He has their attention but if this race ever comes down to articulating any sort of intelligent plans or policies, The Donald is screwed. As a Democrat, I alternate between amusement at the GOP klown kar primary season and fear that one of these dolts will actually become president and make Dubya look like a genius.
fixed your link. Hard to argue with 538.
I do have a couple of degrees and one is a 4 year business degree and I support Trump.
I am angry for a lot of reasons, but mostly about illegal immigration. I believe that the core of Trump's support stems from this one issue, more than anything else. Its the first box to check on my list for any candidate. No different from those who look at abortion rights as their first box on their list.
In case its not been noticed, Trump is basically agnostic when it comes to religion. While he was raised in Norman Vincent Peale's church, I think he got more out the positive thinking part than the religious part. He's the only candidate on both sides who isn't talking much about social issues. How refreshing. No deceit there. He's sticking to economic and security issues, which includes securing the border. I've read his immigration paper and his tax plan. They are both of substance.
He is not a part of the global banking and industrial oligarchy. He owes them nothing and cannot be controlled by them. He understands how they get out of paying their fair share by merger's that take corporate headquarters overseas to avoid taxes which is called inversion and wants to stop it for openers. Currency manipulation is another. I don't think any other candidate can talk knowledgeably about inversion or currency off of the top of their head. He lives and breathes this stuff, knows it inside and out. That is his wheel house. He is also firmly opposed to the TPP, another important issue for me.
It is estimated that US corporations are sitting on at least $2 Trillion in cash overseas. He has a real tax plan to bring it back home. He is the only candidate talking about this as well. Just think about what that would do for our economy. That money would be pumped into our economy and create one hell of a business boom that would benefit all of us. Remember that a rising tide lifts all boats.
I've looked at many of the nuts and bolts of his plans and rhetoric and do not see deceit. What do you see about Trump that is deceitful / cunning ?
Regardless of how one thinks about Donald Trump, he has accomplished two great things.
He has knocked Jeb Bush out of the race.
And he has achieved running an effective campaign for POTUS for next to nothing.
It should be inspiring to all those (which includes myself) who think that we need to take the money of running for higher office in this country. The richest candidate has spent the least amount of money and is on top of nearly every poll. Might be proof that he is the smartest candidate.
Never thought I would root for Jeb Bush!
Kurtster, don't mistake cunning for intelligence. Trump is pandering to the anger of the Republican working class:
He has their attention but if this race ever comes down to articulating any sort of intelligent plans or policies, The Donald is screwed. As a Democrat, I alternate between amusement at the GOP klown kar primary season and fear that one of these dolts will actually become president and make Dubya look like a genius.
Regardless of how one thinks about Donald Trump, he has accomplished two great things.
He has knocked Jeb Bush out of the race.
And he has achieved running an effective campaign for POTUS for next to nothing.
It should be inspiring to all those (which includes myself) who think that we need to take the money of running for higher office in this country. The richest candidate has spent the least amount of money and is on top of nearly every poll. Might be proof that he is the smartest candidate.
Trump's appeal stretches far beyond disgruntled, outside the country club conservatives. His potential for crossover support, especially with blue collar and working class voters, is huge. Most establishment Republicans have never met a blue collar worker (unless they were fixing their Jacuzzi).
I can see Trump winning coal miners, unionized construction workers, auto workers, steel workers, Teamsters, etc.
Trump may even score a larger share of black votes with his immigration stand. His appeal to working class voters is a very under reported story, but it's evident because even President Barack Obama himself mentioned Trump by name during an interview with NPR in which he said that Trump is tapping into the "anger of the blue collar white male."
This showcases just how scared the left is when it comes to Trump's potential to tear into demographics that Democrats have largely considered theirs.
The bed wetters at the RNC are dreaming of a GOP that grows because it attracts Latinos, pro-abortion millennial women and other hopelessly Democratic voters. Trump's coalition of adding working class voters (who actually work) makes more sense.
I have respect for National Review as an institution, but the cover and series of articles designed to hurt Trump only hurts the elitest, Beltway crowd they represent because it exposes why he is the seemingly solid and unstoppable frontrunner: it's because of them.
They have failed us, not Trump. Donald Trump is merely capitalizing on a moment in a pursuit to make America Great Again, in spite of the failures of the conservative movement.
Just like they were too dense to see Trump's rise, they don't understand why it occurred.
(...) In fact, Palin's speech reminded me of another one I attended, years ago, in Tehran during my time as CBC's Middle East correspondent.
Mohammed Khatami, the reformer, had been elected president of Iran, and you could taste the craving for change in the city's mountain air.
On a whim, I decided to attend a Friday sermon by Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, probably the most hardline cleric in the theocracy.
He scorned the reformers and called down divine judgment on them, and exhorted the crowd to go and impose the will of the people.
It was a speech filled with hatred and religious bigotry and nativism, and the crowd absorbed it with the same sort of ecstasy U.S. conservatives evidently experience at Republican rallies nowadays.
I spoke to several people as they exited the sermon; most were rural, uneducated, and were bused in for the event. In cosmopolitan Tehran, Yazdi wouldn't likely have been able to fill a big classroom, let alone pack in thousands of panting zealots.
(...)
But facts are irrelevant. The GOP campaign runs on the octane of emotion: resentment, anger, nativism and religious righteousness.
(Trump) is a man whose campaign has mostly consisted of slinging around coarse invectives at women, Latinos and Muslims, among others, in the name of battling "political correctness," which is some sort of obsession of the American right.
He is revered by the party base as a truth-teller. And he leads Republican polls.
Watching Palin and Trump, it was impossible not to wonder, once again, how America, a country that has achieved such excellence, and has so often shown the world a better way, descended into a political discourse that demonizes enlightened thought and glamorizes mean-spirited, lowbrow crudeness.
And something else occurred, a notion I've always shied away from because I find jingoism distasteful: None of this stuff would go anywhere in Canada. It would draw snickers and derision, not cheers.
The only reason I can cite for this difference in national attitudes is religion. Not the quiet, old-line religiosity whose adherents believe worship is a private matter, best practised in church.
I'm referring to the messianic, aggressive religion of certain evangelical Christian sects, which believe that even other streams of Christianity, never mind other faiths, are false, and that their job is not just to spread the word of God but to impose it, and that the best way to do that is to run the government.
That sort of religion happily ignores inconvenient facts and contradictions, and has always been ripe for the con job pulled by the Republican elite: promise to end atheistic permissiveness, then get into office and implement an economic agenda most friendly to Manhattan billionaires like Trump and multi-millionaires like Palin. (She recently put her 8,000 square-foot Arizona compound up for sale for $2.5 million.)
To be fair, this loopy form of religio-political fantasy is particular to the Republicans, and lots of religious Americans find it offensive to rational thought.
But it should not be dismissed, as clownish as its heroes can seem.
Think about Iran: Yazdi and his fellow hardliners triumphed. The reformers were shut down and jailed. The urban elites were cowed. It can happen.
Great post but I believe Cruz is the one with the most support amongst evangelicals.
Americans, especially poorer and less educated ones, feel absolutely screwed by the economy right now. The bigotry and intolerance (masquerading as impatience with "political correctness) is mostly due to economic fear of competing with immigrants for jobs, a sense that those on welfare have it better than the working poor and a backlash against rapidly changing mores about gay marriage, transgender people, police treatment of minorities, etc.
But you're right about the con job that the GOP establishment has pulled on the religious right. Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy" touches on that.
The Palin Factor=> Trump Jumps 6 Points – Cruz Drops 6 Points Since Palin Endorsement
While the big story is the National Review article, it appears that (according to the Reuters 5 day rolling poll) over a third of Cruz’s followers have abandoned him for Trump in the last 3 days since Palin announced for Trump. That’s a pretty big story. Cruz has gone from 16.3% down to 10.5% while Trump has (in the same 3 days) gone from 33.4% to 40.6%.
Here is how the Reuters poll looked on January 19 – the day Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump.
And here is how the Reuters poll looked on Friday January 22.
Trump went up 6 points while Ted Cruz dropped six points.
(...) In fact, Palin's speech reminded me of another one I attended, years ago, in Tehran during my time as CBC's Middle East correspondent.
Mohammed Khatami, the reformer, had been elected president of Iran, and you could taste the craving for change in the city's mountain air.
On a whim, I decided to attend a Friday sermon by Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, probably the most hardline cleric in the theocracy.
He scorned the reformers and called down divine judgment on them, and exhorted the crowd to go and impose the will of the people.
It was a speech filled with hatred and religious bigotry and nativism, and the crowd absorbed it with the same sort of ecstasy U.S. conservatives evidently experience at Republican rallies nowadays.
I spoke to several people as they exited the sermon; most were rural, uneducated, and were bused in for the event. In cosmopolitan Tehran, Yazdi wouldn't likely have been able to fill a big classroom, let alone pack in thousands of panting zealots.
(...)
But facts are irrelevant. The GOP campaign runs on the octane of emotion: resentment, anger, nativism and religious righteousness.
(Trump) is a man whose campaign has mostly consisted of slinging around coarse invectives at women, Latinos and Muslims, among others, in the name of battling "political correctness," which is some sort of obsession of the American right.
He is revered by the party base as a truth-teller. And he leads Republican polls.
Watching Palin and Trump, it was impossible not to wonder, once again, how America, a country that has achieved such excellence, and has so often shown the world a better way, descended into a political discourse that demonizes enlightened thought and glamorizes mean-spirited, lowbrow crudeness.
And something else occurred, a notion I've always shied away from because I find jingoism distasteful: None of this stuff would go anywhere in Canada. It would draw snickers and derision, not cheers.
The only reason I can cite for this difference in national attitudes is religion. Not the quiet, old-line religiosity whose adherents believe worship is a private matter, best practised in church.
I'm referring to the messianic, aggressive religion of certain evangelical Christian sects, which believe that even other streams of Christianity, never mind other faiths, are false, and that their job is not just to spread the word of God but to impose it, and that the best way to do that is to run the government.
That sort of religion happily ignores inconvenient facts and contradictions, and has always been ripe for the con job pulled by the Republican elite: promise to end atheistic permissiveness, then get into office and implement an economic agenda most friendly to Manhattan billionaires like Trump and multi-millionaires like Palin. (She recently put her 8,000 square-foot Arizona compound up for sale for $2.5 million.)
To be fair, this loopy form of religio-political fantasy is particular to the Republicans, and lots of religious Americans find it offensive to rational thought.
But it should not be dismissed, as clownish as its heroes can seem.
Think about Iran: Yazdi and his fellow hardliners triumphed. The reformers were shut down and jailed. The urban elites were cowed. It can happen.
These guys are not buying into the Trump is racist narrative.
National Black Republican Association Endorses Donald J. Trump
Announcing National Black Republican Association Endorses Donald J. Trump By Frances Rice
We, the grassroots activists of the National Black Republican Association, are pleased to announce our endorsement of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States of America.
As citizens who happen to be black, we support Mr. Trump because he shares our values. We, like Mr. Trump, are fiscally conservative, steadfastly pro-life and believers in a small government that fosters freedom for individuals and businesses, so they can grow and become prosperous.
We are deeply concerned about illegal immigration, a major cause of high black unemployment, especially among black youth.
Black Americans across America are beginning to wake up and see clearly the reality of what is happening in black neighborhoods. Democrats have run black communities for the past 60 years and the socialist policies of the Democrats have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands, witness Detroit, Baltimore and South Chicago.
We believe that Mr. Trump has demonstrated that he can push back against the mainstream media, end political correctness and free black communities from the destructive grip of socialist Democrats.
We urge our fellow black Americans to seize control over their own destiny and leverage their vote the way other groups do. It is way past time black Americans stop having their vote taken for granted by Democrats, hold politicians accountable for the content of their policies and not vote merely based on the label of their party.
Its a moot point to the base, but I guess that you would have to get Trump in the first place to understand Trump in this sense.
He could answer the question either way and it have no effect on his base. It could have an effect on those still considering Trump, but not the base. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts to the base.
I can certainly see why the base likes him. He lies through his teeth, and when confronted with his obvious lies ends up denying he ever said it, and thus lying some more. But hey, the promises are full of superlatives and that tends to impress some.
Planting seeds: "My people are loyal (and will follow me to the end)."
