Yes, but he's smart, and they cover issues well, often stories that corporate media won't.

Anyway it's not an anomaly. It's a trend, 2012 was a shit show and rebellion against the establishment has been coming around for a while. 2008 brought in Palin and the racist original tea party, followed by the Koch bought tea party that pushed Republicans as far right as they can go.

2012 was a normal year. We nominated a moderate, but he wasn't a great candidate and didn't appeal to Hispanics. It was a much different ticket than 2008, because Paul Ryan was actually smart.

The Tea Party was a grassroots movement that big money eventually started contributing to. That's what every successful movement does.

You should really just make this your avatar, that way you can avoid the point in every post you make:

It did start as grassroots, then it started failing and got a huge infusion of Koch money.

2012 was similar, but they did eventually nominate a moderate. It's just that he was the only moderate on the field and everybody else was a clown show. There was still no leadership, lots of bickering, etc.

You don't seem to be following what I'm saying. I'm not saying they were the same as what is happening this time around. I'm saying the previous races showed a downward trend. The party has been going downhill for years, so it's not an anomoly when they keep falling. It's expected.

Failing, as in electing multiple people who beat the incumbent/establishment candidates. Okay.

2008 was the first primary you and I ever followed. You pretend that what was happening was unprecedented or something... politics is a rough game. The Democratic nomination in 2008 was even more rough than the Republican one. There was more "bickering" as you call it. This year, your party is supporting Hillary and Bernie is too much of a white knight to attack her. Is that what you want out of the DNC? To pick a candidate and manipulate the process to benefit her? Or shall we let the voters decide?

people love to forget that Hillary was at the front of the crowd throwing cheap shots at Obama when it suited her. alluding to his Kenyan heritage and going so far as to imply he's muslim.

the 2008 DNC primaries were a shitshow, just less evident because 1.) it was 2 candidates not 8+ and 2.) obama and hilldog kissed and made up.

but when it was just the two of them the gloves came off...

You seem to have an issue with reading comprehension. They got a huge infusion of outside money that allowed them to be successful.

I never said 2008 was unprecedented. And then you just kind of went off on a big red herring.



Yep, Hillary was and is a total See You Next Tuesday. The party since then has had leadership and didn't continue the spiral the way the Republicans have though.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Feb 29 2016 02:29pm

You keep looking in the past as evidence of why we should have expected Trump to do well. It's just not true. No candidate who has said so many ridiculous things has done so well. All the fringe candidates faded away in the past.

Additionally, primary debates have always been tough. This year Trump has dragged them lower than usual.

You know what that leadership is called? The presidency. This year is evidence that the Democrat's are just as splintered as the Republicans. Socialists vs establishment. The young and white have rejected Hillary. Turnout isn't great either.

This post was edited by IceMage on Feb 29 2016 02:35pm

everyone keeps talking about this spiral, it just confuses me. Did the GOP not have resounding wins in senate and gubernatorial elections? Don't they currently hold the house?

on top of that isnt the race predicted to be fairly close regardless of which candidates win the primaries? unlike for instance Romney-Obama

i mean if you see a lack of leadership and lack of control as regression thats understandable. But those types of shortcomings can be reversed in short order. obviously i dont think Paul Ryan is the man to rally back behind.

conservative ideology still rules in the south, and that trend doesn't seem to be reversing by any major magnitude.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Feb 29 2016 02:39pm

The demographics are significantly changing. Even Texas is slated to turn purple soon. The old guard of the Republican party is also dieing at an alarming rate, meaning the party as it currently exists cannot maintain. They still control the house because they gerrymandered the crap out of it.

They only won back the senate this last round because it was almost entirely southern states where they have an advantage. This year won't be so forgiving.



You really shouldn't reach so hard, you'll pull a muscle.

Nobody thought Trump would do well, but a lot of people thought the anti-establishment candidates would do well. This isn't just about Trump either, Rubio is currently third and well behind Cruz. Even if Trump wasn't in the race it would have been Cruz and Paul out front, both still pathetic candidates. Rubio is the ONLY person they have who has any chance at winning for the establishment as a moderate, and he never really stood a chance to begin with.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Feb 29 2016 02:46pm