I totally get the anger that has created Trump. I share it. But I will never understand why they don’t see that he’s a false vessel for it.
Also, this is funny but sad, about Whole Foods customers.
[Update a while later]
This seems related: The new WASPs are Asians in Silicon Valley.
Because he’s the only apparent alternative to more of the same, Rand. People feel that, while he may not wind up any different, at least he _talks_ a different game.
I have this crazy idea that Cruz has actually been fighting against the establishment.
Maybe, but, if he’s nominated, the first thing that will happen is that all the ‘Obama doesn’t have to show his birth certificate!’-types will be doing whatever they can to disqualify Cruz for being born in Canada.
It’s not racist though because it’s making fun of Canada and not his Cuban ancestry. Canada is one of the few things it’s still acceptable to make fun of.
I’ve been saying that Cruz is ineligible for months. Obviously so. If he’s American because his mother is American, then he is also Cuban. But, American law doesn’t apply in Canada. He’s a natural born Canadian. And that’s too bad, because he’s probably the best of the available choices.
You really ought to read the law. The issue with Obama’s birth-certificate, other than the Hillary 2008 campaign, was primarily what it had down for his name.
Really? I thought the primary issue with Obama’s birth certificate is that the PDF had multiple (what was it, 21?) layers, instead of the single layer one would find if they’d simply scanned his birth certificate.
Cruz is certainly my preference too, but I am not sure he can be elected.
If we can’t get Cruz in the White House, can we get him on the Supreme Court?
Rand said, “I have this crazy idea that Cruz has actually been fighting against the establishment.”
Cruz and Kasich sided with the organized Chicago thugs yesterday… and blamed Trump for the behavior of these thugs.
Bingo. You fight a war with the forces you have, not the forces you wish you have.
Any of the other Republican candidates could have done what Trump has done, but they didn’t. He may be another lying scumbag, but he at least pretends to have pro-American policies.
Until he gets elected, and laughs at the marks.
Perhaps so, and for what it is worth, I believe that is exactly what he would/will do. However, he is unlikely to be worse that what we have now (low bar, I know), and he will DEFINITELY be better than Hillary. I wish we had other alternatives (I am a Cruz supporter myself), but that is becoming less and less likely as the primary season progresses. We can accept this and try to work it out to our advantage, or we can watch Hillary win in November, a result I am sure that you and I would both agree is even worse.
Plus there is one advantage that Trump offers…
Trump is despised by a large chunk of the GOP, and loathed even more (and more still once the election is finished) by the Democrats. Thus, any chance that he can move any sort of legislative agenda through Congress is nil. Further, the GOP won’t enable any Obama-like behavior, while the Dems (including the media) will rail against it non-stop. With all of that taken together, we end u with a single term of stasis, something that I can live with.
There is something else, and while I know you are not a Republican, perhaps you will see the value in this. Trump will (already has) devastated the GOP political class. Destroyed, no, but the damage is serious and is growing worse as they (the GOPe) struggle cluelessly to try to cope with what is happening. A Trump victory, being more the result of the circumstances than the man, won’t leave lasting damage to the nation (I can easily picturing Trump becoming bored and simply walking away when it isn’t fun anymore…ask the folks at the old USFL if you don’t believe me…), but the damage to the GOPe may be enough to allow the party to be recaptured.
Wishful thinking, I know…
–Rand Simberg
March 11, 2016 at 5:23 PM
Until he gets elected, and laughs at the marks.–
–f1b0nacc1
March 11, 2016 at 6:46 PM
Perhaps so, and for what it is worth, I believe that is exactly what he would/will do.–
Well isn’t this what all politicians do [in private] or is Trump supposed to be different and laugh at the marks publicly?
**However, he is unlikely to be worse that what we have now (low bar, I know), and he will DEFINITELY be better than Hillary. I wish we had other alternatives (I am a Cruz supporter myself), but that is becoming less and less likely as the primary season progresses. We can accept this and try to work it out to our advantage, or we can watch Hillary win in November, a result I am sure that you and I would both agree is even worse.**
What is more important is getting greater majorities in Congress.
It seems that Trump and Cruz will get most of the delegates.
If Trump gets the most, then it seems to me he will want the candidate with second most delegates to be VP. Normally one want VP to get some swing states- but Trump believes he gets the swing states.
And with Cruz as VP, they get all republican conservatives [and all the “true conservatives”, TM] so Cruz as VP gives a united conservative republican party- which are also all of “the outsiders”- when you consider Carson has also endorsed Trump:). And then one has the easy task of bringing in the insiders [who are obviously, a cakewalk- as they have demonstrated over the years as they have constantly caved to Obama.]
–Plus there is one advantage that Trump offers…
Trump is despised by a large chunk of the GOP, and loathed even more (and more still once the election is finished) by the Democrats. —
I would say Trump is loathed by Dem establishment and dems
aren’t really loving the Dem establishment. And it seems dem outsiders could be happy with Trump.
–There is something else, and while I know you are not a Republican, perhaps you will see the value in this. Trump will (already has) devastated the GOP political class. Destroyed, no, but the damage is serious and is growing worse as they (the GOPe) struggle cluelessly to try to cope with what is happening. A Trump victory, being more the result of the circumstances than the man, won’t leave lasting damage to the nation (I can easily picturing Trump becoming bored and simply walking away when it isn’t fun anymore…ask the folks at the old USFL if you don’t believe me…), but the damage to the GOPe may be enough to allow the party to be recaptured.
Wishful thinking, I know…–
It seems if Trump isn’t having much fun in the first term, he could easily walk away from a chance of trying for a second term.
I don’t think GOP establishment will be shattered, but it seems they might give up on their failed method of electing their chosen republicans. So more liberation republicans might get elected in the future.
“If Trump gets the most, then it seems to me he will want the candidate with second most delegates to be VP.”
Nope. If he gets the nomination, it will be because he isn’t a politician. Having a politician as his running mate would negate his advantage. Instead, I think he would go with someone who is not a politician, but nonetheless famous and generally respected – someone like Mike Rowe or Jamie Hyneman.
I’m pushing the Trump/Jenner ticket so we can have our first female Vice President, and also the first female Vice President with a penis.
Let’s just go the full Monty.
Did anyone else notice that Peyton Manning conveniently timed his retirement just as the question is going to come up?
Manning is another one, yeah, from what I’ve seen of him a real class act. But that’s the type of person I see Trump selecting as VP: someone already famous but not for politics, who is viewed positively by a majority of Americans. It won’t be someone whose name you need to look up. And it won’t be one of the GOP establishment types after the acrimony towards Trump from the GOPe.
I suppose Carson would have an outside chance, as he is not a politician either. Christie, definitely not, too many Republicans remember the aftermath of Sandy.
Note that nobody is talking about possible running mates for Rubio or Cruz or whatshisname.
Nikki Halley probably knocked herself out with her anti-Trump address and Rubio endorsement, but she’d still be a popular pick.
That aside, Trumps pick will probably be an act of genius on par with “I love the poorly educated”, which for those not keeping score at home, was an act of genius.
That he can intuitively connect in a way that so few can, yet be some utterly removed from the lower stratum of society, combined with all the attacks on him as a low-born scumbag might explain his unshakable support. One of our own actually made it. There is some very deep stuff going on with Trump and his followers, Chicago narrowly escaped disaster because people will throw down for him. I don’t know that you can say that about any other candidate. He may be a dumbass in quite a few areas, but aren’t we all? Well okay, not so much people here, but in general.
Sometimes the stars align and you get the leader you deserve, and it’s your fate to learn how it works out.
Plus, it’s easy for Republicans to disown him, and perhaps we can educate him by propping his eyes open with toothpicks and playing every Ronald Reagan video on Youtube.
.
Horrible as it is to say, Trump is one of the heroes that Ronald Reagan saw in us in his first inaugural address. There is a connection, something both touch that hard to define, that resonates. I’m not sure Trump even knows what is he does, or if he knows exactly what he does, because it’s so much like a movement led by Chumlee, buffoon and chess master in an alternate universe where the rules of chess are Rock, Scissors, Paper.
A couple of other possibilities: Obama has spent a decade winning by blithering “I’m more outraged than you are!” but nobody believes him. Trump is backing up the understanding of the outrage with his own dollars by buying hats in China. Counter-intuitive as the defense against the charge seems, Trump knows why our hats are made in China because he was faced with the same numbers as everyone else who moved hat production to China.
The attacks against him on this point failed miserably, because in the back of every Republicans mind are business realities, even Republicans who work at gas stations or mow lawns. In delivering the attack Rubio and Cruz showed they have no connection to the real world we live in where we buy Chinese products at Walmart because they’re cheaper, and that our company buys and sells those products to stay in business. We don’t like it, but we’re as helpless as Trump was about the reality of profit and cost.
This kind of thing pops up when you pit a Harvard debate club politician and a young politician against a business man whose living in the same world as the rest of us, where your decisions don’t get to reflect your patriotism because you’d go bankrupt, and the anger about it just simmers and boils. Trump expresses it about as badly as most people would, but with equal passion.
The other part of this gut-level rebellion that I’m wondering about is the role of Simon Cowell and all the talent shows where vast numbers of people see the gate-keepers, understand the gate-keepers, and unlike the contestants, get over their fear and respect for the gate-keepers through familiarity. The talent is really up to us to judge. We don’t need the ridiculously overpaid flunkies to tell us who has skills, we can judge for ourselves, and time-and-time again we’ve seen moronic decisions, such that we’re much freer about ignoring the experts.
There is a deep revolt underway, and finding its roots, and feeling them, is very interesting for those so inclined. The fecklessness of the Republican “play fight” against Democrats is one answer, but I think it runs deeper.
.
— Ed Minchau
March 11, 2016 at 10:23 PM
“If Trump gets the most, then it seems to me he will want the candidate with second most delegates to be VP.”
Nope. If he gets the nomination, it will be because he isn’t a politician. Having a politician as his running mate would negate his advantage. Instead, I think he would go with someone who is not a politician, but nonetheless famous and generally respected – someone like Mike Rowe or Jamie Hyneman.–
Well Cruz’s caving to the violence lefties protester, is mark against him being the VP. But elections are blood sport and Cruz’s frenzied brain, could be causing him the bad judgement
of supporting the lefties terrorists.
We will see if Cruz in the rest of primary election cycle continue that type of insanity which could disqualify him as VP and potential President.
If Trump picks a non politician as VP, I think Dennis Prager might a good choice.
–George Turner
March 11, 2016 at 11:19 PM
…
Let’s just go the full Monty.–
Speaking of which:
http://www.theonion.com/article/hillary-clinton-appears-rally-completely-nude-bid–52516
Hillary Clinton Appears Before Rally Completely Nude In Bid For Authenticity
‘Here I Am, A Mere Human Being,’ Says Naked Candidate
The Onion
Liked from:
https://judithcurry.com/2016/03/08/u-s-presidential-discussion-thread-part-ii/#more-21247
Come on Mr. Simberg,
What evidence do you have to think he will do that, “…laugh at the marks”? I don’t know and you don’t know…
And Fibonacci likewise cannot point to specific evidence that would lead us to expect ‘…marks/rubes’ behavior… So i don’t know how he agrees that DT would be a ‘marks/rubes’ kind of guy…
Wow, that Zillah Eisenstein is into some powerful (not legal) sh!t.
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
And you shall know them by their enemies…
An enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, but they can be useful…
Mr. Trump may not believe one single thing he is campaigning on, but were he elected president, he will certainly be constrained by what he campaigned on.
Mr. Obama campaigned on closing Camp X-ray, but he keens, “Those Republicans thwarted every attempt to carry this out.” I guess he gets a pass on that.
On the other hand, Mr. Obama is now saying that “citizens shouldn’t be allowed to have a black box (in the form of secret codes the government is not capable of circumventing).” Whoa, whoa!
The bien pensants with their iPhones and Androids are if not his proletarian base, they are the vanguard of the proletariat. The only way this doesn’t generate push-back is if the Media pushes this to the back pages. They certainly won’t be running similar interference for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Obama has to play out what he started and the same applies to Mr. Trump. “Sow the wind; reap the whirlwind” and all that.
PM,
it seems like the Republicans never get a pass, no matter how good they do. The Democrats GET every pass, no matter how wrong, screwed up, damaging to the people their actions or policies actually are or become.
Another week, another G-File.
I have never been more depressed about the state of American politics
Yep, he actually wrote those words. I don’t have the energy to list the countless “you didn’t build that” quotes we’ve had forced down our throats over the last 8 years. The idea that Donald Trump is causing him more depression than any of the hundreds of choice moments we have endured since 2008 is so demonstrably out-of-touch that I’m left speechless.
Rand, I have been reading you since Glenn pointed to your site 10 or so years ago. Always have enjoyed your strongly asserted opinions, often with various degrees of disagreement.
Your baldfaced denials of the veracity of DTs assertions and positions are, in my opinion, wholly without merit. I don’t know, and neither do you, and that is all we can say. On the other hand, if the qualifications are 1) who’s best at playing “Chicken”? 2) Who do we think has the moxie to snooker Harry Reid or Schumer, or Nancy P? 3) Who is incorruptible and has a veritable Santa’s list of who’s been bought, by whom and for how much? The answers point to a very different conclusion than what you seem to think…
I should also point out that I know Sen. Cruz. I contributed to his campaign, had the yard signs, canvassed, and have ‘met’ (been near) him. I have come to totally dislike him, and I consider him a cataclysmically ineffective poseur and blowhard. I honestly think that he could not persuade himself to follow himself. Zero leadership qualities, a grating ‘litigator’ personal tone, and that pervasive and weird unctuousness is not a ‘winning’ combo for a potential president.
Finally, the last and next to the last straws from Sen. Cruz for me occurred 6 months apart. The first (next to the last straw) was Ted’s response to the DTs assertion that we need to stop importing muslims under the UN ‘refugee’ resettlement program. Ted, Marco Jeb!, Kasich and all bien pensants cried a viva voce that we were not intolerant. Another half million (estimate) have enered the US since that fateful day. Anyone who is blind to these facts, and struck dumb by ‘racism’ avoidance is not fit to lead us in my personal opinion. The last straw was the amazing townhall meeting at which Ted blamed DT for the orchestrasted and Soros’ financed demonstrations that are now occurring. This last “straw” tells me two things. Ted is only “book-smart” and Ted has not understood Alinsky.
Another thing that bothers me about Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Bush, and all others except Carson and Fiorina, is that all of them, and Sen. Cruz have only ever been a ‘public servant’ living on the public trough. They have never lived the anxiety of looking at the daily till in a small business, during a slow week, and wondering how you are going to meet payroll, pay rent, etc.
I know that there are things about DT that we don’t know, and that there are things about himself that he has painted with strong brush strokes. I am puzzled and frustrated about you, Driscoll, Ace, and the others with the irrational and visceral, and in my personal opinion, unwarranted hatred of DT. I don’t get it
Any way, we shall see, won’t we?
Amen, Houston-Nica.
“we need to stop importing muslims under the UN ‘refugee’ resettlement program.[…]. Another half million (estimate) have enered the US since that fateful day. Anyone who is blind to these facts, and struck dumb by ‘racism’ avoidance is not fit to lead us in my personal opinion.”
Do you have a source for that number?
I think of him as a very good comedian. Carny act. As such, him plus a Republican Congress and (hopefully) a Republican Senate shouldn’t be too bad. Get some things we want (repeal ObamaCare, some Supreme Court justices who are _okay_, GREAT big fence), not others. With Clinton as president we would get nothing at all. Nothing. Surely this is clear.
As for his position as head of the Armed Forces, I’m not so pleased. But since I think of him as a comedian, not a potential Stalin, I imagine he would probably shout a lot and do little. That would be fine with me; I’ve had my fill of presidents who are going to fix everything in the world and actually try to do it. I am willing to wait and see.