The General Election

This is truly quite the conundrum for the GOP. Trump won't back down, but he's poised not only to lose but also to tarnish everybody associated with him (WaPo article, worth reading).

On the other hand, actually go all the way in dumping him -- Paul Ryan returned to today's conference call specifically to assure livid Republican lawmakers that he still endorsed Trump -- and you have open revolt within your ranks.

Also, this is a pretty significant move from Foreign Policy magazine:


 
Has anyone here seen the old movie "A Face In the Crowd?"

The ending always seemed a bit over-the-top for the sake of cinematic drama.

Now it's looking more like a documentary.

 
Do the Trumpanistas go off and form their own party? If so, isn't this basically the same group that were the Tea Party?

We would then have Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party. The extreme right wing people who think all hell is going to break loose soon if there isn't a revolution can all go with Trump. The rest of the Republicans and possibly some of the independents that had left come back and maintain the Republican party.

Is this how a third party is going to be formed?

 
When Trump began his campaign I had to question if it was a ploy to sabotage the Republicans. I never expected him to win the candidacy (not sure he did either) and thought he would run Independent after losing out in the primaries to ensure a Democrat victory. Now he seems to be deliberately instructing his followers not to vote for a very large portion of his own party's ticket, perhaps to further sabotage the Republican party? It's all just too well executed for me to entirely rule out the possibility that Donald Trump has dedicated the past year to deliberately sabotaging this party. What really keeps me from going full tin foil hat on this one is his history of refusing to accept that he isn't a winner and would never enter into a contest he can't win (or at least claim to have won).

 
Paul Ryan is (was?) the tea party.

I'm not sure what to call the Trump faction. I do not think they are ideologically aligned with the tea party, or Freedom Caucus as they're now known.

 
BigRedBuster said:
Do the Trumpanistas go off and form their own party? If so, isn't this basically the same group that were the Tea Party?

We would then have Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party. The extreme right wing people who think all hell is going to break loose soon if there isn't a revolution can all go with Trump. The rest of the Republicans and possibly some of the independents that had left come back and maintain the Republican party.

Is this how a third party is going to be formed?
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I think the term 'cult' is more appropriate in this situation.

 
Hmmmm.....I was hoping he would take the Tea Partiers with him.

Here's another example of how Trump has no friggen clue what he is doing. He is actively and openly telling his cult followers (I like that) to not vote for the Republican candidates that don't endorse him.

So....let's say the unthinkable happens and this idiot wins AND, his cult does what he tells them to do. He now has a Senate that is controlled by the Dems, lost some power in the House, and he has lost many governors. Is his cult then going to vote for the Dems? That would be interesting. Does he really think that the Dems in congress are going to love him and back what he wants done? He's just sabotaged the majority in the Senate.

AND....now the Dems have control of the Senate and it's easier to impeach him. Heck, the Republicans would probably start the process.

OH.....and let me throw this in as what PROBABLY will happen. Clinton wins and the Dems now have control of the Senate.

 
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Very interesting hypotheticals. Paul Ryan WAS the face of the Freedom Caucus/Tea Party/whatever you want to call the insane, uncompromising wing of the GOP. But lately, he has lost control of the asylum. They don't really listen to him a whole lot anymore. And the funny thing is that a lot of that section of the party has consolidated into Trump's camp after the nomination. They pretty readily abandoned Ted Cruz.

The moderates/center-right types are far more inclined to crossover and opt to vote for Clinton this election

My personal ideal scenario is that they do split from the GOP. Take Trump's cult, whichever of the Tea Partiers that choose to go with, and shift to the right. Hopefully, that accounts for less than half of the party.

I think for a healthy, functioning government in this country, we need two sane, responsible parties that don't necessarily agree, but can talk to each other, compromise, and work together.

In this scenario, that would be the left and the center-right/old GOP. I assume Ryan would stay in this camp because he's fairly establishment at this point, Trump (and his cult) seem to hate him now, and the original Tea Partiers are already unhappy with him.

If this happens, I'd think the Trump cult would be the most uncompromising and least pragmatic of the three parties. Hopefully, people would realize they're just being angry and complaining all the time instead of actually accomplishing anything, and that party slowly dies out.

 
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