Discussion: Ryan Told House GOP They Could Abandon Trump After Access Hollywood Tapes

I think that’s hearteningly observable. Not the mouth-breathing base, obviously. But if we remember all the generally sensible people who were so inattentive and clueless about politics that they thought we a) needed someone to “shake things up down there” and that b) Trump must have something on the ball, he’s rich, right?—all those people, maybe friends and family or people at work, I think most of them see now that Trump ain’t much. In many key states, mine among them, he’s down double digits from 2016. It’s hard to see how in the world he could bring it back up again. So those folks weren’t evil or stupid after all. They were more like basically good teens who made a bad decision and caused a big problem.

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At the time, these weasels saw Trump as a means to a (Koch inspired) end and fully expected a pivot or least manageable presidency in a Reagan-esque way. This is the flowers and chocolates policy first instituted by the Cheney Regime.

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'Wag the Dog" Iran style in Oct 2020.

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Anything’s possible but he’s notably restrained in any conflict with an entity capable of hitting back. And it might not work anyway. He’s not the most trusted figure in politics today.

I would agree on all that you stated.
Thank goodness we have another presidential election coming up in the future.
That will confirm my go to Hope question.

Do we really want to go through another 4 years of Insane Trumpology??
I highly doubt it.
It will take a longtime to get back what has been lost just in the basics of human decency because of trump and the spineless gop.
We as a whole are way better than what reality has become under this failed experiment.

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If the bad decision had temporary consequences (getting drunk and acting a fool, making tire tracks on a neighbor’s lawn) it’s just a learning experience. If the bad decision gets them a permanent STD or pregnancy or killed, that’s something different (like courts packed for generations to come with hardline bigots and demons).

I’m exceedingly glad you’re seeing some people who were snookered into voting for him by their inexperience or ignorance are coming around, but the folks in my family who are all about guns and saving fetuses and putting brown children in cages are still fine with him. They’re willing to put up with him being obnoxious and stupid because “he gets things done”.

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Well, like I said, there are many people who’ve reached a point where a whole Himalaya of evidence wouldn’t sway them. They’re not the ones I’m referring to. And I’m not going to say for the umpteenth time how wrong or irresponsible or whatever whoever was. I’m talking about how people tell pollsters they’re going to vote, and I say again he’s got really serious dropoffs from 2016 in a lot of key states.

Let’s see how much your relatives and their like-minded ilk can claim he “gets things done” without both houses of Congress as a rubber stamp. He didn’t get that damn much done when he had them.

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I used to try to tell some of them that, but finally figured out that the things he did get done (causing their goddamned hippie relatives to be angry) were worth it to them.

They truly believe that the alcoholic nephew living on SSDI and getting free health care is somehow endangered by Mexicans taking jobs from him, ignoring the fact that he has never worked because on the rare occasions he got a job his employers were unhappy with him showing up late and still drunk. Another who’s loved exploding things since he was very young is pissed that Obama/Hillary/All their friends want him to not have his AR-15 which brings him great joy to shoot.

I know they aren’t in the group you’re talking about, but the only time they’ve ever voted was for the guy who tells them people like me are happy that they are so beleaguered. It’s the only time in their lives that someone with power has told them they’re the ones who are right and he’s going to help them. The fact that he does no such thing doesn’t register because he’s told them those of us who want him out are preventing him from helping them more.

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Interesting. From the first time I heard the analysis that said the new voters he was bringing in had never much voted before, I wondered how fickle and unreliable they might end up to be. Not that they’ll go flocking to someone else, but that eventually they’ll just get bored and go back to watching TV. I don’t see them canvassing, say, or organizing local meet-the-candidate get-togethers in each others’ living rooms.

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You’re right. As soon as they don’t have Trump to cheer for, they’ll revert to not voting at all. The knack he has for whipping up fear among them and telling them he’ll take care of it is the only thing that got them out in the first place. The fact that they think he’ll help them get very rich like he is helps, but if they ever get to see that he’s been lying about that they can pursue some other fantasy that doesn’t involve them being active citizens.

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