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Republicans created Trump

The Thriller

Well-Known Member
These two political scientists are very credible. One is liberal and the other is conservative. Their research is well done. I highly recommend their book.

This is good reading. What do you think?

In TheoryOpinion
Republicans created dysfunction. Now they’re paying for it.
By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein March 8

Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and resident scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. A new, expanded edition of their book, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,” will be out April 5.

“The Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier — ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” That passage, which framed a core part of the argument of our 2012 book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, was vilified by conservative commentators, called a rant and a parody.

Fast forward to 2016. Incredibly, Republican destructiveness is even worse than it was four years ago — and the party is paying for it with a surge of anti-establishment populism that is tearing apart its coalitional base.

And

The most promising route to a healthier democracy and less dysfunctional government almost certainly runs through the electoral process. Yet democratic accountability is not easily achieved during a period of polarized parties, divided government and hotly contested national races on an ever-diminishing competitive terrain, especially when that process is rigged to prevent decisive outcomes. The Trump disaster, especially if it leads to a Democratic sweep of the 2016 elections, may provide the basis for a major rethinking and realignment of a deeply dysfunctional Republican Party.

Then again, it may not.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...created-dysfunction-now-theyre-paying-for-it/
 
From Romneycare/Obamacare, to cap and trade, to sensible gun control (Reagan and the Brady Act), the GOP has often times gone against their own ideas. Become enemies to their own, in order to be "the opposite" of Obama. As a result, this has diminished trust in government, gutted their own identity, and undermined their entire party making governing impossible.

This has created a vacuum to which trump has exploited.

The GOP campaigned that government couldn't function. They teamed up with Fox News and am radio to spout off on how government sucks and cannot function. They for 7.5 years have tried their hardest to prevent government from functioning.

And now act surprised that voters from their own party distrust and dislike their own politicians so much that they'd rather be represented by a xenophobic reality tv star than by any politican? Shocking...
 
Sounds interesting!

(Not sure it's a beach read though, which is more my speed at the moment)

Their book isn't a beach read. But it's not nearly as tedious as Dark Money or The Wealth of Nations (Thomas Pickney not the Adam Smith one).

An audio book version is probably available and would help. Do you have an overdrive account? Have you ever tried it? It's free and allows you to rent most books from your local library for free onto your kindle or phone. Many audiobooks are available.

My hope is that after this November once the GOP has the lost White House for 4 years, the senate, and the Supreme Court (for probably a generation), that they actually pay heed to the Priebus report from 2012 and get their act together.

Perhaps even a new party might emerge?

I think the GOP will either reform itself or split into two distinct parties finally.
 
Here's a nice part from their book for those who don't have the time to read it.

Opinions
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.
By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein April 27, 2012
Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.

It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.

It is clear that the center of gravity in the Republican Party has shifted sharply to the right. Its once-legendary moderate and center-right legislators in the House and the Senate — think Bob Michel, Mickey Edwards, John Danforth, Chuck Hagel — are virtually extinct.

The post-McGovern Democratic Party, by contrast, while losing the bulk of its conservative Dixiecrat contingent in the decades after the civil rights revolution, has retained a more diverse base. Since the Clinton presidency, it has hewed to the center-left on issues from welfare reform to fiscal policy. While the Democrats may have moved from their 40-yard line to their 25, the Republicans have gone from their 40 to somewhere behind their goal post.

And anyone familiar with Trump's rallies cannot help but agree with this statement. Truly the populist Trump movement (and Cruz rallies when he was running) resembles more of a cult or a fascist rally in the 1930s.

It wasn't just trump calling x the enemy, but Cruz too. Muslims, liberals, intellectuals have been attacked by both GOP frontrunners.

here's a prediction of The GOP made in 2012:

And Mike Lofgren, a veteran Republican congressional staffer, wrote an anguished diatribe last year about why he was ending his career on the Hill after nearly three decades. “The Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe,” he wrote on the Truthout Web site.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
 
Here's a nice part from their book for those who don't have the time to read it.



And anyone familiar with Trump's rallies cannot help but agree with this statement. Truly the populist Trump movement (and Cruz rallies when he was running) resembles more of a cult or a fascist rally in the 1930s.

It wasn't just trump calling x the enemy, but Cruz too. Muslims, liberals, intellectuals have been attacked by both GOP frontrunners.

here's a prediction of The GOP made in 2012:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
I was going to "like" your post until I realized I don't like it. I agree with it, but I don't like it.
 
Did the Dems create Hillary? I'll bet (if they had the guts to speak honestly) they're pretty embarrassed about that.

You took that very same question from my mouth. I'm not sure yet whether if Trump is a genious or just an egocentric mad man. But I certainly know what kind of human being Hillary is.

This is going to be the most awkward and intense presidential race we're going to witness in our lives.
 
You took that very same question from my mouth. I'm not sure yet whether if Trump is a genious or just an egocentric mad man. But I certainly know what kind of human being Hillary is.

This is going to be the most awkward and intense presidential race we're going to witness in our lives.

Oh he's a genious alright. And arguably his own genus.
 
Did the Dems create Hillary? I'll bet (if they had the guts to speak honestly) they're pretty embarrassed about that.

I don't quite understand how or why you're comparing the two.

The GOP is in complete disarray. The party leadership cannot stand trump. Former presidential candidates, leaders in congress, and major influential leaders in the media refuse to endorse him.

Compare that to Clinton who has many democratic endorsements including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

You may not like Hillary. But to compare the two seems utterly ridiculous.

Serious question, did you click and read ANY of the links I posted?
 
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Pretty sure you can't copy and paste more than a paragraph.

Mods? Colton?

Nice contribution to the thread. Why did you enter it?

1. Neither article has restricted or limited access. Anyone is free to read the contents of those articles without any membership or fee.
2. Neither article saw significant parts copied and pasted. Had you actually entered the links and read the articles you'd know this to be true. Do you know how to read?
3. Both articles and authors have been cited. I'm sure the Post will thank me later for helping them obtain more hits.
4. No rules have been broken. But you sure made an *** of yourself. Nice job. Pretty sure this forum has rules against back seat moderating. Perhaps you just earned yourself an infraction?
 
Pretty sure you can't copy and paste more than a paragraph.

Mods? Colton?

The Thriller is so dense he neg repped me for this. Mods, was it okay he copy and paste multiple paragraphs from the book? I thought the "rule" was no more than a paragraph but perhaps that was only for websites. We don't need the site shut down because of this *******.
 
Nice contribution to the thread. Why did you enter it?

1. Neither article has restricted or limited access. Anyone is free to read the contents of those articles without any membership or fee.
2. Neither article saw significant parts copied and pasted. Had you actually entered the links and read the articles you'd know this to be true. Do you know how to read?
3. Both articles and authors have been cited. I'm sure the Post will thank me later for helping them obtain more hits.
4. No rules have been broken. But you sure made an *** of yourself. Nice job. Pretty sure this forum has rules against back seat moderating. Perhaps you just earned yourself an infraction?

Welcome back! I knew your quality posting would only last so long. You've been sorely missed!!!
 
Nice contribution to the thread. Why did you enter it?

1. Neither article has restricted or limited access. Anyone is free to read the contents of those articles without any membership or fee.
2. Neither article saw significant parts copied and pasted. Had you actually entered the links and read the articles you'd know this to be true. Do you know how to read?
3. Both articles and authors have been cited. I'm sure the Post will thank me later for helping them obtain more hits.
4. No rules have been broken. But you sure made an *** of yourself. Nice job. Pretty sure this forum has rules against back seat moderating. Perhaps you just earned yourself an infraction?

You quoted a lengthy section from their book *******. That's not "free." But keep ranting on and on and on.
 
You quoted a lengthy section from their book *******. That's not "free." But keep ranting on and on and on.

It was an article on the post with some quotes from their book in their article which they wrote and is available for free without membership on the Washington Post. Furthermore, they were cited, nothing was plagiarized. No rules have been broken.

Have you clicked into any of the links I listed? Have you read the articles? Do you know how to read?

Why are you here?
 
Here's a nice part from their book for those who don't have the time to read it.



And anyone familiar with Trump's rallies cannot help but agree with this statement. Truly the populist Trump movement (and Cruz rallies when he was running) resembles more of a cult or a fascist rally in the 1930s.

It wasn't just trump calling x the enemy, but Cruz too. Muslims, liberals, intellectuals have been attacked by both GOP frontrunners.

here's a prediction of The GOP made in 2012:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html

You like reading people they appeal to there own authority? Sounds like a real back patter.
 
I am glad we created Trump. Enough is enough. It is time to take are country back from all these Chinese an Arab influences. Time to make America great again!
 
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