“some Republicans argued [their complete loss in the 2025 elections] only reflected the fact that Trump himself was not on the ballot.” If that’s their excuse, then they have affirmed that their entire future is lost, because Trump will never, ever be on ANY ballot in the future.
They'll be in trouble for sure, though I still won't be surprised if he tries to force himself onto ballots somehow; but it'll never make it through courts, and there is no way they would get their constitutional amendment approved under proper constitutional constraints.
Wow.. that took some time to write. I concluded long ago that Trump is the most powerful politician in America since Reagan. It is too bad he did not use his talent ( to get votes) and power to really fix America after the last 30-40 years of malaise. Trump is not a Republican or Democrat; he is not a libertarian; he is not a conservative. He is the ultimate Trumper. He has no philosophical foundation and has no ability to understand the long run. He stands for one thing. Himself.
It was a tough one to write because there were SOOO many stories that came out in the past week about all kinds of different aspects of the loss of confidence in Trump. I tried not to repeat much but pull together parts from one story that were not included in another and catch the gist of each. But it is an awfully long article.
You are right, Trump is Trump. He stands for nothing but whatever works for him at the moment.
We put up with a very bad candidate in the party we tend to vote for (whether Democrat or Republican) and use the horribleness of the other party to justify the bad candidates in our own. So, both parties keep putting out the junk their side is willing to keep voting for.
In my view, we have a uniparty system where the option on both sides are nothing but clown cars. Where are the Abraham Lincolns and the George Washingtons and the Thomas Jeffersons?
I find it hard to believe that in a nation of hundreds of millions of people no such potential candidates exist. Yet, all we ever get is ridiculous clowns because thinking people probably don't toe the party line enough to make it up through the party rank.
While I voted for Reagan twice and liked him a lot at the time, there are now some policies of his that I think did a lot of damage to the country--one being the special capital gains tax break that has hugely expanded the gap between the rich and the rest by making almost all of their income set at a lower tax rate than some in the middle class pay. They already had the huge advantage of their gains being tax deferred for as many years as they held the investment, making their portfolios something like a giant 401K. His huge military buildup set us on a path of steeper deficits forever, breaking his primary promise of balancing the budget.
Nevertheless, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat over either of those two dementia-infested clowns--Biden or Trump. Reagan got dementia, too; but, by the time it was becoming a serious problem, he was out anyway. At least, he could all the rest of his years think clearly and generally wisely and could find common cause with his political enemies to get things done without skirting congress. He sold his case to the public, which pressured congress to vote for his ideas.
He didn't make the country more divisive just for division's sake--just for political theater. People protested his ideas that they didn't like, but he wasn't constantly turning everyone against each other just by being as divisive as possible. He also didn't lie on an everyday basis nor seek to serve himself in every government transaction he made. He genuinely cared about America first.
Voting for the lesser of two evils is definitely the only option the two-party system keeps giving. When I don't like either of the evils, I generally just don't vote, as was the case this time. Or I pick a candidate I like that is not in either party, even though I know that candidate can never win in this system.
When I don't vote, I participate by pointing out how horrible both candidates are. I couldn't stomach either man this time and didn't want to be responsible for putting either one in office. But clearly one or the other would get there because that is how the system works. That is how we have gotten to the horrible state America is in.
Both parties LOVE huge deficits, even though the Republicans always protest that they don't; but put them in power, and the deficit always remains or even typically goes up. The only difference is what they are willing to spend the borrowed money on. So, we've gone endlessly deeper in debt.
Only when we had Gingrich in charge of the House's purse strings and Clinton in charge of the White House did we find a compromise with somewhat raised taxes and cut expenses that actually brought us into the neighborhood of balancing the budget, instead of wantonly spending our grandchildren's money on the things we want or think we need.
“some Republicans argued [their complete loss in the 2025 elections] only reflected the fact that Trump himself was not on the ballot.” If that’s their excuse, then they have affirmed that their entire future is lost, because Trump will never, ever be on ANY ballot in the future.
They'll be in trouble for sure, though I still won't be surprised if he tries to force himself onto ballots somehow; but it'll never make it through courts, and there is no way they would get their constitutional amendment approved under proper constitutional constraints.
Wow.. that took some time to write. I concluded long ago that Trump is the most powerful politician in America since Reagan. It is too bad he did not use his talent ( to get votes) and power to really fix America after the last 30-40 years of malaise. Trump is not a Republican or Democrat; he is not a libertarian; he is not a conservative. He is the ultimate Trumper. He has no philosophical foundation and has no ability to understand the long run. He stands for one thing. Himself.
It was a tough one to write because there were SOOO many stories that came out in the past week about all kinds of different aspects of the loss of confidence in Trump. I tried not to repeat much but pull together parts from one story that were not included in another and catch the gist of each. But it is an awfully long article.
You are right, Trump is Trump. He stands for nothing but whatever works for him at the moment.
would you rather have biden back in power, or whoever was runnimg the country for him?
We put up with a very bad candidate in the party we tend to vote for (whether Democrat or Republican) and use the horribleness of the other party to justify the bad candidates in our own. So, both parties keep putting out the junk their side is willing to keep voting for.
In my view, we have a uniparty system where the option on both sides are nothing but clown cars. Where are the Abraham Lincolns and the George Washingtons and the Thomas Jeffersons?
I find it hard to believe that in a nation of hundreds of millions of people no such potential candidates exist. Yet, all we ever get is ridiculous clowns because thinking people probably don't toe the party line enough to make it up through the party rank.
While I voted for Reagan twice and liked him a lot at the time, there are now some policies of his that I think did a lot of damage to the country--one being the special capital gains tax break that has hugely expanded the gap between the rich and the rest by making almost all of their income set at a lower tax rate than some in the middle class pay. They already had the huge advantage of their gains being tax deferred for as many years as they held the investment, making their portfolios something like a giant 401K. His huge military buildup set us on a path of steeper deficits forever, breaking his primary promise of balancing the budget.
Nevertheless, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat over either of those two dementia-infested clowns--Biden or Trump. Reagan got dementia, too; but, by the time it was becoming a serious problem, he was out anyway. At least, he could all the rest of his years think clearly and generally wisely and could find common cause with his political enemies to get things done without skirting congress. He sold his case to the public, which pressured congress to vote for his ideas.
He didn't make the country more divisive just for division's sake--just for political theater. People protested his ideas that they didn't like, but he wasn't constantly turning everyone against each other just by being as divisive as possible. He also didn't lie on an everyday basis nor seek to serve himself in every government transaction he made. He genuinely cared about America first.
We always end up voting for the lesser of 2 evils
Voting for the lesser of two evils is definitely the only option the two-party system keeps giving. When I don't like either of the evils, I generally just don't vote, as was the case this time. Or I pick a candidate I like that is not in either party, even though I know that candidate can never win in this system.
When I don't vote, I participate by pointing out how horrible both candidates are. I couldn't stomach either man this time and didn't want to be responsible for putting either one in office. But clearly one or the other would get there because that is how the system works. That is how we have gotten to the horrible state America is in.
Both parties LOVE huge deficits, even though the Republicans always protest that they don't; but put them in power, and the deficit always remains or even typically goes up. The only difference is what they are willing to spend the borrowed money on. So, we've gone endlessly deeper in debt.
Only when we had Gingrich in charge of the House's purse strings and Clinton in charge of the White House did we find a compromise with somewhat raised taxes and cut expenses that actually brought us into the neighborhood of balancing the budget, instead of wantonly spending our grandchildren's money on the things we want or think we need.