a clown car full of millionaires: the 2016 presidential primary thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmhjzYf3wyg

The fact that Nixon felt like Dad to the people who reelected him by a landslide is really crucial to remember and really difficult to understand. The vast, bland, MOR swath of suburban, middle-aged, sunny-day normalcy Silent Majority culture was not defined by the inchoate rage, resentment and reactionary energy that mobilized its battlefronts, IMHO.

Trump = http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/ricflair.jpg

Jeb! = http://41.media.tumblr.com/11a07a3af2d8837bca0a2b48ddca9b3f/tumblr_nbrh0934yV1tljxpko1_1280.jpg

maybe in the 50s when he was VP, but in '68 and '72?

xp

Heeeey guuuuys, what about meeeeeee?
https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a3c3d841eb4897a41ff44d4432336ff/tumblr_nrl24lygqd1rnzz12o1_500.png

I mean, I'm sort of assuming the WWII generation didn't en masse turn into virulent racist Archie Bunker paranoid psychos between 1964 when they rejected Goldwater, and 1968 when they embraced America's Used Car Salesman. Yeah, his landslide in '72 is down in huge part to code-wordedly convincing the George Wallace wing that he was happy to drag his heels on segregation, and to McGovern appearing like a wingnut to most. (Plus dirty tricks, etc. etc.) I just think it's mistaken to think his psychological appeal was only down to the kind of resentment that fuels Trump's supporters.

Surely for a lot of people he seemed, I dunno... safe? Comforting? The very picture of a square, middle-class, middle-aged guy who served his time overseas, has kept to his 9 to 5 ever since, spends the weekend mowing the lawn and roasting weenies with the kids - then, when pressed into making a speech at the Rotary Club, is inevitably a bit sweaty and awkward and uncomfortable and out of his element, but sincerely, even lovably honored by the invitation. W is probably the only contemporary politician that checks even a few of these boxes without it seeming seriously effortful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFf0lps3NhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20QN5O6XUfM

http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/07/6-donald-trump-wwe-moments/

Trump has been connected to Vincent K McMahon since at least Wrestlemania IV. Both really got big in NYC in the 80s, so I guess it makes sense. VKM adopting Trump's hair later on didn't help.

what ppl thought was a smoldering civil war / "crime run amuck" was the diff btwn '64-68

xxp

"law and order" basically

Yeah was gonna post the nixon crimewave ad in response (which is v trump in its paranoia and exploitation thereof)

The Kennedy assassination was still throwing a large shadow in '64 and Goldwater sounded and looked a hell of a lot like the John Birch extremists who had been foaming at the mouth and issuing thinly veiled threats against our recently martyred president.

By '68 the world had changed very drastically and the whole political landscape had undergone a long series of earthquakes. For those who didn't live through it, it is hard to conceive just how much changed in those four years. It was far more drastic than the change from 1999 to 2003.

xposts absolutely, 100%, yeah. he also was pushing himself as having a vague but effective, honorable solution to vietnam, something that could kinda mean whatever you wanted it to mean but clearly "different."

definitely speaking as someone who didn't live through it, i feel like the "law and order" message would have resonated differently in different places though, with different groups. like nixon's message doesn't *exclude* someone who used to be a civil rights marcher but now thinks things have "gone too far," for the sake of really whipping up the fanatics who can't wait to see some heads busted in the street. it's complex, i dunno. listening to nixon's '68 acceptance speech now and it's this mix of absolutely clear conservative themes, and a man looking to occupy a strong 'center' in a three-way election, who needs broad-based "unifiying" themes, not the frothing resentment of narrow, self-styled insurgents like Trump. so he precedes his law-and-order remarks, here and in ads, with general platitudes indicating that of course we have to respect our courts and those who serve on them, that dissent is part of democracy, etc... just some of them have gone too far etc. now he's talking about cracking down filth peddlers, mafiosos and numbers rackets who are exploiting the urban poor.

if you wanted head-busting for hippies and black militants, law-and-order clearly meant that. if you wanted civil discourse and peace and quiet, law-and-order meant that too. i dunno, i'm definitely not trying to defend nixon here, just think any analogy to the present field and especially trump, feels way too simplistic. trump is george wallace if anything.

matt yglesias does some role-playing (sfw)

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/2/9242897/how-donald-trump-can-win

the subtext here is that trump is fucked.

(xposts) I was there but too young. I think Aimless's characterization of the chasm between '64 and '68 is right, though. And I'm sure that, to a lot of 35-and-older voters in '68 (some of whom were lifetime Nixon haters, true), Nixon hearkened back to Eisenhower, and as such was a reassuring figure.

Trump is not, in any way, shape, or form, trying to present himself as a reassuring figure.

lol

https://twitter.com/hashtag/selfieswithrand?src=hash

haha

"The climate's been changing forever, and it will always continue to change," said Christie at an Aug. 4 event in Manchester, New Hampshire, which was captured on video. "Does human activity contribute to it? Of course it does. We all contribute to it in one way or the other. By breathing we contribute to it."

At an Aug. 29 event in Laconia, New Hampshire, a young woman volunteering with the group NextGen Climate asked Christie to clarify those comments: "Do you really believe that humans exhaling carbon dioxide contributes to climate change?"

"Give me my microphone back," Christie responded with annoyance.

"I really care about this subject," she responded.

"I know you really care about this subject, but you know what, the first thing you need to do is not be wrong, and not quote me incorrectly. I never said that humans contribute to climate change by breathing," Christie said.

"I never said it," he continued when she reminded him of the date and event. "Were you there?"

She confirmed that she was there and that she heard him say it.

"Then you need to clean out your ears, young lady," the candidate replied. "I never said that humans contribute to climate by breathing. Ridiculous statement. I never said that."

and of course there's footage:
https://youtu.be/gWn2k_SX7tc

"Then you need to clean out your ears, young lady," the candidate replied. "I never said that humans contribute to climate by breathing. Ridiculous statement. I never said that."

Just for fun, here's dave q. in re: extroverts in another thread:

...always pay ludicrously exaggerated attention to them - for like TWO MINUTES. Keep mental note of EVERYTHING they said, like you're a detective. This gives you enough of their 'material'. Then as they go on, ask them some question referring to what they've said in that inital two minutes, or better yet, expose some discrepancy between THAT statement and current one. Do this repeatedly, and (cf Milgram experiment) ask question repeatedly and more insistently each time, sometimes rephrasing (this can be dragged out indefinitely, as person will usually have no answer whatever). Since the ext. usually a) has no reason to say anything they say, and b) usually can't remember what they've said anyway...

― dave q, Friday, February 28, 2003 4:29 AM (12 years ago)

just think any analogy to the present field and especially trump, feels way too simplistic

this is fair - I fully agree this is a v unusual situation. But if Trump is coasting entirely on "anger and outrage alone" I think Nixon is p close to him in that respect, Nixon was not avuncular like Reagan or charmingly chummy like Dubya or a kindly-but-stern-grandpa like HW

Nixon definitely straddled a broader coalition than Trump has to-date and was also notorious for "calling in chits" and working the system (that's why Nixon won). But niceness was not in his arsenal. His concession to appearing human was flopsweat and awkwardness.

I wonder if rubber Trump masks will be in this Halloween.

Nixon's people undermined the Paris peace talks, which in turn destroyed Humphrey's chance of a narrow victory.

why not

we already have Trump pinatas in my 'hood

xp

wow, that Christie clip.

Christie really is an unpleasant human being. The condescension was just dripping off him and, of course, that condescension was aimed at someone who was 100% correct in what she was saying, entirely justified in her question, and fully deserved to be treated with respect.

a reasonable defense would have been to say he was being hyperbolic, that he meant just by existing in our society we're contributing to it (which is true) but no he had to double-down on the assholishness

a real charmer that guy

the crowd is almost as revolting, egging him on, instinctively laughing without taking a moment to think about what he was saying. those little shared looks at each other are so menacing, you can almost see the "are you on the same team?" thought bubbles

bullies are funny

it's like their all in 3rd grade watching the big mean kid putting a nerd in his place

or in this case her place

I wonder if rubber Trump masks will be in this Halloween.

Hey, it's Ted Cruz!

Here's a more flattering picture of him

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1620846/images/o-TED-CRUZ-facebook.jpg

Found a Trump mask:

https://whatspikelikes.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/toht.jpg

this is fair - I fully agree this is a v unusual situation. But if Trump is coasting entirely on "anger and outrage alone" I think Nixon is p close to him in that respect, Nixon was not avuncular like Reagan or charmingly chummy like Dubya or a kindly-but-stern-grandpa like HW

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, September 2, 2015 7:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nixon had a malevolent gravitas unusual for a successful American politician.

Nixon in '68 could run on being a vice president whom his running mate despised.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote this this morning:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/02/kareem-abdul-jabbar-this-is-the-difference-between-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders/

Trump's response:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TrumpKAJ20150902151004876.jpg&w=1484

"Best wishes" is a strange way to spell "fuck you".

"You have no clue about life" is the go-to, default grade school comeback when you have no time to think of something.

nagl to use it in writing when you have plenty of time to think of something

Oh to be the staffer in charge of printing shit off the internet for Mr. Trump each morning.

"Wait one moment, Verona."

*scribble, scribble*

"There. You make sure that gets back to that jackass, Mr. Jabar."

That's one way that I could see him creating a lot of trouble for himself: he picks a fight with the wrong person. Not another politician, but someone like Jabbar, a revered athlete and really kind of a gentle soul. (Not that Trump's 28% would necessarily revere Jabbar, but I'm sure there are fans among them.)

He called out Jphn McCain for like the one thing that everyone respects about John McCain? How is arguing with some Black Muslim going to cause him to lose any points with the sideshow that's supporting him right now?

I just think that once you direct your invective against someone who's not a politician, you run a risk (even when responding to a political editorial by Jabbar). People can have very protective feelings about childhood heroes. As I say: not necessarily Trump's 28%, but I'm sure some of them grew up watching Jabbar too. Beyond that 28%, I believe it's a risk--and if not Jabbar, some other non-politician.

As for McCain, that confused me at first, but he's always been viewed with suspicion within his party, and he lost the election that put Obama in office on top of that. I don't know if there's a lot of goodwill left for McCain within that party, or at least for the part that's with Trump right now.

Listen, man, McCain's been hearing that crap ever since he got back from Hanoi. He's been out there, busting his buns every night. Tell Trump to drag McConnell and Cornyn up and down the aisle, see how he likes it!

kareem's respected but i don't know about revered so much.

can we just start shooting