With the latest scandals and polls dropping, Trump’s defeat becomes ever more certain. But rather than broadening his appeal to the undecided Trump has instead doubled down with his hard-core base and declared the election “rigged.” What is he thinking? What is his strategy? The generous interpretation was given by veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy: “’I think Trump is right: The shackles have been released, but they were the shackles of reality. Trump has now shifted to a mode of complete egomaniacal self-indulgence.’” http://wapo.st/2ef3vmQ This interpretation states that Trump is only making excuses for his defeat to save his damaged ego.
Maybe. But few observers claim that Trump is dumb. This implies that he knows what he is doing. His repeated claims that the establishment (press, elites, corporate America) has rigged the elections is so treasonous that Republic House leader Paul Ryan spoke out against them Saturday: “’Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,’ Ryan’s press secretary, AshLee Strong, said in a statement sent to several media outlets.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/10/15/paul-ryan-pushes-back-against-trumps-claims-that-the-election-is-rigged/
“The people who speak for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Sunday tried to walk back his incendiary comments about a ‘rigged’ election, with vice presidential candidate Mike Pence saying that Trump was only referring to media bias and vowing that ‘we will absolutely accept the result of the election.’… And literally hours after those media appearances, Trump was back on Twitter ― making clear that, yes, he thought voter fraud was a real threat to the election’s legitimacy.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-rigged-election_us_5803876de4b0162c043c7d1f
Poor Mike Pence who seemed a generally decent guy. He is in an even worse position than Paul Ryan being dragged along through Trump’s seditious muck. What does Trump want or expect his hard-core supporters to do when he losses in a rigged election? He doesn’t seem to be pumping them up to just hang their heads and go home. Trump seems not to care who or what he destroys as befits his disgusting model of zero sum capitalism in which he profits (wins) by gaining better terms in deals with counterparties and/or stiffing business partners with his bankruptcies. No win win for Trump.
The real concern, as expressed strongly by Fareed Zzkaria Friday, is that along with destroying the Republican Party, Trump will destroy America as well. http://wapo.st/2dWNmQe
Trump has gone from evil to seriously dangerous, not because he has changed any—he hasn’t—but because there are so many people who have been willing to support his ugly, incoherent, ranting candidacy. I understand their anger at an ever larger, more intrusive government that has in the nature of things been captured for the benefit of crony (rather than real, competitive) capitalists. But Trump only promises to expand government further and to manipulate it more skillfully, for the benefit of….??? I will vote for Gary Johnson and William Weld.
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