That would be the worst thing they could do. It would just reinforce the Republican talking point that Mueller and his investigation are partisan.
The Republican noise is annoying, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s not going to affect anything Mueller’s doing. And if Trump does try to fire Mueller, then the vast majority of Americans will see it as clear-cut obstruction of justice. And Scheiderman will still be waiting with indictments of his own.
The one paper trial is the letter hand delivered to the FBI informing Comey of his firing. And we have trump’s public excuse on video of why he did it in which he said it was the Russia investigation that was the reason. I do not see how it could be clearer. Trump attempted to shut down an FBI investigation of himself by that firing and he admits it!!
Fear. We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I firmly believe there are ways to press the case publicly without going too far AND while achieving the exact opposite of what you fear: convincing the American public of the investigation’s legitimacy and fairness. Silence in the face of the GOP’s constant barrage of attacks…well, that’s already baked into the numbers in this article, which I guarantee you are numbers already affected in the GOP’s favor by their propaganda.
They’re NEVER leaving him, which is part of what I’m not understanding about your argument I think. They’re a lost cause. We’ve got a very large majority of everyone else paying attention and at least partly open-minded about the investigation. As dominoes continue to fall, the Dems need to be messaging to make sure people are aware and understand that they are indeed falling and why they are important. The hands-off approach is why we have a tax plan about to fuck our bums. It cannot be allowed to happen with Trump and what he and the GOP are doing to our system of government.
Just as important, T rump begged Russia during a debate to hack and release stolen emails from the DNC and HRC campaign. Encouraging an illegal activity, is itself illegal, AND using stolen merchandise or information is also illegal, in a presidential campaign or otherwise. The entire T rump campaign was dependent on criminal conduct. During his time as POTUS, he as effectively demonstrated his inability to separate his criminal past from State-sanctioned conduct.
Also, I work from home so I watch a lot of MSNBC. A lot. Too much. And I’m just not seeing this phenomenon of Democrats refusing to fight back. Yes, they could do much better on messaging I’ll grant you, but I don’t see anyone backing away from this. And if those efforts are all so useless, why is this poll so devastating? Why are we winning elections all over the country? Why are Democrats up 13 points in the generic congressional ballot? It’s not just because PP is awful. It’s because people are listening to Dems.
Even more important, how many people are calling themselves Republicans and how many Democrats these days? One consistent theme I’ve seen in recent surveys is that yep, Republicans still love them some Trump, which is important because it means his copartisans have to stand by their man – but there’s a lot fewer self-identified Republicans than there were a year ago, which has big implications for 2018. I’m surprised so many Republicans are doubling down on Donny, honestly.
OT slightly
Trump spoke at Quantico today and said countries send their “worst of the worst here” as immigrants. I guess that means his own mother who immigrated from Scotland is one of that country’s worst people.
Two if my former graduate students who earned their PhD’s with me, one from India and the other from Ireland are their country’s worst people as well. Both are presently green card holders and are working to become citizens.
I tell ya I find it impossible to have any respect for trump.
The GOP is self immolating. Not a lot of help needed to watch them come undone. Some good messaging during the 2018 election season will be critical (“Republicans hate you and want you to die and they’re taking away your SS and Medicare!” or some such thing).
Where we do need help is providing air cover for the investigation(s).
Not nearly fast enough for my taste. And I’m not even a registered democrat. The slot for party affiliation on my voter registration card says “nope” which I find amusing.
Because I view the numbers as showing what the GOP has been able to accomplish with their largely unopposed propaganda and distractions, etc. I read the poll as showing this may be the baseline, i.e., the best the GOP can hope for in terms of public opinion as affected primarily by their messaging, the MSM’s consistent failures and the Dems usual incompetence when it comes to messaging. It tells me that with just a little competence, we could be castrating these fucks like it’s a Gelding Day party at the OK Corral.
It really isn’t fear. It’s strategy. It’s understanding the American people and how utterly gullible and stupid we can be. The only thing I fear is four more years of PP. That’s exactly what we’ll get if we screw this up and wind up looking like the boy who cried wolf. The American public is fickle and when they think you’re being a drama queen, they tune you out.
I can’t figure out why people keep saying “collusion” when it’s actually conspiracy Mueller’s looking into. Almost a distinction without a difference, but one will get you life.
To say collusion is not illegal, as Republicans love pointing out, is to miss the point entirely.
That’s a very good point on its own, and it also interacts with the point about independents, in the following way:
I would assume most of the people who self-identified as Republicans last year, but don’t now, have probably gone into the category of self-identified independents. Which means that some portion of the “independents” in these polls are really just these recently-disgruntled Republicans who no longer want to self-identify as part of the party. Which in turn means that the number of “truly independent indys” who are siding with Trump and the GOP is even lower than it already looks in these poll results.
At least some, and perhaps many of these Independents are, like a close relative, life-long thoughtful Republicans who have formally defected from the party and no longer identify or belong to the GOP and will never go back.