Here’s the analysis a Facebook friend wrote about Trump’s appeal. Agree? Disagree?
” I disagree with his policy proposals, I dislike his argumentation, I dislike his vulgarity.
“But I get his appeal. Remember, his first support was among people who don’t go to church and who did not go to college (more recently, he won all demographics in NH, including the college educated).
“So, working class non-church-goers, this explains the lack of PC-ness, acceptance of vulgarities, the lack of concern for argumentation or facts.
“More importantly, a lot of these people have never voted before. They had no one to vote for. They didn’t care about the Christian social conservative issues, tax cuts for the rich didn’t help them, the Democrats hate white people, or at the very least embrace and cater to those who hate white people.
“What other candidate do they have, have they ever had?
“Whatever the virtues of immigration and free trade, these are the people who are most directly feeling the brunt of the cost of it, and are most distant from the indirect benefits of it.
“Both party establishments support free trade and immigration.
“I hear lots of people who support Trump, but dislike his vulgarity, doubt his sincerity, doubt his policy proposals, but like that he is sticking it to the man, or to the right people, or agree on one or two issues, or think he is a strong leader.
“The latter troubles most of us. We correctly fear the desire for a strong leader as it led to bad results in the past. It bothers me as well. I think the attraction to him is a fascist one.
“But, yesterday I read a chapter from Taleb’s new book, in which he explains why autocrats are stronger leaders, because they can take action, whereas democratically-elected leaders are constrained not only by the law, but by the requirement that they keep electoral support, watch the polls, get things through the parliament.
“This is why his followers, and he, also admire Putin. We may think Putin is an international bad guy, but a lot of people, including Trump’s supporters, do not doubt that Putin is acting in favor of Russia, that he is “Making Russia Great Again”, they want our leader to fight just as directly and openly for the US.”
Donald Trump has surged to new heights in the Republican primary race, building a 2-1 national lead over the rest of the field, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday.
His 39 percent support marks his highest in the survey to date.
“Reports of Donald Trump’s imminent demise as a candidate are clearly and greatly exaggerated,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, said in a statement.
… Trump’s strongest suits remain male voters, those without college degrees, and voters whose self-identified political views range from “somewhat conservative” to “liberal.” Trump trails Cruz among self-identified Tea Party supporters and “very conservative” voters. …
Rubio outperforms his baseline number with college educated voters, women, younger voters, and those who identified themselves as Republicans. …
… There’s not much good news for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the poll as he continues to float at 4 percent of the vote, tied for last place in the field of six with Ben Carson. One measurement that may explain why Bush’s candidacy failed: Just 32 percent of Republicans said he would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee. An establishment candidate without an electability argument is not much of a candidate at all. …
…. When it comes to matters that evangelicals say they care about, Mr. Trump’s conversion to social conservatism is of recent vintage and dubious reliability.
I have asked some respected evangelical intellectuals to explain this curious phenomenon. Most express baffled dismay. One offered a disturbing hypothesis: Evangelicals are terrified that everything they value is under assault, and they have concluded that only a strongman can stem the tide. So they are willing to make common cause with someone they normally would disdain. But when you sup with the devil, goes the saying, you’d better have a long spoon.
The Trump phenomenon offers a moral challenge not only to evangelicals, but to the entire Republican leadership. Nine months ago I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Mr. Trump would receive his party’s nomination and go on to win the presidency. Now I can. …
… It is hard to decide which is a greater threat to the republic—Donald Trump’s pervasive ignorance or his deep-seated character flaws.
Some leading Republicans have quietly told me that they would break ranks if Mr. Trump wins their party’s nomination. A few have said so publicly. Unless a viable alternative emerges soon, every Republican will face the same dilemma.
__________________________________________
He may get the nomination (cringe), but I don’t think Trump would win a general election.
But then again ….
This is an election cycle that’s been nearly impossible to predict so far.
Karen, I know people who admire Putin for that very reason. It doesn’t matter whether he is corrupt and that those who question him are silenced; the fact that he is working for his country is good enough. It reminds me of Israel’s passionate cry for a king. I’ve thought about Israel in the period just before . They were in a time where “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”, sexual immorality was unchecked (the horrific narrative of Judges 19), religion was confused (recall the story of Micah and his images in Judges 17). The narrator in the last few chapters of Judges keeps emphasizing that “in those days there was no king in Israel”. The final straw was corrupt judges and priests, Eli’s and Samuel’s sons. Hitherto, at least the judges had seemed to be able to hold things together. So when the people demanded Samuel make them a king, they had as good reason as any in the U.S. to think the system was broken.
Yet, even though God would use their request for a king for his own ends (the throne of David), he still said that they had rejected him. My mother often reminds me that God will not give his glory to another; if we look to another human to lead us, whether a talented pastor or a charismatic political leader, God will often allow that leader’s human flaws to catch up to him. Think of the number of popular pastors whose downfall is great. God didn’t even let David, the man after God’s own heart, or Solomon, to whom he gave wisdom, to remain relatively flawless – their sins were dragged out into the open for all to see. It does not surprise me when the world runs after strong men to save them, for their only hope is in this age. However, the Church never seems to learn either. The wedding of church and state in medieval Europe happened because the Church deemed it necessary for their survival to wield earthly authority. It is to us, not to the world, that Israel’s example is directed (I Corinthians 10:6). We are the ones who must step away from the seeming security of the strong men of this world, and only place our faith Christ and the fact that He, not Putin or any other world leader, will build His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Christ conquered through weakness death, choosing not to call a legion of angels to his aid, and that is the path which He calls us to take (John 17:18).
Today on FB on a conservative site I asked that they confirm what they were posting before the “stirred the pot”. I had already googled the event before I posted to know that it wasn’t what they were making it seem. They deleted my post and blocked me from the page.
I am highly disappointed that happened. I am conservative, but I do believe in telling the truth and not blowing something out of proportion. I was blocked with no further explanation.
Here is something of interest about Trump. He has not responded to a request to teleconference his views so an open letter is being sent to him. It is hard hitting on his stances that make evangelicals not trust him. http://www.citizenlink.com/trump/
Long age, I started turning Obama off when he started speaking. It irritated me with no positive purpose. And everything he says is a lie.
Yesterday, I found myself switching from a Trump speech. I already know what he’s going to say:
Everybody’s stupid but me.
All the women are ugly except my wife and daughter.
I don’t need to apologize or ask for forgiveness because I’ve never done anything wrong.
He never said this, but when he comes to the judgment throne, he expects to make a deal with God.
And god had better be careful.
One of the statements in the open letter to Trump that Janice linked is “One of your favorite campaign themes is that you are going to ‘run America’ if elected.”
This notion of “running the country” has bothered me for a long time. I remember someone telling me back in ’96 that he was voting to re-elect Clinton because he was “doing a good job running the country.” The president isn’t supposed to run the country, just his branch of the US government. The US government is not the country.
Sat with two photographers today (ours and a former colleague who now is with the LA Times) — both are Bernie fans, of course — but we all agreed Trump was a disaster. We (being around the same age) also lamented about how crazy society (and journalism, or what’s left of it) is now.
I think Roscuro is being unpaid to Putin when she compares him to Trump:
1. Putin, unlike Trump, opposes perversion and has taken several courageous steps to protect Russian children from perverts.
2. When female rock singers shouted obscenities in a historic church, Putin threw them in jail. Trump shouts obscenities.
3. Putin has consistently opposed actions that put Middle Eastern Christians in jeopardy. Trump doesn’t know there are Christians in the Middle East. He thinks they all live in Iowa and he doesn’t like them.
If Trump is the Republican nominee, I may cast a write-in vote for Putin.
Kim – What was the name of that conservative site?
There was a video I watched a few weeks ago, about discourse on social media, & about how biased many sites are. The man who made the video examined two sites known to be untrustworthy – one liberal (Occupy Democrats) & one conservative (the Allen West site).
I already knew that Occupy Democrats is blatantly divisive & that it twists facts (& outright lies), but I also already had a bad feeling about the Allen West site. I don’t know how much oversight West actually has over the site, but I’ve seen a couple things that didn’t sit right with me.
One almost-minor thing was that West was given the by-line for a certain article, but it turned out the article was written by somebody else, & had originally appeared elsewhere.
I’m not saying that everything on the site is bad, but do be cautious about believing what you read on it. I guess that could/should be said about any site on the internet.
“Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump by two points in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday.
Trump had held the top spot in the previous 31 consecutive national polls, according to RealClearPolitics, posting a double-digit lead in all but four. In last month’s NBC poll, Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz.
The Texas senator has 28 percent support in the poll, with Trump at 26 percent. Marco Rubio follows with 17 percent in the poll, which was conducted entirely after Saturday’s GOP debate.
Cruz also leads Trump by 16 points in a head-to-head matchup.”
NYT editorial from 1987 about the Bork nomination.
“The President’s supporters insist vehemently that, having won the 1984 election, he has every right to try to change the Court’s direction. Yes, but the Democrats won the 1986 election, regaining control of the Senate, and they have every right to resist. This is not the same Senate that confirmed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice and Antonin Scalia as an associate justice last year.”
USA Today and Suffolk University are out with a fresh national poll of American voters. Here’s what it finds:
(1) In hypothetical head-to-head contests, Hillary Clinton trails all four potential GOP rivals. She’s within the margin of error against Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, with Marco Rubio and John Kasich holding statistically significant leads. …
_______________________________
Wandering Views 
Here’s the analysis a Facebook friend wrote about Trump’s appeal. Agree? Disagree?
” I disagree with his policy proposals, I dislike his argumentation, I dislike his vulgarity.
“But I get his appeal. Remember, his first support was among people who don’t go to church and who did not go to college (more recently, he won all demographics in NH, including the college educated).
“So, working class non-church-goers, this explains the lack of PC-ness, acceptance of vulgarities, the lack of concern for argumentation or facts.
“More importantly, a lot of these people have never voted before. They had no one to vote for. They didn’t care about the Christian social conservative issues, tax cuts for the rich didn’t help them, the Democrats hate white people, or at the very least embrace and cater to those who hate white people.
“What other candidate do they have, have they ever had?
“Whatever the virtues of immigration and free trade, these are the people who are most directly feeling the brunt of the cost of it, and are most distant from the indirect benefits of it.
“Both party establishments support free trade and immigration.
“I hear lots of people who support Trump, but dislike his vulgarity, doubt his sincerity, doubt his policy proposals, but like that he is sticking it to the man, or to the right people, or agree on one or two issues, or think he is a strong leader.
“The latter troubles most of us. We correctly fear the desire for a strong leader as it led to bad results in the past. It bothers me as well. I think the attraction to him is a fascist one.
“But, yesterday I read a chapter from Taleb’s new book, in which he explains why autocrats are stronger leaders, because they can take action, whereas democratically-elected leaders are constrained not only by the law, but by the requirement that they keep electoral support, watch the polls, get things through the parliament.
“This is why his followers, and he, also admire Putin. We may think Putin is an international bad guy, but a lot of people, including Trump’s supporters, do not doubt that Putin is acting in favor of Russia, that he is “Making Russia Great Again”, they want our leader to fight just as directly and openly for the US.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
America is in a very bad mood. 😦
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/17/poll-trump-surges-over-gop-field-clinton-locked-in-virtual-tie.html
______________________________________
Donald Trump has surged to new heights in the Republican primary race, building a 2-1 national lead over the rest of the field, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday.
His 39 percent support marks his highest in the survey to date.
“Reports of Donald Trump’s imminent demise as a candidate are clearly and greatly exaggerated,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, said in a statement.
LikeLike
More:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/17/q-poll-cruz-falls-under-trump-pummeling.html
__________________________________
… Trump’s strongest suits remain male voters, those without college degrees, and voters whose self-identified political views range from “somewhat conservative” to “liberal.” Trump trails Cruz among self-identified Tea Party supporters and “very conservative” voters. …
Rubio outperforms his baseline number with college educated voters, women, younger voters, and those who identified themselves as Republicans. …
… There’s not much good news for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the poll as he continues to float at 4 percent of the vote, tied for last place in the field of six with Ben Carson. One measurement that may explain why Bush’s candidacy failed: Just 32 percent of Republicans said he would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee. An establishment candidate without an electability argument is not much of a candidate at all. …
___________________________________
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From William Galston at the WSJ on Trump’s “hostile takeover” of the GOP:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-hostile-gop-takeover-1455668387
_________________________________________
…. When it comes to matters that evangelicals say they care about, Mr. Trump’s conversion to social conservatism is of recent vintage and dubious reliability.
I have asked some respected evangelical intellectuals to explain this curious phenomenon. Most express baffled dismay. One offered a disturbing hypothesis: Evangelicals are terrified that everything they value is under assault, and they have concluded that only a strongman can stem the tide. So they are willing to make common cause with someone they normally would disdain. But when you sup with the devil, goes the saying, you’d better have a long spoon.
The Trump phenomenon offers a moral challenge not only to evangelicals, but to the entire Republican leadership. Nine months ago I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Mr. Trump would receive his party’s nomination and go on to win the presidency. Now I can. …
… It is hard to decide which is a greater threat to the republic—Donald Trump’s pervasive ignorance or his deep-seated character flaws.
Some leading Republicans have quietly told me that they would break ranks if Mr. Trump wins their party’s nomination. A few have said so publicly. Unless a viable alternative emerges soon, every Republican will face the same dilemma.
__________________________________________
He may get the nomination (cringe), but I don’t think Trump would win a general election.
But then again ….
This is an election cycle that’s been nearly impossible to predict so far.
LikeLike
Karen, I know people who admire Putin for that very reason. It doesn’t matter whether he is corrupt and that those who question him are silenced; the fact that he is working for his country is good enough. It reminds me of Israel’s passionate cry for a king. I’ve thought about Israel in the period just before . They were in a time where “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”, sexual immorality was unchecked (the horrific narrative of Judges 19), religion was confused (recall the story of Micah and his images in Judges 17). The narrator in the last few chapters of Judges keeps emphasizing that “in those days there was no king in Israel”. The final straw was corrupt judges and priests, Eli’s and Samuel’s sons. Hitherto, at least the judges had seemed to be able to hold things together. So when the people demanded Samuel make them a king, they had as good reason as any in the U.S. to think the system was broken.
Yet, even though God would use their request for a king for his own ends (the throne of David), he still said that they had rejected him. My mother often reminds me that God will not give his glory to another; if we look to another human to lead us, whether a talented pastor or a charismatic political leader, God will often allow that leader’s human flaws to catch up to him. Think of the number of popular pastors whose downfall is great. God didn’t even let David, the man after God’s own heart, or Solomon, to whom he gave wisdom, to remain relatively flawless – their sins were dragged out into the open for all to see. It does not surprise me when the world runs after strong men to save them, for their only hope is in this age. However, the Church never seems to learn either. The wedding of church and state in medieval Europe happened because the Church deemed it necessary for their survival to wield earthly authority. It is to us, not to the world, that Israel’s example is directed (I Corinthians 10:6). We are the ones who must step away from the seeming security of the strong men of this world, and only place our faith Christ and the fact that He, not Putin or any other world leader, will build His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Christ conquered through weakness death, choosing not to call a legion of angels to his aid, and that is the path which He calls us to take (John 17:18).
LikeLiked by 3 people
Today on FB on a conservative site I asked that they confirm what they were posting before the “stirred the pot”. I had already googled the event before I posted to know that it wasn’t what they were making it seem. They deleted my post and blocked me from the page.
I am highly disappointed that happened. I am conservative, but I do believe in telling the truth and not blowing something out of proportion. I was blocked with no further explanation.
LikeLike
Here is something of interest about Trump. He has not responded to a request to teleconference his views so an open letter is being sent to him. It is hard hitting on his stances that make evangelicals not trust him.
http://www.citizenlink.com/trump/
LikeLike
Long age, I started turning Obama off when he started speaking. It irritated me with no positive purpose. And everything he says is a lie.
Yesterday, I found myself switching from a Trump speech. I already know what he’s going to say:
Everybody’s stupid but me.
All the women are ugly except my wife and daughter.
I don’t need to apologize or ask for forgiveness because I’ve never done anything wrong.
He never said this, but when he comes to the judgment throne, he expects to make a deal with God.
And god had better be careful.
LikeLiked by 3 people
One of the statements in the open letter to Trump that Janice linked is “One of your favorite campaign themes is that you are going to ‘run America’ if elected.”
This notion of “running the country” has bothered me for a long time. I remember someone telling me back in ’96 that he was voting to re-elect Clinton because he was “doing a good job running the country.” The president isn’t supposed to run the country, just his branch of the US government. The US government is not the country.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I agree, Kevin. It feels like too many of the candidates are running for emperor, rather than servant of the people. 😦
LikeLiked by 3 people
funny tweet:
Bernie Sanders, a Socialist, is upset because the delegates he earned in New Hampshire were redistributed to somebody else.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Interesting comparison, Roscuro.
Sat with two photographers today (ours and a former colleague who now is with the LA Times) — both are Bernie fans, of course — but we all agreed Trump was a disaster. We (being around the same age) also lamented about how crazy society (and journalism, or what’s left of it) is now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ben Carson, running to serve.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think Roscuro is being unpaid to Putin when she compares him to Trump:
1. Putin, unlike Trump, opposes perversion and has taken several courageous steps to protect Russian children from perverts.
2. When female rock singers shouted obscenities in a historic church, Putin threw them in jail. Trump shouts obscenities.
3. Putin has consistently opposed actions that put Middle Eastern Christians in jeopardy. Trump doesn’t know there are Christians in the Middle East. He thinks they all live in Iowa and he doesn’t like them.
If Trump is the Republican nominee, I may cast a write-in vote for Putin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unpaid also, but I meant “unfair”.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Kim – What was the name of that conservative site?
There was a video I watched a few weeks ago, about discourse on social media, & about how biased many sites are. The man who made the video examined two sites known to be untrustworthy – one liberal (Occupy Democrats) & one conservative (the Allen West site).
I already knew that Occupy Democrats is blatantly divisive & that it twists facts (& outright lies), but I also already had a bad feeling about the Allen West site. I don’t know how much oversight West actually has over the site, but I’ve seen a couple things that didn’t sit right with me.
One almost-minor thing was that West was given the by-line for a certain article, but it turned out the article was written by somebody else, & had originally appeared elsewhere.
I’m not saying that everything on the site is bad, but do be cautious about believing what you read on it. I guess that could/should be said about any site on the internet.
LikeLike
Dare we hope that sanity is starting to prevail? 🙂
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cruz-tops-trump-nationally-in-poll-surprise/ar-BBpD4iB?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U142DHP
“Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump by two points in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday.
Trump had held the top spot in the previous 31 consecutive national polls, according to RealClearPolitics, posting a double-digit lead in all but four. In last month’s NBC poll, Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz.
The Texas senator has 28 percent support in the poll, with Trump at 26 percent. Marco Rubio follows with 17 percent in the poll, which was conducted entirely after Saturday’s GOP debate.
Cruz also leads Trump by 16 points in a head-to-head matchup.”
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NYT editorial from 1987 about the Bork nomination.
“The President’s supporters insist vehemently that, having won the 1984 election, he has every right to try to change the Court’s direction. Yes, but the Democrats won the 1986 election, regaining control of the Senate, and they have every right to resist. This is not the same Senate that confirmed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice and Antonin Scalia as an associate justice last year.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/02/confirmation-bias-ny-times-style.php
LikeLiked by 2 people
And this:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/02/17/usa-today-poll-hillary-trails-all-gop-candidates-n2120805
______________________________
USA Today and Suffolk University are out with a fresh national poll of American voters. Here’s what it finds:
(1) In hypothetical head-to-head contests, Hillary Clinton trails all four potential GOP rivals. She’s within the margin of error against Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, with Marco Rubio and John Kasich holding statistically significant leads. …
_______________________________
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