General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUtterly incredible plea on FB from right leaning acquaintance last night
To set it up -- I posted that I had voted - said "You Betcha" I voted! Someone joked that I must have voted for the Donald (as if, ah, never). Then this happened --
Progressive FB Friend Response - "There is a school of thought that it might be better for Democrats in open primary states to vote for Trump in the primary to make him the candidate and therefore easier to have a Democratic rout in November as we all rush to the polls to repudiate him, but it does seem to be playing with fire to do that."
Right Leaning Friend's Response #1 - "The problem with that theory is you might end up with him as president. The other school of thought would be with the Democrat's race likely decided this month, Democrats in open primary states should vote for the candidate most likely to defeat Trump on the theory that (as articulated last week in the Washington Post) if he is not stopped in the primaries he could end up getting elected."
Me: first citing the New Republic Article about why Dems should not vote for Trump. (https://newrepublic.com/.../donald-trumps-nomination-will... - a very good article about why Democrats should not switch parties to vote against Trump - echoes my point. Voting against Trump does nothing for Democrats. - "In the unlikely event that liberals were to hand the nomination to Rubio, they would extract no concessions. Republicans would pocket the victory, and do their best to sweep the mess of this primary under the carpet. Then if Rubio were to beat Hillary Clinton, Republicans would set about systematically dismantling the achievements of Obamas presidency and rolling back the New Deal consensus in a way that would make Ronald Reagan look like Bill Clinton."
Then I thrown in the sarcasm, that McConnell should propose that to Obama the next time they meet to discuss whether the Senate will hold hearings on a SC nominee - as in, if the GOP wants Dems to help them take down Donald, its going to cost the GOP - a lot - as in a SCOTUS confirmation for starters and a 1000 Billion other things that Dems want.
Right Leaning Friend's Response #2 "Well, maybe. This is the rare situation where a candidate is so horrific and the consequences of his getting elected are so serious it is important to stop that candidate in the primaries. While it is possible that Trump's nomination could ensure that any Democrat wins this fall, it also could result in him actually winning the election. He is drawing support from a lot of Democrats and independents. I don't think there should be room in either party for someone who curries favor from the KKK."
I am incredulous. Saying Dems are 'almost obligated' to help GOP take down Trump -- so the GOP is left with a better candidate to compete against Bernie or Hillary in the general! And yet still no mea culpa for creating Trump, for electing Bush and supporting him the face of the horrors that he committed and allowed, the McConnell gang's blunt obstructionist efforts of every Obama. No accounting for Trump being able to run third party! From my perspective Rubio and Cruz are equally bad alternatives to Trump - don't want any of them. Not even Kasich.
avebury
(10,952 posts)It is not the responsibility of the rest of the country to clean up after their own mess. If they want to "save" their party they need to put their big boy/girl pants on and do it themselves. Their short sightedness results in their failure to see the long term consequences of their own actions.
surrealAmerican
(11,364 posts)We have cleaned up their messes time and time again for the last 40 years. This time, we would too, if it weren't too big a mess for us to manage.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Some actually believe the bile that their party spews.
I guess it could be a delusion, but I prefer to think that they have been programmed to follow, not think on their own.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)Their house is on fire; quick someone hand me the gasoline.
Trump being elected is actually not a worse scenario than Cruz or Rubio. He would fail instantly in the role, be boxed in by a likely democratic senate, and can't actually do the vast majority of what he promises if he has any determined opposition. The world will punish us in revulsion (guaranteed worldwide tourism boycott). Our country will be on its knees begging for sanity in a year. He will lose midterms historically and we will get the house back for a generation.
Oh fm the GOP won't win the White House again for a generation either.
To repeat, Pres. Cruz is much scarier to me. Go Drumpf!
Or: whaddaya mean "we," white man?
C_U_L8R
(45,020 posts)The GOP is getting a massive serving of
blowback from years of nurturing the
very worst in people (e.g. the god, guns
and gays nonsense, science denying,
racial divide creating, faux news phonyism,
Etc etc). Reap and sow you fuckers.
phylny
(8,386 posts)friends who voted absentee. They are horrified with the prospect of Trump as the nominee. Hate Cruz. Like Kasich but know he has no chance. My sense is they voted for Rubio.
JHB
(37,161 posts)...courting the votes of the KKK's base while "preserving deniability" about what they were doing.
Nixon's "southern strategy", Reagan kicking off his campaign talking about "states rights" in a town most famous for the murders of civil rights workers.
They recruited the Dixiecrats to become Dixiepublicans.
The Conservatives wouldn't be anywhere without them. They don't actually have the numbers. All the calls for "small government" go nowhere without great heaping doses of "the gummint takes away your hard-earned money and hands it out to lazy, shiftless, undeserving you-know-whos."
This has been going on for his entire life. You built that, pal.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Many people are great liars.
As far as Trump getting elected, I think the people on both the left and the right who adopt such defeatist attitudes are mainly motivated by a wish to get it over with, They just want it all to stop, which Trump likely would do.