As this video puts it, he's a GOP party troll.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/4/9094441/donald-trump-2016
It's at the bottom of the page after Ezra Klein's stages of grief for the media in accepting Trump's rise.
That video is perfect because as the guy says, for Democrats the Trump campaign is a movie you hope never ends. That's certainly true of me.
Why is this? Well let the conservative Ramesh Ponnuru explain it:
"Republicans are in a funk on the eve of the first presidential-primary debate. The party's popularity has dipped, largely because Republican voters are souring on it. Their lack of confidence in their party surely has something to do with Donald Trump's rise in the polls. Bitterness between conservative groups and the Senate Republican leadership is at a peak, with the former saying the latter are too devoted to keeping corporate welfare programs like the Export-Import Bank alive and insufficiently committed to defunding Planned Parenthood."
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-05/republicans-deserve-trump
I agree that Republicans deserve Trump though not for quite the reasons Ponnuru cites. I disagree with this:
"The party's low morale is partly the result of two strategic decisions its leaders have made over the past year. They chose to run an agenda-less campaign to win control of the Senate in 2014, and having won it they chose to act as though their most important goal was to "prove they could govern" -- that is, to enact legislation or at least get it to President Barack Obama to sign or veto."
No, that's not quite the right diagnosis. He talks about Senate Democrats filibustering the GOP:
"But these choices also had potential disadvantages. Running without an agenda, candidates instead raised vague expectations that, if they won, conservatives would see big victories of some sort on illegal immigration and Obamacare. Trying to advance legislation with some bipartisan buy-in would inevitably mean pushing the priorities of some corporate constituencies rather than those of voters -- and thus deepening the perception that Republicans are the political arm of big business."
"The strategy was also bound to run up against two immovable obstacles. First, Senate Democrats have an incentive to filibuster Republican bills so that they never reach the president's desk. That way Republicans look unproductive, and fail by the terms they themselves established. Second, conservative Republicans were likely to grow restive, and the stage would be set for a factional fight that again made the party look incompetent."
What he's glossing over is that the GOP can't even agree with itself. The Tea Party is now as angry with the Senate GOP as with Democrats. Republicans can't even agree with Republicans these days.
My explanation of the Trump Surge is that he's filling a vacuum. The base is very frustrated right now but the reason for this is the extravagant hopes they had after last year's elections wins.
They thought they had crushed Obama after their alleged 'wave election' but to the contrary, the President came out more feisty and emboldened than ever before. He has freely used his executive power on immigration, raising wages, improving relations with Cuba and Iran, and holding the private colleges accountable.
Mixed with all the recent liberal court victories and the GOP base is just very frustrated. This has led to a desire to have a candidate that doesn't just say 'I totally support immigration reform but first we have to secure the border' but 'Mexicans are a bunch of smelly drug dealers and rapists and besides they talk funny.'
Bruce Barlett may be onto something that what the GOP really needs is to nominate Trump and then go down to a huge landslide defeat. Maybe this might begin to make them see reason-though even then I wouldn't be too optimistic.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/07/bruce-bartlett-makes-moderate-gop-case.html
P.S. Anyway you size it, Trump is Troll of the Year. Let's just hope this goes on and on.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/4/9094441/donald-trump-2016
It's at the bottom of the page after Ezra Klein's stages of grief for the media in accepting Trump's rise.
That video is perfect because as the guy says, for Democrats the Trump campaign is a movie you hope never ends. That's certainly true of me.
Why is this? Well let the conservative Ramesh Ponnuru explain it:
"Republicans are in a funk on the eve of the first presidential-primary debate. The party's popularity has dipped, largely because Republican voters are souring on it. Their lack of confidence in their party surely has something to do with Donald Trump's rise in the polls. Bitterness between conservative groups and the Senate Republican leadership is at a peak, with the former saying the latter are too devoted to keeping corporate welfare programs like the Export-Import Bank alive and insufficiently committed to defunding Planned Parenthood."
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-05/republicans-deserve-trump
I agree that Republicans deserve Trump though not for quite the reasons Ponnuru cites. I disagree with this:
"The party's low morale is partly the result of two strategic decisions its leaders have made over the past year. They chose to run an agenda-less campaign to win control of the Senate in 2014, and having won it they chose to act as though their most important goal was to "prove they could govern" -- that is, to enact legislation or at least get it to President Barack Obama to sign or veto."
No, that's not quite the right diagnosis. He talks about Senate Democrats filibustering the GOP:
"But these choices also had potential disadvantages. Running without an agenda, candidates instead raised vague expectations that, if they won, conservatives would see big victories of some sort on illegal immigration and Obamacare. Trying to advance legislation with some bipartisan buy-in would inevitably mean pushing the priorities of some corporate constituencies rather than those of voters -- and thus deepening the perception that Republicans are the political arm of big business."
"The strategy was also bound to run up against two immovable obstacles. First, Senate Democrats have an incentive to filibuster Republican bills so that they never reach the president's desk. That way Republicans look unproductive, and fail by the terms they themselves established. Second, conservative Republicans were likely to grow restive, and the stage would be set for a factional fight that again made the party look incompetent."
What he's glossing over is that the GOP can't even agree with itself. The Tea Party is now as angry with the Senate GOP as with Democrats. Republicans can't even agree with Republicans these days.
My explanation of the Trump Surge is that he's filling a vacuum. The base is very frustrated right now but the reason for this is the extravagant hopes they had after last year's elections wins.
They thought they had crushed Obama after their alleged 'wave election' but to the contrary, the President came out more feisty and emboldened than ever before. He has freely used his executive power on immigration, raising wages, improving relations with Cuba and Iran, and holding the private colleges accountable.
Mixed with all the recent liberal court victories and the GOP base is just very frustrated. This has led to a desire to have a candidate that doesn't just say 'I totally support immigration reform but first we have to secure the border' but 'Mexicans are a bunch of smelly drug dealers and rapists and besides they talk funny.'
Bruce Barlett may be onto something that what the GOP really needs is to nominate Trump and then go down to a huge landslide defeat. Maybe this might begin to make them see reason-though even then I wouldn't be too optimistic.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/07/bruce-bartlett-makes-moderate-gop-case.html
P.S. Anyway you size it, Trump is Troll of the Year. Let's just hope this goes on and on.
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