Trump has destroyed the GOP. What was a broad church is now a personality cult. since when did they have a "leader"? I don't remember either Bush ever being described as such when they were out of office. Yet Trump, a one-term loser and former Democrat, is now "our glorious leader" and can call Cheney who voted with 98% of his policies (more than Taylor-Greene did) a "Rino". The only reason for this is that she stands against his treason. So instead of Romney and Cheney, you would prefer such stellar representatives as Taylor-Greene, Boebart or a good dog like Herchel ("I'm not that smart" ) Walker?
You will see just how much damage he has done in a few weeks. These midterms should have been a pushover for the GOP. The fact that they are even close is a testament to his dangerous ineptitude. But no matter how badly you do. You will refuse to see it. It won't be Trump's fault, will it? No, the elections were rigged. It's all the "fake media's" fault". All those bogus investigations, "What kind of country won't let the president be above the law?".
The sooner the GOP finds a decent face-saving way to ditch Trump. The sooner it can move on.

@273kelvin You are so full of crap and totally out of touch with American politics!

@Trajan61 I'm full of crap hey. How is it all you can come up with are insults? How is it that you have never answered a single question I have put to you? Well here is 2 more that you can't answer;
Name any other POTUS that has been described as the "leader" of the GOP. (or Dems for that matter)?
How and when was Trump elected "leader"?

@273kelvin He became the leader when he was elected president in 2016, he’s still the leader today and will likely be president again in 2024. Hell only a crazy misguided idiot would continue to support the Democraps after the disaster they have caused since they took over.

@Trajan61 No, he was nominated as the presidential candidate for the GOP in 2016. He was elected to serve as US president in 2016 for the whole of the US, not just the GOP voters. Then nominated again in 2020 but he was un-elected in 2020 (yes he was coz 61 judges and all the state officials said so). By your reckoning, G W Bush was the GOP leader from 2000 -2016 or at least till 2008 (in which case it would have been John McCain then Mitt Romney). I do not recall ever hearing of any of them being referred to as such but I will stand corrected if you can find a reference to that.

@Trajan61 Let's face it, you know as well as I do that if Trump dropped dead on the golf course tomorrow? The GOP leadership would be on camera crying crocodile tears and talking about his legacy whilst quietly dancing a jig inside.

@273kelvin Lets see what happens in the midterms. I’m sure the Democraps are fixing to take a beating likely loosing both the senate and the house.

@Trajan61 Well. I have to (grudgingly) admit that the GOP will probably take both houses although the senate might be close. The online latest bookies' odds, (I can use such sites because I do not live in the land of the free) have the Reps 1/6 for the house and 4/9 for the senate* but if you want to bet on how many senate seats, 50 is the 3/1 favourite.
If they do win though, it will be in spite of Trump not because of him. In all his rallies, he spends the entire time on stage whinging about 2016 and hoax investigations. The poor shmuck he came to support, just gets a walk-on part. It will be interesting to discuss the performance of some of his less well-thought-out endorsements like Walker and Dr Oz.

*Which is coincidentally the same odds Trump was to lose in 2020.

@273kelvin The GOP will likely take both houses because people are tired of the disastrous democrap agenda. You downplay Trumps influence far to much. Look what happened to Cheney? She got her ass beat because she was against Trump. If your against Trump your not going anywhere especially in Red states.

@Trajan61 You are right about Cheney short term but I suspect that she is playing the long game. I think her plan is to bide her time till when the weight of all Trumps' skullduggery eventually comes to bear to the extent that even Fox can't hold it. Then she will reemerge as the lady who told you so.
Here is a real question for you (no right answer)
Which of these 3 would you choose for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024?
Trump?
DeSantis?
Tucker Carlson?

@Trajan61 "If you're against Trump you're not going anywhere, especially in Red states."* (except Georgia)

*Please forgive me for correcting your punctuation.

@273kelvin Cheney is done as a Republican and will never win another political contest. Trump, DeSantis or Ted Cruz would all make great presidential candidates and great presidents. Georgia is changing and is no longer a red state.

@Trajan61 Trump and Desantis I can see from a MAGA perspective but Cruz?? are you fucking serious? The man is a spineless sycophant whom nobody likes (and I mean nobody, even in his own party). I don't know for sure but I would bet that you and I both would be ready to punch the lights out of anyone who insults our wives/family. Beta-male Cruz was on the phone 2 weeks later cold-calling on their behalf. I really thought that Texas produced better men than that.

@Trajan61 Georgia may be changing but that can be partly due to Trump himself. He came down on the 4th Jan 2021 to rally for the Rep candidates. Yet again it was all about him. How the election was rigged (not a great way to inspire people to vote). Putting his mob boss hit out on Pence "Micky the fly is no longer a friend of ours". You wouldn't think that the whole fucking senate depended on these candidates' outcomes.
Last time I checked, Kemp is a Republican and strongly right-wing one at that who walked his primary despite Trumps' opposition. You would be hard-pushed to find any of his policies that variated from the GOP or MAGA agenda. The only political difference between him and any Trump-endorsed candidate was his refusal to play along with Trump's incompetent coup attempt.

@273kelvin There we’re definitely a lot of irregularities in the 2020 election. The Democraps opposition to showing a valid photo ID throws up a huge red flag for me as that shows intent to cheat. I’m certainly not convinced that widespread cheating didn’t occur during the 2020 election. Hell there only about 30,000 votes difference nationwide in a few battleground states that determined the presidential election. What Trump did to Pence was just dead wrong and I admire Pence for bucking Trump but would never vote for him for president unless his opponent is a democrap. I’ll likely vote for Ted Cruz or possibly DeSantos in the 2024 Republican primary just like I did in 2016 but if Trump runs and wins the Republican primary I will support him fully just like I’ve done in the past. Of course I’ll never vote for another democrap even though I used to be one as the Democraps have gone completely bonkers. Here in my home county the Democraps used to outnumber republicans t 2-1 and you had to be a registered democrap in order to vote in local elections but today it has completely flip flopped to the republicans.

@Trajan61 Well it is good to hear that there is something that Trump did you find wrong, even if entailed him setting an angry mob on Pence and then sitting back. I would also like to know if you would still vote for Trump if he was proven guilty of worse like treason or sedition or might you just not vote?
As for the 2020 election, one has to be very sceptical about what sources one believes. So let us say we will discount anything from Trump but to be fair let us also discount all major news sources too ie. CNN, Fox etc.
What we do know is that Trump was calling foul even before the voting started. This did two things, firstly it alerted the Dems to a probable contesting of the election in the courts, so they had their legal teams in place and ready to fight. Secondly, it made election workers and watchers especially vigilant. There would be no room for mistakes here as a whole nation was literally watching their every move. As a consequence, 2020 was probably the most scrutinised election in US history. I bet you now know more about the voting/counting systems of other states than you ever did.
You are right in that it was very close. (notwithstanding that Biden got 7 million more votes than Trump but hey ho it's your cockamamy system, not mine) That led to numerous recounts, re-recounts and in Wisconsin a re-re-recount. Then there were the 62 court cases*, many of which were before Trump-appointed judges that failed 61 times to prove any election misconduct let alone fraud. Trump is even on record via an email saying that he knew his case had no merit whatsoever other than throwing doubt on the integrity of the election in order to give him or Pence an excuse to suspend the result. (a crime in itself)
Then we have the people whose job was to investigate any voter fraud. Guys like Christopher Krebs who got fired for just doing his job or Bill Barr who was told by Trump to "just say there was voting fraud and we will find the proof after." All these guys looked into it and found nothing there.
Most telling is the right-wing media itself and what it is not saying. If there was proof, where is it? Where is the Washington Examiner or NY Post expose? Where is the Fox news prime-time special "How the election was stolen"? Instead, all there is is Trump bellyaching and Mike Pillow saying he will broadcast the proof very soon like an evangelical calling for the rapture and with the same results. From what I can see, 2020 voter fraud was as real as Iraq WOMD. Let us hope that America does not pay a similar price that Iraq did for a POTUS lie.
Personally, I don't trust politicians or journalists half as much as I trust real people. As it happens I was talking to a real election official from Illinois on Zoom this Saturday. Here is what he told me. "There is a big difference between voter fraud and election fraud. Voter fraud ie. voting twice or under someone else name is negligible. Up to 2020, there had only been 2 dozen cases in the past 20 years for the whole country. However, election fraud is rife. Both sides do it but it is mostly Reps. This consists of removing people from the rolls. eg, if they did not vote last time, not informing them and then stopping same-day registration. So you turn up and your name is not there but you can't register now. All of which is designed to depress the turnout, especially in areas where the opposition is strong"

• I know the MAGA line is "The courts didn't let us make our case, they wouldn't hear us" Why would that be? After all, many of the judges were Reps in red states, some of which were appointed by Trump himself. The truth is when you actually look at the cases, they were baseless. Not just that but the legal teams were crap. In one case they asked for disclosure of the voting records for a Michigan district. (A perfectly reasonable ask you might think.) The trouble was they were filling the request in a Wisconsin court.

@273kelvin Trump will never be convicted for treason or sedition as that never happened and Jan 6th is nothing but a democrap witch hunt. Joe Biden on the other hand is very likely guilty of taking bribes from foreign countries. The Hunter Biden laptop was definitely real and shows rampant corruption among the Biden’s. I hope they are eventually convicted of that corruption but I doubt it ever happens.

@273kelvin It’s also a huge red flag for me that the Democraps favor drop boxes and same day registration which virtually invites cheating.

@Trajan61 Have you ever campaigned? Do you know how hard it is to persuade legitimate voters to get off their asses, go out, travel to the polling place, wait in line and do their civic duty? People work, look after kids, are apathetic and too busy. Now imagine you were trying to persuade someone to cheat? We are both men of the world and I'm sure you've met some shady guys on your travels as have we all. What would it take to have them cheat a ballot? It's not a one or two-man job, you're gonna need a team. Each new recruit is a potential snitch, as are the people they might tell. The Reps in Texas offered up to $100,000 reward for information of voter fraud and got next to zilch.
Now think how much easier it is to knock opposition voters off the ballot. You can gain thousands of votes just by changing the rules or an "administrative mistake". You can rig the boundaries so the other side only gets 4 candidates instead of 5.
Maybe that's why there have only been a few dozen cases of voter fraud in the last 2 decades. It is far easier to steal an election before the vote rather than during and certainly (cough...Jan6th) after.

@273kelvin There’s just no way you can verify the validity of votes from drop boxes and voters who register and vote on the same day and the fact that the democrap party continues to favor this crap throws up a huge red flag for me as it show an intent to cheat!

@Trajan61 So instead you insist that voters be registered beforehand even if you unilaterally unregistered them without informing them. Deny them the right to redress the situation on polling day. Reduce the number of polling stations by a factor of 10 (only in opposition areas) so lines can stretch for hours. Then stop anyone even giving out water to the waiting voters. This a big ask of people who may have 2-3 jobs.
All to stop this idea of voter fraud. Which quite frankly is as real as the religious persecution that evangelicals whinge on about. I will of course stand corrected if you can site me any actual cases of voter fraud that may have made a difference to the result. But I'm not holding my breath.

@Trajan61 Now let us look at the bigger picture. Once upon a time, you could say that the left cared about the people whilst conservatives cared about the country. The problem now is that neither of them cares about anything more than gaining/keeping power.
Take negative campaigning as an example. You use the term "democraps" as a derogatory insult. Now it doesn't bother me as I'm neither a Democrat nor even an American voter. But what does name-calling lead to? Like a bout of schoolyard "Yo momma..." it just makes both sides look bad. After a long campaign of mudslinging, voters are left with the impression that both sides are as bad as the other. The end result is a low turnout. Now short-term this is good for the GOP as it hasn't won the popular vote in decades. Long-term however it erodes people's faith in their government and institutions which is bad for any country.
Now I'm not decrying when real instances of corruption or hypocrisy are pointed out by the opposition. But name-calling? really? Anytime I see a candidate throwing insults like that I just see a schoolyard bully with no ideas and a very small dick.

Here is a thought, Instead of name-calling why can't the GOP come up with some actual policies that benefit ordinary people? Instead of talking a big game about freedom, stop trying to restrict people's rights at nearly every turn. Sure they have the 2nd amendment covered but how about abortion, marriage, voting, contraception, freedom of movement, assembly/protest, religion (inc the right not to have one) childcare, and (one that I claim as right) healthcare?

@273kelvin Here in the US if you want bigger government, higher taxes, more government regulations and less freedom you vote for the Democraps. If you want lower taxes, less regulations and more freedom to do as you wish you vote for the republicans. I do strongly disagree with the republicans on the abortion issue but will take their agenda over the Democraps on most everything else. The Democraps used to be the majority party here in western Oklahoma but their radical agenda has resulted in the decline of the party to the extent that the republicans are currently the majority party by an overwhelming margin. You talk about restricting peoples rights the Democraps are damn good about doing that with their crazy agenda trying to force this teachers union crap on our kids, trying to force allowing males to compete in womens sports, supporting radical groups like BLM and calling you racist if you don’t support them. All this woke crap arising from the crazy democrap agenda is just crazy. Hell there’s good reason the democrap party has lost a lot of voters here in Oklahoma.

@Trajan61 As for how your Reps are doing in Oklahoma, just a quick google has you 44th out of 50 when it comes to child poverty so I wouldn't be crowing too loud if I were you.
As for BLM, we are not black so I would find it extremely arrogant for either of us to dismiss their point of view out of hand.
Let me give you an example; My ex and daughter are Jewish. Now I've sat and drank with many a rough fellow in my day and whilst I've heard the odd derogatory joke or conspiracy theory. I cannot say I've heard anything I would class as blatantly antisemitic. But I'm not Jewish! Last year my ex tried complaining to her supervisor when one of her students (she works in higher education) came out with an antisemitic slur in class. The response from this left-leaning FE admin woman was "Well you people killed Jesus so what do you expect".
I would also be particularly careful if I lived in a state that had the worst case of racial killing in US history. And furthermore, then they airbrushed it from their school history books. I was talking to a fellow Oklahoman online and he informed me that he only heard about the Tulsa massacre when he was 32 and on PBS. If you think this is normal, think again. I was educated here in Liverpool and you can bet we learnt all about our city's role in the slave trade. Similarly, my German friend was taught all about the holocaust.
Now there are several ways to look at BLM. You can say it's just a load of left-wing agitators, in which case you can just let them blow off steam until it dies down. Or you can say that there are real problems there and realise it's not going away which leaves you with two choices. Either you clamp down on protests, send in the National Guard etc. or you can try and address the problem. Given the size of the protests and how hard it is to get anyone to get off their asses and vote let alone protest. I would say the problem is real.
Transgender issues are mostly the Reps saying "look! a squirrel". Real wages are a fraction of what they were 10 -20 or 30 years ago whilst CEOs and the top 1% have massively increased their wealth. Yet what is the burning issue the Reps want to address? Which bathroom kid can use? Not why is Oklahoma the 44th lowest state when comes to child poverty. No, the "freedom party" just wants to tell parents how to bring up their kids.

@Trajan61 And whilst we are on the subject of BLM, let us not forget the circumstances that brought it to the fore. As always the right talks a big game about freedom but when an actual citizen gets real fucking knee on their neck until they're dead. Its "Move along. Nothing to see here. Must have been his own fault". If you value not just your own rights but your fellow Americans, you could help but be appauled by the treatment Floyd received at the hands of those cops, irrespective of race? If it was an isolated incident, that would be bad enough but we both know that unfortunately is not the case.
Let me put it another way; "You say you only have that flag on your car because you're into "Dukes of Hazzard". Then how come you're always on the side of Boss Hogg?"

@273kelvin George Floyd was a criminal with a long rap sheet and was not cooperating with police. Also he had been doing fentanyl. He didn’t deserve to die like that but his death was no big loss either.

I’m not at all comfortable being governed by idiots like Biden and the rest of the crazy democraps! Trump on the other hand was a great leader and things were doing a lot better under him.

@Trajan61 Oh my God… you weren’t supposed to swallow that Kool-Aid you had in your mouth!

Don’t you know by now that people who continue to revere Trump after all that’s been revealed about him and his criminal, if not psychopathic, behavior are intellectual and emotional hostages, like the fawning citizens of North Korea, or the religious fanatics we like to ridicule on the very site? Please, seek help!

@p-nullifidian You have evidently swallowed the liberal kool-aid.

@Trajan61 No, I’m what you would call a moderate. Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, a proud veteran, family man and business owner. I came into the military as a Reagan cold warrior and will never ever be able to trust the Russians.

But I’m also old and wise enough to recognize that NONE of the social progress we take for granted in this country, whether it be women’s equality, minority rights, or gay rights, were the result of conservative sponsorship. If it were up to conservatives, only white males would be voting and states would still be allowed to have slaves.

But the problem with Donald Trump is he’s not really a conservative. He’s just a criminal. He has no morals, he lies every time he opens his mouth, he’s a narcissist who doesn’t follow the science and claims that he has his own truths, and he steals from the taxpayer. He belongs in jail. He’s a phony that the Republican party should’ve never allowed in their tent.

I have voted for many Republican candidates and can tell you that none of them would ever have approved of Donald Trump. I am with Romney, Cheney, Powell, Kasich, McCain, Bush and conservative columnist George Will who, along with many other true conservatives, knew that Donald Trump was the worst thing that ever happened to the Republican party, if not the nation.

@p-nullifidian If Trump is so bad why were things going much better when he was in office? Trump calls out the democrats for the radical party they have become. People who sided these democrats and their radical policies are not conservatives and need to be purged from the party. There’s just no way in hell you can take Joe Biden’s side over Trump and be considered a conservative.

@p-nullifidian Your the one who needs help!!

@Trajan61 I did not say I was a conservative, I said I was a moderate, and as such, I don’t put Biden on a pedestal. But introducing Joe Biden into the argument is a red herring, as we are talking about the state of the Republican party today in general, and Donald Trump in particular. And in this case, I will always take the side of reason over fascism, racism and unlawfulness.

Do you not agree that Donald Trump is a criminal? Do we want criminals to get by? During my military career I handled and authored thousands of classified documents, and never would I have ever considered taking them home with me!

Why didn’t Donald Trump release his tax returns? Because he’s a tax evader! Why doesn’t he want to allow immigrants from what he called “shit hole” countries? Because he’s a racist! Why did he encourage the mob and remove hundreds of classified documents from the White House and store them in unguarded banker boxes at Mar-a-Lago, and then lie about it? Because he’s a treasonous criminal!

To insist that things were better under Donald Trump as an excuse for supporting him and his MAGA agenda is reminiscent of the staunch supporters of Hitler and Mussolini. Most of us in this country believe that the argument is settled, and that we as a nation don’t accept authoritarianism, rampant bigotry and commingling religion with politics. But then we’re confronted with people like you who represent the most un-American values imaginable! If you continue to support Trump and cannot see the error of your ways, you have succumbed to the dark side.

@p-nullifidian Joe Biden is definitely a criminal and the US economy has not done well under his leadership with inflation at 40 year highs. His attempt to shut down oil and gas is idiotic and has disastrous consequences. Trump on the other hand is a Washington outsider and a businessman who knew how to run a business and his policies had the US economy doing great until Covid hit. Covid is what beat Trump in 2020. Trumps foreign policy with people like Pompeo at Secretary of State was much better than Biden’s and contributed to much more stability in the Middle East and the world. So people like you George Will and others who sided with Biden over Trump in 2020 are supporting the Washington establishment who need to be removed from office. We need term limits so we don’t have old geezers like Pelosi, Schumer, McConnel, Biden and a host of others making a career out of being a politician. Also the leadership of the FBI needs to be removed from office as they have become highly political and only investigate incidents that suit their political agenda.

@Trajan61 He knows how to run a business all right, If by that you mean filing for bankruptcy six separate times leaving investors, lenders and vendors holding the bag! But please just answer this simple easy question: do you or do you not believe Donald Trump is a criminal who should be held accountable his crimes?

@p-nullifidian No I do not believe he is a criminal but I definitely believe Biden and his son are criminals!

@Trajan61 If you don’t believe Trump is a criminal then you must feel it’s OK to remove classified documents to one’s private property, incite a mob to an insurrection, take steps to overturn a certified election through the unlawful appointment of alternate electors, falsely accuse Dominion corporation of engineering mass vote changes in their ballot machines, lie to lenders and investors in securing financing, line his pockets with taxpayer dollars by holding “official” meetings at his properties, etc. etc. etc.

Yeah, the republicans are crossing over into fascism and seem to be yearning for a dictator.

Not entirely. I think they cater to the religious because they are so easily fooled, and it gives them justification for doing a lot of repugnant acts in the name of a god, but I think they, as in the people who actually have the power and money, are just greedy for more and more power. Religion is just a means to use to gain more power along the way.

@snytiger6 Interesting take but I don't buy it. The money pool may be easily fooled but the grifting Preachers are not. They made a natural alliance, with plenty for both interests to exploit, but religion has gotten the upper hand. As a lot of that religion is Catholic, and Evans don't think Catholics are Xtian, there will be a fight for control at some point. Probably when (or if) Cons start losing positions of power.

The country would be better off if we got rid of a bunch of the crazy idiotic democraps!