How did the GOP end up with Trump or Cruz?

I think there is a feeling among many voters that a tradition of not speaking ill of Republican candidates has left them with Republican representatives who don't represent them.

Democrats dislike Hillary, but they trust her not to completely sell them out, in a way that many conservative voters no longer trust GOP candidates.

 

Simple...the republican primary system has been pandering increasingly to extremists. Now they're in a situation that their two most popular candidates have a strong base of core supporters that are completely out-of-touch with the large majority of the American electorate. So if you're running a primary...getting 35% of the vote consistently may (almost) win you the nomination...but in a general, that math is 35% of a minority party and now you have a problem.

The republicans have given lip service time and time again to trying to be more inclusive. To stop pandering to the country's extremists so that they can win general elections but it never happens....they always revert to what they know. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and they alienate most of the country in the process. Even Romney, who was more moderate made comments that ended up ticking the electorate he needed to win the election and the result was another failure.

Meanwhile, reasonable republicans like Huntsman, Bush and Kasich, etc...can't make any traction because the republican electorate is dumbed down to the point that it takes someone simplistic and moronic like trump to strike a chord. Unfortunately, the rest of the population who isn't his too small base simply realizes that he's a clueless, extremist idiot.

The republicans will lose this election and probably to Hillary Clinton...a candidate that they should have been able to beat if they had the good sense to nominate someone electable.

And until they get their act together ...they'll continue to lose.

 

I really want Sanders but I realize that there's a highly likelihood that Clinton may get nominated...even if there's an open convention.

At the end of the day, she's not my ideal candidate but she's light-years ahead of any of the stooges in the republican group. In the very least, I hope she continues with Obama's direction and keeps us out of a fully-engaged war.

If she's the nominee, I'll definitely work to help get her elected. Most of the people I know are Sander's supporters and they'll all be voting for Hillary to stop whomever the republican nominee is.

 

You make some good points there.

You are mistaken. Shortly before the rise of Trump, they tried to court Hispanic and youth voters by becoming favorable to immigration and it backfired on them spectacularly as white voters who feared for their jobs and tax dollars recoiled from the establishment GOP.

What conservative do you think would be electable if nominated. I don't think there are any who could beat Hillary.

That's true.

 

Then they wouldn't be so mad at the Republicans that they support Trump and Cruz. Because that's what the Repubs gave them when they caved to Obama in the omnibus bill.

 

But the Republicans have been promising cuts, cuts, cuts. That was supposed to be a selling point and it backfired. Trump knows what they want - cuts for the "undeserving" and government services for those who deserve it.

 

I think Jeb Bush and potentially Kasich could have a chance in a general against Hillary.

Jeb Bush is a moderate...he'd do well to attract voters from both sides.

Personally, if the republicans had had the smarts to nominate John Huntsman last election, they probably would have made Obama a one-termer...he was a great guy.

 

You want Sanders? You like his plans for free unicorns and fairy dust paid for by....well by money off the free money tree that the evil "millionaires and billionaires" have hidden in their back yards and won't let the rest of us get to? Will Bernie get us all a free money tree too?

I would really like a free unicorn, a pink one.

 

Bernie Sanders has been passing legislation longer than I've been alive. He knows how to get things done.

In a country where over 40% of the federal budget goes to the DOD, there's PLENTY of money to be re-diverted to actually be used for the populace. I also have zero problem with paying more taxes if it benefits me as pooled dollars. Most industrialized countries work that way (including America)...its just a matter of where you allocate the money.

I'm all for getting rid of corporate loopholes which allow them not to pay taxes...and use that....and I'm all for taking money away from corporate subsidies...and use that....to actually benefit the American people.

That's why people are bashing Sanders...because big corporations and big banks know that should he get elected, their free tax payer provided lunch is OVER.

 

But the Republicans kowtowed to the radical crazies, bible thumpers and obstructionists so they are deservedly reaping what they have sown.

 

Don't you think that someone like Jeb would be rejected by too many voters who don't think the GOP establishment represents them?

 

In a general election...no. Lets look at voters who are trump supporters. Math-wise, they represent about 30-35% of the republican electorate. That's statistically all trump's base is. trump is just loud, violent and obnoxious which is why he gets so much coverage and attention...but his reality is that he represents a minority of the republican party...he's not a majority candidate in any sense of the word. Most republicans are voting against him.

So while in a primary, the republicans pick extremists...in a general election, they can't win with that scenario and most republicans are voting for the closest thing they have to a non-extremist candidate. The trick for republicans is to fix their primary system so that the minority extremists are mitigated and stop nominating candidates who have zero hope of getting elected in a general.

 

What about Cruz' supporters? Don't you see a lot of them refusing to vote for a Jeb Bush? For that matter, I wonder how many of John Kasich's supporters would refuse to vote for a Jeb.

 

Perhaps some of them would...but I think the 65% that are voting against trump would get behind the republican candidate. I don't pretend to understand trump supporters...their mindset isn't something I'll ever understand or want to understand.

 

You probably agree with a lot of what they have to say. They think they have been getting used by the GOP elite. They generally think that the government should be doing more to help hard-working ordinary Americans.

For years, liberals have been saying that traditional conservative voters are being tricked by the GOP into voting against their own best interests. Trump supporters agree.

 

Trump is an opportunist. He is only running as a Republican because it was an easier field to beat.

Cruz personifies the Tea Party lunatic fringe that makes up the mainstream GOP.

That is how the GOP ended up with them.

 

Even if either was either I still wouldn't agree. You overestimate by far America's hatred of strong women, economic naivete and, particularly, our religiosity.

The Republicans ended up with them by purging their party of anyone not ascribing totally to their ideology of bigotry and hate and now, surprise, surprise, they have no one left to run for them but bigots and haters

 

I don't think that's true. I agree that the GOP has a bigotry and hate problem, but Trump and Cruz were insisted on by the grassroots, not the party elite, who would much rather have had someone more appealing to centrist voters.

In fact, not long before the rise of Trump, the GOP tried to court Hispanic and youth voters by becoming pro-immigration. This backfired on them spectacularly as white voters recoiled in fear for their jobs and tax dollars (and in some cases, no doubt, from racism).

 

STUPIDITY!

 

Yeah, let's wait and see how much carnage is left after Cleveland...

 

How did the DNC end up with two old white men?

 

who will beat anyone in the clown car....

 

This is not a problem for the DNC. One of those "two old white men" is going to be your next president, thanks mostly to the problems in the GOP.

 

Not extremism any more, but extremely funny. Republican voters have ALWAYS supported busting up the service unions by importing unskilled foreign labor, exporting factory jobs to increase owner profits, and tax breaks for Wall Street investments in offshore schemes that have netted America absolutely zero. Now that their own oxen are being gored a bit, they turn to Trump to bring back the big paying jobs they have squandered since the Reagan years. As I said, extremely funny. Now they jump on the back of the first guy who wants to save them from the swarthy ones.

 

Just to be fair.... I do not think republican voters particularly wanted these policies
I think they mostly wanted smaller gov, less taxes, less welfare and social programs, etc
But, of course the money men and special intersts did want these policies
Which could be sold as pro growth, pro free markets, etc
People went along...
But they were only inadvertantly voting for these policies

Of course democrats had the same big money donors
And would up suporting the same globalization policies

So in the end... Globalization was an issue both parties supported
And not a matter that was ever much put forward for people to vote on