Trumped

[Thomas]

I'm really not sure how the Republicans and Libertarians could coexist with such vast differences in social issues outside of gun rights.

[red321]

Fair point...though I think it's to be determined how many people in the Libertarian party are true Libertarians, and how many are embarrassed Republicans and Democrats, or like you mention, people who tend to be conservative on fiscal issues, but start to shy away when it comes to the more outside the mainstream social positions like drug legalization. If the Republicans were to start losing a significant voting bloc they can probably bring a lot of those people back in the fold by adjusting some positions.

 

 

[Thomas]

It's hard to picture in the short term. I mean even I argued recently that the Republican party won't likely die but will morph into whatever will get them 50%+1 of the vote. But it's hard when even the moderate even right to moderate social conservatives have been marginalized by the party in favor of the rather extreme state they are in now. They barely bother to give lip service to the economic issues or government spending, excluding defense spending of course. Where exactly do I find common ground on the Republican platform?

[red321]

I would agree nothing is going to happen in the short term. At this point I think the current Republican party is just off the rails, and I don't think they've hit bottom yet. Trump is a disaster...but he's just a nastier uglier version of the 16 other people standing on that stage, if anything some of those guys are more extreme than Trump (see Cruz, Ted). If Trump loses or gets blown out, I don't expect them to learn anything, I would expect them to continue to double down.

But who knows, Kansas seems to have started to realize what a disaster the modern Republican party is and voted out a number of tea party state reps/senators.

Hell, I've tried mapping out multiple "new parties" that could emerge from the wreckage and you are right, I just don't see who would have common ground with the current Republican party.

 

[the dude abides]

4 hours ago, nate said:

Lol you gotta love Trump, dude is a walking calamity at this point.

 

Im starting to think this guy is mentally ill.

No joke.

[Jason]

1 hour ago, the_dude_abides said:

Im starting to think this guy is mentally ill.

No joke.

I think narcissism is in the DSM. Maybe somebody can confirm that.

[InsideThePark]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/paul-ryans-primary-opponent-asks-muslims-country/story?id=41127351

This is the guy that Trump has been giving shout-outs to lately lol

[nate]

Some background: Ryan's district is largely farmland along the IL border.  It is very much whitesville US.

[Spirit]

I figured out why Clinton scares me more than Trump. 

She's going to win. 

 

 

 

[Tank]

[the dude abides]

Watch Trump supporters make other decisions:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/watch-these-trump-supporters-make-other-decisions_us_57a0d296e4b08a8e8b5fa45b

 

[InsideThePark]

 

14 hours ago, the_dude_abides said:

Im starting to think this guy is mentally ill.

No joke.

So he backtracked on that in a tweet, something he rarely ever does.

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/761511930238496772

I usually post the tweet and not the link but the replies are hilarious. The first few are the usual bots.

[Blarg]

We haven't had an update on  Geoff's expense account in months. Like Trump,  he refuses to release his Financials. 

[the dude abides]

2 minutes ago, Blarg said:

We haven't had an update on  Geoff's expense account in months. Like Trump,  he refuses to release his Financials. 

I've just assumed status quo...  Breakfast at Brennans, Lunch at Del Friscos, personal chef for dinner, and Faberge eggs for his dog to fetch.

[Spirit]

[Spirit]

16 minutes ago, Blarg said:

We haven't had an update on  Geoff's expense account in months. Like Trump,  he refuses to release his Financials. 

 

Well, I started a new job 3 months ago.  So my sweet ass expense account is out the window.  Now I'm trying to make these sweet pre-IPO stock options turn into an early retirement. 

I mean ... it work out so well in the late 90's early 00's!  

#DotBomb

 

 

 

[red321]

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

 

Well, I started a new job 3 months ago.  So my sweet ass expense account is out the window.  Now I'm trying to make these sweet pre-IPO stock options turn into an early retirement. 

I mean ... it work out so well in the late 90's early 00's!  

#DotBomb

 

 

 

Wait. Weren't you supposed to get me a bunch of free Adobe shit? What the hell man. 

[Adam]

21 hours ago, red321 said:

I'm just not sure the US system is setup to have more than 2 parties. Throughout history, there hasn't been a sustained 3rd party established. Maybe someone runs for president for a cycle or two, but that's about it. Realistically you have more of a re-alignment of the parties. In the seventies you saw the Republicans start to become more of a Southern party as the Democrats lost a lot of voters in the south as a result of their support of Civil Rights. I think what tends to happen is you see one of the two parties adjust if they start losing voters to a third party. Look at what happened in 2000, Nader had no chance to win, but he had a significant impact on the election. If he's not on the ballot in Florida, most likely Gore wins. That sticks in the mind of a lot of people. If the Libertarians (or Greens) pull a significant percentage, you are more likely to see one of the two parties start to try and pull those voters in...or, maybe the Republican party dissolves...but most of it ends up in the "Libertarian" party and you go back to having two parties again. The country is split 50/50 for the most part. A third party doesn't necessarily mean a 33 split, it probably means more like 45/30/25 split as the split will occur at the more extreme edge of the party. 

I think a possible scenario is you see a re-alignment of the two parties again. The more fiscally conservative, socially liberal white college voters that tended to vote Republican on fiscal issues start to vote more Democratic and they lower income/less educated white voters in the Rust Belt vote more Republican. This is not to say they are dumb...but the economic populism/anti-trade angle that Trump is playing has resonated with that group who has been hit very hard by manufacturing and coal job losses.

 

Who hacked red's account?

[Spirit]

1 hour ago, red321 said:

Wait. Weren't you supposed to get me a bunch of free Adobe shit? What the hell man. 

 

I've got some sweet Photoshop software (notebooks) to send your way!

 

 

 

[Thomas]

3 hours ago, Geoff said:

 

Well, I started a new job 3 months ago.  So my sweet ass expense account is out the window.  Now I'm trying to make these sweet pre-IPO stock options turn into an early retirement. 

I mean ... it work out so well in the late 90's early 00's!  

#DotBomb

 

 

 

It certainly helps me no longer have to bite my lip and not say really snide security related comments about the company you worked for on Facebook.

[Spirit]

LOL

 

 

 

[nate]

lol

I cancelled my adobe subscription.  $50 a month was just too much.  I miss having Photoshop though.

[Spirit]

3 minutes ago, nate said:

lol

I cancelled my adobe subscription.  $50 a month was just too much.  I miss having Photoshop though.

 

Dude!  That's for the whole Creative Cloud.  You can get Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99 a month.

https://creative.adobe.com/plans?promoid=P3KMQZ9Y&mv=other

 

 

[nate]

Yeah, I also used illustrator and premiere

Anyway not worth it.

[Spirit]

Just now, nate said:

Yeah, I also used illustrator and premiere

Anyway not worth it.

 

Meh ... whatever.  I dumped my stock.