Fox has called Indiana for Trump. It looks like he will win by twenty points over Cruz. Trump is now certain to gain the nomination. I confess to almost being relieved. With Trump and his delusional followers screaming that the nomination was stolen, a contested convention that resulted in a Cruz nomination would have been virtually certain to end in a general election defeat. This would have given life to Trumpism for another try in 2020. Now, there will be two possible results in the general election. If Trump goes down to defeat that effectively spells the end of this exercise in madness. If Trump is elected, I think he will prove to be a President who swiftly betrays his followers and that will break his spell, except for the most delusional members of his Cult.
Update: Cruz Suspends Campaign:
On the other side the race between that murderous pathological liar and the commie pinko geratric imbecile is very close: 50.5% vs 49.5% in favor of Livia Caesar. More than I despise Trump and Hillary, I truly loathe that Marxist idiot from dope smoking hippie dropout Vermont.
I suggest that the impulse to be on the winning side represents the bulk of his support. I base this upon interactions with dozens of supporters on Facebook, not two of ten of which, have any knowledge of, or interest in, Mr. Trump’s policy choices.
There are important implications to this, the most important being that the support is based solely upon the perction that he is a likely winner. The media will make short work of that. Of course, former Trump supporters don’t have to vote Clinton for her to win, they just have to sit out the race.
So, if Trump fails to keep up the aura of likely winner, hia support will evaporate. This would certainly mean a Democrat sweep of Congress and a subsequent hard Left turn for the Supreme Court.
Maybe this would be OK if Americans could be counted to learn from it but we have shown a surprising lack of capacity to learn. A pure cult of personality led to Obama. We just did the same thing with Trump and, in neither case, is there any substance.
We are idiots.
Cruz just dropped out of the race!
So, what now?
Trump supporters have no demonstrated depth or intestinal fortitude. Once the media can shift from preventing a sound candidate from competing with Trump, they will eat him alive. I think that all it will take is to strip Trump of “winner” status and all of his supporters will quit.
Without them, the Dems walk away with the Presidency and the Congress. That cannot lead to other than a hard Left shift in the Supreme Court.
I am playing with the idea that our only hope IS to support Trump. What am I missing?
I will under no circumstances support Trump. I also think it quite possible he will defeat Clinton.
https://the-american-catholic.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=63823&action=edit
I will not vote for President in the fall and I will take potshots throughout the campaign at both Trump and Clinton. I expect to have endless amounts of ammunition.
Trump vs Clinton.. What a sad image for a once vibrant constitutional republic. We have been in post constitutional demise for many years, decades actually, accelerated by the election of a Marxist ideologue. So now our election process celebrates vulgarity, thievery, treachery, and demogoguery as the new norm. I should not be surprised but I have been saddened by events in our Church and in our beloved country. Next act in this unfolding drama…the post Christian era.
So, we stand apart from the fight, knowing that very few of the dozen or so Trump supporters I know have any knowledge of his positions… Or care. Will they hang in there now that the media has eliminated all contenders and can focus on getting Clinton elected? No, I do not think so. Once the aura of “winner” is gone, will they even show and how can Trump win without them?
This makes me think we should hold our noses and support Trump so that at least we retain one of the Houses of Congress, maybe both. However, suppose we betray our beliefs to support this lesser of two evils, will we be OK with losing anyway… The race and our souls?
Maybe it IS better to hold our heads up as the Left marches towards Venezuela’s state, knowing we at least didn’t contribute to it.
If Trump goes down in defeat it will be the fault of all the supporters of the Lyin’ Delegate Stealin’ Canadian born spawn of someone vaguely associated in some manner with Kennedy’s assassin who wouldn’t support Donald Trump (who wouldn’t want their support anyways if he meant a word of what he said).
.
So this isn’t the end of anything, except maybe the Republican Party as a viable vehicle for conservatives and constitutionalists.
Ernst, considering how few true “conservatives and constitutionalists” remain in this country, it is questionable that any “vehicle” can be viable.
“I will not vote for President in the fall…”
Don, I’ve argued before for an organized write-in campaign for the purpose of effectively nominating a candidate for 2020. Your opinion?
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“I expect to have endless amounts of ammunition [for potshots at both Trump and Clinton]”
Yes you (and we) will. Like the Civil War it will lie all over the ground for easy picking.
“Don, I’ve argued before for an organized write-in campaign for the purpose of effectively nominating a candidate for 2020. Your opinion?”
Not a bad idea, although if Trump loses I think right now Cruz is the odds on favorite in 2020 to get the nomination. If Trump wins, God only knows, since I think America will be entering a bizarre and dangerous chapter in her history.
“Maybe it IS better to hold our heads up as the Left marches towards Venezuela’s state, knowing we at least didn’t contribute to it.”
I think we will hold the House, come what may in the fall. I make no easy predictions for the general election in the fall however. By all the rules of political logic in this country, Trump should not have been able to take the nomination. Clinton has severe problems of her own. I think quite a few Republicans running for Congress will be cutting themselves loose from Trump’s campaign, a la the Democrats when McGovern ran in 1972. This is the most bizarre presidential election I have seen in my life time and I think it being bizarre will not stop with the primaries.
I am reminded of the story of Esther, and the concept of “born for such a time as this.” I am also reminded of the story of Joseph and of him being betrayed twice, and of his time in prison. We have had the luxury of reading their stories and knowing the endings of those stories.
We have Haman’s all around us today crying for our blood. We may also feel like Joseph, forgotten in his prison. There is light ahead; not necessarily an on rushing train. I am not a “health and wealth” kind of guy. I would not be here if I was. I am also stoic enough to realize that I, like Moses, may only glimpse, but not live in the promised land.
Where does that leave us? Much like the forefathers of our faith, working to help serve our families and our neighbors, praying to God for His Mercy and Protection, and accepting the hardships and heartaches that accompany life.
There will be moments to celebrate with joy. I suspect we will come to treasure those few moments.
To say that it’s interesting times is a gross understatement.
The following link caught my attention this morning as I was trying to grasp the possible fallouts from a Trump or Clinton Presidency.
“White water ahead.” Seems like an appropriate description of our location on this river.
http://www.spiritdaily.com/upheavalwatch2016.htm
“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” – Edmund Burke
Today, we elect one who apparently has no such chains, who regularly engages in the flattery of the electorate. We begun to forge the fetters years ago – at last, we wander, like Marley’s ghost, upon the sad field of the burned republic.
“I will under no circumstances support Trump. I also think it quite possible he will defeat Clinton.”
I don’t understand this at all. As I see it, every Catholic who refuses to support Trump as the lesser of two evils is simply paving the way for Clinton, which would be a disaster. It isn’t about who I don’t like; it’s about avoiding the worst.
Branch, I believe that Trump is neither pro-life nor a conservative. I believe he is an ignorant blow hard who would be a disaster for the country. Clinton would be a great evil for the nation, I have no confidence that a Trump presidency would not be just as evil. If Trump is to be president, he will do so with zip support from me. He is unworthy of the office and is an utterly vile con artist.
“If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.”
Alexander Hamilton
It isn’t about who I don’t like; it’s about avoiding the worst.
Which is why Don– and probably my household– won’t support him.
Trump vs Clinton! Like someone once said of the Battle of Stalingrad, too bad they can’t both lose!
It isn’t about who I don’t like; it’s about avoiding the worst.
“Which is why Don– and probably my household– won’t support him.”
So you actually think he’s going to be worse than Hillary Clinton? Please.
So you actually think he’s different enough from Hillary Clinton to make it objective which would be worse? Please.
This is a season for irony; the guys who demanded all or nothing are upset that those who tried to reason with them are saying no, thanks to the offer of being allowed to give it all for nothing; the folks who wanted to insist that there is no difference between the “establishments” of the two parties threw in with a guy who actually does what they like to claim any Republican they don’t care for at the moment does.
Do you mean objective as in there is an objective better or worse? Rather than indistinguishable? Then yes, I do.
Hillary said she’s in favor of sex-selection abortion. I do not think Trump has gone nearly that far.
You’re talking about the guy who opposes abortion on the basis of if the procedure makes him feel uncomfortable*.
Because the important thing is that an unrelated person think the mechanics sound alright, when discussing homicide; same way that it’s totally OK to kill someone because “I was drunk,” or “what his dad did,” or “too few degrees of consanguinity,” or even “they might have a birth defect,” but heaven forbid that it’s because of their sex.
Heavens, no.
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* I do actually believe him about opposing partial birth abortion because it makes him feel uncomfortable; I think he’d still allow it, and even pay for it, if it got him what he wanted. But I do believe 2000 him when he said that he opposed it after learning what it involved.
I do not, however, believe the weather-vain about his new-found prolife views. To paraphrase, he’s now pro-life because a guy he knew wanted the mother of his child to kill the kid, and she didn’t, and now the dad likes the kid. But that’s totally not as horrifying as sex-selection abortion, because… reasons? I’m sure the dead would love to know which reasons for their slaughter for the fulfillment of those who should defend them are just too far out there.