Upcoming Primaries

Quote: Evenbob

Great article in Vanity Fair. I won't link to it
because nobody here will read it. Reporter
went to Trump's 10K sq ft shack across
from the Beverly Hills Hotel and Trump
totally impressed him. He was friendly,
funny, open, he felt like he'd known him
for 10 years. He says the Trump you see
on TV is the businessman take no prisoners
Trump. In private he's genial and never
says a bad word about anybody.

Trump is the natural
leader in every situation, he said. Sounds
awfully alpha male-ish to me.

Trump grew up at the edge of an era when manlienss did not need to be formally taught because the men saw the other men to emulate. While the feminist movement started in the mid-1960s, it was not until the early 1970s that there was pressure on men to stop acting like men and start being more feminized in their behavior. It has gotten worse and worse since, although at least the last few years there are a few guys who say "enough" and try to learn the old values and skills.

What that "The Apprentice" guy saw is a guy who had Command Posture. When a guy with Command Posture is in a room, he is in charge. Bush fell down here, he was POTUS but it felt forced when he took charge in most cases, an exception being the bullhorn after 9/11. Sometimes you may work in an office or other place where the #2 is the real weight of respect among the crew and he keeps it in order for #1. He may never be able to make it to the top position, but he has the control with #1 being the nominal leader.

Hillary is that type. She always looks like the person they put in charge because they needed the right name or face in charge. Trump looks like the guy who TOOK CHARGE. He does not have to tell you that he will be there when the 3:00 AM phone call comes, you know he will be there. And you know he will not tell you to blame a YouTube video and go back to sleep, but I digress.

Quote: AZDuffman

... it was not until the early 1970s that there was pressure on men to stop acting like men...

I missed that part, maybe it was regional? The guys I grew up around were logging in their teens, running fishing boats and building powerlines. Seemed pretty manly at the time. Not to mention their was still a draft, with plenty of guys still in Vietnam that were teens, that seemed pretty "manly" as well.

Nobody should be CIC, that hasn't served in the military.

About four score years ago, the Whig party split and the Republican party was formed.

Times were very different then. These days the two major parties are only a bit less powerful than the government (albeit without the government's authority). Nevertheless it's time for the Republican party to split. Those concerned with the economy and dedicated to an agenda of economic growth and fiscal responsibility, ought to realize the embrace of white and Christian supremacy not only has lost a lot of power outside a very few states, but it has become a liability in the national stage.

It's time for such people to recognize, as Reagan did, that liberalizing immigration leads to long term economic growth, and that embracing equal rights across the board, as Reagan failed to do, costs nothing but the bigot vote, and accrues a fair deal of good will over large swathes of the nation.

Obviously there's no time to do much in this election cycle, except to oppose the candidacy of Donald Trump from within the GOP.

What comes next depends on what happens. A disastrous loss in the presidential election, especially if accompanied by losses in the House and Senate, and even in state governorships and legislatures, might allow you to expel the toxic wingnut elements from the party, or give you the cache, and the money, to form the nucleus of a new party.

Quote: Nareed

... These days the two major parties are only a bit less powerful than the government

I wish America had a candidate

Quote: petroglyph

I wish America had a candidate

How about the former governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts in the same ticket?

Quote: Nareed

How about the former governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts in the same ticket?

#29 Gary Johnson b: Jan 1, 1953 (age 63) Jan 1, 1995 – Jan 1, 2003 Republican (current governor is #31, also Republican)
Elected in 1994; Re-elected in 1998;

#68 William F. Weld b: July 31, 1945 (age 70) Jan 3, 1991 – Jul 29, 1997 Republican (current governor is #72, also Republican)
Elected in 1990; Re-elected in 1994; Resigned when nominated U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, but was not confirmed to the office.

The Libertarian Party (LP) promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, and laissez-faire economics and abolition of the welfare state. The LP was officially formed on December 11, 1971 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Vietnam War, conscription, and the end of the gold standard. Gary Johnson, the party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, states that the party is more culturally liberal than the Democrats, but more fiscally conservative than the Republicans.

Libertarians surged to ~1% in 1980 and 2012. The Green Party gained widespread public attention during the 2000 presidential election when the ticket composed of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke won 2.7% of the popular vote. Libertarians could win a similar percentage in 2016.

The LP's goal this year should be to get their candidates into at least one debate with Hillary and the Clown.

One strategy would be for Johnson to announce he wants to debate Hillary only, as debating Trump isn't a challenge for anyone with the mental acuity and life experience of a ten-year old. This should get the Clown to move heaven and earth to get Johnson to debate him.

Quote: Nareed

How about the former governors of New Mexico and Massachusetts in the same ticket?

Romney makes me ill.

If it has to be a career politico, how about Duncan Hunter?

And for a flair of the fringe, I occasionally like Alan Grayson.

Somebody somewhere needs to speak of the real threat to the world.

Quote: petroglyph

Romney makes me ill.

He wasn't really that bad.

But that's the reason the GOP needs to lose their wingnut base, or abandon the party altogether. Romney would have been a much better general election candidate, had he not been required to twist himself to court the base.

Quote: Nareed

He wasn't really that bad.

But that's the reason the GOP needs to lose their wingnut base, or abandon the party altogether. Romney would have been a much better general election candidate, had he not been required to twist himself to court the base.

I guess it's a little personal with the way employees were treated from the venture capitalists at Bain capital.

He did the same thing with using bankruptcy as a bargaining chip that Trump did. He is part of the death of my country. Just like John Kerry on the dem side.

He was forcing employees up in NE to train the people that would be receiving the manufacturing equipment being sent to China, by people that had worked there fro 10-20 years.

I get that that is legal, and it's capitalism, but he was able to use free money from our feds to outsource very old manufacturing equipment and jobs. So, ergo ** him.