In an article that suffers from too much pussyfooting around the issue of racism, the Washington Post’s Peyton Craighill and Scott Clement do at least provide us with one moment of moral and analytical clarity:
[Donald] Trump has said his immigration comments would help him win the Latino vote if he were the 2016 GOP nominee. This poll (along with basic logic) suggests that would be nothing shy of a miracle.
The Donald’s unfavorable rating with the Latino community is now in the eighties. But he’s a rock star with Republicans.
Nearly six in 10 — 57 percent — Republicans now have a favorable view of Trump, compared to 40 percent who have an unfavorable one. That marks a complete reversal from a late-May Post-ABC poll, in which 65 percent of Republicans saw Trump unfavorably.
He’s even seen a small improvement in his favorable rating with Democrats. On the whole, however, he remains just slightly more popular than Montezuma’s Revenge, which may help explain the shit that keeps coming out of his mouth. Trump is so ridiculous that there’s a lawmaker down in Florida who is now half-convinced he is a Democratic plant who has joined the Republican Party at the behest of the Clintons in order to sabotage them from within.
What’s funny is, as crazy as that sounds, we’d never be able to tell the difference.
No doubt that Bernie Sanders is a plant from the right, intended to take down Hillary. Sigh.
Not just stone racists, either. We’ve seen the (probable) rationale for some of that bounce in posts here…
Autarky, and protectionism, are both not without their progressive supporters. ‘Closing the borders’ has bi-partisan appeal.
Yeah, I never understood that. I thought the whole point of being on the left was that we blame the people who are really responsible for the state of the economy, rather than scapegoating immigrants.
It’s been a long time since “Les travailleurs n’on’t pas de patrie.”
Be careful. Polls like that have a 2-5% data entry error problem. That means a small number of people are incorrectly identified as Democrats. A small number of people choose the wrong rating for the candidate. Etc.
Given that, when Trump’s rating with the Fascist party shoots up it will also tick up slightly with the others just due to data entry errors.
The usual non-personing tactics won’t work on this guy, Booman. He embraces his clown act. Every time you mock him he gets stronger. He’s the contemporary Tarbaby of the Br’er Rabbit folktales.
Br’er Fox (
News) gwine laugh hisself silly watching the (faux) centrist left…dat’s you, Booman, among many others…gets itself all caught up in Br’er Trump’s sticky stuff.Take him seriously of take him up the yin yang.
Your choice.
Watch.
AG
81% unfavorable among Latinos is not getting stronger. Naked xenophobia does have an audience, obviously, but it’s limited. The number of people who are revolted by Trump’s comments is still much greater than the number who are jumping on the bandwagon.
Which is not to say that he isn’t to be taken seriously, because hateful rhetoric has consequences. But putting Donald Trump in the White House isn’t going to be one of them.
I wonder how The Donald polls with other immigrant groups in the US.
It’s not a lot of detail, but there are some numbers here. Nothing about immigrants, specifically, but 74% unfavorable among non-whites. And a net unfavorable rating among white people, for that matter, although the 42% favorability among whites is still disturbing. That’s a lot of xenophobes.
But there really isn’t much room for that number to grow. That’s always been the problem with the all-white people strategy. You can’t alienate minorities without alienating a whole lot of white people too.
Why? Same folks that voted for McCain/Palin and rMoney.
Democrats aren’t half clever enough to create a plant that could destroy the GOP from within. The limits of their imagination would have led to a plant that looked/sounded more like a Tom Cotton or Todd Akin — well, at least until 2014 when such nutcases were elected. Seriously, if the GOP could withstand a Palin, it’s both inscrutable and has a lock on 45% of voters in a two-way contest.
Meanwhile I just saw a “Stand with Rand” ad in the sidebar. “End sanctuary cities and secure the border.” Coincidence?
Trump has the deep pockets not to care. He can out-crazy the rest of the B-list and dry up their funding. So who remains standing who doesn’t depend on out-crazying Santorum?
The bigger question for Republicans is whether they can put Trump back in his box. It’s sort of the same problem that the US military had with the Afghan mujahadeen after they drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan.
I notice that the sandbagger were out yesterday trying to hit Trump with some Waffen SS credentials. Before this is over, I expect to see somewhere:
Trump/Ernst 2016 Ein Fuhrer! Ein Volk! Ein Reich!
Nicht war?
Trump is an asshole, but not a stupid one. Not like Perot in 1992 (although I doubt that he ended up $60 million in the hole as reported), Forbes in 1996, and Romney in 1988 that actually dug into their own pockets to fund their hopes and dreams. A “self-funded” candidate plays well with the public because better a dummy without strings than one with.
Sorry I don’t take solace or delight in this charade. Fascism isn’t to be messed around with. This dude is going to have a lasting influence on the debate, whether he exits stage right or not.
Yes, he’s coming out with pots and pans banging as opposed to whispers (not that I see a difference, but the masses apparently do), and sunlight can be good. But this isn’t fun to toy with.
Let’s face it, he’s a born again Rush Limbaugh and those that love Rush, still, will go for the ‘lack of pc’, the loud, the ‘everyone else is stupid’ routine. Apparently there’s been a hunger for the return of Rush Limbaugh and the Rep Party is just to pc to acknowledge it.
What’s up with the meeting with the two Ted’s today?
I think we’ve all realized for a long time that the right wing monster is out of control and that this won’t end well. The media machine was created to fire up the right wing base and to influence the center, and its done that very well. But the hatred is now so intense and the lack of grounding in factual reality so complete that borg no longer follows the leaders but instead does its own leading. The right wing borg automatically believes the most extreme view of any issue – and any leader who doesn’t toe the line is dropped immediately.
Trump will probably fizzle out, but the other candidates are watching how he got the media to focus on him and pumped up his numbers. Look for the allegedly moderate candidates to follow suit.
If ever the GOP does capture the presidency again I think my family will have to leave the country – they’ll have Congress as well so there will be nothing to contain them from implementing exactly what they say they will.
The thing about Donald Trump being a Democratic Party Plant.
Um….
what he’s saying is filet mignon to the GOP base.
If what he’s saying is SOOO not Republican…
then why doesn’t he have Carly Fiorina Poll Numbers?
I’ll say it again…
the problem for them with Trump is NOT what he’s saying is WRONG…
It’s that he’s not speaking in dogwhistles anymore. He’s not speaking in Frank Luntz-approved language.
Language that the MSM can hide behind and pretend that they don’t know what the GOP is saying and what it means.
He’s using a 2 by 4 in plain language to show exactly who the GOP is……
and, they can’t hide it.
You notice how NONE of the GOP candidates have said that Trump was WRONG. That Republicans don’t stand for what Trump is saying.
Well, if one wants to compete for and possibly win the Repub nomination, Der Trumper appears to be doing something right. Militant nativist jingoism is always popular with rightwing constituencies. If Trump hasn’t denounced the Iran deal as dangerous to Murican security(!), he soon will.
As Booman has previously described, Der Trumper isn’t saying anything “new” in our conservative politics. He’s telling those whites deeply unhappy with the “multiculturation” of Murica what they want to hear (and already believe.) That’s a very large group of citizens. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if college drop-out Walker follows the same path. I’m waiting for the other Repub prez candidates to denounce Trump—an exercise in courage for Jeb! But I fear this will be another Waiting for Godot moment, haha.
Der Fuhrer never had to win an electoral majority to obtain power, and he never did. Of course one needn’t win a majority of (citizen) votes (or even the most votes) under our system to become prez, either.
Der Donald’s mounting candidacy will ensure that the ongoing racial tensions and embitterment in the country will only continue to rise. That’s his trump card! The will to power will take any road, if it tears the seams of the country apart, so be it.
This go-round:
is just like the last go-round:
and like last time, after the all the media foo-foo is over, whoever gets backing from the GOP Establishment and Corporate Wings will win the GOP nomination. My bet is JEB! but Walker cannot be ruled out.
I’m with you. Mid-July 2007 “noun, verb, 9/11” was 28.6%, Thompson 19%, McCain 15%, rMoney 10$, and the Huckster at 3%.
Something to keep an eye on is the new rule the GOP put in place to shorten the 2016 primary: states that have their primaries between March 1 and March 14 will award delegates on a proportional basis. With the current subject-to-change schedule those states are:
“Super Tuesday” – March 1
Alabama – 50 delegates
Arkansas – 40
Colorado caucuses – 37
Georgia – 76
Massachusetts – 42
Minnesota caucuses – 38
North Carolina – 72
Oklahoma – 43
Tennessee – 58
Texas – 155
Vermont – 16
Virginia – 49
March 5
Louisiana – 46
March 8
Hawaii caucus – 19
Mississippi – 39
Michigan – 59
March 13
Puerto Rico – 23
Total proportionally allocated: 816 (if I did my arithmetic right 🙂
Total Delegates: 2,470
Total Delegates left after March 15 (after subtracting Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada’s 133 delegates): 1,521
Delegates needed to win: 1,236
The kicker in is the number of delegates in the list that will be proportionally allocated is roughly half of each state’s total delegation. The other half come from delegates who are nationally elected figures, state elected figures, and the upper crust of the state’s Republican Party. Effectively, the GOP national and state establishments have seized control of the early March primary states, giving ‘their guy’ a real boost to the nomination. Also, their candidate doesn’t have to win a single delegate in any of these contests to wind-up leading the actual delegate count.
Another reason I think JEB! will win the nod.
Very interesting. Not that I have any idea how the GOP has been handling their delegate distribution. Does it mean that the Paul family cottage industry won’t be as effective in working those caucus states?
I know nothing of the Paul Family political machine’s competence. I do know it is a pale shadow, along every axis, when compared to the Bush Family political machine. So I doubt it is useful to compare Paul’s success in 2012 without a Bush running to 2015 with a Bush running.
IMO, Rand Paul has had his 15 minutes of national fame. His power base, even in internal GOP politics, is too small to support him
Who would have predicted that a one-term POTUS followed eight years later by one of the worst Presidents would come to dominate the GOP? Of course the Clintons have controlled the DEM party for most of the past fourteen years. (Just lost it in the four year window when they needed it most.)
Papa Paul was never in it to win, but to scoop up the slivers of disaffected folks that call themselves conservatives, moderates, or libertarians. But like any business, have to grow or die. Ron was almost a contender in 2012. That and Rand’s success at winning a Senate seat his first time out appears to have led to higher family aspirations.
Other than the brogressive man-crush sliver, the others are as well or better represented by one of the other wannabes. Expect him to stay in the race long after others have dropped out because like papa, he plans to run again.
Donald Trump files financial disclosure says he’s worth ‘TEN BILLION DOLLARS
Might be the only politician that inflates and then brags about his worth.
Forbes 7/15 estimate Trump wealth $4.1 billion
Detail:
The value of some of those brands has taken a hit recently. My fantasy is that all of them do and he hobbles out of the race “flat broke.”
David Cay Johnston 21 Questions for Donald Trump. Way too good not to read the whole thing.
The price was right? (Note: Even ‘lil ole CA hippie like me knows NYC concrete construction = Mob.)
Now I understand why tRump didn’t get in on the Las Vegas casino boom. Couldn’t pass the Gaming Board licensure.
side note. If tRump dislikes immigrants so much, why does he keep marrying them?
Two thoughts. Firstly, Obama’s generational legacy of a broken GOP is emerging like Athena, fully formed, and probably sooner than we had any right to expect.
Secondly, it seems to me that anyone who doesn’t see the link between the Donald’s and Sander’s unexpected popularity has underestimated the helpless disappointment of the American people in what we might call ‘corporate cronyism’ or the permanent government of elites. We are surrounded by competing lies, consumer lies, corporate lies, government lies. Obfuscations and weasel words at every turn. Disclaimers and conditionality; abrogation of responsibility and entitlement to profit. It sucks and it is orders of magnitude more omnipresent, intrusive and disruptive to people’s lives than heretofore.
Admittedly the Republican nomination likely will disgorge various frontrunners for a lap of the clown car and then back inside and this is clearly Trump’s turn, but I have heard “…at least he has the <blank> to speak plainly.” an awful lot in this regard from people whom should know better.
I’ve suggested since 2009 that the first serious candidate who is willing to even hint this ‘gilded age’ has gone too far will do well with voters of either party. Immigration is just the GOP’s bullsh*t narrative to explain Perot’s ‘giant sucking sound’ that sent everyone’s job to China. So they blame the Latinos instead of the corporations; if they peek under the rug they’ll see Fiorina, HP and all their favourite ‘brands’. And politicians of both parties dancing around the maypole.
Trump’s going nowhere. Just wait until the rest of the field begins to call out his previous positions on abortion rights and universal health care. Those supporting him now are going to vomit him out like a pound of putrid beef and a gallon of soured milk after a ten mile run on a hot, humid day.
Kate Steinle’s brother: Donald Trump is ‘sensationalizing’ my sister’s death
Echoes of Bush/Cheney politicizing Pat Tillman’s death.