Trump Aims To Tank BOTH Parties As They Now Stand.

20 Comments

1. 

   Arthur Gilroy on May 8, 2016 at 1:08 pm

   Yet more pooh-poohing from the Peanut Gallery?

   Have at it. I have a couple more days off coming up so far.

   AG

2. 

   karl pearson on May 9, 2016 at 1:47 am

   It looks like John McCain is on board the Trump Train. I’m not surprised. He’s up for reelection this fall and saw AZ go decidedly for Trump. John McCain still has a lot of respect and this endorsement carries some weight.  

   http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/08/politics/john-mccain-donald-trump/

   Republican operatives are going nowhere with the NeverTrump bunch. If you look at the names of the people offered up as 3rd party candidates, it’s just ridiculous.

   “In addition to Haley, who told The Post and Courier on Wednesday that she was not interested in being Trump’s running mate, The Hill named former presidential candidate Mitt Romney; Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse; Gen. John Kelly; former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson; U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan; former Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who dropped out of the presidential race early in the cycle.”

   http://www.postandcourier.com/20160506/160509602/south-carolina-gov-nikki-haley-among-nevertrump-gro
   ups-third-party-favorites

   Nikki Haley isn’t going to commit political suicide. South Carolina voted for Trump. The South is heavy Trump country. They think they’re getting a Rebel and love the guy. Tom Coburn is quite ill; Rand Paul has to defend his Senate seat; Mitty the Mouse Romney got taken out in short order by Trump in early March. I don’t see the other names doing much either. Michigan went for Trump so what is Amash going to do? Gary Johnson has run before on the Libertarian Party. So what? I can’t imagine Sasse crossing Trump. Who’s Sasse anyway? Trump would out-sassy Sasse, anyway. I don’t know Gen. John Kelly, but I’ll research it and get back.

   • 

     TarheelDem on May 9, 2016 at 6:05 pm

     Haley might be looking at Lindsey Graham’s retirement when he next comes up for re-election or getting out of politics altogether, figuring that the GOP can no longer handle the daughter of immigrants.  She doesn’t need trouble, but she doesn’t need a revival of bigotry either; her parents were or are Sikhs.

     We will see in November how much South Carolina loves Trump.  His current floor is about 39%; I doubt that even in South Carolina he gets over 55%.  Enough to trigger the electors but not enough to create a long-term worldview.

     Coburn, remember, was concerned about elementary school lesbians in the heyday in which he won election.  Obama niced him out so much it sort of ruined him in OK.

     Rand Paul couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag.

     Amash is “a second-generation Arab-American of Palestinian Christian and Syrian Greek Orthodox descent.”  Not exactly Trump’s sort of people.  He needs to lie low until there is a reaction to Trump.

     Romney is a has-been, not even a eminence-gris of the party now that Trump has been crowned.

     General Kelly is former Commandant of the Marine Corps and was assigned to brief the Congress before being promoted to that position.  Likely for those who want to show what a real general is like.  His opinion of the Iraq War.  Marines held Guadalcanal; Baghdad ain’t shit.  Brilliant.  Booyah!

     Sasse shows the bind that the evangelical faction of the GOP are in with the thrice-married playboy Trump.

     A credible third-party from the establishment would likely coalesce around Bloomberg.  I don’t see any movement toward that, and Warren Buffet has already said that Trump is tolerable.  The establishment seems OK with Trump.

     Most of these statements are to preserve credibility with these folks’s base and no more.

     • 

       karl pearson on May 9, 2016 at 7:59 pm

       How do you define the evangelical base? To me, it’s fairly broad-based. For certain evangelicals, I don’t think Trump’s 3 marriages will bother them so much. I know quite a few of them and they have had multiple marriages. Their focus is forgiveness, etc. and what they are doing now. Divorce rates among evangelicals are higher than mainline Protestants and Catholics. Because socio-economic variables intervene, it’s a tangled web. In the link below, Page 8, Table 3 provides information on the percentage of people married 2 times or more. These are not categorized by religious preference, but the data provide some insight into multiple marriages.

       http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p70-125.pdf

     • 

       Will Rogers Guthrie on May 9, 2016 at 11:33 pm

       TarHeel
            Coburn’s recurrent bouts with cancer led to his retirement . He was a very popular senator and also good at making personal friends, including across the aisle.

3. 

   The Voice In The Wilderness on May 9, 2016 at 10:44 am

   Obama campaigning against Trump would drive Trump’s numbers up! Republican defectors will think, “Whoa! The Kenyan is against him! He must be good!”  Meanwhile if Democratic defectors switch to Jill Stein or stay home, that will cut the Inevitable One’s numbers. I suspect very few will follow my strategy of voting for Trump to stop her.

4. 

   Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2016 at 11:17 am

   Like I said yesterday…

   From today’s Counterpunch. (Emphases mine):

   MAY 9, 2016
   Trump vs. the Two Party System?
   by JACK RASMUS

   —snip—

   The Trump-Ryan Exchange

   That the Republican party leaders have still not decided what to do about Trump was reflected in the past week’s verbal exchanges between Trump and Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, one of the top leaders of the party. Last month Ryan was clearly being discussed by the “insiders” of the party as the Republican nominee if Trump failed to get the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, and there was a need to select a candidate other than Trump. Ryan was at the top of that list.

   Ryan’s initial public statement after Trump’s opponents, John Kasich and Ted Cruz, dropped out of the race this past week was that he, Ryan, could not yet support Trump’s policies or his nomination. Nor would he meet with him. Ryan was clearly speaking on behalf of the rest of the Republican establishment. They were probably testing Trump. Would he come to them and tell them what they wanted to hear, supporting free trade, cutting social security, providing more tax cuts for big business, repeal Obamacare, etc. Refusing to be upstaged by Ryan, however, Trump quickly retorted publicly that he was not ready to support Ryan’s policies either, and was not interested in meeting with Ryan in any event.  In short, the Trump-Republican leadership relationship remains fluid, and it is not yet clear what the Republican elite has decided to do with Trump, their presumptive party nominee now that Kasich and Cruz dropped out.

   Trump As `Outside the Outsiders’

   What the Trump-Ryan exchange this past week reflects is that Trump never loses an opportunity to position himself `outside’ the two party system, including his own Republican party. U.S. presidential candidates typically like to run as “Washington outsiders” in U.S. presidential elections. Blame all the problems of the country on the “insiders,” i.e. the politicians in Washington. That was Cruz’s strategy, even though he himself was a Washington “insider” as a Senator.  But Trump “out-Cruzed” Cruz in the primaries and went one step further, positioning himself as outside the two party system itself, not just the Washington establishment. It’s what voters wanted to hear.

   In this year’s election, that’s a theme that has great appeal whether on the left or the right: attack the party system itself as corrupt and non-responsive to average Americans’ interests, not just the Washington establishment. The unresponsive party system has become a kind of proxy for an unresponsive political system itself, which more voters are coming to think is basically corrupt, both politically and economically, undemocratic, and increasingly disregarding of the needs of the majority of U.S. middle and working class households. The parties are only concerned about the interests of bankers, corporations, and the wealthiest 1 percent.

   A majority of American voters — on both the left and the right — are increasingly fed up with both political parties. That has become a U.S. voter “hot button” that Trump discovered early in the campaign and has never lost an opportunity to push.

   —snip—

   Every time Trump attacked a member of the Republican party establishment — whether Jeb Bush, Cruz, Rubio, or even party leaders not running against him like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, or others — he was de facto attacking the Republican party and its leaders who, with their Democrat counterparts, represent a failed party system in the mind of the U.S. voter. The Republican party elites could not — and still do not — understand why Trump is doing this. But Trump and the voters understood. And every time they criticized Trump in return for his attacks, he comes back at them declaring them part of a corrupt party system. Their criticisms don’t weaken Trump; they strengthen his appeal. And the more abusive of them Trump becomes, the more it resonates with U.S. voters.

   Echoes of a Past Election

   There are a number of “echoes” of past U.S. elections in this year’s U.S. election.  In a number of important respects, Trump’s appeal is reminiscent of Reagan’s back in 1980. Not because their policies are similar. But because of their unabashed attack on what they proclaim is a failed political establishment. Reagan of course was pointing at the Democrats, but also indirectly at the `liberal’ Republican establishment in control of that party at the time.  Trump attacks both and appeals directly to voters outside both the party structures.

   Trump’s appeal should not be underestimated by progressives or liberals. Trump cannot be simply disregarded as “crazy” or some kind of fascist, the latter charge only revealing how little they understand fascism let alone Trump. It is true that Trump is more brash, crude, and outlandish in his public statements and his pandering to the ignorant ultra-conservative base in the US, when compared to Reagan. All that difference in tone reflects, however, is the general deterioration of U.S. public and political discourse in recent decades.

   —snip—

   One of the several things that are unique in this 2016 electoral cycle is that a majority, if not a big plurality, of American voters are becoming increasingly fed up with the two party system — which is perhaps better described as two wings of a single Corporate Party of America system.  Both wings, Republican and Democrat, have been flapping in unison the past 36 years, both delivering neoliberal economic policies that have been devastating average Americans’ standard of living, while enriching the wealthiest 1% households and their corporations to an obscene degree.

   —snip—

   It may be the two party (aka two wings-single party) system today is the target of U.S. voter wrath in this particular election. But it may also be that the party system itself is a proxy for a growing, deeper discontent with the system itself that could eventually manifest more quickly than some think. It is not coincidental that in polls nearly half of young workers in the U.S. today speak sympathetically about, or identify in some way, with Socialism. They may not have a clear or historical understanding of the term, but to them it means “anything but the present” in some fundamental way.

   Like I said:

   Like dat.

   The early warning storm sirens are already sounding.

   LISTEN!!!

   Tornado Trump approaches.

   

   Donald Trump: The Benevolent Pricktator.

   Watch.

   AG

   • 

     karl pearson on May 9, 2016 at 11:32 am

     This is a funny one. While reading this comment, I just received a robocall from Conservative Majority: #(202)558-3143. It’s a D.C. area code. It was Donald Trump speaking about how terrible HRC was as a Secretary of State. “Hundreds of thousands of people died, due to Libya, Egypt”, etc. I’ve never given a dime to Republicans, so this group must be calling any prior voter. It didn’t take Trump long to strike.

     • 

       Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2016 at 11:54 am

       Rule of the Deal #1 according to AG:

       Strike while the iron is hot!!!

       He may very well essentially finish her off before she’s even been officially nominated.

       AG

       • 

         The Voice In The Wilderness on May 9, 2016 at 1:59 pm

         Wishful thinking. It’s hard to kill rodents.

5. 

   TarheelDem on May 9, 2016 at 12:32 pm

   and of course succeeds in forming some sort of an alliance with the armed forces and intelligence system

   That and his selection of Vice President ensures his power.  But can he really pull it off?

   If he can, he is tapping into something that was baked into the national security cake from the point that the Republicans won the 1946 election and stopped being “isolationists”.  Trump may adopt the “isolationist” label, but he is in fact a huge interventionist by temperament and unconstrained in how he uses weaponry.  Will the US national security establishment do to him like the IDF did to Netanyahu on two occasions — refuse to do something stupid?

   It is not Trump who is going to tank the establishment control of the parties.  The Republican establishment brought this on themselves.  The Democratic establishment by trying to shut out the Sanders wing of the party is seeking to follow the same failed approach.  The Clinton campaign seems to be following the delusion that they can count on the impassiveness if not the support of establishment Republicans en masse and not have to compromise with Sanders supporters or do anything to offset Green or Libertarian voters.  Disempowering people does not get them to vote for you.

   If Trump wins, it says more about the state of the duopoly parties than it does about Trump.  And what we know is that both parties are cloistered in DC and rotten to the core.

   So much so that Obama’s justice department is having a bit of a time getting Gov. McCrory to capitulate to its judgement on House Bill 2.  McCrory seems to be gearing up to stand in the restroom door while most of the North Carolina public has a bassackwards understanding about what the issue is.  The best stereotype of their understanding is Caitlyn Jenner wants to see your wife’s and daughter’s lady parts.  And there is no substantial answer about this from the fabled “center”.  Trump didn’t set up this issue, nor did Trump set up the many voter ID bills.  Democrats and the President have been slack in their response to voter ID legislation for fear of the politicized Supreme Court. Really kept their powder dry for something important, didn’t they?

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2016 at 12:56 pm

     You are of course correct about who set this situation up and how they did it. My point is that very much like Hitler’s position in a failed Germany after WW I, Trump seems to be exactly right (wrong) person at exactly the right (wrong) time to be able to both instinctively grasp the situation and effectively profit from it.

     Both of which actions he is taking, using exactly the same tactics that he has been using to take over the right-leaning electorate for nearly 12 months.

     Dangerous, he is.

     AG

   • 

     The Voice In The Wilderness on May 9, 2016 at 2:06 pm

     Aren’t women’s rest rooms designed so that you DON’T see any ladyparts anyway?  Unlike Men’s Rooms that have banks of Urinals.

     For those who have never seen them, the urinals are designed to provide some modesty, depending on how close you stand, but most men are rather casual about zipping and unzipping. I swear some flaunt their equipment. It must be the reptilian hind brain.

     • 

       TarheelDem on May 9, 2016 at 5:42 pm

       It is irrational outrage indeed and its purported concern about “our daughters” is more of a tell about the sorts of people exercised about the issue than about the danger they perceive.

       Of course, the preachers are fanning the flames of the “dangers of the gay lifestyle and agenda”…Most of my FB friends who have gone off on it are fundies and in this case some of my female cousins.  And most of what they have done is share “ain’t it awful” canned comments from some campaign or another.

       Yep post-Stonewall the straight male community is a long ways away from the conditions in the 1950s when almost all ballparks and most movie theaters had what amounted to low sink with a drip tube as the urinal.  It could accomodate 15 or sometimes 50 guys side-by-side all out in the open.  But this was a time in which a lot of people were just off the farm and used to multi-hole outhouses and veterans of wartime conditions in latrines.  And Joe McCarthy had taken care of all the homosexuals, you know.  And those who he hadn’t reached were in danger of even small town vice squads and teens “rolling queers” on the weekends.

       That’s the society these folks want to return to–a punitive one.

       • 

         The Voice In The Wilderness on May 9, 2016 at 8:32 pm

         I had forgotten those until you reminded me. Not many,if at all, in Chicago, but sometimes in the Suburbs and not uncommon in country restaurants.

         Female cousins. I can relate. Twelve years ago, my sister and I were touting Howard Dean to one who was talking like Dean (sans gays). She answered, “Oh No! I have to vote Republican, to save the babies.”

         Greatly doubt that she will vote for Hillary. Less chance than of me winning that $200,000,00 powerball.

6. 

   Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2016 at 12:41 pm

   More on this anti-party theme, this time from Noam Chomsky.:

   —snip—

   Mainstream parties have been rapidly losing members to left and to right. The executive director of the Paris-based research group EuropaNova attributes the general disenchantment to “a mood of angry impotence as the real power to shape events largely shifted from national political leaders [who, in principle at least, are subject to democratic politics] to the market, the institutions of the European Union and corporations,” quite in accord with neoliberal doctrine. Very similar processes are under way in the United States, for somewhat similar reasons, a matter of significance and concern not just for the country but, because of U.S. power, for the world.

   The rising opposition to the neoliberal assault highlights another crucial aspect of the standard convention: it sets aside the public, which often fails to accept the approved role of “spectators” (rather than “participants”) assigned to it in liberal democratic theory. Such disobedience has always been of concern to the dominant classes. Just keeping to American history, George Washington regarded the common people who formed the militias that he was to command as “an exceedingly dirty and nasty people [evincing] an unaccountable kind of stupidity in the lower class of these people.”

   —snip—

   Nothin’ new here, people. Move along. Just mooove along…

   

   AG

7. 

   Oui on May 10, 2016 at 2:44 am

   ○ Rodrigo Duterte heads for a landslide: Philippines

   Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian country’s authoritarian past.

   Aspects of a deteriorating US empire …

   ○ Who rules the world? America is no longer the obvious answer

   • 

     Shaun Appleby on May 10, 2016 at 11:32 pm

     Since 1640 this question is answered by the following, simple test, “Who guarantees the safe passage of global trade?”

8. 

   fjallstrom on May 11, 2016 at 6:32 am

   I read the actual articles on the recent bruha about Trump and the national debt.

   Donald Trump: U.S. will never default ‘because you print the money’ – CNNPolitics.com

   Asked if the U.S. needs to pay its debt in full or if it could negotiate a partial repayment, Trump said: “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.”

    

   Donald Trump: U.S. will never default ‘because you print the money’ – CNNPolitics.com

   “People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt, and I mean, these people are crazy. This is the United States government,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?”

   The presumptive Republican presidential nominee explained he would center his approach on debt buybacks if and when interest rates go up.

   So essentially it is media playing Gotcha!

   Step one, asking a non-sensical question: Should the US withdraw massive amounts of dollars (pay back the national debt) from circulation or default?

   (Nevermind the actual government practise of doing neither)

   Step two: Paint an answer that strays form the common faulty wisdom as nutty.

   Which lands the whole conversation in the unusual setting of Trump being the lone sane man, because he actually gets that states print money.

   Donald Trump: U.S. will never default ‘because you print the money’ – CNNPolitics.com

   Donald Trump declared Monday the U.S. never has to default on debt “because you print the money,” while trying to clarify his strategy for managing the national debt.

   Question is if he will follow it up with more actual sense of how money is made by governments and banks and what it will do to the common wisdom of the talking heads.

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on May 11, 2016 at 9:05 am

     You write: “So essentially it is media playing Gotcha!”

     Of course. That’s mainstream tactics in cases where someone who challenges the roots of the Permanent Government conspiracy rises to a position of national prominence.

     Media non-personing by any means necessary.

     “Oh that Ross Perot. He’s crazy!!!”

     “Oh that Howard Dean. He has no self-control!!!”

     “Oh that Ron Paul. He’s just an old nutcase!!!”

     “Oh that Donald Trump. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!!!”

     You also write:

     “Which lands the whole conversation in the unusual setting of Trump being the lone sane man, because he actually gets that states print money.”

     i have to disagree a little. It is not unusual that Trump is “the lone sane man”in his dealings with the media. The whole media “Gotcha!” thing centers around potrtraying him as insane.

     Once again, I must warn:

     Trump is sane. He knows exactly what he is doing.

     Or to put it more accurately, he is crazy like a fox.

     And…he is winning.

     AG