GOP

Here is the letter Rubio sent where he says he wants to keep his delegates after suspending his campaign for President of the Untied States

So the choice is either jumping or smoke inhalation

Stephen Harper Speaks To Republican Donors About Uniting 'Fractured Parties'

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/11/stephen-harper-republicans-sheld...

"Former prime minister Stephen Harper reportedly had the ears of some top Republican donors at a private dinner hosted by a Las Vegas billionaire. According to popular American website Politico, Harper dined at the 'palatial mansion' of [Zionist oligarch] Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and a hugely influential GOP mega-donor, last Thursday..."

Quote:

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich this week suggested to a group of Jewish voters in New York that the blood of Jesus Christ was somehow linked to the Old Testament Passover story.

After touring a matzo bakery and a Jewish bookstore in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Kasich delivered a speech on the sidewalk about the importance of Passover, in which Israelites put lambs blood on their door posts as a signal that the Angel of Death should pass over their homes.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful holiday for our friends in the Jewish community – the Passover,” Kasich opined, before referencing the blood of Christ.

“The great link between the blood that was put above the lamp posts,” he said, seemingly unaware that “lamp posts” were not in the Passover story. “The blood of the lamb, because Jesus Christ is known as the lamb of God. It’s his blood, we believe…”

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/oy-vey-john-kasich-jesus-splains-to-new...

This illustrates why Trump looks like a good choice to Republican voters. He is clearly the best choice because he is crazy like a fox not delusional. Fundamentalist Xians who want to rule the world for Jesus scare the bejeebers out of me.

NorthReport wrote:

Why Hasn’t the Republican Party Collapsed?

We shouldn’t be asking whether the GOP is falling apart. We ought to be wondering why it isn’t.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/political-parties-are-sup...

Again you are asking the right question. Trump may lose because he is not rational but a more dangerous person who is still extreme will follow and may win. This has been the topic of more than one thoughtful article recently.

The answer to your question lies partly in public communications, I think. We no longer share a common information basket. We had media preferences a generation ago when people would find one source more credible based on their views, but they would still see the others. Now each person has their own custom source and is not even aware of what is being said that does not align with their view. Into this context we have misinformation that takes advantage of the unchecked space. People, for the first time ever, can feel they are informed but have their own set of different "facts." We are, when it comes to public discourse in an age of the parallel universe. This is terrifying. A generation ago we could say that the experience of extremism left us unlikely to repeat it. We were told that we could never again have a Hitler come to power in a modern country. This experience and awareness is no longer protecting us because awareness of the present and the past is being fractured and re-invented.

Take the above dynamic and pair it with a second and you have a truly terrifying prospect.

The second dynamic which guarantees another Trump-like figure (and the fact that the GOP, even now extreme, is still powerful). Many "middle class" white people, a good many who consider themselves superior (racists), are not doing well. Their prospects are dim and they are not used to sharing, never mind in a time where the pie they are sharing is shrinking. They see a visible other, immigrants or other minorities, apparently surviving when they feel they are not (this language of desperation is the correct one from their point of view). They are angry, and those who are behind their desperation would have them look anywhere else but at the source of it. There is also an inconvenient and obvious truth: if someone else increases their share of a limited benefit, your share will drop, even if they have less than you. To the poor, the most wealthy are invisible except in movies and on TV, but visible minorities are right there, to absorb the rage and prejudice. Politicians will take advantage as this enraged, disadvantaged group becomes larger. And they will direct them to blame another, even more disadvantaged group, to prevent them from seeing who walked off with the wealth. They will encourage a wide range of policies designed to reflect the rage many are feeling. Policies will be designed in anger rather than in response to the needs of the people.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:

We had media preferences a generation ago when people would find one source more credible based on their views, but they would still see the others. Now each person has their own custom source and is not even aware of what is being said that does not align with their view. Into this context we have misinformation that takes advantage of the unchecked space. People, for the first time ever, can feel they are informed but have their own set of different "facts." We are, when it comes to public discourse in an age of the parallel universe. This is terrifying.

Perhaps you're mostly thinking of those narsty Conservatives and their self-serving fictions, but this also goes a long way toward explaining why babble enjoys so many wonderful links to commondreams.org, and Paul Craig Roberts' blog.

Nope -- I speak about a general problem. It is not just Conservatives who do not often read beyond their own ideology. This problem exists on the left (and ties it up quite often to the point where it is less effective). It also exists among the non-partisan/political who have even less of an idea of what is going on around them than the last generation which was already heading towards clueless.

Huge problems exist in the world and they are known mostly to a small number of concerned people who are generally aware of their favorite problem and little else. Others whistle as they go off the cliff.

Don't get me wrong -- my statement was meant to be a sweeping generalization about the silos we live in. My opinion of the depth of understanding and reading of people who agree with me politically is not very different. Everyone has their own set of facts and most don't even know how to talk to anyone else. Those who think they uniquely know are often deep into an alternative media never-neverland where Elvis lives.