Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

A really shitty business with poor customer service that will be bought out within a year

so are we to understand that Trump's camp didn't understand the implications of Cruz's speech, or simply didn't read it??

how the hell does this guy have a 40% chance to become president according to 538? *guliani voice* WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY COUNTRY?

Asked how he would solve that problem, Mr. Trump paused, then said: “Suggest Ban."

frogbs... you're fired!

xxxxpost kickstarter campaign every Apr 15

cruz showed 'backbone' last night only in the way of a nervy shithead debate-squad asshole who is positively wriggling with delight that he gets to perform the having-a-backbone role by trolling a booing audience. it's great theater and a nice turn of events but let's not get it mixed up with cruz being the Principled Old-Fashioned Statesman he so palpably yearns to be taken as.

Cruz is very principled; it's just that the foundation of those principles are "Take Me Seriously" and "Give Me Power"

Asked how he would solve that problem, Mr. Trump paused, then said: “Suggest Ban."

― Here, let me Danesplain that for you (jjjusten),

hahaha

the screen flickering and scrambling behind him is way too on the nose

― le Histoire du Edgy Miley (difficult listening hour)

during his speech somebody fed ticker tape into the computer containing only the word "why?"

they weren't booing, they were saying Cru-uuuuz

xpost I dunno, Cruz's speech seemed pretty courageous to me. *all the usual disclaimers about how he's a terrible asshole* and the speech was self-serving - it's purpose was to set him up for 2020 as an early opposer to trump withinh the GOP. But those incentives would apply to any number of people in the GOP right now, who instead meekly avoid the topic, or do whatever Rubio is doing right now, or do the Homer Simpson ghosting into the bush thing. It takes guts to stand up and be booed and screamed at by a group of some of the worst people on the planet, no matter how right or wrong you are about something.

xp spit out my coffee on that one

You guys love this horserace shit, huh? Meanwhile back on Planet Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjIqii8bA-Y

wow if only i were capable of considering more than one thing but that is impossible oh well

yeah, and also stop talking about pokemon go! this is SERIOUS BUSINESS!

how dare people talk about the RNC on a thread devoted to the election

anyway now that we've sufficiently demonstrated our disdain for REAL HUMAN SUFFERING, is this the bit where we rehash the argument about whether the 9/11 attackers were "cowards"?

imo theres actually something more important than the syrian war so thinking abt the war is frivolous

Mr. Cruz said the response of Trump supporters was troubling.

“What does it say when you stand up and say ‘vote your conscience,’” he began, “and rabid supporters of our nominee begin screaming, ‘What a horrible thing to say!’”

If the nominee cannot meet that threshold, he said, “We are not going to win and don’t deserve to win.”

honestly, this is what i have been waiting for republican leaders to say.

cruz's lone rebel schtick is tedious and self-aggrandizing -- especially because he champions the cause of evil -- but last night i think he proved that he is more of a human being than rubio, ryan, et al

granted, he was the one who sucked up to trump so much in the beginning.

cruz's lone rebel schtick is tedious and self-aggrandizing -- especially because he champions the cause of evil -- but last night i think he proved that he is more of a human being than rubio, ryan, et al

― Treeship

ok i don't want to be super-pedant here but they're all human beings, ok? we shouldn't judge people's fundamental worth as human beings by a single act, no matter how brave or cowardly. good job, ted. you're still a lowlife prick and i still wouldn't vote for you in a million years, but you did a good thing last night.

christie begging for scraps and getting nothing def doesnt look great in comparison

do think cruz has some hardcore conservative principles fwiw hes a believer where trump/christie/rudy r pure power worshipers

Tim Kaine joins 55 Republican senators & 13 blue dogs in advocacy for bank deregulation. *This week.*

no way he is the VP choice. i can't believe hillary would be that bad at knowing which way the wind was blowing.

ehh

i hope not!

I kind of wonder whether Cruz did it out of spite, based on how nasty things got when they were essentially the last two candidates in the primary. Like if he dropped out early for whatever reason, or had Ryan's job, would he have made the same speech?

Absent all else, 'vote your conscience' should be such a value-neutral statement that any odious piece of shit should feel comfortable hanging their odious piece of shit beliefs on it. Whatever the circumstances, people shouting down the concept basically confirms my belief that many Trump supporters are essentially nihilists.

it was def p personal xp

Based on what I've read I'm not sure anyone heard the "vote your conscience". I think booing more about failure to endorse or even really mention Trump.

"vote your conscience" is a buzzphrase. that's what the delegates who wanted to deviate from the will of their state's voters said they would do.

Kaine is 1/4 on with the UK bookies to be the VP pick with Vilsack closest at 3/1. If anyone has a better suggestion there's an opportunity to make some money.

xps

cruz is a fascinating figure worthy of a sinclair lewis novel. have never quite grasped his psychology but the relentless alienation of those nominally on his "side" strikes me as something derives as much from some deep compulsion of his personality as it does from any political calculation.

xxxp Part personal, part chess move for 2020. I don't think it has much to do with real convictions that Cruz actually holds (although I do agree he's marginally less spineless than most of the other candidatesx is).

cruz is essentially babbitt only creepier

cruz is a fascinating figure worthy of a sinclair lewis novel. have never quite grasped his psychology but the relentless alienation of those nominally on his "side" strikes me as something derives as much from some deep compulsion of his personality as it does from any political calculation.

― ryan,

The only way to tell his story is to view him through the lenses of other characters or to wear HAZMAT gear when writing it.

i know some people who wear hazmat gear when writing, but that's just a fetish thing

Not Babbit imo- Elmer Gantry

i can't believe hillary would be that bad at knowing which way the wind was blowing.

sadlol

xp tho the evangelical bent would lead one that way imo gantry is focused on his internal hypocrite a bit more, babbitt seems unable to come to terms with what a horrible status quo slimeball he is.

I kind of wonder whether Cruz did it out of spite, based on how nasty things got when they were essentially the last two candidates in the primary. Like if he dropped out early for whatever reason, or had Ryan's job, would he have made the same speech?

if you watch the highlights here he says "I'm not in the habit of supporting people who insult my father and my wife." I'm very glad there is at least one prominent Republican arguing that it's meaningful to be so personal and horrible as Trump is, and I just wish he could make that extra reach to say "between the two candidates, HRC is better," because somewhere in his withered heart he knows that's the truth

he does but that's actual career suicide

"Vote your conscience" is what congressional leaders say to their caucuses before a vote to signal that it's okay to vote contrary to the party line. This is the context for Cruz's use of the term - its signalling to Republicans that it's ok not to vote for Trump. I would hope this is obvious.

this morning he said the republicans "deserve to lose"

ya u necessarily dont need to evoke yr conscience if it agrees w the status quo xp

while brushing his teeth earlier he remarked "this fuckin sucks I was supposed to be the fuckin dude you steaming piles of crap"

this quote from the nyt sesh the other day is bringing me over to the 'trump is addicted to speed' camp

I have a friend who builds plants, that’s what he does, he’s the biggest in the world, he builds plants like automobile plants, computer plants, that’s all he does. He doesn’t build apartments, he doesn’t build office space, he builds plants. I said to him the other day, “How are you doing?” He goes, “Unbelievable.” Oh, great, that’s good, thinking about the United States, right, because he’s based in the United States. So I said, “Good, so the country is doing well.” He said, “No, no, not our country, you’ve got to see what I’m doing in Mexico.” He said: “The business there is unbelievable, the new plants we are building. People moving from the United States.” That’s what he does. One-story plants. You understand?

im on board with every trump conspiracy theyre all true but especially that one

“Christie turned over his political testicles long ago,” Cruz’s campaign manger, Jeff Roe, said on the Chris Stigall radio show Thursday. “I don’t take what he has to say with any meaning. You know, he embarrassed himself pretty quickly in this.”

cruz camp feeling itself this morn