Traitor Watch - The 45 Thread

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
I really do not understand just why the GOP as an entity has decided to hang on so tightly to Trump. Literally any other candidate would have a really good shot at beating Biden in November. Inflation has absolutely killed any popularity he may have. Really the only thing Biden has going for him is Trump.
The cult may be desperate to see Trump back in office, but I truly believe the vast majority of Americans don't want anything to do with Cheeto Hitler. Meanwhile Trump has been allowed to plant his poison pills so deeply into the machinery of the GOP that any attempt at removal will turn into a massive infight.

I'm really not that worried about November. What worries me is what comes next. How does the GOP handle the loss and what Trump will do when consequences without the chance of a November save?
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
The american public doesn't want trump. The GOP wants trump. And realistically: it doesn't need to be trump, just some shmuck like him.

He has no deep rooted political or revolutionary ideology. No morals, or policy. He literally just wants money and for people to fawn over him. He's the perfect organ grinders monkey while the people ACTUALLY in charge pick everyone's pockets (both metaphorically and physically.). The nearly perfect puppet tyrant while his betters do the actual work of ruling. An agent of chaos for rent to own.

As for the GOP. They need the cult. There is no other option: it's all they have left to them: they cannot win without the cult. They can't win WITH the cult either, mathematically does not work. So after november, once the violence is over: the GOP will pick another trump that they feel will be more easily marketable, maybe one with less prison time in their future, and they will still lose because they will lose the cult. They will not transfer to the next politician.

So the political cycle in 2024-2028 will be republicans desperately trying to recreate what they had with trump, and ever increasing volumes of voter suppression... which will only see mitigated success because the GOP will have notably less actual political power, and be functionally unelectable because "reasonable" conservatives will not back trump, and the cult will not back anyone at all because they are not trump.

It will still take years: but we're watching the republican party DIE because they decided "Yeah, fascism for me, thank you.".
 

The Mighty Mollusk

Scream all you like, 'cause we're all mad here
Citizen
Trump is easily controlled by flattering his ego and making him feel important, but not smart enough to figure out what his handlers are doing as long as he's got someone else to flatter him. He's a useful figurehead as long as they keep him away from anything too important. That's all he is to the GOP.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
The DeSantis campaign tanked so hard that it tanked the rest of the non-Trump candidates in the process. The Trump faction had the advantage of being organized around a single candidate from start to finish, while the non-Trump faction ended up having to look for an alternative to their alternative because their first choice obviously wasn't ready for prime time, and by the time they found one it was too late. They wasted so much money and time and morale on such a comically bad campaign they'd had so much confidence in, that it made the whole movement look unserious. No matter how hard they then tried to push their "Here's how Haley can still win" fanfiction pretending to be news, it was not going to matter. They had no credibility left to give her. She did turn out to be a somewhat capable candidate, but she was never going to overcome the stink of being a backup plan they were only pushing because their first plan ended up being a joke. It was too deep a hole to climb out of.
 

DefaultOption

Sourball
Citizen
I really do not understand just why the GOP as an entity has decided to hang on so tightly to Trump.
Because there's no actual leadership in the Republican party anymore, and there hasn't been for going on thirty years now. The elected R's are entirely reactionary, and they take their orders from Rupert Murdoch via the GOP base telling them about what the hot topics are on Fox News. And before Fox, Rush Limbaugh was the unelected Republican Supreme Leader.

The people who constitute the conservative 'base' are effectively a nationwide mob directed by the right-wing media, and the GOP office holders have learned that crossing the mob is a one-way ticket to the unemployment line. There's a reason that the only time any elected Republican ever shows a spine and says anything honest and/or critical about the current state of the party is at least five minutes after they've announced that they won't be running for reelection.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen
I don't understand why a Libertarian convention invited Trump to speak. As much as he deserves to get booed, it is pretty crass to invite someone you are going to boo to speak at your event.
 

Ironbite4

Well-known member
Citizen
I love it. The GOP oked an event where Trump was exposed as the lying liar that he is and now they can't stop the narrative that he's not as popular as they think he is. I love it.

Ironbite-wonder how Trump doubles down on the boos.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
They'll edit the footage to cut out the heckling, like they always do. It's too late for that, but it doesn't matter anymore. Everyone who's already against trump doesn't need more proof of his lies, and the folks pulling FOR trump won't ever see the original footage and don't about it anyway. There's very few, if any at all that are still on the fence about this.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
And also got the headlines to be about booing Trump instead of the guy they nominated for President.
Still the most impactful outcome they could have hoped for. No one cares about Libertarian candidates, including most libertarians. That dude down the street with the yellow snake flag votes Republican all the way down the ticket, every year, just like his neighbor with the giant Trump banner.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen
Still the most impactful outcome they could have hoped for. No one cares about Libertarian candidates, including most libertarians. That dude down the street with the yellow snake flag votes Republican all the way down the ticket, every year, just like his neighbor with the giant Trump banner.
61xIbXtyUyL._AC_SY625_.jpg
 

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
They'll edit the footage to cut out the heckling, like they always do. It's too late for that, but it doesn't matter anymore. Everyone who's already against trump doesn't need more proof of his lies, and the folks pulling FOR trump won't ever see the original footage and don't about it anyway. There's very few, if any at all that are still on the fence about this.
I don't think you're wrong. But I do have a question.
If the election were held tomorrow, do you think the results would be the same as the election in November?
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
If the election were held tomorrow, the results would be different than if it was held in november. Of course.

There's time enough for more people to die, to come of age to vote, for trump to be held accountable for his criming, for more information to come out, for both sides to make a lot more ads and propaganda. Marginal changes to be true, and the biggest effects won't actually be the presidential race: trump has lost that. Nothing will get it back for him. Where the real differences will be seen is in the down ballot races: as more and more lesser republicans parade onto television and social media desperate to get the attention of the cultists and trump, the more people will see that they are very bad for the country, and the more will reconsider how they're voting. All of this is also affected by how much money trump is sucking up for his legal fees, making even bigger named republicans hard pressed to find voice in a system where money is the be all end all.

The longer the republicans have to debase themselves, the more people will see republicans debasing themselves. For trump.

The cult alone is not and will never be enough votes for trump to legitimately win an election. That's why they are engaging in ongoing and increasing voter suppression at all levels and of all kinds. But if you all want to stop the next trump before they can get off the ground: you need to vote out republicans on all levels and in as many positions as possible.

If republicans can rally in the lesser halls of power across the country: they'll do it all again, and probably choose someone whom is marginally more effective at hiding their crimes.

If you do it right this time. Get enough blue votes up and down the ballots: the republican party collapses under the weight of it's own incompetence, and other conservative parties will form and fight for the non cult members that were driven out in the endless maga purity challenges.
 


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