Bob Dole, at 98, just told the media that he was a Trump supporter in 2016 and 2020. James Baker, at 91, said he voted for Trump in 2020 and tried to advise him.

People with strong ideological views will crawl into bed with anyone.

This post was edited by IceMage on Jul 22 2021 10:02am

i actually thought Dan Krenshaw was decent after he did JRE the first time and that's all i knew of him. then you told me he's nothing more than the bolded and ive disliked him ever since. i dont know how i didnt see it, maybe it was on the left.

What's so surprising about this development? You of course have to factor in how the Democratic party has changed over the years to understand where these anti-anti-Trump Libertarians are coming from.

Fact of the matter is that the Democrats have moved sharply to the left on economic and cultural issues over the past 8-12 years. They have become signficantly more statist, authoritarian, pro-regulation and pro-reckless-spending. And while Libertarians are typically not big on the cultural conservatism side of Trumpism, the present-day GOP more than ever represents economic and personal freedom when contrasted with Democrats. Furthermore, while the GOP was clearly the party of interventionism and the Democrats were the more dovish party back in c. 2006, this has been changed fundamentally when Trump and his base showed neocons the door. Dems nowadays tend to be more hawkish on Russia and North Korea, about the same as the GOP on China and not really all that different on the Middle East. And let's not even start with the increasingly salient issues of climate and covid policy, where Democratic solutions go against everything Libertarians believe in.

Yeah, if you look at the propaganda without looking at their actions.

Here in reality the GOP is trying to regulate social media, regulate unions out of existence, regulate where trans people are allowed to use the bathroom while in a private business, etc. etc.

the harris/biden administration accused social media, in particular facebook, of outright “killing people”. all while commanding them what should be “allowed” to be posted on the internet.

first search result in “gop regulate unions out of existence’:


bathrooms should be co-sex? if that’s your view then fine.
it should indeed be a private business matter/decision and nothing more

In recent years, social media companies have oppressed freedom of speech and and cracked down on viewpoint diversity more and more. They have gotten ever more brazen in their attempts and even colluded with each other to outmaneuver any reaction by the other side, directly abusing their (joint) monopolist position. When corporations become openly partisan, like Big Tech has in 2020, they really shouldn't be surprised when they get flak from the political party out of which they've made an enemy.

Many unions have become trash and useless. For an example where they've even pissed off Democrats, see this article: https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/06/28/california-democrats-are-reliably-pro-labor-but-one-union-is-testing-their-patience-1386963
In general, I agree with you on that one though. The GOP is fighting against all unions, not just the crappy ones, on behalf of their corporate overlords. Not good.

Until a couple of years ago, it was taken for granted that biological males have no right to use women's bathrooms. The Democrats and their activist base are the ones who tried to manufacture such a legal claim, the GOP is just fighting back.



And like I said: let's not even start with energy/climate polices or covid restrictions, where Democrats are clearly the pro-regulation party and Republicans clearly the pro-freedom one.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 22 2021 03:08pm

https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

The credibility of the Republican party is no worse in the eyes of the American people than it was under Bush. Reading between the lines, it appears to be the Bush presidency which did the most long term damage to the Republican brand.

This is why it's important to take a step back and take a calm look at the facts. What we're fed in our respective bubbles is usually incorrect.

I'm not sure if that's a good metric because of the number of independents and flat out weird registrations. For example, you have a lot of Dixiecrats who just vote straight Republican and they are too lazy to update their voter registration. Elections are a better indicator IMO.

The Republican share of the two-party (sic!) popular vote in presidential elections has barely budged since 2000. In 2004, it was slightly higher because GWB was still riding the post-9/11 and post-mission accomplished high, and because he was an unusually good fit for texas and california. In 2008, it was slightly lower than usual because Obama was just as far stronger candidate than McCain and the GOP got crushed by the Iraq war debacle and the financial crisis. Since 2012, the GOP share of the two party vote has been almost exactly constant.

There has been a lot of realignment under the surface, and significant swings in political power, but the underlying strength of the parties has more or less been a stalemate for a quarter century.



edit: just did the math, Romney in 2012 got 48.0% of the two-party vote, Trump in 2016 got 48.9%, Trump in 2020 got 47.8%.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 22 2021 04:34pm

Indeed, which is why 2022 will be a very interesting election. If the Republicans win in a landslide, I think it will show that it's really hard to have consequences for your actions relative to the general pattern of incumbent backlash.