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Travis's avatar

"In yesterday’s presidential primaries in Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, and Florida, Nikki Haley got somewhere between 14 percent and 19 percent of the vote."

I had not heard this stat before (source?), but if true, this represents a major threat to Trump. Perhaps not in Ohio and Illinois, which will vote red and blue respectively, but if there are numbers *even close to this* in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona--I'm talking 5+% here--then that's the Bannon Line being moved under our feat already, and so long as anti-Trump turnout remains strong on the left (it will) then this is "bigly" bad news for Trump. Let us hope the pattern holds/grows over the next 7.5 months.

"If we have a “normal” presidential election in November, with Biden as an incumbent with low approval running against a challenger who has a bunch of problems, the challenger would be favored to win—as troubled challengers did in 1980 and 1992, and (acknowledging of course that Hillary Clinton wasn’t an actual incumbent) in 2016."

Here's where my opinion differs: Trump is no longer an outsider running as a fresh challenger. He is the present head of the GOP, a recent former president--"and with a record!" as Walter Sobchek would say, and his "bunch of problems" would make the Gipper and Slick Willy blush by comparison. So no, I don't think he is a "challenger" comparable to Reagan or Clinton (the presidential one) because he is closer to incumbent than challenger. That means he has his own record to defend, and Biden has Trump's record to attack. Shall we take a stroll down memory lane?:

- The Muslim Ban that saw Americans & green card holders detained at airports upon implementation

- Tried to repeal the ACA (again) that saw an additional 40M+ Americans gain medical coverage

- Kids in cages as policy at the border

- Kissing up to MBS after Jamaal Khashoggi

- "Very fine people" "On both sides" when remarking on Charlottesville in 2017

- More tax cuts for the rich in 2017

- Siding with Putin over America's intelligence agencies multiple times in public

- Using arms transfers to Ukraine as leverage to try to blackmail Zelenski into manufacturing dirt against Biden (election interference, blackmail of an anti-Russia ally, corrupt intent)

- Appointing the SCOTUS justices who enabled to overturning of Roe v Wade

- Sacking the CDC's advance team in Wuhan prior to 2020, allowing the virus to get a head start here in the US without any advanced warnings from China while China lied and downplayed the virus

- Refusing to invoke the DPA to get tests mass-produced prior to viral ramp up that led to unnecessary spread of CV-19 and unnecessary loss of life (DPA eventually invoked to make vents)

- Delayed releasing the federal government's supply of ventilators, leading to unnecessary deaths

- Promoting and believing debunked misinformation from the WH about things like Ivermectin, colloidal silver, UV light, and bleach injections like some IRL version of Jude Law's character in Contagion

- Praised Xi's response to CV-19 in China

- Multiple public/private instances of desecrating veterans, fallen troops, and the families of fallen troops--up to and including the late and great senator John McCain

- Freezer trucks full of American corpses adjacent to major hospitals in cities around the country and the first mass graves seen in this country for decades (Hart Island, NYC)

- Tried to start a war with Iran by assassinating their equivalent of Jim Mattis

- Use of unmarked federal police to round up and detain protestors without due process, warrants, or any kind of adhesion to the 6th amendment

- Use of military helicopters, national guard personnel, and federal police to violently break up peaceful protests at LaFayette Square

- Creation of the Big Lie that threatened American democracy via losers of elections refusing to accept genuine losses

- Incited insurrection that disrupted the peaceful transfer of power and nearly averted the transfer of power altogether, leading to over 140+ police injuries and at least 7 deaths (officer suicides included)

- Got over 1,000 of his supporters arrested and convicted of crimes for believing his Big Lie and storming the capitol on his behalf in support of the Big Lie

- Tried to steal the 2020 election with *activated* slates of "alternate electors" on Jan 6th--many of whom are now facing federal and state criminal charges for doing so, including Trump

- Was impeached twice for corrupt blackmailing of Zelenski and inciting the J6th Insurrection

- Signed the surrender agreement with the Taliban that cut out the Afghan government and released 5,000 Taliban fighters

- Cut the SIV program in 2018 that resulted in Afghan allies not being able to be processed for domestic asylum when the Afghan evacuation took place (a problem to this day, just ask Will Selber)

- Stole Top Secret documents from the US government and then hid them from the government when given multiple opportunities to turn them over

- Was found liable for sexual assault by violating a woman's body with his fingers

- Was found liable for massive loan fraud with banks

- Has paid zero taxes year after year

- Cheated on his wife with a porn star and then hid it from the American people via tax fraud

- Routinely engages in nativist "blood and soil" fascistic rhetoric when rallying supporters

- Likes extra-judicial violence and the use of armed militias in politics

The list goes on folks. The question is, can Biden and dems effectively remind Americans with short memories just how fucked America was under Trump's leadership?

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Bryan Fichter's avatar

What the last eight years have shown us is that the number of actual conservatives in the Republican Party was actually quite small. Today's GOP is largely a replica of its 1930s self: isolationist, nativist, and with a soft spot for authoritarians.

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