Along that vein:I wonder if people are going to adjust to this new reality where the two parties don't totally align as conservative/liberal. There really seems to be a shift towards populist/totalitarian. Will it survive this election?
The ‘Never-Trump’ Posture
With this hardcore background to steady me, I have never had the faintest “Never Trump” impulse come over me these past nine years, even though, at the outset, I had mixed, unsettled views. If one longed for a candidate with the bearing and clarity of Barry Goldwater, or with the expansive, disciplined mind of Richard Nixon, to say nothing of graces we remember as Reaganesque, Trump was not the man.
Along with a majority of Republicans, I suppose, I’d have preferred a more orderly and polished version of the same candidate, if such a being could even exist, with roughly the same agenda of issues that the party’s presidential candidates, consultant class, and assorted big thinkers had long ignored or else tried too hard to finesse.
I didn’t exactly rejoice at Trump’s arrival but I didn’t mind it either. If he signaled a sudden re-shifting of allegiances in an otherwise static political landscape, a newfound connection with the concerns of voters my party had either neglected or taken for granted, and best of all an end to our reputation for milquetoast, “country-club Republicanism,” I certainly welcomed all that.
In fact, as the large field of 2016 Republican candidates narrowed to a few, I called myself a “Never Kasich” man when the grating then-governor of Ohio offered himself as the last establishment hope against a Trump nomination — foolishly and characteristically inviting the very outcome he was resisting.
Plenty of fellow conservatives I respect simply don’t like Trump, regard him as a “bad man” even if he might at times serve good principles, won’t take the tradeoff in order to elect a Republican, and even now still aren’t sure they can bring themselves to support him against Vice President Kamala Harris.
That’s just never been my take at all. I find qualities to like and admire in the untamed spirit of Donald Trump — his entertaining disregard of PC etiquette, his resilience, incredible stamina, and defiance against calumny and opposition, among other traits — and the impression is partly based, for what it’s worth, on a couple of brushes with him in 2016 and after his presidency. (As if to compel another vignette for this piece, we were introduced in Phoenix at the former residence of Barry Goldwater.)
Yes, we Trump voters could all do without the time-wasting rally riffs, the disconcerting asides, the kind of pointless conflict with fellow Republicans that in 2020 cost a Senate seat or two in Georgia, some of the Truth Social stuff, and other downsides on a lengthy list that anyone, and above all his own campaign advisors, could draw up
Thanks to @indyblue for sharing the article. Very solid read!I wonder if people are going to adjust to this new reality where the two parties don't totally align as conservative/liberal. There really seems to be a shift towards populist/totalitarian. Will it survive this election?
I'd vote for either one of them, and put charisma far down on the list.Who? DeSantis? Charisma? Dude has the charisma of an accountant. He's well spoken, and thinks on his feet. But that's not what charisma means.
If you're talking about Vance, yeah, he does have more charisma than DeSantis.
You are in the minority though.I'd vote for either one of them, and put charisma far down on the list.
I vote based on domestic and foreign policies, because in REAL LIFE, policies are what really matter to the lives of every day people.
Everything else is just electioneering fluff.
I agree totally.You are in the minority though.
IngoMike and I feeling a bit smug right nowFirst, too many people avoid Primaries to avoid trying to get candidates that will have intelligent policies to be the fall nominees.
Then when they vote in the fall, they pay ZERO attention to what they're actually voting for.
Now?IngoMike and I feeling a bit smug right now
I'd also add that DeSantis doesn't light up the room. That's not as important to me as it is others, but it's necessary for the way national campaigns are now orchestrated and run.Like DeSantis or not he has proven that he is quite capable of taking care of business at the Executive level. He never really gained much ground against Trump though for a shot at the Chief Executive level but that's not because he doesn't have the chops IMO to fulfill that role. Trump just has the successful experience at the national level and a solid base going in that no one could match and overcome.