Fair enough, Trump reluctantly endorsed Moore out of political calculus. Which is actually quite fucked up. I mean... he clearly couldnt just publicly endorse Doug Jones, but he really should have stayed out of that race instead of endorsing Moore despite the scandal.
Guess I stand corrected. :/

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 4 2019 08:46pm

I believe he did endorse Moores opponent so he had to endorse Moore after he won

He was just all over the place in this whole Alabama senate race. Moore surely was the more "Trumpian" candidate in the competitive Republican primary, but the RNC pressed Trump to endorse Luthor Strange, the more cookie cutter candidate. They probably knew that Moore would be a disaster of a candidate.

Trump reluctantly did endorse Strange at one of his rallies, but then turned around and, while the mic was still on, said to his assistant "I think I made a mistake", which everyone at the rally could hear. Some reporters interpreted this as Trump giving a dog whistle to his base that he actually liked Moore more, but couldnt say so. Or perhaps he just fucked up in his usual, erractic fashion.

Once Moore had won the primary, Trump endorsed him. Then, the story about his advances on underaged girls broke, and Trump's initial reaction was the sensible one: "The White House initially said that President Donald Trump "believes that these allegations are very troubling" and that Moore should drop out of the race if they are true."

Then, the RNC and strategists realized that they wouldnt get Moore off the ballot anymore, and that losing a senate seat in deep-red Alabama would be a disaster, both in terms of PR and in terms of the power balance. Since the allegations didnt come with a literal smoking gun and they had a huge margin of error in R+28 Alabama, the Republican strategists decided to stick with Moore, hoping that they could squeak through somehow. That's when Trump's people like Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway were sent to publicly defend Moore. And in the end, when the polls were very close and they thought a Trump endorsement could salvage the race, Trump did eventually endorse Moore once more.



It was a clusterfuck that turned into a full-blown disaster for Trump and the GOP. Definitely a low point.
(I still dont know why I couldnt remember this last episode where Trump reendorsed Moore post-scandal though. Usually, I have a good memory for stuff like this... Thanks to IceMage for pointing it out. )

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 4 2019 09:14pm

Aren't you contradicting yourself? Governance belongs to the city of men. We don't demand that our political leaders be moral paragons.

A vote for a Democrat is always a vote for religious suppression and sick identity politics. I'd rather it be a personal failing than a systemic one.

Nobody's asking for a moral paragon. He's asking for a baseline level of morality.

Also, I always get a kick out of Republicans criticizing anybody for identity politics when you literally have "they're sending rapists across the border" Trump in office.

Like Thor said, it's simply a baseline of morality and character that I expect from leaders. Before Trump showed up, I can't ever recall conservatives or Christians saying that morality and character don't matter at all. It seems to be yet another example of how Trump's presidency has completely demolished cherished norms almost everybody used to hold.

There's never going to be a day where Democrats align with you more on policy than Republicans. The world isn't going to end if a Democrat wins the presidency again... and hey, maybe it'll cause the cultists to reflect on their choice to support an obviously immoral, incompetent, ignorant, and divisive president.

Trump is a monster the left created. Hard to blame anyone except yourselves.



You're suffering from recency bias. JFK was a sordid man who once carried on an affair with a 19 year old intern, had her blow his personal assistant, and yet he's remembered fondly. Was that an example of "cherished norms"? Clinton and the repeated accusations of rape?

Political niceties were always fake. Trump is overt where others were subtle; perhaps it's for the best that we dispense with the fantasy once and for all that politics is anything other than an exercise of power.

We are in Plato's cave, and the coming of Trump has finally shown us the shadows on the wall for what they are. It's time to leave, the mystique is shattered and dead, and nothing will put it back together again.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Nov 5 2019 10:25am

Trump was fundamentally created by the koch-funded hard right-wingers. Is a direct extension of the Tea Party politics funded heavily under Obama. Honestly, you have nobody to blame except your own donors who decided to breed a generation of right-wing voters only interested in being inflammatory

ah yes never-trumpers are the those who 'created' Trump fundamentally





lmfao

bogie is right. we have the out-of-touch privileged lefties to thank for President Trump. a lot of your lot laughed when he declared his candidacy, called him orange and incompetent and unable to win, proclaiming anyone who supports him to be 'deplorable and beyond redemption'. all the while backing some lazy racist choke-artist (D) candidate who didn't even need to try in the primary because it was rigged in her favor and didn't even campaign in the Midwest (spent her time fundraising in California instead). then when Trump won the Presidency, you started a denial of math and the election for three years straight now.

This post was edited by excellence on Nov 5 2019 10:38am

Trump's victory was the direct result of an effort by the Democratic party to alienate white voters. Clinton was a Hollywood candidate, and she did historically well in areas where that sort of candidacy has appeal. Among people sick of that culture, she was obviously a disaster.

I don't recommend that Republicans ever try to go back to the Romney / Bush electoral strategy. It doesn't work. The suburbs of Virginia and North Carolina are less important than winning in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the Midwest.

Clinton made a similar mistake, her strategy was fundamentally overweight to voters she didn't need to win.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Nov 5 2019 10:45am