Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

roflz

Mike Murphy, regular GOP election/consultant type and the guy behind Jeb's Right to Rise PAC, with zero fucks and zero regrets:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-mike-murphy-20160308-story.html

Murphy, who also writes screenplays in an office on Paramount's Hollywood lot, said he earned in the mid-six figures for his work with Right to Rise. He dismissed the criticism, saying it comes from unnamed sources and rivals.

"The truth is I don't care. There's nothing lower in my book than second-guessing," he said in an interview. "There are a lot of people in the cheap seats with a lot of opinions. What have they done?"...

A staff member at Right to Rise declined to say how much money is left but indicated that donors will get a prorated refund.

After a grueling 14-month campaign that began with great optimism and ended in dismal defeat, Murphy says he plans to spend time with his family. He and his wife, entertainment executive Tiffany Daniel — who is a Democrat — live with their 2-year-old daughter in a $2.6-million Hancock Park home.

Then, he says, he'll return to his Hollywood pursuits. His resume includes a short stint as a writer-producer for Dennis Miller and a script about politics titled "Hacks," which was bought by HBO but never greenlighted. He says he already has a deal with a cable network."

There really is a Trump-or-Sanders contingent among people who feel left behind after the loss of steady manufacturing jobs. A lot of mixed emotions about unions, but Sanders seems like he actually cares about the working class, and Trump makes grand gestures about shutting down the things they perceive destroyed their jobs.

I know there are a number of people who became strong converts to the necessity of wind energy after a town that had appliance manufacturing lost that company after a merger/outsourcing of labor and a wind energy plant moved in.

idk I'll drift off if I'm yelling into the wind, here

Michelle Goldberg visits CPAC.

Yet after spending three days talking to many conservatives at CPAC, I’ve concluded that the opposition to Trump is not nearly as staunch as we might expect. Most of the Trump opponents I spoke to didn’t see him as a paradigm-shattering threat to the Republic. They simply saw him as their less-preferred presidential candidate. That’s why it’s a mistake to view the GOP as entirely polarized between the Trump and not-Trump wings. Kellyanne Conway, the conservative pollster and president of a pro-Cruz super PAC, told me that Trump is the second choice of most Cruz voters. “The one-two punch of Trump and Cruz has shown that this is a conservative populist party,” she told me.

Of Mitt Romney’s warning about the dangers of Trumpism, Conway says, “If Gov. Romney really thought his message was going to be so resonant among the conservative faithful, he would have delivered it here at CPAC. But then he would have risked being booed. And he would have risked running into a movement that’s fairly unified in its thirst to beat Hillary Clinton in the fall.” In other words, despite the protestations of aghast intellectuals and religious purists, conservatives will eventually fall in line behind Trump if that’s what it takes to win.

I thought Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a central figure in right-wing organizing, might express qualms about Trump. After all, Norquist is an advocate of immigration reform; his wife is a Palestinian Muslim, and he is loathed by Islamophobes for his efforts to bring Muslims into the Republican Party. In the course of a 45-mintue conversation, however, he was far more disdainful of the anti-Trump forces on the right than of Trump himself.

so much for principles

maybe everyone should just look for work in the burgeoning campaign finance sector, tbh

grover norquist should be in jail

it just me or has "thirst" became a much more commonplace term in the last year or so? And showing up where slang is traditionally slower to permeate

like "thirst for knowledge"? maybe coming back into use but if it seems widespread that's prob bc it's old.

thirsty af

Trump's appeal isn't that hard to figure out is it? A lot of people dislike or distrust all politicians. Trump does not have friends inside Washington, he can't be 'bought' or whatever, so people see him as an alternative to say, yet another Bush or Clinton.

thirsté for douché

or rather thirstée

*insert Rubio joke here*

ok, really am shouting into the wind

Trump is speaking to what people perceive as the things that have led to negative changes in their own lives. Whether those are the real forces at work depends on the issue, and he has no ability now or ever to change some of them, but he's saying exactly what people want to hear

- you did nothing wrong
- the world still should be yours
- i'm going to take back what you perceive to be yours

there's no "helping" language, just entitlement. what you had should have been yours forever, even if it's something that no longer exists. take it.

as in the postwar myth of middle-class prosperity ("each generation will be somewhat better off") was implicitly promised through the culture, and that shit is gone.

Silver:

If the Republican nomination were contested under Democratic delegate rules instead, Trump would find it almost impossible to get a majority of delegates, and a floor fight in Cleveland would already be all but inevitable. If every state awarded its delegates winner-take-all, conversely, Trump would be much further ahead, although the bigger swings these rules enable would give his opponents a chance to catch up later on.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trump-would-be-easy-to-stop-under-democratic-rules/

xxp not only that but he makes everything seem so easy. Mexico's gonna pay for the wall, the military will commit war crimes because I told them to, we're gonna cut taxes by restructuring bad trade agreements, bing bing bing. other candidates won't do it because they're too in bed with XYZ or they're afraid of being politically incorrect. bong, bong, bong.

it's an interest shift in terminology when "takers" used to mean people who absconded with wealth they didn't necessarily earn, and it's now some revenge fantasy of taking what you want from the abstract forces of NAFTA and immigration

it's also a weird disconnect from the new economy. do you know who's buying a lot of pieces of farm equipment that cost $200k each? china, ukraine, a number of other countries that are getting on the large scale agriculture bandwagon

When your life has become a dead end street...I shall build a tall gilded tower at one end, and an enormous wall at the other. From within this enclosure we shall make terrific deals. You will feel good. You already feel better, just picturing this. I know it. My hands are powerful, my tower tall.

hey mh, i think your posts have been super thoughtful and i'm gonna try to remember to direct ppl to them next time there's a condescending dismissal of (non-liberal) bernie/trump middle america working class whites

see i dont trust these polls. number one the media distorts everything anyways. number two Trump is a huge celebrity and when people are polled or interviewed or otherwise engaged by the media on this they have a role to play. this is a roll enforced through Trump rallies and media analysis alike. people in general in America have a heavily distorted view of media figures and the power of the media itself (listen to me lol). any poll where they are asked a question on some big edgy topic is kind of putting them on the spot. i don't think people are this racist or this xenophobic but the media needs them to be for all their Trump articles.

to me he is just saying things he doesnt actually believe in just to get attention. he knows he can't do the things he says bc they are impossible, he is just saying it to get attention.

GOP Statisticians Develop New Branch Of Math To Formulate Scenarios In Which Trump Doesn’t Win Nomination

he is the trollwave candidate

so you're a supporter?

GOP Soothsayer Looks At Astronomical Charts

i support Sanders that's it.

i am your feared "Bernie Bro" in the ILX nomenclature of the day

Trump is speaking to what people perceive as the things that have led to negative changes in their own lives. Whether those are the real forces at work depends on the issue, and he has no ability now or ever to change some of them, but he's saying exactly what people want to hear

yes, and there's something not dissimilar in Sanders. free college tuition, single-payer healthcare. how many really expect these to come about? the feasibility is somewhat beside the point. what's more important is the fact that the demand is voiced. the voicing of the demand fulfills many functions: it is a negotiating stance, it is an expression of exasperation (despair even), it also outlines a vision. the very fact that it is outlandish and "out there" is an inherent part of its intended appeal.

free college tuition, single-payer healthcare. how many really expect these to come about?

it's called negotiating. it involves putting something you want on the table in the first place.

who cares if these things never materialize. people still give Obama shit for not closing guantanamo and doing a bunch of other stuff he promised. every politician promises more than they can do. do you not realize this?

i think fixing tuition is something feasible whereas building a wall to keep Mexico out and having them pay for it is different. yet people are connoting the two candidates like they are alike. it's absurd.

those goals are in theory long-term attainable with milestones along the way -- it could be argued that we're on a long-term march toward single payer with the affordable care act, but expecting significant movement in the next four or eight years is aggressive. we're stuck trying to clean up the individual states and their efforts to privatize or legislate their way around requirements right now. college education finance needs a lot of reform and, with a few stopgaps in place, we're still trickling toward long-term irreconcilable student debt

then there are the actionable, concrete proposals like "build a wall" that are completely unfeasible but very punchy talking points

to be clear: I don't mean to say that Sanders's and Trump's proposals are equally outlandish, but I do think that for supporters of both there's a feeling of, "ok, probably not going happen, but I'm glad someone is proposing that."

because, of course, I can read minds

it's called negotiating. it involves putting something you want on the table in the first place.

I did mention that they fulfill a function as negotiating stances!

they're different flavors of pie in the sky, but both are catering to an audience that wants easily recognizable goals

I don't see it exactly as negotiating so much as changing the terms of the debate. I mean sorry, but that's not how negotiating works, you don't just say a really really big number and figure they'll meet you halfway, the other side is a sentient being that can see the lay of the land as well as you do. And you have to have a position to negotiate from.

that is how DT negotiates irl, which is why he mostly owns naming rights on overpriced luxury properties and veblen goods right now

I mean Bernie Sanders vs a GOP congress: "I demand free college tuition" would not be an effective "negotiating" technique -- or else what? However his speaking about it can help to shift the populace into a mindset of thinking "yes, actually college SHOULD be affordable," which can in turn lead to pressure on govt in the long run.

who cares if these things never materialize. people still give Obama shit for not closing guantanamo and doing a bunch of other stuff he promised. every politician promises more than they can do. do you not realize this?

of course I do. I also think there's varying degrees of feasibility. When O promised he would close Guantanamo, my sense is that a lot of people thought this was doable within his term. Sanders's proposals are a little different: he acknowledges that he can't do it alone. that he needs "millions and millions" of us to help him out.

I mean Bernie Sanders vs a GOP congress: "I demand free college tuition" would not be an effective "negotiating" technique -- or else what? However his speaking about it can help to shift the populace into a mindset of thinking "yes, actually college SHOULD be affordable," which can in turn lead to pressure on govt in the long run.

yes exactly. it doesn't necessarily mean an outright deal negotiation. it's about shifting expectations and discourse.

I mean the clear distinction between Sanders and Trump in this sense is that Sanders says we'll need a political revolution if we want any of his proposals enacted, whereas Trump is more like "it'll happen because I'll say so." In either case, one is left with a yawning gap, a large question mark, between "promise" and fulfillment.

A Dumb Bro, No?

what you had should have been yours forever, even if it's something that no longer exists. take it.

Even if it's something that *never* existed, like an America in which the women and the blacks were happy and knew their place.

“Sometimes we’ll do it for fun, and they’ll start screaming at me, ‘Do the swear-in! Do the swear-in!’” Trump said on “Today.” “If it’s offensive, if there’s anything wrong with it, I wouldn’t do it.”

Given the similarities to Hitler’s “Heil” salute, Trump was asked if he would stop doing the pledge.

“Well, I’ll certainly look into it,” Trump replied. “I mean, I’d like to find out that that’s true, but I’ll certainly look into it, because I don’t want to offend anybody. But I can tell you that it’s been amazingly received.”

where does Trump find all the time to look into all these things

When thinking about how to get Mexico to build the wall.

Wait is he "looking into" the heil salute...? Like he's gonna find out what it was?

he also needed to look into the kkk

lol: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/bush-family-member-endorses-cruz-220433

the heil thing, like everything else in his campaign, felt like a joke he was playing on his supporters