SocraticGadfly: I'm not THAT afraid of a President Trump

September 28, 2016

I'm not THAT afraid of a President Trump

In brief, here's why.

First, let's stipulate that Trump, not Ted Cruz, truly best represents Tea Party voters (voters, not astroturf groups) on two key issues.

Anybody who's seen Tea Partiers in Texas, let alone Trump campaign rallies, know they're virulently anti-immigrant. Cruz is not.

And, white working class GOP voters, especially those of the Tea Party brand, very especially those who have, or have had, manufacturing jobs, are strongly anti-free trade. Cruz is not.

On the former, two notes.

First, if Paul Ryan (assuming he remains as Speaker of the House) continues John Boehner's stance that a majority of the GOP caucus must support a bill for it to get to the floor, Trump's wall is unlikely to do so, let alone pass the House, at least if the caucus of the caucus is by secret ballot. Many GOP Congresscritters will see the size of the bill for a Trump-size wall, and knowing that he can't make Mexico pay, won't want the U.S. to pay.

Second, even if such a bill were discharged, it would never pass.

That said, it would be fun to see border-state GOP Congresscritters, if the caucus vote were NOT secret, squirm into voting contortions.

As for free trade?

Trump's a hypocrite, but one with, for him, a reasonably time-consistent stance. The TPP is more likely to be dead with him as president than as Clinton.

Plus, Trump said earlier this year he opposed privatizing Social Security, and actually wants to shore it up.

As for the Religious Right portion of the GOP, sure, Trump has mouthed 2 Corinthians and has its leadership sucking up to him, but when was the last time you heard him mention either "abortion" or "gay rights"?

Well, he actually did two weeks ago, and his comments, overall, aren't further right than any other typical Republican, although with even less information. And, he has yet to spew about gay rights.

As for his racism? That which makes many people fear him the most? Well, as with the likes of Ohio county chairwoman Kathy Miller, the Trump campaign is doing America a favor. It's ripping the lid off racism that still exists among many Americans, the suave bullshit of Preznit Kumbaya aside.

So, he gets elected.

He puts his man on SCOTUS instead of Merrick Garland, who was "meh" anyway.

The next recession hits. (It likely will.)

Dems get a real candidate, and move left not right, and they win.

Or Greens up their appeal, and the recession isn't real bad, and Trump re-election looms.

Jeet Heer from The New Republic largely agrees. He notes that Trump is, in essence, a less Religious Right tilting Pat Buchanan. No, Pat didn't get the GOP nomination in 1992. That said, he was running against an incumbent, and Pat had less charm than Ronnie Reagan did against Ford in 1976. But, Buchanan showed the way for Trump was open.

I mean, this goes back to National Review's call-out/literary purge of John Birchers even while failing to admit its own racism.

The only real fear I have from a Trump win is that a lot of Republican national leaders distancing themselves from him now might decide his racism is no big deal six months after his potential election.

But, even that would be "trumped" by Dems then nominating a better candidate in 2016 than Clinton, with or without a recession.

Paul Street at Truthdig totally agrees, telling Hillbots and fellow travelers to stop peddling the fascist meme. All folks like you do is solidify my Green voting not just now, but for future elections. And, I'm not even a Millennial that you're likely to see slip away for the future.

This, buried near the end of the second page of the long piece, is the nutgraf:
Neofascism is simply not where the American ruling class is right now. When it is, we will know. If and when it gets there, it will put forward a far more serious and capable frontman than the preposterous Donald—a man so uninterested in the actual work of ruling that he offered the “moderate” Republican John Kasich control over “domestic and foreign policy” in a Trump White House if Kasich would be his running mate.
Exactly.


Far from being a Manchurian candidate, one could argue The Donald is a Manchurian False Flag candidate, if anything.

If Hillbots wanted to do more sensible fear-mongering, they'd try making intelligent voters afraid of President trump dying in office and being succeeded by President Mike Pence.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

lol

"I mean, this goes back to National Review's call-out/literary purge of John Birchers even while failing to admit its own racism."

No, what it really comes back to is that, no matter how hard they bow down to your orthodoxies, Republicans are racist, especially if they ever decry conduct by someone with skin darker than a paper bag. So why not go all out with it? If you're going to go so far as to marry an ugly Mexican woman and you still get called racist (Jeb!), what's the point of even dodging the label? You might as well build that into your strategy and adapt to it.