The 2016 Republican Field

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For me it will come down to voting for the lesser evil and I won't even be sure that I'm 100% right.

It seems to be a commonly held impression down here that Trump is a buffoon, and should he ever become president, it may cause a lot of damage to relations between America and its close "friends" - particularly those five countries (including New Zealand) which are part of the "five eyes" network and Western Alliances like NATO.

Possibly there would be other negative flow-on effects too. However at this stage it seems unlikely (at least I hope so). It is certainly fascinating watching this from a distance and seeing all of the competing interests from the perspective of an outsider.

Actually, the reaction of the rest of the world would be one of the primary positives to a Trump victory for me...

Something tells me he wouldn't be getting any peace prize just for getting elected.

You know, I really, really hate that style of pragmatic voting, even though I've done it myself in the past, simply because it reinforces the f*cked up partisan system that's straitjacketing us. The thing about Trump, and let's be honest here, I loathe the man personally, is that he's got the traditional political class sh*****g their pants cause they can't control him, they can't stop him, and he's kicking over the apple cart, and whatever his personal failings may be, I think that's a good thing. Perhaps a buffoon of his caliber getting elected is what it's going to take to wake people up to the sickness of our system, at this point I'm willing to give it a shot.

Trump isn't scary to me since I hold everyone else in such low regard, Trump reminds me a bit of Pat Buchanan but he's obviously no where near as articulate but his style is probably also why those views seem more palatable. I don't know if Buchanan was ever polled in a general election, he probably was and I was too young to remember it but I doubt he ever did as good as Trump is doing now. I also don't trust Trump to stick with any of his positions, I guess a positive way of looking that is that he's open minded maybe relative to thge ideologues and bought/paid for politicians. Trump is running less on positions than just this idea of a general competence from his genius business acumen, it's basically "Trump knows best" and he's making his appeal straight to masses and using the establishment's system against them. The question then, does Trump actually care about making this country "great" again like he says or does he only care about power?

I think outside of social issues I probably lean a bit paleoconservative on some issues rather than libertarian, they overlap a bit but I'd say I'm way more skeptical free trade and immigration than most libertarians especially the big L ones. I think the open border people are crazy and will lead us to ruin when combined with modern welfare state, you'd either have to be a globalist new world order type or a pure anarchist to want that. I think my views have softened a bit economically, I can see value in infrastructure and certain safety net programs, whereas my views on pretty much everything else have drifted further out of what I guess you call the mainstream.

There is sort of suicidal ****-it-lets-see-what-happens type appeal with Trump too, it's like right out of a movie almost and I'm bored and hate my life so what's the worst that could happen? It's a gamble, roll of the dice, the normal s**t wasn't working out. **** it.

The Rand Paul campaign on the other hand is just depressing.

Last edited by Jacoby on 14 Sep 2015, 10:42 am, edited 2 times in total.

Yep! I'm going to hold my nose when I vote, and then I will probably projectile vomit afterwards.

And then there were 14 with Scott Walker dropping out.
He had somewhat more support than Perry at 2.5%, once a frontrunner, his drop followed Trump's entry.

The irony is, had Trump not entered the race as a spoiler, Walker or someone like him very possibly might have been the front runner.

Walker's drop out speech summarized:
"WAHHH!! !, TRUMP STOLE MY SUPPORT!! !, WAHHH!! !"

Would be great if Bush drops next.

In my case it's as much resignation as pragmatism. No one worth a s**t would take the job and if they did how long before they are corrupted?


Trump is just trolling the electorate and after he's had his fun I figure he'll drop out. I would be very surprised if he actually stays the course and even more so if he gets elected. Having said that, all I see coming out of his pie hole is BS only intended to appeal to some while inflicting butthurt on others. He does neither for me.

Unlike Trump, I could take Walker seriously as a candidate. I'm just waiting for Trump to blow away so we can get on with it. At most I get some enjoyment out of the butthurt he's causing.

I can only speculate Perry and Walker may have bailed so they can start courting remaining candidates as a potential VP runningmate?
My prediction for next-out: Cruz.

Walker is not a charismatic guy, I never thought he would be able to win a national election. He dropped out because the money has dried up, his support is nil in the polls, and he's a party guy ready to step out of the way now that he is not viable.

Cruz won't drop out as he has the funds and he'll ride on the coattails of Trump hoping the his support will transfer over to him. He is not a party guy and does not care about thinning the field.

Next person to drop out? Probably one of the random ones you forget are even running like George Pataki or Jim Gilmore.

In my life the best President was Ike. It was not even debated when he got a 95% top tax rate, paid off WWII, built the American Autobahn, and kicked out the Mexicans in Operation Wetback.

He was the only one who sat in the drivers seat and drove like a Statesman.

He was the only one Andrew Jackson would not have challenged to a duel.

"Operation Wetback"
Talk about calling a pig's ass pork.

Another one bites the dust, Jindal has dropped out! 14 left
I am not sure where his votes would go, unlike Walker or Jeb, Jindal didn't really drop after Trump came in because his numbers were already very low to begin with. There is a slight drop from when Fiorina and Carson began their rise.

Last edited by AntDog on 17 Nov 2015, 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.