Bush quitting is THE story tonight. The SC GOP’s loyal relationship with the Bushes started in 1988. This is the end.
It’s… apocalyptic…
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This is the end, Jeb
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Bush quitting is THE story tonight. The SC GOP’s loyal relationship with the Bushes started in 1988. This is the end.
It’s… apocalyptic…
And of course, the secondary story is…
Rubio’s strong showing, possibly beating out Cruz for second…
And therefore becoming the Establishment candidate apparent, raising the question of how much longer Kasich can hang in there…
Bush dropping out is bad news for The Republican party and for the country. The more the nation lurches toward Trump and Rubio, the more likely the next president will be a Democrat.
I’m not sure anything about Jeb is dramatic enough to be called apocalyptic, but what this election means for the Republican Party is about that dramatic. Dancing with the devil has always been dangerous. Moderate Republicans decided to do that tango a long time ago, when they went along the path laid out by Lee Atwater, sending out dog whistles of racism and encouraging fear so they could present themselves as saviors from the terrible “others.” This is one of the reasons I am not a fan of our political parties.
What we just saw last night is the end of the Republican Party. Seriously. SC may have set the course again – just in a different direction. SC declared Entropy the big winner last night.
Even if Rubio in the future gets all of the Bush/Kasich 15% – and 2/3rd’s of Carson’s – that’s still 10% less than the Trump/Cruz 55+%. But this still overlooks the fact that Rubio is simply a slightly more palatable version of the TEA party reactionary. Likely 2/3rd’s of Republican voters went for the nihilist impulse, including some of the Rubio supporters. The real question now is what does the “Establishment” do?
We will probably remain a two-party country, but this is it for the GOP. It got eviserated last night; or maybe reconstituted into an unwinnable reactionary wing. The electoral vote this November will be interesting to see.
Rubio plus Kasich as VP. Convince me they can’t win the electoral vote. Ohio and Florida would be in play.
Who can Hillary pick for a running mate? She will have to have her Palin moment.
With Kasich on the ticket you get all his plusses that make him attractive to Democrats. You get experience that balances out Rubio just like Biden did for inexperienced Obama.
Republicans have a better future than Democrats. After Hillary, there is NOBODY.
He’s talking Nikki Haley for VP.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/21/rubio-says-sc-gov-nikki-haley-would-good-vp-candidate/80699188/
That would be a bad call. No balance. And she’s from a small, reliably Republican state. She doesn’t bring him anything he doesn’t already have…
I’m with you, Doug. Kasich brings the gravitas Rubio lacks, the crossover appeal and Ohio.
Of course, I’d prefer it the other way.
Another upside-down ticket, like Obama-Biden and Clnton-Gore.
At least, I thought that back in ’92. But Clinton was a far more skilled pol that Al…
Trump’s 33% is appallingly high, and I believe he is harming the Republican party (to say nothing of the country). But let’s take a step back and have some perspective.
First, 67% of voters in the primary chose a non-Trump candidate. Though some of you out might find Cruz and Trump equally distasteful, and though there is some overlap in their target constituencies, the fact remains that their respective candidacies are based on very different sets of ideas and goals. It is political parallax that causes many to lump them together.
I’m not sticking my head in the sand about Trump’s chances at winning the nomination, It is a very real possibility, and it might even be the most likely outcome at this point, and that is terrifying. However, there are also other scenarios that might play out that are quite plausible now that Jeb has dropped out. Doug’s Rubio-Kasich scenario is one such possibility, and if those two came to some agreement that expedited Kasich’s dropping out, I’d be all for it.
Finally, while I am very, very much anti-Trump, it is too simplistic to ascribe racism and xenophobia to all of his supporters. I know many of his vocal social media supporters ARE racists, xenophobes, anti-Semites, and so forth, but the bulk of his support is based on other kinds of ignorance, mixed with legitimate grievances, as described in this piece by Charles Murray, which many of you might already have read.
I know I said, “Finally” above, but one more thought:
Given the very high turnout on Saturday, it’s fair to ask how many Democrats / Democrat leaning voters participated, and whether a significant proportion of them voted for Trump with non-sabotage motives.
Trump’s appeal is essentially non-ideological, and if, Heaven forbid, he does win the nomination, I bet there will be some surprise at just how many Democrat voters will fall in with him.
Jeff is a very polite writer. When I say “finally,” I’m liable to forget it a sentence or two later, and just keep barreling on…
One thing, though: I wish he’d said “Democratic” rather than “Democrat” when he was using it as a modifier…
Here I must confess that this is a convention I picked up from Rush Limbaugh a long time ago.
I read a bit of the Murray piece that Jeff shared, and was struck by this:
That’s fascinating.
The classic French republican values are egalitarianism, liberty and the very opposite of individualism — brotherhood.
And whenever I have heard liberté, égalité, fraternité, I have always thought that the greatest, the most essential (and, too often in our society, most lacking) of these is fraternité.
So I guess I’m unAmerican, according to Samuel Huntington…
I recall a post you did on this a while back. You asked what three words we would use.
I think I said something like: Freedom, Justice, Conscience.
Good memory, Jeff.
He’s referring to this post from 2007: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité: What’s your preference, mon ami?“
The GOP sewed the seeds of the whirlwind that is now tearing it apart when Ronald Reagan pronounced that “government is not the solution…government is the problem.” Now we have a generation raised on the notion that governing need not be approached with care and reason, “politics” is an evil enterprise and political campaigns are just another form of tawdry entertainment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charting-the-long-course-of-the-republicans-sharp-right-turn/2016/02/19/92fb50d6-cc50-11e5-ae11-57b6aeab993f_story.html
The death of each party has been predicted time and time again but after serving time in exile, each one has made a comeback. Reinvention is not new and the Republicans seem to be on a path to certain destruction but in due time, they will find a leader who can unite the faithful. Donald Trump may best be described the way Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union. Churchill’s quote substituting Trump for Russia: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Trump. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Trump’s personal interest.”
Republicans or anyone identifying as a Republican and backs Trump will most likely have the mindset of “there, I showed them”, when in reality, all they did was just add one more stone to the weight pulling the party down. If they believe for one moment Trump has their best interest as a priority, they are sadly mistaken.
Hindsight is 20-20 of course but is it really surprising that Jeb failed so spectacularly? People remembered the W years and saw too many similarities between the brothers. Give the voters some credit they were not fooled again.
I don’t think so, I think people saw Jeb as just feeling entitled to hold the position. Sort of the Republicans version of Hillary. Which is why he acted like a 3 year old most of the time… he even got his mom involved.
What you’re missing, Bud, is that SC Republicans love W. He was an asset for Bush, not a detriment. In other places he might have dragged him down, but not here.
I don’t know, Brad. W sure didn’t help Jeb here at all. Maybe some “establishment” party types still have a soft spot in their heart for W, but I would suggest the populist, Tea Party, and libertarian segments of the party here in SC–not so much. The results speak for themselves.
My point to Bud was that W didn’t HURT him here, not so much that he helped. NOTHING helped.
As Dr. Venkman would say, none of the usual stuff was working….
Jeb should have crossed the streams.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.