COMMENTS:
* Republicans do not appreciate fine writing. Thus their love for Ayn Rand.
* The GOP did this to themselves. Now they are paying the consequences.
* You should spend as much time researching The Donald's history and background (look up his relationship with the NYC and Atlantic City mob and gangsters to begin with). It tells you a lot about the person. Politicians, GOPers and dems, are known for playing with the best donors (ask the NRA lobbyists how many they have bought).
* Hillary has never been charged with a single thing. Never been convicted for a single thing. Never been fined for a single thing. Now Trump, on the other hand...has been charged multiple times, convicted multiple times, fined multiple times. So again...who's supporting a crook??
* I am waiting to hear Trump's opinion about alligators. Was the alligator attack orchestrated by Obama or was it just a part of the ISIS plot to take over the world? Can radical jihad coexist with alligators? Should the United States institute a moratorium on alligators seeking entry into the country? Should we build a wall and make the alligators pay for it? Should laws be passed to prohibit alligator-free zones?
* I think that Donald Trump is afraid to use the words "alligator" and "radical Islamic Jihadist" in the same sentence. So Donald is either weak or is collaborating with alligators.
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Trump Offers Republicans the Kiss of Death
By Francis Wilkinson, June 15, 2016
Donald Trump's demagogic performance in the days after the Orlando mass shooting has prompted more awkward silence and equivocations from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The Washington Post:
But most Republicans on Capitol Hill tried to distance themselves from Trump’s comments following the terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that killed at least 49 people. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) refused to respond to questions about Trump at his weekly news conference.McConnell and many, though far from all, of his co-partisans deserve every bit of their discomfort, of course. Having shamefully partnered with birthers, bigots and cranks -- Trump included -- in an effort to chase Barack Obama from the White House, they now find themselves unable to call off the increasingly wild dogs.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) denounced Trump for trying to rally support for his anti-Muslim policies, while others castigated Trump for the accusations he has lobbed at Obama.
Ryan never tainted himself by playing cute with birthers and the like. But he badly miscalculated with Trump. Expressing qualms, Ryan made a show of withholding support from Trump. When he at last agreed to support his party's presumptive nominee, it was widely understood that Ryan expected better behavior in turn.
Instead, Trump has gotten worse. If Ryan had qualms before, he can only be horrified now as Trump uses his enhanced public platform -- and the credibility of the Republican brand -- to continue to wallow in conspiracy theory, delusion and scapegoating.
Republican leaders seem to have concluded that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. This is a misperception. On one side is indeed a rock -- the political difficulty of renouncing the party's all-but-certain presidential nominee while simultaneously trying to bolster its other candidates. But the other side is not a mere "hard place"; it's a moral and political calamity. It could jeopardize the party for years.
It would be better to distance themselves from Trump and treat him as a freak accident (even if he is not). Because his campaign is only going to get uglier.
As Trump continues down his reckless path -- there is no Trump general-election pivot toward responsible politics or policy -- he is highly likely to lose support. The RealClearPolitics polling average already shows the beginning of such a trend, though it may largely reflect Hillary Clinton's consolidation of support as her primary contest ends.
Still, a CBS poll found respondents had a dismal view of Trump's reaction to the Orlando shooting; only 25 percent approved of his response while 51 percent disapproved. That's not the result of a typical partisan breakdown in which Republicans support the Republican candidate and Democrats don't. Only 50 percent of Republicans approved of Trump's response.
Trump spoke last night in Greensboro, North Carolina. According to one report, some members of the audience were as offensive as their candidate, yelling obscenities at the mention of Hillary Clinton's name, shoving and punching and chanting, "Build that wall!"
There is real dissatisfaction in the U.S., but the majority of American voters do not appear poised to join a mob. Large numbers do not share the anxieties animating Trump's most fervent supporters.
In the likely event that resistance to Trump solidifies, his poll numbers, which he deems almost sacred, will no longer prop up his besieged ego. To soothe his hurt, he will inevitably summon more of what wins him the mob's cheers -- demagogy.
Republicans are experiencing karma on a scale that politics only rarely affords. With Ryan, McConnell and their party tethered to Trump's destructive course, he will drag them down with him, and the association will linger long past 2016. Denying him the nomination may be impossible, perhaps even pointless, given that Trump's supporters would not accept a substitute.
Yet self-respecting politicians will be forced to ditch Trump sooner or later. There will be no way to reach an acceptable compromise with the political catastrophe that he both embodies and advances. There's more dignity, and less pain, to be had in walking away -- now.
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