GordonGekko
Footballguy
OP-ED: Why The GOP Should Not Support Trump For POTUS 2024 (9/30/21 00:50 PST)
The GOP needs Trump's down the ticket impact, but not his baggage. As a practical matter, no one needs to have another POTUS (where ages 78-82 in that timeline) that could turn into another cognitive decline disaster zone....
America needs a fresh start here. I don't care what side of the aisle you reside, the country would be better served moving as far away from Trump, Biden and Harris as soon as possible. Someone more balanced and less egregiously confrontational but who carries many of Trump's policies but without the clear baggage would bring many moderates, undecideds and suburban women back into the fold....
This is a coin with two sides. The establishment Democrats turned their Party into some kind of bizarre pathetic woke catastrophe. But Trump did not do anything to help himself. He could have run roughshod just enough to win 2016 and dialed it back for four years to get reelected and then, if it suited him, go off the cuff in his 2nd term. It's not fair for Trump to blame establishment Democrats for his own mistakes. It's also not fair for leftists to use Trump as a crutch to try to avoid any kind of accountability....
The GOP needs to focus on the easy win here. It's not needed to make this more complicated than it has to be. Trump always makes everything more complicated than it has to be. The interesting thing is once you take away Trump, you also take away the "But Trump" excuses too. I don't think some leftists are actually prepared for that.
For the good of America, and for God and country, it's time to hit Reset.
https://forums.footballguys.com/topic/800635-op-ed-why-the-gop-should-not-support-trump-for-potus-2024-93021-0050-pst/
VIDEO: Trump roasts Clinton at Al Smith charity dinner Oct 20, 2016 CBS News
And a special hello to all of you in this room who have known and loved me for many, many years. It’s true. The politicians. They’ve had me to their homes, they’ve introduced me to their children, I’ve become their best friends in many instances. They’ve asked for my endorsement and they always wanted my money. And even called me really a dear, dear friend. But then suddenly, decided when I ran for president as a Republican, that I’ve always been a no-good, rotten, disgusting scoundrel. And they totally forgot about me....
...But one of the things I noticed tonight – and I’ve known Hillary for a long time – this is the first time ever, ever, that Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major corporate leaders and not getting paid for it...I know Hillary met my campaign manager, and I got the chance to meet the people who are working so hard to get her elected. There they are — the heads of NBC, CNN, CBS, ABC — there’s the New York Times, right over there, and the Washington Post....
I’d like to address an important religious matter: the issue of going to confession. Or, as Hillary calls it, the Fourth of July weekend with FBI Director Comey....Now, I’m told Hillary went to confession before tonight’s event, but the priest was having a hard time, when he asked about her sins, and she said she couldn’t remember 39 times....
Hillary is so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission....How corrupt do you have to be to get kicked off the Watergate Commission? Pretty corrupt. Hillary is, and has been, in politics since the 70s. What’s her pitch? The economy is busted? The government’s corrupt? Washington is failing? “Vote for me. I’ve been working on these problems for 30 years. I can fix it”, she says....I wasn’t really sure if Hillary was going to be here tonight, because I guess you didn’t send her invitation by email. Or, maybe, you did and she just found out about it through the wonder of WikiLeaks....
We’ve learned so much from WikiLeaks. For example, Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private. That’s okay. I don’t know who they’re angry at Hillary, you or I. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics....
Now some of you haven’t noticed, Hillary isn’t laughing as much as the rest of us. That’s because she knows the jokes. And all of the jokes were given to her in advance of the dinner by Donna Brazile. Which is – everyone knows, of course, Hillary’s belief that it takes a village, which only makes sense after all in places like Haiti, where she’s taken a number of them....
(They all stopped laughing when his jokes turned into the truth)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmvxx_YbDsM
https://time.com/4539981/read-the-transcript-donald-trump-speech-al-smith-dinner/
***********
"....When the night has been too lonely. And the road has been too long. And you think that love is only. For the lucky and the strong. Just remember in the winter. Far beneath the bitter snows. Lies the seed that with the sun's love.In the spring becomes the rose..." - Bette Midler
As a hard line Conservative, I'm perfectly OK with Donald Trump going to prison. It would actually be good for America if it happened. The entire Republic would be in a much better place because of it. Here's why...
1) There needs to be an actual legitimate legal pathway to put Donald Trump in prison. The actual principles of law must be applied. I don't agree with either of the two impeachments against The Big Cheeto. I also don't agree with the current J6 Hearings that operates as a proxy "Third Impeachment" Look, let's get real here. Team Blue has been chasing this guy for 7 straight years. Literally non stop. You can't keep persecuting an American citizen like this, even if he's a jerk, without raising deep ethical questions about due process. Even if he's wearisome grifter, narcissist and a relentless toxic troll.
Do I believe there is anything in the current J6 Hearings that will put Trump behind bars? No. Obstruction is the closest thing that Team Blue can try to fabricate and there just isn't enough there. Just like there was not enough for the 2nd Impeachment ( I don't agree with what Trump said and did on J6, but his speech was protected speech) and the 1st Impeachment ( The Durham probe has made it clear that there was a clear partisan witch hunt because Trump won. That was his real crime to the establishment Democrats. They couldn't handle Trump winning against all odds )
How would I pursue Trump if I was given priority tasking to see he was put behind bars?
The pardons of Roger Stone ( Making false statements to Congress (five counts), witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding ) and Paul Manafort (Five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to disclose a hidden foreign bank account; two counts of conspiracy) are the fracture points. The complexity behind their crimes and their pardons is enough to fill three full thread topics of their own. The point being that Team Blue has to stop the cheap dirty game of using Trump to try to excite and enrage their base to come out and vote, knowing they will never see a true conviction. They need to actually truly go after him.
2) Donald Trump will can no longer be used as an excuse in professional politics. No more of this "Blame Trump For Everything" as to why this country is falling apart. You need to actually have policy and behave in a manner that delivers wins for every day working class Americans. Make their lives better. Go out and keep your promises to them. Give them some hope for the future of their children. If Trump is locked up, his ability to be a "wedge issue", maybe the largest possible in modern politics, disappears. The Democratic Party needs to do more than just dogmatically oppose anything Trump says and wants and rail against what the GOP pushes for in absolute terms. Because Team Blue has shown they'll quadruple down on this insanity, even if it means denying what the majority of the American people actually desire. For example, the majority of the American people don't support the extremism of the previous Freedom Of Choice Act and the Women's Health Protection Act, but the purpose wasn't to deliver a win for actual Americans. It was to create bills that establishment Democrats knew would never pass so they could say in the national media that the GOP was to blame for a failure on abortion rights. Then there was the grift element where this pathway induced massive fund raising.
The answer has always been and will always be the application of more democracy. Not using Donald Trump as a sin eater for Team Blue's epic failures. Go win elections, lots of them, using real democratic processes and helping rank and file Americans, and you can have the kind of government you want, the kind of laws you want and the kind of public policies you want.
3) Every former President still alive would no longer be protected by the unspoken understanding that being a previous POTUS essentially meant future blanket immunity. Put Trump in prison? If you can get the evidence and prove it while cleanly operating within the actual law? No problem from me. But also go after everyone. That means Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama get bracketed too. This can't just be about putting one former POTUS in prison for his crimes, it means getting ALL OF THEM. Let Obama try to salvage his ego and political legacy when the DOJ runs him roughshod over Operation Fast & Furious and Solyndra. Joe Biden and that Hunter Biden laptop? Go after him. W. Bush and the false WMDs? No mercy. Bill Clinton and Epstein and all the 'alleged' rapes? Have at it. Lift the lid on this. Give no quarter to any of them. Of course I think the hard woke radical leftists here will take some quiet pause from celebrating Trump going to prison when they see Cool Guy President in shackles over giving the Sinaloa Drug Cartel a bunch of AK47s with our tax dollars.
Making everyone accountable is A GOOD THING.
4) Trump can't really be trusted to keep American safe for a 2nd term. The only real hedge for Trump's first term in office was that he always had to think about reelection. He knew he had to measure his words and his actions in that regard. ( Consider The Big Cheeto's version of "restraint" is probably far different from the rest of the entire world's view of it) So does anyone really want an aging narcissist geriatric with a major axe to grind with absolutely nothing to lose anymore to run wild in a world battered down by a pandemic, major instability with the world economy, massive disruption in basic civil order in this country and the looming threat of possible World War and/or nuclear war with China and/or Russia on the horizon?
Republicans and Conservatives should just take the easy win here. Find someone who has many of Trump's policies (though not all) and without his wearisome relentless attacking style that incites everyone all the time. Trump as a "martyr" galvanizes the entire MAGA base and also nearly all the White Evangelical votes ( no matter what Trump failed at, he delivered for Pro Life in a way that no one else has in all of American history) and it guarantees future strong voting turn outs and a chance for better more practical Conservative policy to come forward and save our Republic. This forges a real chance for our children to thrive in the days to come.
5) Trump fulfilled his purpose and his political usefulness/life cycle is at it's natural conclusion. For whatever scandal, failures and idiotic behavior that Orange/Man/Bad self inflicted, he also helped to expose the corruption in Big Social Media, Big Tech, Big Education, Hollywood, Big Finance and especially the majority of the activist complicit mainstream media. They were all so intent on destroying Trump at all costs, their masks fell off and the average American could see the grift, sadism and corruption unfold in the public sphere. Trump's greatest value was pure outcome independence and a natural level of implied catastrophic disruption to the existing smug tone deaf entitled vicious political establishment. The elitist tyrannical corporate big donor overlords were not angry at Trump because he made it all about himself, they were furious because they had no choice but to make it all about him as well.
Donald Trump's role in professional American politics was like Jose Canseco's role in changing all of Major League Baseball. Sometimes you need a despised rogue to tell the truth that no one else wants to say out loud. But just like there's a litmus of how much Canseco that baseball fans were willing to handle, there's only so much Donald Trump that's needed after his purpose for our entire Republic has been served.
This is the one and only time I will use the term considered taboo here -
Father Trump and his fall, should it be legal and clean and purposeful, could help save our Republic.
He's no hero. I won't paint him in that light. But the greatest "deal" he made for America was creating the pathway, with pure unyielding blunt force trauma, for future real heroes one day to emerge and to truly have a voice. Donald Trump doesn't care about your freedom. But in his total reign of chaos, he stripped the political and media corruption around him bare until only the truth was left.
That truth is the combined political and media establishment sees your children as nothing more than cattle and they are coming for them.
The GOP needs Trump's down the ticket impact, but not his baggage. As a practical matter, no one needs to have another POTUS (where ages 78-82 in that timeline) that could turn into another cognitive decline disaster zone....
America needs a fresh start here. I don't care what side of the aisle you reside, the country would be better served moving as far away from Trump, Biden and Harris as soon as possible. Someone more balanced and less egregiously confrontational but who carries many of Trump's policies but without the clear baggage would bring many moderates, undecideds and suburban women back into the fold....
This is a coin with two sides. The establishment Democrats turned their Party into some kind of bizarre pathetic woke catastrophe. But Trump did not do anything to help himself. He could have run roughshod just enough to win 2016 and dialed it back for four years to get reelected and then, if it suited him, go off the cuff in his 2nd term. It's not fair for Trump to blame establishment Democrats for his own mistakes. It's also not fair for leftists to use Trump as a crutch to try to avoid any kind of accountability....
The GOP needs to focus on the easy win here. It's not needed to make this more complicated than it has to be. Trump always makes everything more complicated than it has to be. The interesting thing is once you take away Trump, you also take away the "But Trump" excuses too. I don't think some leftists are actually prepared for that.
For the good of America, and for God and country, it's time to hit Reset.
https://forums.footballguys.com/topic/800635-op-ed-why-the-gop-should-not-support-trump-for-potus-2024-93021-0050-pst/
VIDEO: Trump roasts Clinton at Al Smith charity dinner Oct 20, 2016 CBS News
And a special hello to all of you in this room who have known and loved me for many, many years. It’s true. The politicians. They’ve had me to their homes, they’ve introduced me to their children, I’ve become their best friends in many instances. They’ve asked for my endorsement and they always wanted my money. And even called me really a dear, dear friend. But then suddenly, decided when I ran for president as a Republican, that I’ve always been a no-good, rotten, disgusting scoundrel. And they totally forgot about me....
...But one of the things I noticed tonight – and I’ve known Hillary for a long time – this is the first time ever, ever, that Hillary is sitting down and speaking to major corporate leaders and not getting paid for it...I know Hillary met my campaign manager, and I got the chance to meet the people who are working so hard to get her elected. There they are — the heads of NBC, CNN, CBS, ABC — there’s the New York Times, right over there, and the Washington Post....
I’d like to address an important religious matter: the issue of going to confession. Or, as Hillary calls it, the Fourth of July weekend with FBI Director Comey....Now, I’m told Hillary went to confession before tonight’s event, but the priest was having a hard time, when he asked about her sins, and she said she couldn’t remember 39 times....
Hillary is so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission....How corrupt do you have to be to get kicked off the Watergate Commission? Pretty corrupt. Hillary is, and has been, in politics since the 70s. What’s her pitch? The economy is busted? The government’s corrupt? Washington is failing? “Vote for me. I’ve been working on these problems for 30 years. I can fix it”, she says....I wasn’t really sure if Hillary was going to be here tonight, because I guess you didn’t send her invitation by email. Or, maybe, you did and she just found out about it through the wonder of WikiLeaks....
We’ve learned so much from WikiLeaks. For example, Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private. That’s okay. I don’t know who they’re angry at Hillary, you or I. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics....
Now some of you haven’t noticed, Hillary isn’t laughing as much as the rest of us. That’s because she knows the jokes. And all of the jokes were given to her in advance of the dinner by Donna Brazile. Which is – everyone knows, of course, Hillary’s belief that it takes a village, which only makes sense after all in places like Haiti, where she’s taken a number of them....
(They all stopped laughing when his jokes turned into the truth)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmvxx_YbDsM
https://time.com/4539981/read-the-transcript-donald-trump-speech-al-smith-dinner/
***********
"....When the night has been too lonely. And the road has been too long. And you think that love is only. For the lucky and the strong. Just remember in the winter. Far beneath the bitter snows. Lies the seed that with the sun's love.In the spring becomes the rose..." - Bette Midler
As a hard line Conservative, I'm perfectly OK with Donald Trump going to prison. It would actually be good for America if it happened. The entire Republic would be in a much better place because of it. Here's why...
1) There needs to be an actual legitimate legal pathway to put Donald Trump in prison. The actual principles of law must be applied. I don't agree with either of the two impeachments against The Big Cheeto. I also don't agree with the current J6 Hearings that operates as a proxy "Third Impeachment" Look, let's get real here. Team Blue has been chasing this guy for 7 straight years. Literally non stop. You can't keep persecuting an American citizen like this, even if he's a jerk, without raising deep ethical questions about due process. Even if he's wearisome grifter, narcissist and a relentless toxic troll.
Do I believe there is anything in the current J6 Hearings that will put Trump behind bars? No. Obstruction is the closest thing that Team Blue can try to fabricate and there just isn't enough there. Just like there was not enough for the 2nd Impeachment ( I don't agree with what Trump said and did on J6, but his speech was protected speech) and the 1st Impeachment ( The Durham probe has made it clear that there was a clear partisan witch hunt because Trump won. That was his real crime to the establishment Democrats. They couldn't handle Trump winning against all odds )
How would I pursue Trump if I was given priority tasking to see he was put behind bars?
The pardons of Roger Stone ( Making false statements to Congress (five counts), witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding ) and Paul Manafort (Five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to disclose a hidden foreign bank account; two counts of conspiracy) are the fracture points. The complexity behind their crimes and their pardons is enough to fill three full thread topics of their own. The point being that Team Blue has to stop the cheap dirty game of using Trump to try to excite and enrage their base to come out and vote, knowing they will never see a true conviction. They need to actually truly go after him.
2) Donald Trump will can no longer be used as an excuse in professional politics. No more of this "Blame Trump For Everything" as to why this country is falling apart. You need to actually have policy and behave in a manner that delivers wins for every day working class Americans. Make their lives better. Go out and keep your promises to them. Give them some hope for the future of their children. If Trump is locked up, his ability to be a "wedge issue", maybe the largest possible in modern politics, disappears. The Democratic Party needs to do more than just dogmatically oppose anything Trump says and wants and rail against what the GOP pushes for in absolute terms. Because Team Blue has shown they'll quadruple down on this insanity, even if it means denying what the majority of the American people actually desire. For example, the majority of the American people don't support the extremism of the previous Freedom Of Choice Act and the Women's Health Protection Act, but the purpose wasn't to deliver a win for actual Americans. It was to create bills that establishment Democrats knew would never pass so they could say in the national media that the GOP was to blame for a failure on abortion rights. Then there was the grift element where this pathway induced massive fund raising.
The answer has always been and will always be the application of more democracy. Not using Donald Trump as a sin eater for Team Blue's epic failures. Go win elections, lots of them, using real democratic processes and helping rank and file Americans, and you can have the kind of government you want, the kind of laws you want and the kind of public policies you want.
3) Every former President still alive would no longer be protected by the unspoken understanding that being a previous POTUS essentially meant future blanket immunity. Put Trump in prison? If you can get the evidence and prove it while cleanly operating within the actual law? No problem from me. But also go after everyone. That means Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama get bracketed too. This can't just be about putting one former POTUS in prison for his crimes, it means getting ALL OF THEM. Let Obama try to salvage his ego and political legacy when the DOJ runs him roughshod over Operation Fast & Furious and Solyndra. Joe Biden and that Hunter Biden laptop? Go after him. W. Bush and the false WMDs? No mercy. Bill Clinton and Epstein and all the 'alleged' rapes? Have at it. Lift the lid on this. Give no quarter to any of them. Of course I think the hard woke radical leftists here will take some quiet pause from celebrating Trump going to prison when they see Cool Guy President in shackles over giving the Sinaloa Drug Cartel a bunch of AK47s with our tax dollars.
Making everyone accountable is A GOOD THING.
4) Trump can't really be trusted to keep American safe for a 2nd term. The only real hedge for Trump's first term in office was that he always had to think about reelection. He knew he had to measure his words and his actions in that regard. ( Consider The Big Cheeto's version of "restraint" is probably far different from the rest of the entire world's view of it) So does anyone really want an aging narcissist geriatric with a major axe to grind with absolutely nothing to lose anymore to run wild in a world battered down by a pandemic, major instability with the world economy, massive disruption in basic civil order in this country and the looming threat of possible World War and/or nuclear war with China and/or Russia on the horizon?
Republicans and Conservatives should just take the easy win here. Find someone who has many of Trump's policies (though not all) and without his wearisome relentless attacking style that incites everyone all the time. Trump as a "martyr" galvanizes the entire MAGA base and also nearly all the White Evangelical votes ( no matter what Trump failed at, he delivered for Pro Life in a way that no one else has in all of American history) and it guarantees future strong voting turn outs and a chance for better more practical Conservative policy to come forward and save our Republic. This forges a real chance for our children to thrive in the days to come.
5) Trump fulfilled his purpose and his political usefulness/life cycle is at it's natural conclusion. For whatever scandal, failures and idiotic behavior that Orange/Man/Bad self inflicted, he also helped to expose the corruption in Big Social Media, Big Tech, Big Education, Hollywood, Big Finance and especially the majority of the activist complicit mainstream media. They were all so intent on destroying Trump at all costs, their masks fell off and the average American could see the grift, sadism and corruption unfold in the public sphere. Trump's greatest value was pure outcome independence and a natural level of implied catastrophic disruption to the existing smug tone deaf entitled vicious political establishment. The elitist tyrannical corporate big donor overlords were not angry at Trump because he made it all about himself, they were furious because they had no choice but to make it all about him as well.
Donald Trump's role in professional American politics was like Jose Canseco's role in changing all of Major League Baseball. Sometimes you need a despised rogue to tell the truth that no one else wants to say out loud. But just like there's a litmus of how much Canseco that baseball fans were willing to handle, there's only so much Donald Trump that's needed after his purpose for our entire Republic has been served.
This is the one and only time I will use the term considered taboo here -
Father Trump and his fall, should it be legal and clean and purposeful, could help save our Republic.
He's no hero. I won't paint him in that light. But the greatest "deal" he made for America was creating the pathway, with pure unyielding blunt force trauma, for future real heroes one day to emerge and to truly have a voice. Donald Trump doesn't care about your freedom. But in his total reign of chaos, he stripped the political and media corruption around him bare until only the truth was left.
That truth is the combined political and media establishment sees your children as nothing more than cattle and they are coming for them.
