Salon has a good read titled “The shocking truth about Donald Trump: He’s actually the least terrifying GOP candidate“. Not only that, but this loud obnoxious buffoon actually has a chance of winning the GOP nomination for president, because in reality, his beliefs aren’t that different (and in fact are often more reasonable) than the rest of the rest of the pack of GOP candidates. The main difference between Trump and the other candidates is that he doesn’t speak in code words – he just says out loud what the other candidates are thinking, which is somehow appealing to the average Republican voter. He may say things that are intolerant and racist, but none of the rest of those jokers is willing to publicly disagree with his racist and xenophobic remarks.
Salon’s point is that Trump may be loud and obnoxious, but his opinions are actually more moderate than most Republicans. For example, when all the other GOP candidates were calling for Planned Parenthood to be defunded, Trump (correctly) pointed out that abortion services are a very small part of what they do. Jeb Bush, who is supposed to be the moderate candidate, claimed that Planned Parenthood is “not actually doing women’s health issues. They’re involved in something way different than that.” Which earned him a “Pants on Fire” from PolitiFact.
He is also the only GOP candidate who has talked about raising taxes on the rich. He also has opposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, previously supported universal healthcare, and opposed the war in Iraq.
And yet the Republican base loves him. Crazy, isn’t it? But has been shown over and over again, GOP voters don’t care about policy and governance. They care about bravado and bluster, something Trump has in spades.
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We got Stephen Colbert back on TV, I really enjoyed first show.
It’s questionable anything he says is trustworthy, but perhaps the greatest irony of the Trump phenomenon is his exposing just how much more Democratic a large sector of the Republican base really is at heart, at least the middle class/blue collar demographic. But they have become indoctrinated by the inflammatory rhetoric of God, Guns and Gays that the GOP establishment liberally (no pun intended) and incessantly spreads to their faithful, demonizing Democrats and convincing them in the process to vote against their own interests.
The latest example of this is the Kim Davis case, with Huckster-be leading the exuberant crowd who showed up for her recent release from jail for failing to issue gay marriage licenses as part of her public service duties as an elected official. We’re a nation of laws, until the Jesus freaks decide their laws prevail and their faithful sheep fall obediently in line.
Apparently, Survivor is not happy having their tune “Eye of the Tiger” appropriated for the event either. But maybe Huck had a vision that it was on God’s playlist, which I suppose would trump earthly copyright and royalty laws too.
Hassan – I share your Colbert enthusiasm, I was really jonesing for his return too. His bit on Trump was vintage Colbert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zjVUZA7rY
Ralph, I think the main indoctrination is that the GOP faithful have been convinced that Obama (and the Democrats) are evil and that anything they do will of course destroy the country. Like, most GOP voters hate Obamacare, but when you ask them about specific policies that are part of Obamacare, they like them.
I’ve been amazed that Trump can say things that if Obama said them would be screamed about. They believe in Trump.
Yeah, it really is amazing, his outsider status seems to be giving him carte blanche to just let it all hang out and the cynicism of the public towards most elected officials makes him practically bulletproof, whether he’s being overtly racist, misogynistic, or xenophobic. But if Obama proposed raising taxes on the 1%, as Trump recently did, the right would be screaming class war.
Yes, the personal and political attacks on Obama are unprecedented, often with racist undertones, but it wasn’t much better during the Clinton Admin. either, as you may recall. From shutting down the gov’t to the impeachment, the Republican attacks came fast and furious then as well and were all about trying to block his every move. In all fairness, however, Clinton was sometimes his own worst enemy. His lawyerly obfuscations (“depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”) and back room dealings (see: Hillarycare) didn’t help his case. Not that he was the first, by any means (see: Nixon, Tricky Dick).