With Donald Trump’s thumping win in Nevada last night, it’s only a matter of time before he wins the Republican nomination. I won’t be surprised if he runs the table and wins every remaining state. It’s just a little too premature to predict this outright, but likely enough that we can begin to look forward. To understand what a Trump nomination would mean, let’s just look at some of the things that Trump has said about important conservatives.
The New York Times put together a helpful list of Trump’s Twitter insults, so I am going to use that as a resource here.
We know that he called Jeb “a sad sack” “low energy individual” and “a total disaster,” in addition to dozens of other insults. And we know that he accused George Dubya of failing to keep us safe on 9/11 and of deliberately misleading us into a disastrous war in Iraq. When Jeb complained about Trump insulting his mother and said she was the strongest person he knows, Trump responded that, if she’s so strong, she should be running instead of her weak son.
It took me seven tweets last night to list all the insults Trump has dished out for Bush family consigliere, Karl Rove. Here’s a truncated list: “a bush plant who called all races wrong”, “wasted $400 million”, “didn’t win one race”, “biased dope”, “moron”, “total fool”, “has made so many mistakes”, “should get a life”, “establishment flunky”, “pushing Republicans down the same old path of defeat”, “still thinks Romney won”, “FoxNews should can him”, “dummy”, “total loser.”
The Republicans’ 2012 nominee hasn’t fared much better. Trump has called Romney “terrible” and “a choke artist.”
No one will forget that Trump mocked John McCain for getting captured by the North Vietnamese, but it’s going to be flat-out awkward that Trump said that McCain is a “dummy” who “graduated last in his class” is “incapable of doing anything” and “should be defeated in the primaries.”
When it comes time to unite the party, he’ll have to contend with having insulted all his opponents:
Kasich: “total dud”
Rubio: “a lightweight choker”
Carson: “Pyramids built for grain storage – don’t people get it?”
Cruz: “the worst liar, crazy or very dishonest”
Fiorina: “if you listen to Carly Fiorina for more than ten minutes straight, you develop a massive headache”
Graham: “dumb mouthpiece”
Walker: “not smart”
Pataki: “terrible governor of NY, one of the worst”
Jindal: “such a waste.”
Paul: “reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain”
Perry: “should be forced to take an IQ test”
And those are just the Twitter insults. Don’t forget some of his other antics, like saying no one would vote for Fiorina’s face and that Ben Carson is a pathological sociopath.
Trump is going to have some problems with Fox News, too. Here’s a sample of what he’s said about their personnel:
Brit Hume: “know nothing”
Megyn Kelly: “I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct”
Carl Cameron: “consistently fumbles & misrepresents poll results”
Charles Krauthammer: “should be fired”
Bill Kristol: “a sad case”, “always wrong”
Frank Luntz: “a low-class snob”
George Will: “boring and totally biased”, “should be thrown off Fox News”
What about other organs of the right?
Trump said “very few people read” the “dying” National Review, and their editor in chief, Rich Lowry, is “clueless,” “incompetent,” and “should not be allowed on TV.”
The Club for Growth is “crooked” and filled with “total frauds.”
Brent Bozell of the right-wing Media Research Center is “begging for money like a dog.”
Charles Koch is “looking for a new puppet.”
This really only scratches the surface of how many people and right-wing organizations have been mercilessly mocked and insulted by Donald Trump during his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
I put this together so you can see the whole picture in one place.
So, the question is, can a Republican candidate for the presidency perform well when they’ve alienated this much of their Mighty Right-Wing Wurlitzer?
How willing will Trump’s enemies be to forgive past slights and get in line to help push him into the Oval Office?
There are a lot of people whose income depends on their ability and willingness to shill for the Republican Party. We’ll see how much pride and self-respect they have.
We’ll see how much pride and self-respect they have.
Zero!!! Which means they’ll now back him to the hilt. Why? Because what happens if they all hop off the train and he wins anyway? It’s why they all get paid the big bucks. At the end of the day they”ll shill for whomever the candidate is. And Trump knows all this, of course.
Not only do they lack any decency and self-respect, but they posses the very short memory span of the conservative mind: not long ago, McCain wanted to close Guantanamo, and most republicans wanted cap and trade, etc…
other than his slimy comments about Megyn Kelly, all that stuff is 100% truth. Impolite but purely fact.
Even the Megyn Kelly stuff isnt a total fabrication in that the anchors are chosen mostly for their looks so being intellifent or a good journalist is ancillary. Kelly herself is not a lightweight however.
So yeah, I dont think it will hurt him because trump has crossiver appeal and because what he said had some truth to it.
I’m not even sure how “slimy’ his comments about Kelly were. What was the original quote, again ?
In the heat of battle, he used a cliché. “Blood coming out of her eyes.” Then he got…confused. Had he said that about a man…and it’s entirely possible that he would…no points would have been made about his sexism. But he didn’t. I watched that debate…Kelly was clearly acting on orders from above to go after him. He defended himself as he always does…vociferously and negatively. So what? That whole “menstrual blood” thing was specious from the getgo, an attempt to get some points back after he eviscerated Fox.
I am no Trump supporter…far from it…but neither am I a supporter of the execrable Fox machine for which Kelly serves as a blueprint for blonde, female anchors on every level, from news right on through sports and so-called “entertainment.”
They got just what they deserved. And…they responded just as they always respond. Below the belt.
Schlong ’em.
AG
Based solely on her debate performance she was more hired assassin than journalist.
As are most mass media journalists the world over. Hired assassins if that’s their marching orders, hired cheerleaders, hired prevaricators…whatever.
They’re hired guns.
Propganda gunslingers.
Propagundists.
AG
Seemed to me she asked utterly obvious questions re: Trump’s documented history of misogynistic statements about women that screamed to be asked.
How is that other than the closest impersonation of a journalist that she has managed to date?
OT, but Kasich came in behind joke candidate Ben Carson. I don’t see how he can justify staying in…
Ohio’s on March 15, right? Why drop out until then?
(Though I said the same thing about Bush and Florida.)
Kasich may want to drop out before March 15th so he can avoid the humiliation of being smashed by Trump in his own State.
Kasich and others can deny Trump the majority of total delegates, which the establishment still has as a backstop.
If Kasich and other stay in long enough to deny Trump his coronation at the convention, it becomes much more interesting as to what kind of deals are made, and who comes out on top.
I hope for a brokered convention where Trump is denied the nomination, someone like Kasich or Rubio gets the top nod, and Trump runs as an Independent.
I can dream, right?
In the coming weeks months, we’ll get to see all our Republican friends, family, and co-workers go through the rationalizations and justifications for voting for Trump. Some will rationalize it a vote against Clinton, or course. It’s going to to be sickening and heartbreaking. They are so far down the rabbit hole now and so morally compromised, there is really no reason to expect anything else.
I see Trump as conservative’s last chance to get off the crazy train; if they don’t do it now, they never will:
http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2016/2/23/144144/993
Well, exactly – so far down the rabbit hole and so morally compromised sums it up for the bulk of the GOP.
No surprises for me. I refuse to discuss politics with my rightwing fundamentalist/dominionist/Jews for Jeebus family members, anyway. What would be the point? They watch Fox & Christian TV and listen to Glenn Beck and love Megyn Kelly. That’s all I need to know.
I have no doubt that they’ll line up to vote for Trump. No way that they’d ever vote for someone on the D ticket. All Ds are spawns of Satan, donchaknow?
Trump is a business man all he cares about is the win. He will send to Congress expecting them to jump at his every command like a CEO. When Congress rejects his plan he will sulk, scream, yell and call for a press conference to complain to the people. He will call for them to contact their Representatives to force them to accept his legislation and pass it.
When this does not work he will do the spoiled child routine, yet again. Remember he is use to running a business, he has no idea how the Federal Government works.
that’s how Ahnold treated the legislature when he was governor of CA. It didn’t impress anyone.
“that’s how Ahnold treated the legislature when he was governor of CA. It didn’t impress anyone.”
This, this, a billion times this. Schwarzenegger was a horrible failure as a Governor. Trump is similarly unequipped to work with others who have real power. All his “I know how to make deals” baloney would run into a bunch of very nasty political realities. Trump’s business problems can be dealt with in bankruptcy courts and by burying his opponents in court filings; he’ll be unable to do the same with Federal budget negotiations and discussions with foreign powers.
Looking forward to seeing him nominate Carl Icahn for his first Supreme Court opening while having Carl continue to lead hostile trade negotiations with China. President Trump would tell the Senate to fuck off with their Judiciary Committee hearings- “Carl’s a busy guy, he doesn’t have time for you clowns. Just confirm him- he’s the best Supreme Court nominee ever!”
Great question, Booman.
Let’s try to think of some of the tools at his disposal:
1 – The traditional “let’s let campaign bygones be bygones” approach. Which could include statements like, “We all say things in the heat of the moment.” “Sure, I said those things, but we’re all Republicans; it’s nothing compared to what I’ll say (and we all think) about Hillary (or Bernie).” “Hey, I’m a New Yorker. If you don’t stick up for yourself in NYC, you get run over.” “Sure, NYers are blunt; it doesn’t mean we can’t work together.” (Bonus points for adding: “Look how we came together on 9/11.”)
2 – The “tough love” approach. Just like the DLC had to retake control of the Democratic party from the McGovernite hippies, I had to step in because the Washington party elites were ruining the Republican party.”
What else?
How many of those “insults” of his quoted above are exactly what anyone with an ounce of sense would say about those people?
As the athletes often say…”110%!!!”
Bet on it.
He’s winning because he is publicly saying things that ordinary people say as they suffer through the vast wasteland of this country’s totally devolved popular culture.
“Crazy?” Crazy like a fox.
“Mad?” There’s method to his madness.
Bet on that as well.
Watch.
AG
At a different time in history, Trump would have had no chance of uniting the Republican party because he wouldn’t be in the position of front-runner in the first place. For decades, these Republican mouthpieces have spewed insults and outrage, so people are conditioned to accept such uncivil behavior. In fact, The Donald knows some people expect it. Since Republicans were benefiting from these attacks, no one “in authority” stopped it. As my mother used to say, “what goes around, comes around.”
He’s really more like a media savvy version of Pat Buchanan than any other recent GOP Presidential candidate. Except Pat, try as much as he did, never quite managed to project manliness. That’s what Reagan did and Trump does. To be fair, Reagan’s manly persona was more sophisticated and better developed than Trump’s.
Reagan had the advantage of his movie career training in how to project the necessary persona.
(Didn’t think the reference needed to be spelled out, but forget that younger people may not be aware of the history of a man that left office almost thirty years ago and for some before they were born.)
Reagan was only a B-movie actor; so, it’s not as if he quickly decimated his competition. Guess we should be glad that Trump is so devoid of acting talent and skill. Otherwise, he would have wrapped up the nomination a week ago against all his lame competitors.
“.. but the liberals are worse.”
Exactly. Trump doesn’t have to unite the GOP. Hillary does that for him.
Any Democrat does that for him.
I find your failure to grasp how uniquely, totally, unprecedentedly terrible and evil Hillary is disturbing.
Will we be any more honest when he starts spearing “our” whited sepulchers? I doubt it.
And I find ridiculously hyperbolic descriptions of the likely Democratic nominee disturbing, but I guess we’ll both have to live with it.
Davis is lovingly trolling some of our more partisan community members.
sarcasm/snark. DXM can be rather cryptic.
the guy, once I see his (mostly quite accurate) insults of his “fellow” GOPers so helpfully compiled in one place like this. (Pretty sure I’ll get over that soon . . . ok, I’m over it.)
Occurred to me that Teflon Don’s recurring theme that so-and-so “should not be allowed on TV” is motivated largely by his sense that, “hey, that was airtime I could have lied and gasbagged my way through!”
I don’t think this is even an open question. Do they really have any other option? Of course they will “get in line”. Sure, there will be a handful, here and there, who will walk away. But there is no other game in town for these people. Trump will be the nominee. And he will have the full-throated support of virtually everyone who backed any of the other candidates. With the Supreme Court hanging in the balance, and with the feeling on the right that they are so tantalizingly close to having all the pieces in place for establishing a right-wing permanence in the judiciary for the next couple of generations, they will all gladly embrace Trump. He is their last hope, and he is all they have. It all or nothing for them.
Agreed, and this reality will be a lovely development in the Republican Party’s plan to gain support from the non-white voter blocs which are growing most prominently.
I’m of two minds. If the Trumpistas are rallying to him for no reason other than he doesn’t bow down to PC, doesn’t apologize for anything, and is comfortable playing the bully, then this is a revolting development. OTOH, and adding in that we already knew that racism and misogyny is strong in the GOP (technically Trump isn’t that much different from the other GOP candidates on this measure), if what they’re responding to is the truth of much of what he says wrt GOP articles of faith, and truths that they’ve long known but felt it was better to deny, then it means that they aren’t nearly as ignorant and emotionally driven as status quo DEMs have been claiming. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing because DEMs are also hewing to many articles of faith that aren’t true either.
I must confess that I laughed when I read Trump’s insults, and fwiw, I confess that I agree with every single one of them, including the Megyn Kelly one listed here (bleeding from the hoo-hah, notwithstanding).
The list is interesting bc nearly every single insult Trump has hurled is pretty accurate. Most are bulls-eyes, and, interesting, mirror a LOT of my own observations.
Having gotten that out of the way, I would never vote for Trump ever.
What will these amoral, greedy, grifters do should Trump, likely, get the nomination?? Yogaddabekidding me, right? Of course, each and every single one of them – including Megyn Kelly – will line up to slither on their hands and knees to kiss Trump’s heinie.
You can bank on it.
He’s correct in his assessments of all of those people except Megyn Kelly, who is actually quite smart and a decent journalist most of the time.
These are things that you can find by searching this site, dkos, or any number of moderate, liberal, left-leaning, or progressive blogs.
He’s picked up on a very large and powerful discontent among the lower middle class white, working class white demographic. He knows their social/entertainment preferences (Think “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo”), and he knows both what they want to hear and how they like to hear it.
How will he unite the GOP behind him? He won’t have to. The GOP is already setting stage to strongarm the moderates and folks who were offended by Trump’s (mostly accurate) insults…
How? By stonewalling the SCOTUS nomination for purposes of political leverage against any recalcitrant members of their political base.
“You want a conservative SCOTUS nominee? Vote for Trump.”
This election season is going to be very, very ugly.
Trump’s named two repellently retrograde members of the Judiciary as the type of Justice he would nominate, so we have a fixed target to shoot at. If Trump had his way, say goodbye to the Miranda rights and Roe v. Wade, and say hello to campaign finance law eviscercations even more extreme than Roe v. Wade and the full elimination of the remaining tatters of the Voting Rights Act, among other abominations.
Editing error: meant “…say hello to campaign finance law eviscercations even more extreme than Citizens United…”.
What you’re missing is that the more they DON’T support him, the better he does.
Cheney said famously, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” Trump is proving daily that for the Republican party, ideology doesn’t matter. Probably never has. Tribe matters. Punching hippies matters. Most importantly, power matters. Trump, if he wins, won’t ask for forgiveness from the butt-hurt elites of his party. He’ll offer them accommodations in steerage for the remainder of the ride. And they’ll enter through the servants entrance. The definition of conservatism will change. It’s effect on poor slobs like me won’t.
Yes, the stereotype is that “Republicans fall in line.” And I expect that largely they will. But does that necessarily mean active, enthusiastic support? I am skeptical.
Lindsay Graham recently remarked that a Clinton victory would be preferable to Trump. At least that’s how I read his remarks. Is Sen. Graham going to eat humble pie and start campaigning for Trump? I know I know, as far as South Carolina is concerned, it makes no difference, the state will never vote for a Democrat. Nonetheless….
What about John McCain? If the stars align and somehow Arizona looks competitive for the Democratic nominee, is McCain going to swallow his own batch of humble pie and campaign for Trump?
Oh, the paid party apparatchiks will be out there for the candidate, of course. But the elected folks whom Trump has been insulting? I’m guessing there may be a fair number of such folks who will just have unavoidable scheduling conflicts that prevent them from showing up when the Trumpster passes through their states in campaign mode. Whether that matters to voters, I couldn’t say.
Wouldn’t be the first time he’s done that for someone.
Well, there it is. There you have it, in a nutshell: the unifying factor explaining Trump’s success at cobbling together a plurality coalition across the fissures that typically fracture the right wing into subgroups.
But just in case you need confirmation of the long-obvious, there’s lots more where that came from:
All those migratory Scots-Irish…
Don Rickles for VP.
The kinder gentler side of the ticket.
There’s an interesting side to the Trump success. He’s not relying on the usual consultant/etc. network. Presumably he’ll continue this in the general. So while they may want to fall in line, the paid operatives who are the core of the wingnut machinery aren’t going to get paid if he’s the nominee.
With his huuuuge amount of free media, who needs big money campaign consultants? Trump does the messaging, because Trump is the message.
So, assuming they are pretty sure Trump will lose, in order to position themselves better for the next election they still will have to avoid the perception that “Trump lost because the GOP abandoned him” which the Trump supporters would push. So I think they will have to at least give lip service to supporting him. Then they can blame the fringe and declare that the GOP needs to get “more serious” next time around.
The sad thing for them is the base can still claim its because they didn’t nominate a “real conservative”. Of course they won’t be able to blame the establishment anymore…
That also assumes that they can’t make a backroom deal with Trump and therefore, would prefer that he does lose. Seems to me that Trump is always open for a deal.
He won’t bother with uniting it at all. Just as he believes he is winning the nomination without party support, Trump will continue to believe he can win the presidency without the party.
He will be wrong.
Millions of Republican men will sit on their hands, and millions of Republican women will vote for Hillary.
Trump will win a state or two here or there, but overall, if Hillary gets her vote out, there is no way Trump can win the presidency.
But I’m guessing Trump is about to teach Americans a lesson about themselves. Some demographics supporting his recent victories are genuinely alarming even allowing for the distortions of a GOP electorate.
Americans are very slow learners and Trump isn’t a teacher. He’s merely holding up a mirror for those that have long been known to exist among us to preen in front of. They’re obnoxious and have destructive impulses but OTOH they are mostly getting on in age.
Matt Taibbi –Rolling Stone – How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable — He’s no ordinary con man. He’s way above average — and the American political system is his easiest mark ever
LOL Saw this today…”Loony left and tea party right go through the worm hole and end up at the same place. this is what I have been saying. They will end up at the same place. I hope it will be the right place. And so do a lot of people. Because guess what? The mainstream is completely corrupt.”
Commenting on trade and scaling back our foreign adventures.
Will Trump unite the Republican PArty?
Not quite !
Bwaahaahaaahaa!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mitt-romney-donald-trump-tax-returns_us_56ce1eabe4b0bf0dab30a506
As if the Trumpsters care about whatever Mitt has to say about anything. Much less Mitt on the tax returns of any candidate bc on this matter he has no standing with anyone.
The Donald reacts as one might expect:
Who ever suggested that the Trumpsters care? Others do, however. There is disaffection within the Republican Party. (I was going to say “in the ranks of the Republican Party”, but it isn’t so much in the ranks, it’s in the PTB.
Oh, the PTB are beside themselves as to how this could have happened.
Billmon:
For his latest brilliant move:
Interesting that the only person running that Trump has anything remotely positive to say about has been Sanders:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bernie-sanders_us_56c51ccee4b0c3c55053bf71
United Technologies not only relies on the federal government for billions of dollars in revenue, it contributes millions of dollars a year to well over 100 nonprofits, from the centrist Brookings Institution think tank, to partisan groups including the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association, to anti-tax organizations and straight-up corporate lobbying front groups. These donations embed the company deeply within Beltway culture, securing it an aura of elite respectability.
Moving Carrier after every request of theirs was fulfilled by their local and national politicians.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-really-support-trump-and-sanders_us_56be3c46e4b0b4024
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