Trump Backed Candidates Are on Track to Get Smoked in General

[Bret]

The strategy is simple. Nominate the most conservative candidate who can win. If you opt for more of the former at the expense of the latter, you'll ultimately lose. Same for the other way around. The fact is that all else being equal, people who have gone through an election before have a much better chance of winning than those who have not. You can't throw a talented athlete on a field and expect them to play a game they're unfamiliar with well. With Walker we have a conservative, but someone who's deficient in the knowledge of how to run a campaign. With Oz we really don't have a conservative or knowledge of how to run a campaign. Still, both are better than their opponents, so we have to do what we can to get them elected in a year in which the wind should be blowing in our direction.

As for Trump or anyone else for that matter, if someone tells you that this is the only person who can save us, then tell them that we've already lost. A country is about more than one person. Making the argument about who's best for us is a completely different discussion. We've seen how Trump operates. As much as I like much about him, he did a very poor job of draining the swamp. This ultimately ended up hurting him. Plus, he can only serve four more years. We need someone with executive experience who can win and can serve eight years.

[ABNAK]

The strategy is simple. Nominate the most conservative candidate who can win. If you opt for more of the former at the expense of the latter, you'll ultimately lose. Same for the other way around. The fact is that all else being equal, people who have gone through an election before have a much better chance of winning than those who have not. You can't throw a talented athlete on a field and expect them to play a game they're unfamiliar with well. With Walker we have a conservative, but someone who's deficient in the knowledge of how to run a campaign. With Oz we really don't have a conservative or knowledge of how to run a campaign. Still, both are better than their opponents, so we have to do what we can to get them elected in a year in which the wind should be blowing in our direction.

As for Trump or anyone else for that matter, if someone tells you that this is the only person who can save us, then tell them that we've already lost. A country is about more than one person. Making the argument about who's best for us is a completely different discussion. We've seen how Trump operates. As much as I like much about him, he did a very poor job of draining the swamp. This ultimately ended up hurting him. Plus, he can only serve four more years. We need someone with executive experience who can win and can serve eight years.

Trump also made VERY poor personnel choices. Now granted, he wasn't a politician, so he likely listened to the advice of swamp critters about who to appoint here and there. Hell, he is the one who appointed Wray! I doubt he'd do much different a second time around. "This time it'll be different". Uh huh.

[Todd.K]

I’m not in PA and don’t closely follow politics there. Polls are mainly propaganda now, so I have no idea what his chances are.

It’s their choice to make anyway, not ours. The idea that there are other closeted conservative celebrities seems pretty good, but no I’m not an Oz fan.

I’m asking for some measure of DOING, you come with properly articulate.

[nick84]

I'm not in PA, either. The D candidate is a guy named John Fetterman. Fetterman had a stroke earlier this year, and has hardly campaigned. In what should be a banner year for the GOP, Fetterman is still beating Oz by double digits according to most polling. Say what you want about polls, they're not that much of a fiction. Any kind of sane and articulate conservative should be winning by such an amount in a swing state. And yet...

I'm forced to conclude that anti-establishment sentiment has jumped the shark and lost a very winnable seat. Senate margins are thin, these all matter. This could be the seat that gives us another, or saves us from, disastrous spending debacle that further reduces the power of money in our pockets.


What do I like that conservatives have conserved?

While the GOP has lost plenty of embarrassing contests, and they've had plenty of caving on issues they shouldn't, there have been some wins. Trump's tax bill of 2017: practically ghost written by Paul Ryan and the Heritage Foundation. Establishment. Judges nominated and approved by Trump: endorsed and elevated by the Federalist Society. Establishment. This whole dynamic of "us vs. them, the outsiders vs. the comfortable fat cats, etc" That shit is 90% smoke, for campaigning only. Ultimately very little can ever get done without 'the establishment.' We need a majority no matter what, and I'm tired of hearing about how we have to die on the hill of purity.

[BoringGuy45]

What is your favorite thing that supposedly conservative establishment Republicans have conserved in the last decade? Last 50 years?

Let's just look at gun laws alone: DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. Both were decided by courts with the conservative justices nominated by "establishment" Republicans like Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. The Braun v. NY opinion was written by Thomas, who was appointed by Bush Sr. Assault weapons bans were defeated time and time again over the past decade by "pre-Trump" establishment Republicans.

[Todd.K]

Guns? Not bad. Guns, taxes, and sometimes Judges are all you can say though.

Guns has been a long hard fight starting at the culture level. Remember FUD’s? They were the establishment.

The New Right pushed to change the NRA, and then the NRA forced the establishment to follow. Now with the NRA gutted how does it look? Tell me about all the establishment GOP Senators who voted against the latest gun control.

How many times they fought rather than settle for a “moderate” judge.

How they overturned Obamacare when we had the chance.

[ABNAK]

Guns? Not bad. Guns, taxes, and sometimes Judges are all you can say though.

Guns has been a long hard fight starting at the culture level. Remember FUD’s? They were the establishment.

The New Right pushed to change the NRA, and then the NRA forced the establishment to follow. Now with the NRA gutted how does it look? Tell me about all the establishment GOP Senators who voted against the latest gun control.

How many times they fought rather than settle for a “moderate” judge.

How they overturned Obamacare when we had the chance.

IMHO the definition of an "Establishment" Republican has changed over the years. Someone defined as "Establishment" 20 or 30 years ago is a bit different than ones labelled as such now. In some cases it might be the same turd (i.e. Romney), but just like old-school Democrats---anyone remember John Dingell and Zell Miller?---the definition has changed as to what exactly constitutes a RINO or "Establishment" Republican. These days it's POS like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, outright traitors to the Right, not just wishy-washy sometimes.