Christie would probably go up in the ratings if he tried to slug Vivek the next time he goes off about Ukraine. I honestly would be tempted to if I were in his shoes. It wouldn’t solve the problem of fascism’s resurgence but it might atleast teach a couple of their constituents that the people pretending to be “strongmen” are actually weak as can be.
It seems to be what the GOP base wants now. Debates more like WWE posturing and faux surprise when someone gets whacked over the head with a chair. It's so much more interesting to them than deliberate discussions about Ukraine funding or national debt.
I hate to say I think that Vivek was the winner here. He clearly walked in with the intention of putting on a show and he appears to have succeeded in proving himself to be a mini Trump. If Trump is unable to be the nominee, he has set himself up pretty well to be the heir. He gave his target audience exactly what they wanted to hear.
I did walk away with a couple positives:
1. If you take away Vivek and Desantis, you have a fairly reasonable set of adults on stage with policies that are far better than anything we've seen out of the R party since 2016. I thought Haley had the best message. I really liked her reasonable approach to everything, even abortion.
2. It is very clear there is a huge rift between the establishment and MAGA. I think the infighting will only increase. Until they figure it out, I find it unlikely the Republicans can win a presidential election.
"I want to reiterate, the best, most reasoned, professional, leaders of the GOP establishment could only garner 34% collectively, and that wasn’t even with Trump included, only Trump wannabes DeSantis and Ramaswamy. The Establishment wing of the GOP is now dead as far as can be seen."
^^^^ The reasonable set of adults on stage that you allude to as far better than anything the GOP has seen since 2016. That rift between establishment and MAGA-- MAGA won.
MAGA may be winning the battle, but the last 3 elections have shown their support and influence are waning. They don't have enough to win national elections, and we are seeing 1/3rd of Republicans trying to distance themselves from Trumpism.
From a game theory side, where can MAGA go from here? They have alienated independent voters and now are fighting against 1/3rd of their own party. Best case I can see is they continue to exist as a loud minority party. At least I hope.
That is certainly a reasonable, rational view of it. But when has MAGA ever done anything rational? If they thought as you do, they wouldnt be backing Trump now, who polls THE WORST against Biden of the major candidates.
I think they would take their takeover of the party as total victory, and it's no longer about governing. They're going to be thrilled to get a bigger slice over an ever shrinking pie until you can mention "Republican" in the same breath as "Whigs".
Christie would probably go up in the ratings if he tried to slug Vivek the next time he goes off about Ukraine. I honestly would be tempted to if I were in his shoes. It wouldn’t solve the problem of fascism’s resurgence but it might atleast teach a couple of their constituents that the people pretending to be “strongmen” are actually weak as can be.
It seems to be what the GOP base wants now. Debates more like WWE posturing and faux surprise when someone gets whacked over the head with a chair. It's so much more interesting to them than deliberate discussions about Ukraine funding or national debt.
I hate to say I think that Vivek was the winner here. He clearly walked in with the intention of putting on a show and he appears to have succeeded in proving himself to be a mini Trump. If Trump is unable to be the nominee, he has set himself up pretty well to be the heir. He gave his target audience exactly what they wanted to hear.
I did walk away with a couple positives:
1. If you take away Vivek and Desantis, you have a fairly reasonable set of adults on stage with policies that are far better than anything we've seen out of the R party since 2016. I thought Haley had the best message. I really liked her reasonable approach to everything, even abortion.
2. It is very clear there is a huge rift between the establishment and MAGA. I think the infighting will only increase. Until they figure it out, I find it unlikely the Republicans can win a presidential election.
"I want to reiterate, the best, most reasoned, professional, leaders of the GOP establishment could only garner 34% collectively, and that wasn’t even with Trump included, only Trump wannabes DeSantis and Ramaswamy. The Establishment wing of the GOP is now dead as far as can be seen."
^^^^ The reasonable set of adults on stage that you allude to as far better than anything the GOP has seen since 2016. That rift between establishment and MAGA-- MAGA won.
I see this as a positive (all things considered).
MAGA may be winning the battle, but the last 3 elections have shown their support and influence are waning. They don't have enough to win national elections, and we are seeing 1/3rd of Republicans trying to distance themselves from Trumpism.
From a game theory side, where can MAGA go from here? They have alienated independent voters and now are fighting against 1/3rd of their own party. Best case I can see is they continue to exist as a loud minority party. At least I hope.
That is certainly a reasonable, rational view of it. But when has MAGA ever done anything rational? If they thought as you do, they wouldnt be backing Trump now, who polls THE WORST against Biden of the major candidates.
I think they would take their takeover of the party as total victory, and it's no longer about governing. They're going to be thrilled to get a bigger slice over an ever shrinking pie until you can mention "Republican" in the same breath as "Whigs".
Being irrational and making decisions that are against your own self interests has to backfire at some point, right?
Right??