trump.

 

They usually aren't that overt about it. They rationalize why it's not racism.

 

Issues that will really hurt him with the Republican base, right cran? He's the biggest knucklehead, not the guy that wants to build the Great Wall of America and notCruz, who hold all the same views you mentioned about Rubio, plus by all accounts is an arrogant ass who thinks shutting down the government is his greatest accomplishment.

Not that it matters anyway, because short of Trump joining ISIS and pissing on a Bible, nobody's going to beat him, not even if Cruz or Rubio get one-on-one matches with him in a few weeks.

 

What are GOP voters so pissed at the establishment for anyway? I don't get it. They've won the Senate and House the last few years. The country is far better off today, economically, than it was eight years ago. What are they angry about? I don't understand. A wonky health care law?

 

Can you define the Republican base and give me some idea what it wants? I don't think there is a Republican base. We know what wealthy establishment Republicans want, which coincidentally happens to be exactly what Rubio wants.

 

Well you're right, there's about 50 Republican bases right now. And yet, the leading guy is probably most politically close to the stances of a "Blue Dog" Democrat.

 

Exactly. Just a lot of angry ignorant people who are all over the map about what they really want. One thing this GOP primary season is proving is that the wealthy Republican establishment has very little support among the people it has been desperately trying to co-opt for decades in order to cobble together a coalition with enough votes to challenge to Democrats.

 

What today's Republicans don't get about Reagan

How did the inclusive, forward-looking Republican Party of Reagan become the crass, xenophobic party of Donald J. Trump and Ted Cruz?

The rise of super PACs and the right-wing media has disempowered the party’s gatekeepers, while wage stagnation has widened the opening for populist demagogy. This year’s primary candidates have learned the lesson not only that exploiting prejudice around immigration and terrorism works politically, but so, too, does defying the party’s elders and its official apparatus. Thus Mr. Trump thrives and the establishment favorite, Jeb Bush, is already out.

A more surprising reason for the shift? Money. In economic terms, Republican politicians see increasing returns to extremism. The Citizens United decision has raised the potential financial stakes of presidential elections for media companies, political professionals and candidates alike. The presidential campaign of 2016 will most likely cost upward of $5 billion, more than 10 times the one that elected Reagan in 1980.

A lot of people get rich in a $5 billion industry, and some are politicians. Mr. Trump is not the only contender to make the calculation that running for president is win-win, burnishing “brand” value even for the losers. Ben Carson — yes, still in the race — seems more interested in selling books than in attaining higher office. Marco Rubio has already enjoyed years of patronage from a billionaire auto dealer in Florida.

The examples of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee underscore the point that a no-hope presidential run has more upside than downside. A career as a right-wing celebrity — a stint on Fox News, speaking fees, book advances — is more profitable than one in the Senate. These incentives have helped to shift the Republican Party from a party of opportunity to a party of opportunists.