Magox

No need to get defensive, I'm not attacking you. It's ok to criticize the party you generally support, it really is. You make it sound like I want to buy in to some liberal narrative of some sort. I arrive to my conclusions based on hard data and things that I experience. I provided you facts about the previous elections of how the white voters for the most part sat out the previous election and how in the polling data that it shows the raw support for Trump. Then I show you a link to an article from the Blaze, and you can literally read thousands of comments virtually ALL showing their vitriolic responses to a VERY conservative writer who happened to criticize Trump. Then I pointed out to you the comments on this thread alone of people saying that they support Trump and that they could NEVER support Jeb. And then you tell me "but I know that doesn't meet your narrative." That was a bit unfair. And why should I show concern over the Democrats purity tests? I don't support them, no need for me to comment on their obvious pandering. You can't even say "All Lives Matter" without being criticized, and if you do you have to apologize immediately. Or that you can't criticize Planned Parent Hood for their callous attitude towards these unborn fetuses simply because they don't want to piss off the pro choice most ardent supports. Or somehow make the case that Global Warming is what created ISIS in a nod to the GREENS. Yes, a democratic candidate just recently said that.

This is the reality. The last election saw an increase of African American and Latino turnout from 2008, whereas the white vote declined by over 7 million votes. Meaning that a good portion of the right wing of the base sat out the elections. Trump has been leading in most of the polls and a microcosm of that is on this board. Have you not been reading the comments by a few of the posters just in these threads? The supporters of Trump are fervent, they'll whimper out but they'd much rather support a complete buffoon like Trump over a qualified candidate like Jeb. Jeb supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and common core. Big !@#$ing deal, now all of a sudden he's not a Republican despite his strong conservative record as governor of Florida? I think what people forget is that this country is made up of people from both the left and right and everything in between, and people generally want a candidate that represent everyone. However the base of both parties want their candidate to have "pure" ideological positions and if they go off script just on one or two policy positions that don't jive with their thinking, screw them to hell. They are no better than being a member of the opposing party. Not only is that line of thinking retarded but it is completely counterproductive to the majority of the positions they support. As a result of this sort of thinking, rather than having Romney, we had executive action by the president on Immigration, dealings with Iran, the status quo on Obamacare and a number of other executive actions. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater comes to mind. It's better to have 3/4 of what you want rather than nothing.

Many of these supporters of Trump won't end up voting for the GOP nominee if it's one of the one's they consider to be a "RHINO". They'll sit out the elections just like they did with Romney. They'd rather not cast a vote for someone they agree with on 75% of the issues which in turn helps out the person they agree with on 5% of the issues. That's how the minds of many of these folks work.

This is an article from Matt Walsh with the Blaze. He is certainly a man of the right, not what some of you would call a mushy RHINO. If you've read his stuff, which I happen to disagree with more than a few of his positions, then you'd know what I'm talking about. Anyhoo, here is his piece from yesterday regarding Trump. To Trump Disciples: You’re Embarrassing Conservatism and Yourselves You should read the comment section from this article. Holy ****! These people who have been fans of Matt Walsh, who read his stuff now almost universally believe he's some sort of sell out mushy hack . This argument is a flawed argument. I mean, you do know why it's been declining since 2007 don't you? I'll give you a hint, it's the exact same reason why healthcare costs have been declining over the past few years. It's the economy. Less jobs = less opportunity = less migration from Mexico. Weaker economy = less medical inflation.

I agree that there is a protest of the establishment, but this isn't new and there are several candidates that they could have gone with rather than Trump. If you want to protest, go with Rand or Cruz, someone that at least has a modicum of tact, not someone who happens to be a birther, who is breathtakingly arrogant, thin-skinned, makes offensive comments to latino's, criticizes war heros, sophomoric you name it. There aren't enough adjectives to describe him. We can say that Bernie is a socialist, but he isn't nearly the kook that Trump happens to be. Bernie the socialist is a distant second, Trump the Kook is leading the pack. Sorry B-Man, but this is a very poor reflection of the GOP for all those non-ideological voters that are capable of voting for either party. He's a snake oil salesman and he's got a lot of people fooled.

You're sorta like Birddog in that when Birddog tries to make his case, more often than not he ends up doing it so poorly that he makes his side look bad. You're the same, but much worse.

What's funny, yet sad is that there are plenty of people who would rather support this kook over some of the more substantive and qualified candidates. Make no mistake, Trump will fade but seeing this sort of support for Trump is a really poor reflection of the composition of many of the GOP voters.

It's their party platform? Link?

Go away

Jeb Bush's position on Obamacare No sensible candidate is going to advocate for the repeal of the healthcare law without some clear replacement for the law. Taking away people's health insurance that they have obtained for the first time in some cases decades or ever is a non starter without providing some sort of alternative. Jeb's position on Common Core In other words, he'd leave it up to the states to decide how they want to go about it. Do people really forget his record in Florida on education? He was hailed by the conservatives as having the model approach by being one of the first to push through the school vouchers. And in regards to his fiscal record, it was about as conservative of a record as you'd find, with tons of job growth, lots of tax cuts, balanced budgets with rainy day funds, reduction in regulations and in the state government employee workforce. The way I'm seeing this is the left should call the conservatives on their bluff, build the wall and add more measures that they are asking for and THEN ask for them to resolve the status of the existing illegal immigrants that are here. I'd rather just have a bill that takes everything into account, but the resistance is just too much. Conservatives are saying "hey, lets do border security and then we'll deal with the other issue". Honestly, I think many of them are full of **** and have no intention of allowing them to have a legal status. Like I said, call them on their bluff. "secure" the border first and let's see what happens.

I suppose it helps when you have an average population of about only 6 million people to sustain and the oil production that of a country typically much larger than that to help pay for it. But, hey. Screw dem facts!

Yeah, I found Walker's statements to be quite hawkish myself.

Bernie Sanders couldn't win the general elections or for that matter even the Democratic primaries vs. Hillary. Bernie is popular with the caucasian "white guilt" progressive types. However, he has little to no appeal with Latino or African American's. The way the process is set up right now with Iowa and New Hampshire which happen to be overwhelmingly Caucasian based voters it will provide an early scare to Hillary, he may even end up winning one of those states. But once it starts going to South Carolina and Florida, Hillary will re establish her dominance and cruise the rest of the way to the nomination.

At least we know that Bernie is just like any other politician, he states things that are factually incorrect and purposely takes things out of context to rile up his supporters.

I agree with what you are saying and I was just having this discussion today at lunch on this very same topic. Bush's last name and his lack of support from the base are two major detriments that he will have to overcome. Having said that, I've seen at least a couple of these focus groups revisited where a few months ago before Bush had visited their state the individuals in these focus groups were for the most part adamant about their non support for Bush, mainly because of his last name. But then after he had done some town halls and they had gotten a chance to see how he handles himself, a few of them came away impressed with his mastery of the policy positions and his record and some of them that said they couldn't support him before now say that they could. Rubio serves as the best contrast to Hillary and that's who the Hillary people are most worried about. Not sure if he matches up better against Hillary but personally speaking I just think Jeb would make the better president and I do believe he'd run a better campaign. I'm in Florida and every vote matters.

If you disagree with his policies, leadership qualities what have you, that's one thing, but to automatically disqualify someone no matter how qualified they are simply because they had two other family members become president is illogical. If you are someone who is of the right, which you are and you most likely agree with their policies on 80% of the positions, you are throwing away your support which helps the person you agree with on maybe 10% of the issues simply because their last name is Bush. That just doesn't make sense to me.

I don't wholly disagree. However there are many shades of grey between white and black, meaning that some people pander or flop positions more than others and that can hurt candidates. Whether it's flopping, look at how G.W destroyed Kerry with that label or Romney saying things like "Self-Deport" and that he was "severely" conservative that ended up hurting him with some voters. Yeah and I tend to like people with executive over legislative experience. Bush, Perry, Kasich and Walker all have impressive records that they can run on and certainly should look to highlight them.

I like Fiorina, I don't see how anyone can reasonably believe that a GOP candidate is going to unseat a sitting liberal senator in the state of California. She's quick-minded, successful, measured and intelligent. I really wish she would make it out to the debate stage, in my view she would be a net plus for the GOP.

I will say this about Walker, he is an "every day" sorta regular "Joe". There is little doubt that he will be an appealing candidate to a lot of blue collar workers, and he is remarkably able to stay on message. Which says a lot about his campaign discipline. Candidates say all the time, that staying on message is critical and with that he is on point. What I don't like about Walker are his shifting positions to placate the right wing. If it's one issue, you can live with that, but he's flopped on a number of issues. I would think whether you are a candidate from the right or the left, if you have the ability to stand up to the bases of either party and say what you believe in, that is an admirable quality. That's why guys like Kasich and Jeb from my perspective are attractive candidates.

Let's just say that he isn't an honest man.

Read the article.

He was referring to illegal immigrants. If you want your posts to be taken seriously by people who are informed then it would be good to at least begin with some honesty.

Donald Trump doesn't speak the truth. He purposely makes false statements that are meant to rile up the nativists. The day he announced and made those racist, false statements I remember telling my parents two things. One was while I knew he was going to be relentlessly criticized and mocked for what he had said, that oddly enough that he was going to get a boost in the polls, simply because those sort of bombastic comments typically appeals to the lowest common denominator And two, while he would temporarily benefit, the lasting damage he could possibly do for the GOP is devastating. Latinos are the most significant rapidly rising voting demographic in the U.S. It's not that the conservatives have to abandon their principles to placate their concerns, it's that many have to change their tone and tenor. What Trump did was that it reconfirmed what many Latinos were thinking, which was that they believe many conservatives see them as criminal second class folks. As a Latino myself, I can tell you that Trump is universally recognized within the Latino community and he is also universally mocked and reviled in all media outlets. Whether it's social media and let me tell you, even my friends who live in South America who are apolitical post memes of Trump, or the local news here in Miami which seem to constantly bring up his name in a negative light. Even the other night at the Latin music awards, when his name was brought up it brought out the biggest reaction the entire evening, Hell, even my mother who listens to the Miami Cuban political radio shows, who are solidly Republican, can't stand the guy and all mention that if he were to be nominated (which he won't ) They'd sit out the elections. I saw something that was fascinating to me the other day. One of the polls showed that he had a 13% favorability rating and 81% unfavorability rating amongst Latinos. The disparity between those who like him wasn't the most striking thing that I had noticed which is pretty amazing as it is, but it's that 94% of Latinos that were polled have an opinion of him. That means his name recognition is through the roof and they almost all dislike him. Having an egotistical, bombastic verbal bomb throwing birther is going to do wonders for the GOP when people begin to start paying attention during the debates. It's going to be critically incumbent for the more serious candidates to differentiate themselves from him so that the voting public who aren't in the pocket of either party see that the party hasn't been hijacked by kooks.

Stories that support their advocacies A1 Stories that don't fit their narrative A16 It's always been that way

Oh looky, White Guilt just came in to provide support.