Today's LA Times: Why the Republicans will never quit Trump

[CaliforniaPeggy]

The author (Scott Jennings) is a Republican advisor, former special assistant to GWBush and a CNN political commentator.

He makes some interesting points and I think he's worth reading.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jennings-trump-republicans-clinton-election-20190310-story.html



Why do Republicans stick with Donald Trump?

It’s a question I’m asked again and again by Democrats, “Never Trumpers,” and journalists. But the answer is simple.

Attitude and gratitude.

For years, Republican voters wanted someone — anyone — to come along and do two things: stick it to the Clintons and punch back against the media-Democratic Party alliance that fires on every Republican brave enough to stick a head out of the foxhole.

If you attended any GOP fundraiser or grassroots event between 2000 and 2016 — and I went to hundreds — you heard this sentiment over and over. And over. And over.

The secret sauce is Trump’s continued deliverance of an attitude for which Republicans thirsted for years.

For Republicans, it seemed like those awful Clintons got to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. And they always seemed so smug about it. Many had tried and failed to oppose them. The first Bush and Bob Dole, decent men and dedicated public servants, were steamrolled by the Clintons in ’90s.

Sure, we had George W. Bush after Clinton was termed out, and Obama managed to knock Hillary down a peg in 2008. But she still wound up secretary of State while Bill traveled the world, racking up speaking fees and foundation tributes that would embarrass Croesus himself. Damn those Clintons.

For finally bringing them to heel, alone, the president has earned the forever gratitude of virtually every Republican. The rest hardly matters. Jared’s security clearance? National emergency? Stormy Daniels? Please.

Like the high school quarterback who took his team to the state championship, Trump will never buy a Diet Coke in the proverbial Republican saloon again. And the barkeep will hang Robert Mueller’s report in the back of a urinal.

Republicans waited a long time. They became angrier and angrier as a succession of honorable leaders — think George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney — were portrayed by the media as stupid or feeble or criminal while Obama and the Clintons were treated with near-reverence.

[DBoon]

1. Clintons treated with near reverance?

oh really?

[PatSeg]

8. Yeah, I must have missed that

The media just mirrored and reinforced what the republicans said about the Clintons.

[LonePirate]

2. They support him because he is just as racist as they are. His hatred and ignorance are sweeteners.

[dsc]

3. what a crock of horseshit

to take just one example, Laura Bush killed her boyfriend before she married w. I bet half the people here have no idea that happened

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I posted this because this is what we are up against.

We need to know what they're thinking (if you can call it that.)

Know thine enemy.

[moondust]

5. Greed uber alles.

He's the king of greed without conscience--the purest form of Republican. He may even find a way to legalize slavery outside the prison labor system. Better than their wildest dreams.

[Downtown Hound]

6. George W Bush is an honorable leader?

All this article is saying is that Republicans are every bit as much a pathetic bunch of whiners, wannabe martyrs, sociopaths, hypocrites, truth-deniers, and all around douche bags as we all think they are. A whole bunch of, "poor oppressed white men," in that article, and not even a moment of thought given to the countless victims of Republican policies.

[Bettie]

17. For Republicans "honorable" means

not quite as hate-filled as most of their base are.

[spanone]

7. sounds like he's admitting his party is full of hateful, whiney, revenge seeking assholes...

[Volaris]

20. Thats how I read it, too.

They don't give a FUCK about anything except their preception that we think they're all backwards redneck chucklefucks, and that we need some 'putting in our place'.

Well....

Im not inclined to think that about them, as a starting place. But hey guys, if you wanna vote for the guys who are gonna pick your pocket and then tell you 'why WORRY about THAT, when liburls are saying your wife gets to decide what to do with her own uterus (oh, the white man horror).?'

I kinda think ...yeah. you're stupid to the point of public ridicule.

I suspect a lot of this would change real quick if these farmer redneck fuckheads realized how fast we city-dwellers could grow our own food supply if we really decided to do so.

Bill Clinton did more to acknowledge the Newt Gingrich 'revolution' than half the Republicans elected to congress SINCE, because he was at least willing to acknowledge that THEIR PARTY WON.

the entire premise of this article is bullshit. None of us should have any sympathy that the GOP and their voters are dumb rubes. You want me to recognize something different?

Maybe vote for peeps who won't fuck you over for an extra nickle, and until you do you all the dumb hicks can fuck right off.

[skip fox]

9. You're right;

this provides a good insight into their (delusional) thinking.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Thank you, my dear skip fox.

This is exactly why I posted it.

We need to know what they're thinking!

This article gives us that.

[Power 2 the People]

10. Scott Jennings is delusional

To think that 50 million people were that obsessed with just sticking it to the Clintons is ridiculous. The myth that the Clintons "play by a different set of rules" was created without a basis in reality. Clinton's economic record was the only real concern to Republican political operatives.

Trump won over the fearful masses with one simple promise: Make America White Again.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. I agree that he's delusional, just as his whole party is.

But that is why reading what he wrote is so important. It tells us where they're coming from.

We need to know that so we can combat it.

[Andy823]

13. I agree

The man is some of the scum that was left on the bottom of the swamp trump was going to drain.

One reason trump won was 46% of the voters sat home and didn't bother to vote in 2016. I am positive that mistake will NOT repeat itself in 2020! Also the Russians helped him.

[EleanorR]

14. Lost me at "media-Democratic Party alliance"

Some supporters won't leave him because when trump said he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose voters, he gave them permission to abandon their last shred of integrity and humanity. Once that's gone, they're part of his mob.

[Volaris]

21. Lol that means 'everyone NOT on Fox News' and even that depends on the day lol ..

[lunatica]

15. Thanks for posting this dear CaliforniaPeggy!

It does seem like one of the reasons. Pure unadulterated hatred of the Clinton’s without any real reason is a big factor.

Trump knows how to fan the embers of pure emotion into a conflagration of infernal proportions! If we ask them why they hate the Clintons they will always come up with manufactured reasons. They have no idea that they benefitted. They just scream, “Lock her up!” Even though they’ve lost sight of the reason why.

[area51]

16. What "media-Democratic Party alliance"? They're delusional. n/t

[Leith]

18. In a nutshell

retugs wanted someone more hypocritical than Newt Gingrich, better at dirty tricks than Roger Stone, more vicious than Lee Atwater, richer than Mitt Rmoney, more brazen than Mitch McConnel, and stupider than GWB, and noisier than the lot of them put together.

Welp, they got him.

[Volaris]

22. Yep this.

[JCMach1]

19. Rubbish, it's the Republican party's authoritarian bent

Taken to fruition

[Volaris]

23. And this lol.