I took a leisurely stroll, these past couple days, through the wilds of Trumpistan, Trump-a-lago, Trumpville, and Trumpshire, to get a sense of how the Orange faithful felt about the Red Fizzle.
Trump’s an idiot (and worse). His faithful are idiots (and worse).
There will always be idiots (and worse) among us, as surely as night follows day.
The GOP would do well to understand that they can’t cater to a narrow band of idiots (or worse) indefinitely. There’s a whole broad swath in the middle, that far, far outnumbers the Trump Faithful. It’s time to play to them - because it’s a winning strategy in a numbers game, and because the positions and candidates that would appeal to this broader electorate are far, far healthier for the good of the nation.
I and others have been saying this for a long long time. These midterms merely provide graphic proof of what’s been obvious to many for a while.
This isn’t rocket science. The sooner Trump is told to go pound sand, the better for everyone concerned.
The problem is that the Trump faithful remain numerous. I know more than a few.
Fortunately, I'm seeing some openly disavow him now, and some quietly switching to DeSantis.
It's not going to be a pretty transition, and Trump himself is likely the sort to try and burn the party down rather than concede to the next generation.
Could it just possibly be not "the Trump faithful" who keep doing this?
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when two topics come up: Trump and Jan. 6th. In both cases, the left writes the entire narrative top to bottom, but everything gets redirected to the Trump cultitsts, the Trump faithful, etc.
Who, out of the parties in America, needs Trump again? Who keeps promoting him? I'm not talking about what the man himself is saying. Everyday I'm told we have to completely ignore everything he says and at the same time it must be reverse engineered to reveal the real truth about how/what is happening.
Maybe it's the people who just can't clear their eyes of the left's bullshit - and Trump is very much part of the left's bullshit, at least narrative-wise, if not THE BIGGEST SLICE of the left's bullshit at this point - that are to blame.
There's not enough of the "MAGA faithful" to add up to all these conclusions, but it's the only conclusion we keep being given.
I'm sure the "MAGA candidates" are about the same amount of people who were let into the Capital on January 6th. It just seems like the right can't stop letting the left play them like a fiddle and the answer is always Trump. Maybe this makes sense to others - like the way only FL can gets its votes counted and those results seem to reflect reality rather than narrative, hmmmm - but I think I'm kinda done after this election. There just is not any sense of what's actually happening; people are just carrying pails of the left's narrative water. (Present company excluded.)
This also reminds me of the "Trump lost Georgia" canard. Anytime the left wins, it becomes the right that actually lost, because Trump. Everything seems subsumed into this fiery axiom that brooks zero discussion or dissent. Unless Trump is actually controlling the world, it's actually the fault of the people who vote for the left - and never stop doing so, Trump or no Trump - and all the blame in the world is not going to change that. The country is scared to entertain anything but the left's bullying and the consequences of standing up to it - full stop. Trump or no Trump, the issue is actually that.
I’m from Georgia - lots of Trump cultists here. Trump told his myrmidons that the polls were “rigged,” so his followers didn’t bother to vote in the 2021 run off. The return math tells the story. As a result, we got two hard-left Democrat senators.
I've seen enough, and know enough first-hand, to be comfortable with the conclusion that there is a big mass of Trump loyalists out there. You can also look at the turnout at his rallies. It's a real phenomenon.
Is it hyped by the Left for the Left's purposes? Of course - that's politics. But, that doesn't mean it's not there or that but for that hype it'd not be of significance.
As to votes - also don't discount that many simply choose not to vote for their team's person, rather than cross the aisle. Voter motivation is a big thing, and parties work hard at getting the vote out. To paraphrase (or quote?) McConnell - candidate quality matters.
Trump held a rally a few months ago, near Commerce, GA, and attendance was “less than stellar.” That’s about an hour from me, and I see “TRUMP 2024!” and, “TRUMP WON” signs ubiquitously here.
People keep telling me that, but I don't see it at all. I'm sorry, but the Georgia line is just bunk. You show me where those people are who do whatever they're told by Trump and I'll show you ten others that do whatever they're told to do by the people who are scaring them with Trump. The math just does not add up. Plus, this idea of "brainwashed MAGA sheeple" - while bandied a lot - never seems to add up, either; again, the numbers are just staggering on the other side, each and every time. For the people in the backrow: It Ain't the MAGA People Fucking The Country Up By Behaving and Voting Like Automatons; That's a Line Written by the left.
That's the way hypnosis works - constant repetition. Anyone joining in on in it - especially this week - just ain't landing with me. Call me stubborn/ wrong/ what have you. Fine. Let's talk in 2024 - the same people are going to be saying the same things, voting the same way, and if it ain't MAGA on the candidate, that will continue to be the story.
I was incredulous in 2020 that so many could just mindlessly repeat the left on this one; I'm less incredulous in 2022, just incredibly disappointed. I unsubscribed from pretty much everything (present company excluded) I'd been listening to and reading this election season. On a dime, they turned from "Red Tsunami" to "See? This is why MAGA..." That ain't integrity, or insight, that's just stupid. We've all been hearing everyone say the same thing; why suddenly is it obvious?
The future is Michigan and Illinois and recounts and Trump-narrative, from left and right, forever. Florida can't hold out forever. The problem isn't MAGA; it's the people cowed into behaving and voting the way they do by the left. That's the math; everything else is just marketing.
I have asked several - SEVERAL! Trump supporters about Trump’s dismal spending, compared to Cocaine Mitch’s: most have NO IDEA that .22 of every dollar contributed to Win Red goes directly into Donald Trump’s pocket, and, believe the “narrative” that Trump spent “lots of money.”
“ t’s apparently McConnell’s fault that Trump endorsed an unattractive general-election candidate in the Arizona primary. It’s McConnell’s fault that Masters made himself unattractive by embracing the lie that Trump won the 2020 election in order to secure the former president’s endorsement. It’s McConnell’s fault that Trump also endorsed J. D. Vance in Ohio (again, in no small part because he embraced the stolen-election lie), forcing McConnell’s super PAC to spend $32 million defending a seat in a state Trump won by eight. It’s McConnell’s fault that Trump was loath to spend any significant amount of the money he’s raised on the candidates he endorsed. It’s McConnell’s fault that Peter Thiel, Masters’s mentor and benefactor during his primary contest, declined to spend money on his general-election campaign until it was too late. It’s McConnell’s fault that Masters was unable to raise money from small-dollar donors himself. And it’s Mitch McConnell’s fault that Blake Masters is so unappealing as a candidate that he is currently running over 60,000 votes behind Lake, over 150,000 votes behind the Republican nominee for state treasurer, and almost 50,000 votes behind the Republican nominee for state attorney general.”
It's not easy to admit you were wrong especially if you've invested so much into Trump. I am concerned that Trump may do a third party run in 2024 and really hose the GOP.
Thank you, Peter, as I could not have said this better. I'm sick of the excuses the acolytes of Trump are pumping out. His mean-spirited carping and narcissism has worn thin with just about every former supporter I know (of which I never was, despite holding my nose and voting for him in 2020). His name-calling and veiled threats to DeSantis hasn't helped, either. It pushed the two remaining people I know who made excuses for him into opposition. If he declares his candidacy on the 15th, it will mean there will be a civil war within the party and we'll stay in the wilderness for 4 more years. I predict that he won't get the nomination, he'll throw a tantrum and lead his followers into a revolt, and we'll all lose.
Tuesday night's results knocked me off the Ever Trump bandwagon. It's simple. Trump himself set this election up as a referendum on Trump - he picked candidates and pushed them as his surrogate in locations he previously lost to Biden (GA, AZ, PA). He structured the test - and he failed that test. I was, as an Ever Trumper, hopeful it wouldn't turn out like it did. I wanted the Big Beautiful Red Wave. I wanted vindication and I wanted to set the stage for The Comeback. I didn't get that. And I can acknowledge what that means. 2024 will turn out exactly like 2020 did - and 2022 is all the proof I need. I don't need to blame Trump. I don't need to blame McConnell. I don't need to disparage the voters. I just need to accept what the voters themselves said.
All of the past Trump supporters I know want him to just go away, me included. Maybe I just hang with more astute people, I don't know. But at this point I don't understand how anyone would think Trump is anything but an albatross on the GOP party. He's got to go.
It does boggle the mind, but cult-of-personality is not a new phenomenon.
I hope that, in time, the die-hards slowly and quietly come around. The surest way to get people to dig their heels in is with "I told you so" stuff, so best IMO to just make the case to "move on" and let the seed germinate without pushing.
I'm sure you're right. It's hard to understand why anyone would tolerate Trump's penchant to throw loyal supporters under the bus in an instant. What exactly did he expect Brian Kemp to do about 2020? And when he turned on Mike Pence, who put up with Trump's crap for 4 years, that did it for me.
He reportedly said "he deserves it" when the Jan6 crowd chanted "Hang Mike Pence."
It takes a lot of self-delusion to support him after that came to light. Unless one is among those who believes that Pence could and should have made Trump President....
Trump’s an idiot (and worse). His faithful are idiots (and worse).
There will always be idiots (and worse) among us, as surely as night follows day.
The GOP would do well to understand that they can’t cater to a narrow band of idiots (or worse) indefinitely. There’s a whole broad swath in the middle, that far, far outnumbers the Trump Faithful. It’s time to play to them - because it’s a winning strategy in a numbers game, and because the positions and candidates that would appeal to this broader electorate are far, far healthier for the good of the nation.
I and others have been saying this for a long long time. These midterms merely provide graphic proof of what’s been obvious to many for a while.
This isn’t rocket science. The sooner Trump is told to go pound sand, the better for everyone concerned.
End of story, really.
The problem is that the Trump faithful remain numerous. I know more than a few.
Fortunately, I'm seeing some openly disavow him now, and some quietly switching to DeSantis.
It's not going to be a pretty transition, and Trump himself is likely the sort to try and burn the party down rather than concede to the next generation.
Could it just possibly be not "the Trump faithful" who keep doing this?
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when two topics come up: Trump and Jan. 6th. In both cases, the left writes the entire narrative top to bottom, but everything gets redirected to the Trump cultitsts, the Trump faithful, etc.
Who, out of the parties in America, needs Trump again? Who keeps promoting him? I'm not talking about what the man himself is saying. Everyday I'm told we have to completely ignore everything he says and at the same time it must be reverse engineered to reveal the real truth about how/what is happening.
Maybe it's the people who just can't clear their eyes of the left's bullshit - and Trump is very much part of the left's bullshit, at least narrative-wise, if not THE BIGGEST SLICE of the left's bullshit at this point - that are to blame.
There's not enough of the "MAGA faithful" to add up to all these conclusions, but it's the only conclusion we keep being given.
I'm sure the "MAGA candidates" are about the same amount of people who were let into the Capital on January 6th. It just seems like the right can't stop letting the left play them like a fiddle and the answer is always Trump. Maybe this makes sense to others - like the way only FL can gets its votes counted and those results seem to reflect reality rather than narrative, hmmmm - but I think I'm kinda done after this election. There just is not any sense of what's actually happening; people are just carrying pails of the left's narrative water. (Present company excluded.)
This also reminds me of the "Trump lost Georgia" canard. Anytime the left wins, it becomes the right that actually lost, because Trump. Everything seems subsumed into this fiery axiom that brooks zero discussion or dissent. Unless Trump is actually controlling the world, it's actually the fault of the people who vote for the left - and never stop doing so, Trump or no Trump - and all the blame in the world is not going to change that. The country is scared to entertain anything but the left's bullying and the consequences of standing up to it - full stop. Trump or no Trump, the issue is actually that.
I’m from Georgia - lots of Trump cultists here. Trump told his myrmidons that the polls were “rigged,” so his followers didn’t bother to vote in the 2021 run off. The return math tells the story. As a result, we got two hard-left Democrat senators.
I'm seeing the "rigged" bandied about so casually and so widely that it's almost frightening.
Any loss is "not our side's fault, it's the steal." From both sides.
You know what a “narrative” is, right?
I've seen enough, and know enough first-hand, to be comfortable with the conclusion that there is a big mass of Trump loyalists out there. You can also look at the turnout at his rallies. It's a real phenomenon.
Is it hyped by the Left for the Left's purposes? Of course - that's politics. But, that doesn't mean it's not there or that but for that hype it'd not be of significance.
As to votes - also don't discount that many simply choose not to vote for their team's person, rather than cross the aisle. Voter motivation is a big thing, and parties work hard at getting the vote out. To paraphrase (or quote?) McConnell - candidate quality matters.
Trump held a rally a few months ago, near Commerce, GA, and attendance was “less than stellar.” That’s about an hour from me, and I see “TRUMP 2024!” and, “TRUMP WON” signs ubiquitously here.
People keep telling me that, but I don't see it at all. I'm sorry, but the Georgia line is just bunk. You show me where those people are who do whatever they're told by Trump and I'll show you ten others that do whatever they're told to do by the people who are scaring them with Trump. The math just does not add up. Plus, this idea of "brainwashed MAGA sheeple" - while bandied a lot - never seems to add up, either; again, the numbers are just staggering on the other side, each and every time. For the people in the backrow: It Ain't the MAGA People Fucking The Country Up By Behaving and Voting Like Automatons; That's a Line Written by the left.
That's the way hypnosis works - constant repetition. Anyone joining in on in it - especially this week - just ain't landing with me. Call me stubborn/ wrong/ what have you. Fine. Let's talk in 2024 - the same people are going to be saying the same things, voting the same way, and if it ain't MAGA on the candidate, that will continue to be the story.
I was incredulous in 2020 that so many could just mindlessly repeat the left on this one; I'm less incredulous in 2022, just incredibly disappointed. I unsubscribed from pretty much everything (present company excluded) I'd been listening to and reading this election season. On a dime, they turned from "Red Tsunami" to "See? This is why MAGA..." That ain't integrity, or insight, that's just stupid. We've all been hearing everyone say the same thing; why suddenly is it obvious?
The future is Michigan and Illinois and recounts and Trump-narrative, from left and right, forever. Florida can't hold out forever. The problem isn't MAGA; it's the people cowed into behaving and voting the way they do by the left. That's the math; everything else is just marketing.
I know we disagree - so it goes. I
What “Georgia line is just bunk?”
To add to the stew - I'm not the only one seeing "Mitch's Fault" from the minions.
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/mitch-mcconnell-is-not-the-problem/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MJ_20221111&utm_term=Jolt-Smart
I have asked several - SEVERAL! Trump supporters about Trump’s dismal spending, compared to Cocaine Mitch’s: most have NO IDEA that .22 of every dollar contributed to Win Red goes directly into Donald Trump’s pocket, and, believe the “narrative” that Trump spent “lots of money.”
“ t’s apparently McConnell’s fault that Trump endorsed an unattractive general-election candidate in the Arizona primary. It’s McConnell’s fault that Masters made himself unattractive by embracing the lie that Trump won the 2020 election in order to secure the former president’s endorsement. It’s McConnell’s fault that Trump also endorsed J. D. Vance in Ohio (again, in no small part because he embraced the stolen-election lie), forcing McConnell’s super PAC to spend $32 million defending a seat in a state Trump won by eight. It’s McConnell’s fault that Trump was loath to spend any significant amount of the money he’s raised on the candidates he endorsed. It’s McConnell’s fault that Peter Thiel, Masters’s mentor and benefactor during his primary contest, declined to spend money on his general-election campaign until it was too late. It’s McConnell’s fault that Masters was unable to raise money from small-dollar donors himself. And it’s Mitch McConnell’s fault that Blake Masters is so unappealing as a candidate that he is currently running over 60,000 votes behind Lake, over 150,000 votes behind the Republican nominee for state treasurer, and almost 50,000 votes behind the Republican nominee for state attorney general.”
It's not easy to admit you were wrong especially if you've invested so much into Trump. I am concerned that Trump may do a third party run in 2024 and really hose the GOP.
Yeah, he'd be the sort to burn the house down rather than accept the party's will.
Thank you, Peter, as I could not have said this better. I'm sick of the excuses the acolytes of Trump are pumping out. His mean-spirited carping and narcissism has worn thin with just about every former supporter I know (of which I never was, despite holding my nose and voting for him in 2020). His name-calling and veiled threats to DeSantis hasn't helped, either. It pushed the two remaining people I know who made excuses for him into opposition. If he declares his candidacy on the 15th, it will mean there will be a civil war within the party and we'll stay in the wilderness for 4 more years. I predict that he won't get the nomination, he'll throw a tantrum and lead his followers into a revolt, and we'll all lose.
Tuesday night's results knocked me off the Ever Trump bandwagon. It's simple. Trump himself set this election up as a referendum on Trump - he picked candidates and pushed them as his surrogate in locations he previously lost to Biden (GA, AZ, PA). He structured the test - and he failed that test. I was, as an Ever Trumper, hopeful it wouldn't turn out like it did. I wanted the Big Beautiful Red Wave. I wanted vindication and I wanted to set the stage for The Comeback. I didn't get that. And I can acknowledge what that means. 2024 will turn out exactly like 2020 did - and 2022 is all the proof I need. I don't need to blame Trump. I don't need to blame McConnell. I don't need to disparage the voters. I just need to accept what the voters themselves said.
All of the past Trump supporters I know want him to just go away, me included. Maybe I just hang with more astute people, I don't know. But at this point I don't understand how anyone would think Trump is anything but an albatross on the GOP party. He's got to go.
It does boggle the mind, but cult-of-personality is not a new phenomenon.
I hope that, in time, the die-hards slowly and quietly come around. The surest way to get people to dig their heels in is with "I told you so" stuff, so best IMO to just make the case to "move on" and let the seed germinate without pushing.
I'm sure you're right. It's hard to understand why anyone would tolerate Trump's penchant to throw loyal supporters under the bus in an instant. What exactly did he expect Brian Kemp to do about 2020? And when he turned on Mike Pence, who put up with Trump's crap for 4 years, that did it for me.
He reportedly said "he deserves it" when the Jan6 crowd chanted "Hang Mike Pence."
It takes a lot of self-delusion to support him after that came to light. Unless one is among those who believes that Pence could and should have made Trump President....