How did the GOP end up with Trump or Cruz?

Think about it. The GOP had a good chance of winning the WH this year. Both Hillary and Bernie are very beatable. The GOP had some good people in the field, a the beginning. How did they end up with the two front runners they have now? Trump is a Lunatic and Cruz is hated my most of the Republican establishment. How did this happen?

 

Simple answer : Extremism sells.

 

Well, this is grossly oversimplified, but it goes something like this. Traditional GOP voters have started at least two different revolutions. Some are values voters who think that the party has taken their support for granted while only pay lip service to their causes. Some are economic voters who think that the party isn't looking after their interests. The first group more or less gave us Cruz and the second group Trump. The power of both groups together assured that no GOP business-as-usual candidate will have a chance.

 

As we have all seen through the years, Extremism also loses.

 

Going up against a serial liar and a communist, I think their chances are pretty good.

 

None of those usual suspects was an honest choice. The GOP hasn't made an honest effort to get the presidency since Bush II. Why would they? They are getting all the benefits of democrat corporate cronies, in sheep's clothing and none of the head ache. The Gop have been giving democrats everything they put forward since 2006, and the people are being ass raped as we speak, so why shouldn't they revolt on the establishment (AKA rich/elites)? The best thing these two clowns have going for them is one of them appears to be unbuyable, and the other one is a phony who appears to be on the surface, anti-establishment. The dazed and confused sheeple who vote republican no matter how destructive it is for them, have taken another route, out of the frying pan into the fire.

 

Seems like you are presenting the current situation as some sort of enormous conspiracy
Rather than acknowledging systemic defects

 

That explains Bernie's large rallies.

 

Cruz which Trump supporters refer to as a RINO today was the epitome of right wing conservative values prior to THE Donald. He draws his support from the Tea Party types and those who classify themselves as very conservative along with the religious right.

Trump became the darling of approximately a third of Republicans because of his fighting spirit. His willingness to be very political incorrect. He has the fighting spirit that those Republicans who support him seem lacking in the Republican controlled congress. His supporters are angry at the very Republican elected officials they helped elect. The fighting spirit Trump has shown has over ruled or became much more important than their long held political ideology. That has been thrown out the window by Trump supporters.

This is a statement election or selection of the Republican nominee. Trump doesn't stand a chance in November, those who make up the general electorate do not like him and view him as obnoxious, a bully. Cruz comes across as aloof, too much the preacher and the general electorate doesn't care for him either.

I agree, in an election where the Republicans should be winning handily, they will probably go down to defeat in a landslide.

 

Don't think so Tim. Republican voters worked hard to give GOP the House in 2010 and were promised GOP would work to stop Obama. They didn't, they caved. So voters worked even harder and gave the GOP majorities in the House, Senate, State legislatures and governorships like they have never had. They were promised that the Congress would work to stop Obama on Obamacare, amnesty, expansion of government through the power of the purse. They caved, particularly on the omnibus bills at the end of last year when they gave Obama funding for all his priorities for 18 months, including on amnesty, all of Obamacare, and full funding of Planned Parenthood butchers. They didn't even put up a fight.

Republicans got who they got because the lied to their voters, promised stuff they had no intention of fighting for. Also, people found out that far from opposing amnesty, most of the elite in the party want to shove it down our throat.

Voters want the invasion of the country by foreign nationals stopped - note that Trump's promise thereon in his first speech was what set his campaign on fire and burned the Republican establishment. Its not extremism to want to protect American workers, communities, and sovereignty from an invasion of foreign nationals who break our laws, invade the country and steal our sovereignty.

Democrat and Republican establishments are finding out that the voters want people who will think about their interests first and not the interest of the coastal and government elites. Its not a bug its a feature that the establishment hate Trump and Cruz. Republicans, at least have screwed their voters for the last time. This time they WILL listen or the party will burn down.

 

A lot of Trump's supporters, and quite a few other traditionally conservative voters, want health care and other entitlement spending. They generally don't like the way the Dems have been spending, but they want the government spending on their behalf, and have been alienated by GOP promises to cut spending in general.

 

Who brought up the real issues that were on the minds of the voters? Trump. Who stood alone on the senate floor and fought the Establishment? Cruz and Paul.

It isn't over but if Trump or Cruz are not the nominee then I fear there will a be a lot of blood letting in the Republican party.

 

Who brought up the real issues that were on the minds of the voters? Trump. Who stood alone on the senate floor and fought the Establishment? Cruz and Paul.

It isn't over but if Trump or Cruz are not the nominee then I fear there will a be a lot of blood letting in the Republican party.

 

You really don't understand anything about what the conservative voting base wants. The question is now..... are you interested in learning? Or are you just looking to judge?

 

Reason would say, but what of the polls that show Clinton winning.

 

This is the bottom line of reality. Too many people are making political predictions on the basis of ideology without paying proper attention to the actual polls. The GOP has been ignoring reality while living in a Fox News fantasy world. Many voters on right and left alike are likewise living in worlds created more out of ideology than observation. People don't tune in to political pundits because the pundits have a proven record of accurate prediction. They tune in to hear that their version of reality is correct.

Clinton is poised to win. All the reasons that people keep giving for why she is unelectable don't matter if the voting public doesn't actually change its mind.

The big question is, if the GOP isn't going to just vanish as politically irrelevant, how can it be reinvented in a way that makes it a challenge to even such an unpopular Democrat as Hillary? When Hillary Clinton is handing the party its political ass on a plate, things are serious for the GOP.

Hillary is about to be elected president of the USA in a landslide by people who don't like her! Voters just aren't going to see a serious alternative in the GOP.

 

The incompetence of the Republican Party is going to cost them the White House, the Senate, and control of the Supreme Court. A grand opportunity lost. Neither Trump or Cruz can defeat Hillary or Bernie. Just the two worst choices for the General.

 

No conservative candidate could beat Hillary. None of them can get enough of the conservative public to back them because the conservative public is in revolt.

Trump couldn't defeat Bernie either.

Cruz probably couldn't defeat Bernie, but Bernie has a vulnerability in that he applies the label "socialist" to himself. That's still a very scary word to a lot of Americans.

 

Well, my candidate(Rubio) dropped out. So I'm watching from the sidelines. I'll support whoever is the nominee. Who knows, the Republicans might still pull it off.

 

Maybe because it's not about just winning and ending up with status quo. Maybe because for a huge number of voters it's about changing the direction of the country which establishment candidates will never do. Maybe because for decades now both parties have been screwing the American people and openly working to make the top 1% even richer and more powerful, while neglecting the interests of anyone else. Maybe because after 8 years of Clinton, 8 years of Bush and 8 years of Obama people have finally realized that whichever party wins, the people always lose.

PS What I've said is applicable to Trump only, Cruz is an unfortunate side effect of Trump's success, nothing more. Well, in all fairness it applies to Sanders as well.

 

"Shut her down" Cruz will be a target for the DNC. Can you imagine the commercials with Teddy reading Green Eggs and Ham on the Senate floor?

 

Indeed. Cruz would have a hard time winning even against Bernie. The shut down might have played to his base, but it alienated the public in general.

 

And even if Cruz ends up with the nomination, I am not so sure Trump's, very dedicated. supporters will move over to "Lying Ted.: I am still not unsure that Trump does not have some anterior motive in his quest for the nomination. He is not to be trusted.

 

I think you are absolutely right. While Hillary and Bernie have scrapped a little, they've been careful not to criticize each other too harshly, and whichever one of them wins the nomination, the other one will congratulate them warmly, urge their supporters to support the party nominee, and help them campaign.

It is the sort of party discipline that today's GOP can only dream about.

 

RR's 11th commandment,"Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.", has been history for some time now. I thought the whole idea of the primary was to chose someone who can win, not chose who can come up with the best zingers on an opponent..