Cruz Drops Out -- Trump to Win Nomination

[mheslep]

Why do people seem to think presidents matter? This country is $19T in debt...

Getting the right President clearly matters if debt is the principal concern. Sen. Paul submitted any number of detailed budgets that would have quickly zeroed the deficit, and demonstrated he was immune to breaking that discipline for either more military spending or more entitlement spending. He might have been overridden by an all Democratic congress, but I doubt by a Republican congress. Sen. Sanders on the other hand proposes spending at least 13 trillion more over 10 years, with a fraction of that covered by new taxes.
http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/10/13/the-bernie-sanders-budget-math/

 

[Hornbein]

Your recounting of history is a little off here.

In 1880, James Garfield (R) ran against W.S. Hancock (D) for the presidency. Earlier, James Blaine had been a candidate for the GOP nomination, but withdrew in favor of Garfield, and Blaine later served briefly in the Garfield administration as secretary of state. Blaine resigned after Garfield died in the fall of 1881 from his assassin's bullet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield

In 1884, Blaine was nominated by the GOP for the presidency after a convention fight with Pres. Arthur. In the general election, Blaine's opponent was Democrat Grover Cleveland, who was reported to be supporting a child out of wedlock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Blaine

In any event, the election of 1884 was decided by one of the thinnest of margins, about 0.25% of the popular vole, in favor of Cleveland (the vote in the Electoral College was 219-182).

Oops. Cleveland, not Garfield.

Cleveland WAS supporting a child out of wedlock. The only question was whether or not he was actually the father.

 

[Astronuc]

Getting the right President clearly matters if debt is the principal concern. Sen. Paul submitted any number of detailed budgets that would have quickly zeroed the deficit, and demonstrated he was immune to breaking that discipline for either more military spending or more entitlement spending. He might have been overridden by an all Democratic congress, but I doubt by a Republican congress.

Is this the Ryan plan to which one is referring?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_Prosperity
https://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy15_blueprint.pdf

 

[mheslep]

Is this the Ryan plan to which one is referring?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_Prosperity
https://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy15_blueprint.pdf

Senator Rand Paul, who ran for President this year.

https://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/FY2014Budget.pdf

 

[Kevin McHugh]

Getting the right President clearly matters if debt is the principal concern. Sen. Paul submitted any number of detailed budgets that would have quickly zeroed the deficit, and demonstrated he was immune to breaking that discipline for either more military spending or more entitlement spending. He might have been overridden by an all Democratic congress, but I doubt by a Republican congress. Sen. Sanders on the other hand proposes spending at least 13 trillion more over 10 years, with a fraction of that covered by new taxes.
http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/10/13/the-bernie-sanders-budget-math/

Yeah, but you can't get the right president as long as the 0.1% have their say. Every election cycle the Hobson's choice gets worse and worse.

 

[Tobias Funke]

It's baffling that people are still so shocked about this. It's been happening for months and months, years if you trace it back to the Tea Party. I get accused of being inflammatory for asking, but what's so shocking about all of this? You'd have to be living in a bubble to not realize the anger and increasing distrust of all things government on the part of conservatives (the "establishment Republicans " are now finally victims of their own plan) over the past decade at least, so it was only a matter of time.

I've still yet to see an explanation for Trump's success besides the most obvious one. What have they been so far? That he's running as a joke? What does it say about our country, or our Republicans to be specific, if someone can run as a joke and get the Republican nomination? Is it gerrymandering or an unfortunate result of our election system? If so, same question about what that says about our democracy. Or is it that real Republicans don't like him and only the bad ones---and probably actually Democrats if you really think about it---support him? Just about every explanation has been offered except the obvious one that Trump is a good representative of current Republican values. I know that in this case, anecdotal evidence is acceptable on this site if someone's 5 out of 6 Republican friends don't like him, but we need to stop denying a blatantly obvious fact. Now that he's literally been chosen to represent Republicans, it's looking more and more ridiculous and desperate to do so.

 

[Dotini]

If Trump is going to make this nomination work and get to the presidency, he's going to need a VP who is massively qualified and will quell the concerns of the doubters on both sides of the aisle.

I suggest Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator for many terms who works well across the aisle, and who served two years as Obama's Secretary of Defense.

 

[Hornbein]

That he's running as a joke? What does it say about our country, or our Republicans to be specific, if someone can run as a joke and get the Republican nomination?

Haiti recently elected a clown as President. I saw a video of the to-be President dryhumping some guy on a stage.

Haiti's government is a joke, completely dominated by the USA, which invades Haiti whenever it is displeased. So why not? The vote expressed how the voters felt about their country.

For decades the Rs have been telling their voters that giving big business everything it wanted would create good jobs. The result was the opposite. Eventually the voters caught on.

The GOP couldn't get enough votes from normal people so they mobilized fanatics. Now the fanatics are a majority. The demon has escaped the pentagram.

 

[Tobias Funke]

The GOP couldn't get enough votes from normal people so they mobilized fanatics. Now the fanatics are a majority. The demon has escaped the pentagram.

I basically agree but this makes it sound like there were sleeper cells of fanatics just lying in wait to hijack the Republican party. (People strangely use that very word, even though he was given the nomination with no use of force.) Normal people don't just become fanatics within a year; that has been happening for some time.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I basically agree but this makes it sound like there were sleeper cells of fanatics just lying in wait to hijack the Republican party. (People strangely use that very word, even though he was given the nomination with no use of force.) Normal people don't just become fanatics within a year; that has been happening for some time.

Yep. It was easy to see this coming long ago.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/the-last-throes-of-the-republican-party.312550/#post-2189709

 

[Evo]

Haiti recently elected a clown as President. I saw a video of the to-be President dryhumping some guy on a stage.

Haiti's government is a joke, completely dominated by the USA, which invades Haiti whenever it is displeased. So why not? The vote expressed how the voters felt about their country.

For decades the Rs have been telling their voters that giving big business everything it wanted would create good jobs. The result was the opposite. Eventually the voters caught on.

The GOP couldn't get enough votes from normal people so they mobilized fanatics. Now the fanatics are a majority. The demon has escaped the pentagram.

Please, if you are going to make claims, please post sources.

 

[Hornbein]

Please, if you are going to make claims, please post sources.

Here's Michel Martelly, until recently president of Haiti. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmBnfWjCkIc.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01865/Video_purporting_t_1865763a.jpg

Martelly in large part owes his presidency to Hillary Clinton, who, as secretary of state, flew personally to Port-au-Prince after 2010’s first-round results showed him eliminated from the race, to demand he be put back in. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/haiti-michel-martelly/461991/

Haitian enthusiasm for the election was so great that fewer than 17% of eligible voters participated. The Atlantic declared the 2011 election a "farce."

Pre-presidential Martelly would sometimes perform naked.

 

[StatGuy2000]

If Trump is going to make this nomination work and get to the presidency, he's going to need a VP who is massively qualified and will quell the concerns of the doubters on both sides of the aisle.

I suggest Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator for many terms who works well across the aisle, and who served two years as Obama's Secretary of Defense.

I have a difficult time believing that Chuck Hagel, with his independent streak combined with his having served 2 years as Secretary of Defense under the Obama administration, would ever consider accepting the offer of VP under a Trump presidential candidacy.

 

[Tobias Funke]

Yep. It was easy to see this coming long ago.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/the-last-throes-of-the-republican-party.312550/#post-2189709

The extremism has become so normalized that even Republicans who claim that Trump "only" mobilized fanatics still can't bring themselves to vote for Clinton. Trump's most odious supporters seem to intuitively understand that so-called moderate Republicans will succumb to years of fear-mongering and eventually side with them. Maybe they hit on the right word to describe them with "cucks."*

For anyone who doesn't know, yes, that has actually become a somewhat common insult among hardcore Trump fans. And he's the Republican nominee. Let that sink in.

*Edit: To be clear, I don't really think they hit on the right word. I just wanted to highlight how ridiculous they are.

Also, I didn't mention the other options moderates have: vote third party or don't vote at all. Even then, too many of them seem wary of doing either, lest Hillary get elected. It will be interesting to see how they decide between a Republican extremist that they don't like or a Democrat, who is almost by definition an extremist that they don't like.

 

[mheslep]

...the USA, which invades Haiti whenever it is displeased...

Am I missing something, or would that be one US invasion in the last hundred years, in 1994 when Bill Clinton invaded to stop the military coup in Haiti that overthrew the elected Aristede, and left two years later? Do you think the US should not have invaded in 1994?

 

[Hornbein]

Am I missing something, or would that be one US invasion in the last hundred years, in 1994 when Bill Clinton invaded to stop the military coup in Haiti that overthrew the elected Aristede, and left two years later? Do you think the US should not have invaded in 1994?

Haiti was occupied by the US from 1915 to 1934, committing many atrocious acts. United States Marines invaded Santo Domingo in 1965.

 

[mheslep]

...United States Marines invaded Santo Domingo in 1965.

So, not Haiti.