Granite State voters have the best (maybe, only) chance to infuse the Republican primary with some drama Tuesday, when former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley makes her (possibly, last) stand against former President Donald Trump.
I devoutly wish Haley beats and humiliates Trump, gets the nomination and that then Trump spends the rest of the year seeking vengeance on her. But, you know, whatever.
“…the best (maybe, only) chance to infuse the Republican primary with some drama…”
And there you have it, what it’s all about: Drama. The ultimate high, the gotta-have drug. Americans are addicted to drama, and if their habit-pushing teevee enablers can’t find any…well, Hell, they’ll just manufacture some!
This race was never in doubt, but that didn’t stop our infotainment cable and broadcast industry from laughably pretending otherwise – with a shoutout to their print co-conspirators, of course, scouring rural diners across our nation’s Pink Belt for the most provincial, low-information rubes imaginable.
(“…where they discussed politics over peach cobbler and iced tea…”)
The “verdict” is already in, but it has nothing to do with Nikki Haley.
Trump is the cuckoo being raised in the GOP’s nest. The longer he remains in their clutch, the more destructive his presence will be. The base is convinced he’s one of them, but he’s going to suck all the wealth and influence from the party as the base continues to dote on him and eschew their actual political candidates.
I would say that he’s not, because he doesn’t have any true attachment to the GOP. If the Democrats tomorrow all came to him and said they wanted him to be their leader and they’d give him billions of dollars, he’d flip in a heartbeat and start saying the things he thinks the Dems want to hear. He has a more “natural” fit with the GOP since they align with his dominance schtick, but he wanted to be loved by the intelligentsia of NYC (i.e. liberal Democrats) long before he co-opted the GOP’s messaging to steal their base from under them.
He’s only in it for himself and the Dems have made it clear in no uncertain terms that they want nothing to do with his histrionics. So he’s stuck with the GOP rubes, who are more easily appeased by his antics. But he’s not a member of those base voters either. He’s just getting his ego-stroking from them, but he would never live among them and he doesn’t really understand their world. He just riffs until they respond to it. Then he milks the “winning” line for all it’s worth.
They get tremendous value out of their association with him, while the rallies are more in the way of a personal connection.
In the early days, when he did the rallies at airports, he gave them a real thrill turning up like right off the TV to talk like some prick at the end of the bar.
Here in New Hampshire I made it to the polls first thing this morning to write in Joe Biden on my Democratic primary ballot. I’ll check tonight to see the results of course but I could hardly care less what the margin Nikki Haley loses to Trump by ends up being. What does interest me is how Dean Phillips does. His name is the 12th down the list of 21 candidates on the Democratic ballot. My sense is that he’ll win against most of those 21 others, which include folks like the perennial Vermin Supreme, from Rockport, MA, and, a newer entry, Paperboy Love Prince, from Brooklyn, NY. But I think Biden, as a write-in candidate, most likely will beat all of them, including Dean Phillips.
Seriously, right? I mean, the dude’s been in office for three years now (and two stints as Veep before that) and he hasn’t trampled on even a single constitutional principle or incited even one lousy insurrection yet.
It’s as if he isn’t even trying. I’m gonna vote for Sarandon, at least she’s a fighter.