Originally posted by: Charles Higgins
As alluded to in previous threads regarding a necessity for congressional / candidate compromize between R's and D's, I agree with your general premise here. Presently, the odds of it happening ( on the hard issues) are extremely poor. The psychological/ attitudinal landscape of the electorate and the candidates / elected members in general is "Whom can I piss off and fight hardest against today?" Subsequently, the grand majority of the electorate additionally wants / needs something to raise hell about and falls in line like a covey of quail regardless of party / ideological affiliation. Those facts don't mean we should stop trying to board the " get along and get something accomplished" train. I think widespread and tentacled Covid experiences screwed up the country's mentality in a bunch of ways..or maybe that's just the reason I occasionally employ to cover all the insane DC and national calamity stuff.
The Trump clone / copycat inference is misguided imo, particularly on the behavioral front. That premise assumes he is clonable...he likely isn't on a grand scale. He defies any precast mold..or template. He represents the antithesis of compromize, which just might be a partial reason millions originally and currently support him. As stated before here, I personally supported several of his POLICY stances ( mostly fiscal issues..and, sure I benefitted from the tax cuts..at the time). I aborted my support for him with his behavioral stuff surrounding Jan. 6th. All archaic and somewhat boring news.
If he runs, I'll support DeSantis as stated here previously. I'd vehemently disagree that he's a Trump clone, too.
So, there's some more tree bark for you to gnaw on if you so choose.
Whom would you support from the D side? Give me some of that reciprocal bark to chew on.
Even a cursory examination of DeSantis's messaging, style, and behavior shows him to be, or at least want to be, a Trump copycat. In particular, I've observed that he prefers stunts and throwing red meat to actually doing anything constructive. And yes, he was Trumpy-irresponsible during the pandemic.
The salient point is that he's trying to appeal to the exact same gang of idiots that Trump so successfully corralled. Trump never presented them with any actual rational reason to vote for him, and he never did anything when in office (that tax break boondoggle was cooked up by top Republicans; all he did was sign it.) Likewise, Florida Man hasn't said, and won't say, what he intends to accomplish, other than vague slogans and shibboleths like "stop open borders."
I'm really surprised that you don't realize that there have been hundreds of Trumps throughout history, many very successful. He's like cancer--unusual but far from rare.
FWIW, I consider Elizabeth Warren to be the best candidate, but she's unelectable. Next would be Pete Buttigleg, but maybe a gay person isn't electable either. So perhaps Amy Klobuchar? She's Minnesota Nice, which counts for a lot in those upper Midwest battleground states.
