Candidate Trump

[NanceGreggs]

By every possible measurement, Donald J. Trump was the worst candidate any political party could possibly imagine.

He had everything going against his viability as a candidate. He was demonstrably stupid, totally uninterested in learning the responsibilities of elected office, disastrously uninformed, and narcissistic beyond credulity.

He was abrasive and obnoxious, and his personal history was that of a serial adulterer, a self-proclaimed pussy-grabber, and a man who had encouraged men to refer to his own daughter as a “hot piece of ass” – because he thought she was exactly that.

His every statement was an incoherent mixture of braggadocio, lies that were easily debunked, and a litany of grievances that had nothing to do with the state of the country, but everything to do with perceived personal slights.

After eight years of No Drama Obama, Trump was the poster-boy for unbridled chaos. He encouraged violence at his rallies towards anyone who opposed him. His xenophobia, misogyny and racism were on full display – he even touched (actually, he embraced) political third-rails by publicly mocking the disabled, and labelling Republican heroes like John McCain a non-hero because he’d been caught by the enemy and spent years being tortured in a POW camp.

Candidate Donald Trump represented everything the Republican party had publicly railed against for decades. He was immoral, he was without “good Christian values”, he was a thrice-married womanizer who dozens of women had accused of sexual assault/molestation. His current wife was a former nude model who had entered the country under questionable circumstances, and his adult children consisted of a clueless ‘designer’ and two brothers who prided themselves on killing defenceless animals.

Candidate Donald Trump was a political PR nightmare. There was nothing in his past that was commendable, nothing that could be pointed to as a positive that could be played-up in the media, no evidence that he’d ever been a “good Christian” with a moral compass.

AND YET the powers-that-be in the GOP decided to nominate and support a candidate who would mire their party in scandal day after day, who was extremely vulnerable to negative publicity due to lies that could be easily disproven, and who would often remind the citizenry that he was not only a pussy-grabber, but a bigot, a racist, and a “patriot” who invariably sided with our enemies.

So the question is: Why?

Why did the Republican powers-that-be choose to run the worst candidate in history? Why did they choose to get behind the guy who represented everything they had allegedly opposed for decades? Why did the Republicans convince their Evangelical base that the personal immorality they’d denounced in every other politician was now irrelevant? Why did the GOP choose to support the worst candidate imaginable, knowing their support would require unending excuse-making and defensive measures on a daily basis? Why were all of the red flags ignored?

Again, the question is as obvious as it is simply put: Why?

Who was promised what in exchange for putting Trump in the WH? Who expected some kind of payback for abandoning long-touted GOP party principles in order to elect a man who was against all of those principles? Who was vulnerable to exposure via kompromat, or threatened by their own party members to “go along to get along”?

I suspect those questions will be answered by Special Counsel Mueller and his team – and those answers will be made public, one way or another.

There are PTB within the GOP who have a shitload of 'splaining' to do - and I patiently await their explanations.

[vlyons]

1. The answer is quite simple, of course

They did it for money! Duuuuhhhh

They wanted an easily doped idiot to sign their enormous tax cut. They wanted an idiot, who would reverse gov regulations that cut into their profits. They wanted an idiot to reverse worker safety regulations that cut into their profits. They wanted an idiot who would never do squat about climate change that might cost money to implement.

[NanceGreggs]

3. There were plenty of "idiots" ...

... among the Republican primary contenders who would have happily reversed all of those things - and none of them represented the PR nightmare that Trump did.

So why Trump, when other more "politically palatable" candidates were available - able and willing to do the same things he has done, but without the negative PR baggage?

[vlyons]

7. Yes the others would have signed their bills, but ...

Trump, the idiot clown, would have no hesitation or embarrassment getting caught in embarrassing lies, or rousing the great sea of red-necks, racists, and homophobes with even greater fear and hate mongering.

[Perseus]

32. It is more than that

These republican politicians have to be compromised one way or another, all those millions funneled via the NRA have touched many republican campaigns, and they have been compromised, they have been made accomplices of this fiasco and they cannot risk being outed, which I do hope Muller will take care of and off with their masks.

I have a hard time believing that people who have worked so hard to reach positions of power in their lives would allow themselves to suddenly show to the public they have no dignity, they lack principles, all just to appease a buffoon, there is more to it, they see their freedom compromised, they know they have made terrible mistakes that may even throw them in jail, and now they are forced to protect the buffoon and his master Putin. Lets face it, they have all been converted into traitors, and they know it.

[lunatica]

2. It's all clear as day in retrospect isn't it?

Of course, everyone on DU saw it as it unfolded. So did most Americans.

It would have been mostly suppressed if the Republicans had just done their jobs.

[watoos]

15. Call me Pete and Repeat but even people on DU,

underestimate the role that the right wing M$M played. All of cable news, including msnbc, was complicit in backing the far right narratives.

They are giving Trump a platform tonight to push his lies.

I suggest, everyone tune in the History channel tonight at 9PM and watch The Curse of Oak Island. Why torture yourself watching the traitorous motherfucker lie?

[lunatica]

27. Most of us knew all about the media's propaganda antics during the Bush Administration

Starting with the Supreme Court Selection.

It’s what brought me to DU in the first place though I only lurked for years.

[2naSalit]

4. And we all know that two of the prime saboteurs are mcturtle

He's hiding a shipping empire and all those nasty business dealings involved in that, though it's in his wife's family, he's got a big stake. It's a nasty cabal and those who are "playing" are expecting to be let into the club... but they'll be disposed of to further concentrate the power. This is the Shock Doctrine on steroids, full scream ahead, before those old white fuckers die. The whole objective has been generations in the build up, we have to overwhelm them or they will kill us all.

And Pence, whatever he's got going on is ugly and I hope he's exposed really soon too.

[Brawndo]

5. How i answer the Why question

I think that Republicans, by nature, are fundamentally opposed to the contents and values contained in the US Constitution. The rank and file right-wing voter, if they actually read and understood that document would be violently opposed to the letter and the spirit of most of what is codified therein. As for their leaders, they are motivated by greed pure and simple, but they manipulate the emotions/prejudices of their dim followers to vote against their own best interests. They are Americans in that they were born here but that does not mean that they support what it means to be an American.

[NanceGreggs]

6. I think you've missed the point.

And perhaps the fault is mine for not being clear enough.

The question I've posed has nothing to do with how Republicans view the Constitution. It has to do with why the GOP chose to support, elect, and eventually enable someone who epitomized everything they have denounced for decades.

Why would any political party choose to support a candidate who promised to be a PR nightmare, instead of supporting a candidate who would do their bidding - but without the "baggage" that Trump brought to the table?

More simply put - because perhaps simplicity seems to be called for here - why would any church promote the appointment of a pastor whose past history is full of having done everything that religion abhors, when there are other candidates for the position whose past history is above reproach?

WHY?

[Brawndo]

8. Should've ended with this.

I find that if you operate from the premise that they have only ever paid lip service to American values and the Constitution itself then things like tRump and other violations/betrayals begin to make sense when viewed through that lens. It is a disease they have and he is merely a symptom, a logical conclusion to a path they started down decades ago. They support him because he gives them license to be themselves openly and without shame. In summation, they've been unmasked for who they've always been at their core and they don't care who knows it.

[Brawndo]

9. If

my responses are off point please know i am not being willfully dense, rather I am sharing a notion that helps me to understand what seems to be completely illogical and hypocritical behavior from nearly half of the citizenry of our country. BTW your posts are great and something I look forward to on DU.

[NanceGreggs]

10. The question remains.

Why did the PTB in the GOP decide that a candidate who stood for everything they'd traditionally opposed, and whose past history was a PR nightmare, was somehow more electable than the candidates who would have furthered their agenda without the negative baggage that would have to be overcome - literally on a daily basis?

The GOP had candidates that would have done the party's bidding without question. So why support the candidate who posed the most problems, the loose cannon who had a penchant for saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time? Why ignore the candidates who were obviously willing to toe the party line, in order to instead elect a candidate who had no loyalty to anyone other than himself?

[Brawndo]

13. They lost control.

After decades of right-wing hate media they had primed their constituents to view the "other" as an enemy and a threat. They created fertile ground for a demagogue to swoop in and wrest control of their party that they had cultivated in hatred. An opportunist without scruples like tRump comes along and is easily able to dominate the narrative and shove aside any and all of the previous Republican "leadership" thereby taking the option of a rational choice away from their leaders. The rabid base's addiction to the red meat he flings on a daily basis precluded any other toe the line candidate who would've been easier to control and better for the Repubilican leadership's agenda. What a surprise that Frankenstein lost control of the monster, yet again.

[happy feet]

14. This

Tea party infiltrated and took them hostage-they all became dependent on tea party voters as their base/to win elections

[watoos]

18. Yes, the Freedumb caucus,

a group of elected white supremacists. Steven King would have been an officer in Nazi Germany.

[Scarsdale]

23. BLACKMAIL??

Putin has dirt on ALL of them, including evangelicals, holier than thou Graham and the rest of those shysters. They are petrified that if tRump goes down, they will be exposed as the charlatans they are.

[watoos]

17. Yes,Yes,Yes,

but it just isn't right wing AM hate radio and Fox, all of cable news is complicit in getting poor people to vote against their own best interests.

The rise of Dominionism, the reason Pence is V.P. religion was used to convince people to vote against their own best interests. They preach that rich people are god's chosen and that poor people and disabled people are poor and disabled because they sinned against god.

If we had an unbiased M$M Trump would be impeached by now. Mueller is going to have to have bombshell dirt on the Trump crime family because the M$M is not our friend.

I'm watching the History channel at 9PM tonight, The Curse of Oak Island. I'm not watching Putin's motherfucking puppet lie his fat ass off.

[Brawndo]

21. The false equivalency

throughout cable news certainly doesn't help and is extremely annoying. There are exceptions (Rachel/Lawrence) but largely this nasty habit continues. They could start to make up for this by displaying a live fact-checking chryon and/or cutting the feed if he deviates from a pre-submitted script, also I can't bring myself to watch it either.

With regards to the Evangelical Prosperity Gospel (vomit) I think this bumper sticker I once saw sums up the overall topic pretty well, "Jesus, save me from your followers."

[not_the_one]

31. Could it be that the PTB in the GOP knew traditions did not need to be adhered to

since they already knew that PUTIN had it in the bag? Mcturtle and many other GOP politicians received Russian donations. Plus, the NRA sinking so many Russian millions into electing turdface???

Aside from Faux News, Breitbart, the other far right nationalist outlets, and all the social media lies, distortions, conspiracies pitched to the people who would succumb to it, I think it highly suspicious that three specific states, and their electoral votes, just happened to override 3,000,000 by 70,000.

Those same states DID have Russian meddling in their voter data bases, and through possible suppression and data alterations, just managed to scrap by for turdface.

And turdface has been in Putin's pocket for decades, since, as his idiot sons stated, "they got all their money from Russian Banks" (since American banks refused to loan money to them...).

No need to reply, it is just a rhetorical question. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm...

[watoos]

16. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Putin owns Trump, has for quite a long time. Putin got Trump elected, people fell for the propaganda that came from St. Petersburg and was spread by people from U.S. social media. WAS ALSO SPREAD BY OUR COMPLICIT M$M.

The Evangelicals have been consumed by Dominionism, this is why Pence had to be V.P. Dominionists believe that rich people are God's chosen people and believe that poor, disabled people have lost favor with god.

Libertarians like the Koch brothers are another branch of white supremacists. Libertarians don't give a shit if Russia helped Trump, don't give a shit if Trump destroys our government institutions. Poor Trumpers don't understand that our government protects us from greedy people like the Kochs, with help of the complicit M$M poor Repugs have come to believe that government is bad when in fact government was protecting them. Libertarians like the Kochs don't give a shit if Trump destroys our democracy, they have the power and will keep their power because they are packing the courts with right wing ideologues.

Bottom line, Putin getting what he wants from Trump and so are the rich, Trump just gave them 1.5 trillion dollars, our stock market should be booming, it's on an artificial sugar high.

We need to get behind Speaker Pelosi, WE NEED TO GET BEHIND OCASIO-CORTEZ, they have the ability to change the right wing corporate controlled narrative. The M$M is not pushing the right wing narrative for money, that is secondary, it pushes the right wing narrative because it is complicit.

[pansypoo53219]

11. grover norquist. destroy federal govt. rules bad. taxes bad.

[watoos]

19. Grover is a mouthpiece, a pump handle, for the rich.

[pwb]

12. He is a phoney just like all pukes.

Fake courage, fake brains, fake people in a suit that have learned to smile when they lie to our faces. Nasty tone of voice. Know it all attitude etc. All things trump has in common with every GOP asshole. They like their presidents the stupider the better. This is their best dummy yet.
I think it's the big money civilian republicans want stupid and seem to be able to always make it happen.

[watoos]

20. Yes, and our M$M is complicit.

The M$M has done the propaganda for the rich. It has demonized Democrats who were always known as the party for the poor people. Even some Democrats abandoned our message and formed the 3rd way to be more like Republicans. We Democrats need to get back to our roots. I am encouraged by the group of young people just elected to Congress. The M$M is already trying to demonize them. With Speaker Pelosi as our leader and an influx of new energetic Congresspeople we can take our country back. Make America America Again.

[Gothmog]

22. K&R

[akraven]

24. He's a wholly owned subsidiary of Putin.

And the Republicans needed the money. They know he'll be gone after this term.

[The Mouth]

25. I think that the 'powers that be'

are not where nearly as powerful as people think, in either party. Sometimes it seems that blaming them is a convenient shortcut for avoiding analyzing very complex, chaotic, and difficult to comprehend phenomenon.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that very, very few things have simple causes. The more complex the phenomena, the more complex the cause. Like the weather being effected by a seagull flapping its wings on the other side of the earth, millions of interacting events.

[Midnightwalk]

26. My thoughts

Good Christian values, deficit reduction, national security are not actually republican principles. They are just slogans to hide what they care about. They only care about power and wealth accumulation.

How many times has one of them gone on about morality and been caught doing exactly the opposite? Their fiscal plan is always to cut taxes no matter what the economy is doing. The reason they always favor military spending is that the DoD is the easiest department to hide the money in. They are still no closer to passing an audit.

At the same time they get elected by having national propagnda outlets such as fox news and talk radio tell their audiences that republicans have the above principles no matter how obvious it is that they really don’t. And that Democrats are evil because you have to be against good things if you are against republicans since republicans want good things.

They do have a frankenstein’s monster with their base. I think the above message resonates with a smaller percentage of the electorate so they have to appeal to a more visibly racist and fearful message. Now they are threatened by being primaried by people more racist or willing to go further.

You asked what they were promised or threatened with. On the threats i would put money that they have been taking contributions illegally for years. That’s a threat individually and to the party. I can believe that some have been told that “let us clean up our act privately. Public exposure would destroy the party”.

What were they promised? Beyond getting their real policies and judges, I’m sure there is money abd promises of power involved but we won’t know details unless one of the investigations gives us detIls or some confesses or publishes a tape.

I would love to have tapes of the gop july visit to Russia. Then we would know

[lunatica]

28. Dear NanceGreggs

This is a very good thread! You elicited very thoughtful and educated responses. I find that very positive and hopeful. Thanks!

[The Wizard]

29. He's a cheesy second hand

reality TV actor with the morals of a hyena, with apologies to all the hyena lovers out there. He is bereft of redeeming values and a disgrace to humanity. He's also a Russian asset put in place to destroy our country. The deliberate dumbing down fostered by Spiro Agnew and George Wallace, expanded by Reagan and W. Bush, has produced the desired effect, an electorate too stupid to know the difference between a huckster with a professional wrestler's parlance and a qualified candidate with expertise in running government.
The Republican modus operandi has been to appeal to latent bigotry couched in the worst fears and lowest instincts with a heavy dose of false patriotism. Upon seeing the Siberian Candidate hugging the flag during the campaign I wanted to vomit. Think of it, a draft dodger and tax evader working for Putin is in the Oval Office.
It is incumbent on the Democratic leadership to paralyze his efforts to make this nation a Russian satellite.
Getting out the vote in 2020 is essential for democracy's survival.

[ThoughtCriminal]

30. They spent a generation creating a monster

Hate-based doomsday-cult fundamentalist churches, Right-wing hate radio, Fox News, outrageous conspiracy theories, Russian Trolls, hate the poor, bigots, racists, sexists. All rolled up into a positive feedback bubble that got more insane with each election cycle.

They created a base that was extremely ignorant and hateful of everything that did not confirm their psychopathic fantasies.

Trump/Pence was the inevitable result.