I really don’t understand what …
… all the fuss about Brexit is about, given that now more people will visit Turnberry, Scotland to golf.
Although that push to repeal Dodd-Frank may save us all from another economic crisis!
____
Okay, seriously, I think that contrary to the immediate CW, Brexit will actually hurt Trump, not help him. This is a guy who thought he’d benefit financially from a crashing pound because it didn’t occur to him that if financial chaos or even just a recession occurs that spreads beyond Britain, it won’t be much help for his luxury golf resort that the pound’s exchange rate has sunk. Who in his or her right mind would think this is the guy to handle economic crises, or anything else other than, maybe, a beauty pageant?
Eh, if he wants to be president causing a crash might be just the ticket. Turmoil in the markets almost always helps the candidate from the party outside of power- and who could possibly be more outside than Trump? If Hillary is running as Obama’s third term, she’d come off as absurd saying that it’s Trump’s fault things imploded.
Who can take seriously a presidential candidate who in the middle of a campaign is huckstering his golf course — in Scotland? Or one whom 70% of the electorate can’t stand?
It’s utterly amazing to watch the GOP at the national level eddying down the drain. In 2008 they were what they had been since 1980 — a disciplined, united, well-financed powerful political party. Eight years later they have fractured. What happened? Barack Obama. In their barely-contained hatred for the Black Man in the White House they committed themselves to destroying him by whatever means necessary. In the greatest irony, they destroyed themselves instead. They attacked and scorned and ridiculed and slandered him in every conceivable way, yet he remains standing and they are ruined.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
Ms 57, I think you have it exactly right concerning the GOP. It sold its soul to the most extreme and ill informed segment of our society and now it can not pull the plug. One of the best analogies I saw was to Cameron and Boehner/Ryan. The GOP blew the dog whistles of racism, xenophobia, natavism, and being anti Europe to get elected and now seemed stunned that those are the values of its presumptive presidential nominee. Worse only a few of the GOP elite have been principled enough to call Trump on it. The rest are more concerned about getting reelected themselves. That is why politicians of all stripes are so rightly reviled.
Terry,
Purely in the literary sense, the self-destruction of the GOP is a tragedy: An individual filled with hate and anger and hubris bent on destroying his rival destroys himself instead. It reminds me of the imbecilic comment made during one of the “debates” by that imbecile from FL, Marco Rubio: We need less philosophers and more plumbers (something to that effect). Well, Marco, a little study of the ancient Greek tragedians would have gone a long way to solve your problems – or at least anticipate them. Since no Tea Party reactionary can even find Greece on a map, it’s not surprising that they’re in the mess they’re in. George Will announced this week that he has left the GOP. Mary Matalin has announced that she will vote Libertarian.
The time is ripe to politically sink the knife to the hilt into the reactionary heart.
It’s not just literary. The ruination of the GOP is making the DNC worse. E.g. the pitiful 2016 platform. An outcome I wasn’t sure was possible just a decade or so ago.
Without some kind of coherent philosophy to organize against I see DNC elites only becoming less, not more influential. That process has been on display (at least) since Obama’s first inaugural if not sooner ( consider the DNC response to the stolen election of 2000 for example among other highlights ).
If you think I overstate the case consider Elizabeth Warren. She has now endorsed the exact same candidate for president as Hank Paulson. I’d think that would be sort of uncomfortable for one of them if not actually problematic.
And if you imagine some kind of final solution to the rage that inflames the Tea Party Inc types well you don’t live in TX. Still part of the republic as of this writing but I guess some of them are working on that.
And just to put another .02 in the bucket I will take exception to this: “An individual filled with hate and anger and hubris bent on destroying his rival destroys himself instead.”
When I try to think carefully about The Donald that’s not what I see. He’s not filled with hate, that’s a convenient and popular con for (some of) the customers. If he’s filled with anything it’s a genuine, possibly authentic desire to win. This Dave Eggers piece on The Guardian got it right I think: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/17/could-he-actually-win-dave-eggers-donald-trump-rally-presidential-campaign
The mistake people keep making about this guy is trying to criticize him on policy. He’s not selling policies or governing philosophy he’s selling a brand. And pretty damn successfully too.
Amateur Socialist,
Brother, I think your perception of things is necessarily tinged by the fact that you do live in TX, where I’m sure the waters you swim in are All Things Trump.
You are absolutely right: He isn’t selling policies, he’s selling a brand. But a substantial majority isn’t buying.
From the Washington Post:
“Support for Donald Trump has plunged as he has alienated fellow Republicans and large majorities of voters overall in the course of a month of self-inflicted controversies, propelling Democrat Hillary Clinton to a double-digit lead nationally in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey finds sweeping unease with the presumptive Republican nominee’s candidacy — from his incendiary rhetoric and values to his handling of both terrorism and his own business — foreshadowing that the November election could be a referendum on Trump more than anything else.
Roughly two in three Americans say they think Trump is unqualified to lead the nation; are anxious about the idea of him as president; believe his comments about women, minorities and Muslims show an unfair bias; and see his attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican American heritage as racist.”
Those are not the kinds of numbers that a nominee for the Presidency of the United States – a serious nominee, which Trump most definitely is not – will take comfort from. But I honestly think Trump has choked; he has won the nomination — for which he ran purely to enhance his commercial brand – but really doesn’t want to be President (and won’t be), except to the extent that it would affirm his hubristic sense of Self.
I agree completely that Democratic elites are losing influence, which is a wonderfully hopeful sign. Their influence is being replaced with a more Progressive energy: the rise of Sanders, the sit-in last week in the House. Warren has endorsed Clinton – but notably failed to endorse her until she won the nomination, a sign of a tacit endorsement for the issues Bernie ran on. It’s also notable that amid the rumors that Clinton would pick Warren for her Veep were warnings from elite Democratic donors that donations would stop if Warren was picked. She and Sanders are not going away. A more Progressive domestic agenda is on the rise, as will be, sadly, Clinton’s hawkishness.
Amateur Socialist,
Further evidence of the toxicity of Trump and the revulsion of the GOP for him. From Politico this morning:
“A slot at the GOP convention used to be a career-maker — a chance to make your name on the big stage and to catch the eye of the Republican donors and activists who make or break campaigns.
In the year of Trump: Not so much.
With the convention less than a month away, POLITICO contacted more than 50 prominent governors, senators, and House members to gauge their interest in speaking. Only a few said they were open to it — and everyone else said they either weren’t planning on it, didn’t want to, weren’t going to Cleveland at all, or simply didn’t respond.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/hardly-anybody-wants-to-speak-at-trumps-convention-224815#ixzz4Cmhb2bo5
This isn’t going to be just a wave election; it has the potential to be a Democratic tsunami. And Hillary, whose negatives are only slightly lower than Trump’s, ought to drop to her knees and thank the gods that Trump is her opponent.
The two most remarkable facts about this election are the utter implosion of the GOP and the extent to which our candidates for the office are widely hated by the citizenry.
It’s a little interesting that the progressive standard bearers are from New England. We may have this liberal reputation, but the reality for a long time has been far more in the pragmatic Clinton mold than in the progressive mode. Despite the speeches, the Kennedy’s were all probably happier in the smoke filled back room “getting things done” mold than either Warren or Sanders, who at least seem to be more interested in dragging misdeeds into the light than being willing to swim with sharks to feed the fish. It’s not full blown bomb-throwing in the streets, but it’s so far from Clinton as to be unrecognizable to those who can’t read the text under the flag on the lapel pin.
If Bernie’s campaign never managed to accomplish more than this: https://twitter.com/RaniaKhalek/status/747569068899590144 It’s worth everything I put into it and more. It’s saddening realizing how expensive the truth can be in these days but hey it’s progress.
Thanks Senator.
AS,
Amen to that, brother.