US Politics, April 2020 -- Where's the Vax Returns?

I cannot imagine too many people are gonna be eager to hear what Trump has to say the minute he's been stripped of any power

i think Trump is going to be the central animating force in conservatism until the day he dies. i don't think it's going to be like it was with Dubya; Trump isn't going to retreat from the spotlight and allow anyone else to fill the vacuum.

Obama, in his Biden endorsement video, explicitly called for a public option, which surprised me -- and then when I looked it up I realized Obama got on board with the public option years ago. It's funny, the way politics has moved, I've gotten used to the idea that Obama was a timid incrementalist who saw ACA/Romneycare as the best possible course for American healthcare.

He also said that if he was running now he wouldn't run the same campaign he ran in 2008.

Yep, that jumped out at me too.

I forget on which thread yesterday I pointed it out. It's rare a former president makes public an implicit rebuke against himself.

i see that as optimistic. it's more that he sees the winds have changed, largely due to Sanders and Warren

that's a pretty milk rebuke, though. what candidate would run the same campaign in 2020 that they did in 2008?

(ok, i just realized the answer to that is joe biden, but my point still sort of stands)

Amash considering run for President as a Libertarian. Can't see this impacting anything very much frankly.

maybe it'll have an influence on all the left-leaning people who have been approvingly retweeting Amash's tweets the last several months, like he's anything other than a lifelong republican who realized trump is a dick and rebranded into a libertarian

yeah once they get a wind of his actual stances on most things they'll come to their senses. I like Romney more than Amash.

i at least respect the consistency of his wrongness, that still feels preferable to me to the constant oscillation between mealy-mouthed "principled" stands and outright toadying as exemplified by Mittens.

maaaaybe he could complicate Utah, although that might have been more competitive without mcmullin last time.

i think Trump is going to be the central animating force in conservatism until the day he dies. i don't think it's going to be like it was with Dubya; Trump isn't going to retreat from the spotlight and allow anyone else to fill the vacuum.

I'm sure the QAnon types will follow him to the end of the earth but I feel like we're 1 or 5 years away from the Republican party memory holing him entirely. the GOP's fealty to him is entirely due to the power he wields and I really think as soon as he's out they'll treat him the same as they did during the 2016 primaries

i think amash has always been a doctrinaire libertarian, suckered into the republican party by believing hard in tea party nonsense

tbf to Amash I think he’s always been pretty libertarian, in a much more “principled” way than either of the Pauls. but also in the interest of fairness, someone should apprise Justin that there are about 53 white guys in America who actually align with this ideology, and that 99.63% of the internet “libertarians” that seemed to have such an outsized online presence during the Obama years have gone full-on alt-right pepe/ MAGA chud

lol yeah xpost

frogbs otm, I think. It's gonna be really rough when these bootlickers start pretending they always hated him and never supported him.

I've no doubt every Trump bootlicker in Congress loathes him beacuse they have to lick his boots, and they'll abandon him if he loses or leaves office in 2024.

Then they'll find another pair of boots.

there should be a distinction between other politicians and run-of-the mill alt-right dipshits. politicians, as alfred says, will drop him asap.

the masses of dipshits, though - they might stay with him longer than you all think. remember that they were into him before his presidency, too, when his main issue was obama's birth certificate. and they could stick with him afterward, too, in the same way that alex jones managed to find a large audience. it's almost better to not be in power, for incredibly dumb people on the right - much easier to be an opposition party and run rampant with conspiracy theories then running a government and dealing with crises

I'm hoping Trump endures an exile more humiliating even than Nixon's. (Probably not possible, in that Trump won't be calling up current presidents and abjectly trying to ingratiate himself by offering unsolicited counsel.)

I think the fact that the trump family doesn't have any deep ties to republican politics or conservativism in general increases the chance that the exit phase will be a shitshow. they don't care about burning the party down.

He will when one of his kids becomes President, which feels quite plausible even now xp

idk I hope I’m wrong but win or lose in Nov, I think he’s going to be the new conservative standard bearer, a la Reagan, especially once the majority of voters aren’t old enough to have voted for Reagan

his unwavering popularity within the party is shocking. i guess losing to sleepy corrupt Joe could shake some of them loose, but I just can’t see future conservative (and lib media) darlings like Haley or Hawley or that whiney one-eyed bitch ever saying a cross word about DJT.

(mostly bc I think the conservative project is going to be pretty mask off wrt white nationalism going forward, and Trump was the guy who really moved the needle on that)

To amend what I said above, he will be offering lots of unsolicited counsel, non-stop from the moment he leaves, more than any ex-president ever, it just won't be in private phone calls.

and he'll charge you nicely for it, it'll the best advice ever. Best advice.

It's gonna be really rough when these bootlickers start pretending they always hated him and never supported him.

they've had several years of practice wildly flip flopping their beliefs based on the whims of Daddy Trump and at this point nobody expects them to have any principles so I doubt they'll ever really be pressed on it. fwiw I don't expect any of them to speak out against him but the idea that TrumpTV/OAN is gonna have any influence on the Congress of 2022 is pretty doubtful

and they could stick with him afterward, too, in the same way that alex jones managed to find a large audience.

as awful of a person as he is (and Hannity, and Rush, and Tucker, etc), he's at least an entertaining TV personality. even FOX news has trouble running uninterrupted Trump for more than a few minutes at a time. even during his Apprentice days he was basically glued to the teleprompter.

his unwavering popularity within the party is shocking.

Not when you consider that it tracks with an overall contraction in Republican party member ID. Fewer and fewer people actually identify as Republicans; the ones that are left are the most devoted cult brethren, the poison-drinkers.

I also think even if Joe wins the popular and electoral vote handily, the 90+% of Trump supporters in the GOP will go to their graves absolutely convinced that he was cheated/ deep state shenanigans/ voter fraud etc.

and not one single GOP leader or future candidate will attempt to disabuse them of this.

oh Grancy

is "routing calls through China" the explanation here as to why Pelosi thought Zoom was a "Chinese entity" or is anyone going to point out the CEO of Zoom is a Chinese-American and this is also maybe, perhaps the reason for her confusion. https://t.co/YJ5NYIfbOr

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 15, 2020

Zoom is 100% garbage, I agree with Nancy here on the top-line.

^^^

There's no wrong reason to be anti-Zoom. Zoom is bad news for a host of reasons.

it's about heritage

Pro-Coronavirus rally in Michigan prominently features confederate and Trump flags. https://t.co/DKSD8kJ06D

— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) April 15, 2020

I’m trying to get my head round a “pro Coronavirus rally”

not complicated when u remember that these people are death cultists

Okay so

Pro-Coronavirus rally

(record-scratch noise) Wait, what? Is a "Pro-Coronavirus rally" at thing now? What are the chants like?

"Hey hey, ho ho / masks and gloves have got to go!"

"Social distancing doesn't inspire us / please let us inhale that virus!"

"Science and public health are bosh! / Hell, no, we won't wash!"

"Breathing air is overrated / Please let me be intubated!"

"We crave the sweet release of death / We don't want another breath!"

i am pro Coronafederacy; they're assholes anyway so let them lose their health

Amash considering run for President as a Libertarian. Can't see this impacting anything very much frankly.

― akm,Wednesday, April 15, 2020 11:08 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Interestingly, the Detroit News conducted a Biden vs. Trump vs. Amash poll in Michigan nearly a year ago (late May 2019). The results were Biden 45, Trump 39, Amash 10.

feel like Amash would do numbers in WA, OR, ID

Wait, what? Is a "Pro-Coronavirus rally" at thing now? What are the chants like?

They are protesting the shutdown and demanding businesses be reopened.

They are doing this by sitting in their cars, separated from each other.

Three percent of Bernie voters went for Gary Johnson in 2016: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-was-helped-by-the-neverhillary-vote-what-does-that-mean-for-his-chances-now/

Maybe same number would vote Amash? Or maybe those people were just extremely confused?

XP Did Kid Rock perform?

Not when you consider that it tracks with an overall contraction in Republican party member ID. Fewer and fewer people actually identify as Republicans; the ones that are left are the most devoted cult brethren, the poison-drinkers.

I have wanted to believe this for some time but the numbers are just not there; GOP party ID has shrunk, but only minimally. There are millions of people who in the middle 2016 were voting for Ted Cruz and pleading for someone to stop Trump who now are full Trump brethren. But the very fact that this is possible is why those same people, should Trump lose, are honestly going to believe in 2024 that they were Josh Hawley Republicans all along and it's a good thing the party has moved past Trump.

those same people, should Trump lose, are honestly going to believe in 2024 that they were Josh Hawley Republicans all along and it's a good thing the party has moved past Trump.

otm

i finally got my mom and dad to say they wouldn't vote for trump this time around. they claim they were "duped"

(btw, the thing they were "duped" about is that trump seemed to take coronavirus seriously last week, and they think it's overblown)

Will be forever haunted by this image of protestors in Ohio demanding the governor open businesses back up pic.twitter.com/P0nivaYSsY

— future canon (@futurecanon) April 15, 2020

i don't like those kind of movies

TS: Protestors in Joker make-up vs. Protestors wearing V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks.

So, at least there was one protestor observing the CDC recommendation to wear a face mask.

i finally got my mom and dad to say they wouldn't vote for trump this time around. they claim they were "duped"

awesome, Karl - good work!