- Cynthia Lucas, who is a coordinator of the Martin, Florida 9/12 Tea Party Committee, said she even had more sympathy for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders than Rubio, though she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to vote for either. The reason, she explained, is that while Sanders has the wrong answers, he is at least asking the right questions.
“[Sanders’s] heart is in the right place,” Lucas said. “He understands the bottom line: Everyone in this economy has been affected. When corporations get in bed with government, we get fascism. That’s what we have on both sides of the aisle.”
That quote highlights what makes the GOP's dilemma so interesting. Blue-collar conservatives are beginning to realize that the upper-crust are backing the GOP for different reasons, ones that often run counter to their own interests. Trump is benefiting from simplistic and xenophobic narratives that don't sit well with business interests, but work great with poor conservatives. That's why Trump can be anti-immigration, but has little reason to rail against social welfare. He's speaking to the state of poor conservatives, and the more he visibly makes the GOP nervous, the better his argument that the GOP plays to them. That's why Trump loves saying inflammatory and racist shit. It makes the GOP freak out, which makes him look more genuine in the eyes of poor conservatives. That, and he is sharing their language. I expect that Trump will become far less controversial once he gets the nomination. That's when things will get really scary. I bet that Hillary will be disappointed to find herself running against a much saner-seeming Donald.
Trump is unelectable so I've been pulling for him in the primaries. After you break down all the statistical demos he's got like 10% of the popular support in the country and a 60% unfavorable rating with the public. I'm also pulling for him because Ted Cruz is more terrifying to me. He's actually a savvy politician and he's batshit insane. This isn't the best takedown of him but I watched it this morning and it hits the high notes: I think Ted's going to keep coming back like herpes like Mike Huckabee does, I just hope he fades away like Huckabee instead of remaining virulent like herpes. Ted Cruz's face also looks like a saggy Joe McCarthy mask.
I am also a very big Ted Cruz fan. Unfortunately, I think Donald has a better chance in the general than Ted, so I would be careful what you wish for. Here's my hope: Kasich wins Ohio, and does better than expected elsewhere today. Rubio drops after losing Florida, and Kasich, Cruz, and Trump get to the convention without the delegates they need. The GOP then picks Kasich in a brokered convention, and then Trump goes independent.
Hopefully he'll be remembered as a bullet dodged and we'll learn some kind of lesson through all of this.Comparatively, after Trump fizzles out, no one will remember him, because of all of his ideas are built around his own cult of personality.
I'll offer a cynical alternative: Trump's loss is held up as an example of why we don't need to squash speech that seeks to divide, because they'll lose in the election anyway like Trump did. An anecdote I heard recently from a guy from Sweden is in Sweden nobody talks out loud about things we and they would call racist. It's totally taboo, not just in polite society but everywhere. Yet politicians we and they would call fascist routinely get like 20% of the popular vote. I think it's important to not be too complacent.
We must not become tolerant of intolerance.An anecdote I heard recently from a guy from Sweden is in Sweden nobody talks out loud about things we and they would call racist. It's totally taboo, not just in polite society but everywhere. Yet politicians we and they would call fascist routinely get like 20% of the popular vote. I think it's important to not be too complacent.