Is Trump's election a one-off or does it signify true political change?

I agree. The grassroots libertarian and conservative groups I've been associated with began organizing in the mid 2000s and they're still building strength.

 

Many serious Leftist that actually read Marx and Lenin voted for Trump in reaction to the DP's blatant betrayal of the American working class and ethnic minorities.
Big Bad Government was the inspiration for revolutionary Marxism. Over a century of watching left revolutionary leaders morph into fascist tyrants has finally cured a lot of rank and file leftists.

Trump has a tremendous advantage going into this election.

 

Very insightful...........................especially the last line...

 

Take it from a former "progressive" - the New Left has become the Old Left, and in the process it has assumed all its bad tendencies and habits.

The DP's betrayal of the working class is symptomatic of the Left's betrayal of the working class, and as someone who is well familiar with the history of the Left I can tell you this is nothing new. At its very inception the Left betrayed the working class during the French Revolution. A little over a century later, the working class would be amongst the first victims of the Red Terror in Russia. The only way this same betrayal in our country can be considered anything even remotely surprising or unusual is because Americans convinced themselves that it couldn't possibly happen here, but once again, it's because they're ignorant of the history of the Left, including the history of the American Left. Were it not for the Cold War and the likes of Harry Truman and JFK what we're seeing in the Democratic Party today would have happened decades ago. Henry Wallace and the "progressives" who sympathized with their fellow travelers in the Soviet Union would have never marched out of the DP to form their own party

Progressive Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1948)

and the process of assuming control of the party that began in 1968 when the "progressives" marched back into the DP during the height of the Vietnam War would have been completed long before they finally elevated one of their own to the pinnacle of power in 2008.

As an acorn is destined to become an oak, the New Left and the Democratic Party were destined to become what it is today and where it is headed tomorrow.

As for Trump, I didn't support him in the primaries and I would still prefer Rand Paul to be president, but he was the only candidate who was perceptive enough to see what was going on at the grassroots (I suspect his long experience in the construction business had a lot to do with that) and the only one who was bold enough to embrace it and ride the crest of that popular tsunami all the way to the White House. It's easy to get bogged down at Trump and lose sight at what and who lifted him on their shoulders and carried him to power.

Which brings us to the question the OP posed in this thread and I think we're going to find out in 2020. Can the fractious movement that Trump harnessed in 2016 remain intact, persistent and motivated? Can it expand? There's so much infighting on both sides of the barricades it's hard to see through all the dust that has been kicked up.

 

Politicians who want a future in politics need to get woke fast - It's The American Revolution - stupid!

The Tea Party movement was driven underground by the IRS and other instruments of Deep State suppression. Hence all the surprise when Trump won in spite of all the assurances from the MSM, political "experts" and pollsters.

My guess is that that movement has expanded even further beyond the RP base and will be far more powerful by 11/2020.

Trump was obviously plugged into the sentiments of the working class. So, is Michael Moore. He and Trump saw what was coming in 2016. This is the prediction for 2020.

"BILL MAHER: You and I were on this page before anybody else that he was serious about running and that he absolutely could win and probably would. Maybe they will listen to us now.

MOORE: Four months before the election on this stage. They didn't listen before.

MAHER: They're not going to.

MOORE: No, listen, but seriously you have to listen. They have to -- people, where are you?

[LAUGHTER]

(Moore with hands in prayer in position)

MOORE: You have to listen this time because he is going to win the 2020 election."
REAL CLEAR POLITICS, Michael Moore: Trump Will Win In 2020,By Ian Schwartz, June 30, 2018.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/30/michael_moore_trump_will_win_in_2020.html#!

 

For Republicans, at least. For Democrats it's the Bolsehvik Revolution.

What struck me the most 15 years ago was the Left's hysterical reaction to the grassroots conservative and libertarian movement. When we first started showing up at their "anti-war" demonstrations they were shocked, then the shock turned into fear and rage and the campaign to destroy that movement, but what they exhibited was a fundamental misunderstanding of what they were dealing with. To call it a "movement" is to vastly overstate its organization - it has always been a loose, ad hoc association of individuals and groups that are inclined and accustomed to operate independently. Try as it might, the Left can't destroy that.

Today, what has amazed me is how quickly it became a force in American politics. In one decade this movement has accomplished much of what it took "progressives" four decades to accomplish. Looking ahead, it's going to be interesting to see what gains it makes beyond the political sphere. Thanks in no small part to the Internet, it's already had a major impact on the media and now you see it working with young Americans through groups like the YAF, Students for Liberty and Campus Reform. It's a great time to be a conservative/libertarian activist, watching all of this take off.

There's a lot of room for growth. The only things that concern me are cohesion and persistence, but success is the best remedy to those issues. As Ed Rollins once said, politics is a game of addition, and winning is the best way to attract more people.

Interesting, and I can see the Democrats imploding in 2020 like they did in 2016. Then there's the big X-factor involving the counter-investigations into the Obama-Clinton crime family and its "insurance" agents, which will probably blow up around this time next year when the Dims hold their convention in Milwaukee. It's going to be an interesting year, to say the least....

 

I hope Anastasia Trump is spared.

 

Donald Trump changed the landscape. Tribalism is at an all time high. Winning elections at any and all costs is the rule. Political discourse has become caterwauling at one another. Say whatever comes to mind and let it rip...

 

The only revolution that should matter to ordinary human beings around the world is the first revolution, the only real revolution, the one the people won - the American Revolution.

All the other "revolutions" were nightmares of mass death and totalitarian terror.

The "tea party" movement was a grass roots movement. Very like the one that won American independence and created the COTUS. Americans were writing constitutions even while they were on the way to found the Plymouth Colony.

"Since the colonial covenants had originally been made with-
out any reference to king or prince, it was as though the
Revolution liberated the power of covenant and constitution-
making as it had shown itself in the earliest days of colonization.
The unique and all-decisive distinction between the settlements
of North America and all other colonial enterprises was that
only the British emigrants had insisted, from the very beginning,
that they constitute themselves into 'civil bodies politic'. These
bodies, moreover, were not conceived as governments, strictly
speaking; they did not imply rule and the division of the people
into rulers and ruled."
ON REVOLUTION, Hannnah Arendt, Penguin Classics, 2006. p. 159.
https://archive.org/stream/OnRevolution/ArendtOn-revolution_djvu.txt

 

Trump's base represents every tribe in America. That's how he won.

 

He's just the taste of what is possibly coming. The political pendulum have swung too far to the Left, and it's now swinging back towards the Right. This is a cycle that have been going on for many years, and the political pendulum swings Left or Right depending on cultural, social, financial, economical and political trends.

The Left are becoming more Far Left-leaning and there is more infighting, ending in not being able to agree on the most basics of ideas or policies.


Then there's the Hidden Tribes study.
https://hiddentribes.us/pdf/hidden_tribes_report.pdf

Then there's the yearly layoffs by Left-wing media..
https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/vox-media-layoffs-50-employees-1202706362/
^ For Vox.
https://humanevents.com/2019/05/07/cnn-axes-over-100-staff-more-layoffs-coming/
^ For CNN.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/business/media/buzzfeed-layoffs.html
^ For Buzzfeed.
I have more Left-wing sources/outlets if you want, tho those are the most recognizable I'd argue.

The Democrats are failing, and they are failing hard. When you have individuals/corporations/news outlets SUPPORTING domestic terrorists, you know you've gone too far.



People hate Identitarianism, political correctness, moral busybodies/Authoritarians/puritans, projection, ad hominems, +++.

But most of all, people hate tribalism, especially extreme tribalism.

 

We've seen worse. The unrestrained political discourse of the 19th Century, the tribalism that produced the Civil War.

Donald Trump may be blunt, unfiltered, unabashed and at times terribly ineloquent, but he hasn't changed the landscape, the discourse or the tribalism. All of that was in terrible shape long before he even ran for president.

 

If it was a sea change, you wouldn't have lost the House. Trump couldn't get more votes than Clinton. Clinton!

 

Democrats don't support tax cuts for the rich. They're also extremely pro-choice.

 

Time has already told. Trump made the Midterms a referendum on him and his immigration policies. GOP lost the vote by 8 points. They lost the vote in 2016 by 2 points, but in Congress, there's no Electoral College to save you.

 

Why did Republicans lose the House if they're building strength?

 

Two steps forward, one step back ...

Two steps forward, one step back ...

 

I think there's a simple explanation: the GOP caught the Democrats napping in 2016. They thought there was no way Trump could win. Turnout was low on the Dem side. Turnout wasn't low in 2018, and it won't be low in 2020.

 

That must be the thinking behind the Dem hopefuls adopting such policies as open borders, free health care for illegals and reparations.

It might goose the minorities but it scares the bejesus out of white folk.

 

His positions on immigration and trade have not been advocated by either Democrats or Republicans for ages. That's why he's in the White House right now.

 

HRC apparently supported barriers before she was against them.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Hilla...border-but-now-opposes-the-Trump-wall?share=1

 

Hillary has had, at one time or another, every position.

 

Democrats have always voted for tax loopholes for their rich donors, and the DP has had many pro choice candidates over the last 3 decades.

"For the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party showed signs of being more open to high-profile pro-life candidates, most notably when the pro-choice head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Chuck Schumer, endorsed the ultimately victorious pro-life Senatorial Candidate Bob Casey, Jr. of Pennsylvania. Casey, along with the other pro-life Democrats in the Senate, gave Democrats the margin of control after the 2006 election, which resulted in the party getting a 51–49 division of the Senate.[18]

In the House, Democrats had a 31-vote majority following the 2006 elections, and 37 pro-life members of the caucus. Not a single Democrat lost their seat in either chamber in 2006. The number of victories of pro-life Democrats placed Democrats over the margin, helping to give Democrats control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.[18]" Wiki

 

Why did Hillary lose the 2016 presidential election?

The "progressives" in the DP are building strength, too, but that didn't stop Democrats from losing the House, then the Senate and finally the WH over the course of the last decade.

 

She was a terrible candidate.

Politics is cyclical. The Dems will eventually be back in power.