GOP Freakout

I can't believe it, but the bow-tied Tucker Carlson has written a brilliant piece on Donald Trump: Donald Trump is Shocking, Vulgar, and Right, and my dear fellow Republicans, he's all your fault. I've never been a fan of his, and I am not on the Trump bandwagon (and neither is Carlson) but this article, brought to my attention by FreeThinke, has to be the best piece I've read in a long time.

"It turns out the GOP wasn’t simply out of touch with its voters; the party had no idea who its voters were or what they believed."

"...the hallmarks of a Trump attack: shocking, vulgar and indisputably true."

When was the last time you stopped yourself from saying something you believed to be true for fear of being punished or criticized for saying it?

If you live in America, it probably hasn’t been long. That’s not just a talking point about political correctness. It’s the central problem with our national conversation, the main reason our debates are so stilted and useless. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t have the words to describe it. You can’t even think about it clearly.

Trump Breaks Through the Fourth Wall

In a country where almost everyone in public life lies reflexively, it’s thrilling to hear someone say what he really thinks, even if you believe he’s wrong. It’s especially exciting when you suspect he’s right.

And when El Donaldo decides to stay on script, we know that he knows that we know that he's just play acting...

Trump on stage with pastors, looking pained as they pray over him, misidentifying key books in the New Testament, and in general doing a ludicrous imitation of a faithful Christian, the least holy roller ever. You wonder as you watch this: How could they be that dumb? He’s so obviously faking it. 

They know that already.

[...]

For eight years, there was a born-again in the White House. How’d that work out for Christians, here and in Iraq?

Trump knocks over the scenery, throws down the script, and speaks to people as one person to another. It's refreshing. We're not kids. We all know politicians are highly-scripted, focus group-tested and crammed full of consultant-crafted canned-crap phrases and predictable laff lines. Rubio's no different than any other candidate. His program just got stuck in a loop.

Here's More...

"Apart from his line about Mexican rapists early in the campaign, Trump hasn’t said anything especially shocking about immigration. Control the border, deport lawbreakers, try not to admit violent criminals — these are the ravings of a Nazi? This is the “ghost of George Wallace” that a Politico piece described last August? A lot of Republican leaders think so. No wonder their voters are rebelling."

Four issued drive Trump-Mania:

* Jobs
* Immigration
* Government waste, corruption, incompetence and crony corporatism
* America's bad, foolish and downright dangerous deals in the international arena

The GOOPer spinmeisters, pundits and think-tankers are shocked and appalled at how quickly rank and file Americans have stampeded off their reservation.

"He exists because you failed [...] Trump is in part a reaction to the intellectual corruption of the Republican Party."

Carlson pins the tail on the donkeys and the elephants, saying plainly what we all know: The Specter of President Donald Trump scares the shit out of the Grandees of both parties.

Here are more excerpts:

Conservative voters are being scolded for supporting a candidate they consider conservative because it would be bad for conservatism? 

And by the way, the people doing the scolding? They’re the ones who’ve been advocating for open borders, and nation-building in countries whose populations hate us, and trade deals that eliminated jobs while enriching their donors, all while implicitly mocking the base for its worries about abortion and gay marriage and the pace of demographic change. 

DC is corrupt--Voters know it--Donald says it

One of the moderators asked, in effect: if you’re so opposed to Hillary Clinton, why did she come to your last wedding? It seemed like a revealing, even devastating question.

Trump’s response, delivered without pause or embarrassment:

Because I paid her to be there. As if she was the wedding singer, or in charge of the catering.

Why Trump Could Win

Carlson ends with a few reasons why Trump could win: Democrat and minority cross-over.  But his final reason may be the best:

Trump doesn’t think Hillary is impressive and strong. He sees her as brittle and afraid.

... the Clinton campaign called Trump a sexist. It’s a charge Hillary has leveled against virtually every opponent she’s faced, but Trump responded differently. Instead of scrambling to donate to breast cancer research, he pointed out that Hillary spent years attacking the alleged victims of her husband’s sexual assaults. That ended the conversation almost immediately.

That, folks, is what energizes millions of mainstream conservatives tired and pissed off at seeing Grand Old Pusillanimous candidates go down in Bushian-polite defeat to the Democrat candidate.

When politics sinks to fake plastic bullshittery with a potemkin facade that vainly tries to hide the moral crapitude of the body politic, you will eventually get a Bernie Sanders and a Donald Trump.