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US Midterms 2022 - Read OP before posting

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,274 ✭✭✭EOQRTL


    Hopefully we can dump Trump and get behind DeSantis for 24. America badly needs a leader of that ilk.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    If that were a good point, I would have thanked it.

    For the record, I didn't thank it.

    Agreed.

    I'd be very surprised if Trump decides to announce his candidacy next Tuesday. All the evidence suggests it would be a total waste of time. His egomaniacal narcissism is what stands in the way, though I'm hoping those intelligent around him - and I'm sure there are a few - will somehow manage to dissuade him. There's also the question of whether Trump will announce his candidacy only to leverage his popularity with the GOP voter base as a means to drop current investigations into his past conduct. If Trump gets pardon and paves the way for DeSantis, then it's a win-win as far as the GOP and Trump are concerned.

    That said, these midterm elections have proven that the future of the GOP lies with Governor DeSantis.

    Trumpism is dead. He only has himself to blame.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,117 ✭✭✭Sparko


    I was asking a genuine question, not sure why you felt the need to be so condescending in your reply?



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]




  • Registered Users Posts: 19,663 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Fierce dose of RINO-itis going around this thread at the moment amongst Trumpists here now declaring their support for de Sanctimonious. Maybe they got sick of all the winning like he predicted?


    Its Trump all the way lads, his POTUS declaration is on Tuesday so now you get to watch the man you blindly backed for the last 6 years wreck the Republican party.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,325 ✭✭✭Cody montana


    Another house seat went to republicans.

    19 left.



  • Registered Users Posts: 575 ✭✭✭Hungry Burger


    It will be certainly interesting to see how it plays out if it indeed does turn out to be a race between Trump and De Santis. On the one hand, Trump is no doubt still extremely popular among the republican base, but I think a large part of his popularity in 2016 was how unorthodox and non conventional he was, people are well used to Trump and his messaging now which could play into De Santis hand, There’s definitely a bit of Trump fatigue going on there.

    I think the media also helped Trump a lot as he was constantly being covered in the media far more than any other of the republican nominees, his message was on the news cycle 24 hours a day, I think they have learned from this and we will see a lot more coverage of De Santis, Trump also had free reign on social media which he doesn’t have anymore, further stifling his messaging.

    Even if Trump was to win the republican nomination for 2024, if the Democrats were to run a sensible centrist candidate who could stave off the farther left elements of the Democratic party, they would easily beat Trump in the general imho.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭briany


    The erstwhile Trump supporters haven't really abandoned Trumpism. They just know that its figurehead has become too toxic to get it over the line, so they're hoping Desantis is the spoonful of sugar that will make enough people swallow the poison again. Trumpism in a slicker packaging.

    Hope Trump and Desantis tear each other apart and demonstrate that their mutually hateful and combative brand of politics is not the way forward.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,273 ✭✭✭xxxxxxl


    Really going down to the wire have Mid terms ever taken this long ?



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  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Giuliana Wrong Rite


    It's going to be an incredible couple of years.

    Might even trump de 2016 election cycle.





  • Registered Users Posts: 19,782 ✭✭✭✭everlast75


    "though I'm hoping those intelligent around him - and I'm sure there are a few - will somehow manage to dissuade him."


    Utter, utter nonsense. You'd want to be living under a rock on Mars to not know that all Trump ever surrounded himself with were fawning, obsequious yes men.

    You might have well said "hopefully, I'll win the lotto tomorrow and then I'll not have to go to work tomorrow".

    His supporters have been telling us for years that this guy is playing chess while the dems were playing checkers. Now, they're telling you that hopefully someone else will make him see sense.

    What a complete and utter shi1tshow.

    How about you and others start listening to what we've been saying since 2015, disregard your jaundiced views of Boards being an echo chamber, and accept the facts that have been said about this guy from the very, very start.

    He is a conman, a grifter, an idiot, a racist and an extremely vain and insecure bully. His "success" is an illusion, he is loyal to no one, and he will destroy the republican party, and if it wasn't for the democratic party and a small amount of republicans, he would have transformed America into an authoritarian state. Thankfully, just enough turned out in the midterms listened to sense to stymie him and his schemes.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Not sure why you're directing that tirade against me, as I have repeatedly condemned Donald Trump, anti-democratic rhetoric, and mindless MAGA-ism in general.

    You're attacking a straw man.



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,782 ✭✭✭✭everlast75


    it's not a tirade. It is a series of facts.

    And the reason I quoted you, was because you were contemplating a scenario where 45 would listen to someone else's advice. That is one of the most politically naïve things I have ever read online. Someone with even a screed of political knowledge or even pop trivia would know that Trump is incapable of it.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    A tirade is a "...a long, angry speech of criticism or accusation". That's exactly what was levelled in that post, and against me.

    But the idea that Donald Trump never listens to anyone, ever, at any time, is for the birds. An egomaniacal narcissist he may be, but there comes a point when his advisors and team need to play their role. Trump doesn't know it all. You're manufacturing this idea that somehow Trump is completely isolated, and makes decisions on his own, without any evidence or advice given to him - ever. It's just nonsense. At that level of the presidency, there is a entire school of advisors on many complex topics and Trump would surely have had to have listened to those advisors, at some point, at some time. He was only a businessman, after all. On the back of these midterm election results, I have no doubt that Trump is being counselled on his prospects - doomed prospects - at the next election.

    Your "analysis" is just what you want to believe rather than what's actually the case. And I say that as someone critical of Trump myself.

    You're allowing unchecked hyperbole to take over. And it's not a good look.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    I think we've learned a few things during this election.

    Polling utterly lacks nuance and asks lots of binary questions that don't really tell the full story.

    For example the question "Are you happy with the job Joe Biden is doing?" is categorically NOT the same as "Would you like to replace Joe Biden with a GOP person?"

    What is also clear is that, not surprisingly people vote about tangible things that impact them day to day and vote for people that show actual plans for how to address those things.

    The GOP has spent years with absolutely nothing in their platform about "kitchen table" items as they are called - They scream "Look at Inflation" but put forward absolutely zero plans on what they would do different. This is repeated across all those elements.

    The closest the GOP came to a policy platform was the stuff released by Rick Scott which basically told everyone that they were going to increase taxes on the poor and gut social security.

    The GOP were presented with an open goal and didn't even manage to kick the ball let alone get it on target.

    They lost the Senate (again) and at best they will take control of the house by perhaps 1 or 2 seats and even that is still in the balance.

    That is a shockingly poor performance and whilst some of the Senate and State level elections (Governor, State Sec etc.) can be blamed on the Trump/MAGA effect and him championing piss-poor candidates, it's the House performance that is the most damning.

    That performance is largely down to the absolute vacuum that is the GOP policy platform.

    The answer to the voters question of "How are you going to help me?" isn't "The other side are terrible!!!" but the GOP don't seem to understand that.



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,277 ✭✭✭Brussels Sprout


    Not unless they win the House as well it isn't.

    The American system is set up in such a way as to make logjam the norm these days. Here's what a party can legislate for if they have:


    1. President + House majority + 60 Senators: They have free reign to pass pretty much any laws they like (so long as they're deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court). They can nominate + appoint federal judges (including supreme court judges). Obama had this for the first year of his presidency
    2. President + House majority + 50-59 Senators: They are now constrained by the filibuster in the Senate. They can still pass certain financial bills on a simple majority via the process of Reconciliation but those are limited to budgetary bills and can only be used once per year (this was how the Inflation Reduction Act was passed earlier this year). They can nominate + appoint federal judges (including supreme court judges). Biden & Trump both had this for the first 2 years of their presidencies.
    3. President + 50-59 Senators: Cannot pass any laws unilaterally as these can now be blocked or voted down in The House. They can nominate + appoint federal judges (including supreme court judges). This was the position Trump was in for the final 2 years of his Presidency.
    4. President: Can only issue Executive Orders. These are limited in scope and power and can be reversed by the next President. This was the position Obama was in for the final 2 years of his Presidency


    So it looks like the Democrats will end up in #3 which is not that strong but it's a hell of a lot stronger than #4, which is where they were expected to land.

    In #3 the Republicans will still be able to block any permanent laws from being made and they also have powers of impeachment as well as to hold hearings on all sorts of matters. For example, Republicans used their power in the House, under Obama, to hold 6 different hearings into the 2012 Benghazi attacks.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,436 ✭✭✭✭duploelabs


    Trump listens to people has to be the funniest misunderstood statements I've heard since he stepped into the political sphere.


    Like the time he drew on the projected course of a hurricane so it would go along with his own prediction and he wouldn't look bad

    Or the time he contradicted his medical experts to 'put light inside the body' while those same experts were in the room while he gave a **** press conference

    There are many many more to pick from, buit to say that trump listens to anyone other than his own ego is laughable and delusional



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    I think the weakness of the potential House majority means that they will be less able to clog things up with spurious investigations etc.

    McCarthy (if he even manages to win the leadership position) will find it next to impossible to keep the various factions within the House GOP aligned so I think they'll really struggle to do anything.

    If as expected they only end up with a low single digit majority they'll struggle to do anything - talk of "impeaching Biden" will be off the table I think.



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    I think there have definitely been times when enough of his advisors have talked him out of some things, or where he's simply deferred to others. But those times are a minority, and often weighed against what benefits him the most rather than what's the right thing to do based on the knowledge/experience of his advisors. And when push comes to shove, he'll replace the advisors with people who'll simply just tell him what he wants to hear. No better case in point than everything to do with challenging the election results and leading to Jan 6th.



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  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Giuliana Wrong Rite


    He also had this brainwave...

    which has, for decades, been ridiculed as a profoundly stupid idea.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    I think that's only happened when they had to explain to him that whatever "brainwave" he'd had was actually illegal or physically impossible.

    The idea of him changing his mind on the basis of mature reflection and logical consideration of the facts is hard to see to be honest.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    Genuine question.

    If the GOP do take the House , but only by a couple of seats (I saw one projection giving them only a single seat majority) what happens if Pelosi was to win the House leadership election?

    It's not to imagine a scenario where all the Democrat members vote for her , but one or two on the GOP side either vote for someone other than McCarthy or just abstain.

    Could that happen and how would it work in practice in terms of committee chairs etc. ??



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 26,996 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    Is abstention enough or does the leader need an outright majority? No matter the dissension in the ranks I can't see a single Republican voting for Pelosi.

    That being said, it will be two years of chaos as McCarthy simply won't have the confidence of a majority and you never get through a term without a couple of seats being up for grabs. In a knife-edge congress any special elections will be carnage.



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,782 ✭✭✭✭everlast75


    McCarthy would have to walk the line between appeasing the crazies and distancing himself from trumpism.

    If I were him, I wouldn't take it. The 2 years of that stress would finish me off!



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    I've no idea of the actual rules - I would assume that an outright majority is required rather than a plurality of votes if a few were to abstain or vote for "Trump for House Speaker" or whatever , but the damage of having to go to a 2nd round of voting because he couldn't get everyone aligned would be terrible for McCarthy.

    I agree but he will absolutely take it , it's his lifes dream and this is realistically his one and only shot at it.

    If they fail to take the House , he's out for good and will lose the minority leadership role.

    Even if they win and he manages to win the Leadership race , I think the in-fighting will ruin him and he'll get booted in 2024 win or lose.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 23,640 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    Mod - These is a thread for discussing Trump, if your post isn't discussing him in the context of the midterms please use the other thread. Thanks



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,782 ✭✭✭✭everlast75


    *post edited - I actually believed this was a theory*




    This story from Swan - is this more election denial? What's the thinking behind this?




  • Registered Users Posts: 3,438 ✭✭✭NSAman


    Well thank feck the mid-terms are over. How many negative tv adverts can you watch without wanting to actually throw something at the tv?

    Trump is a liability! Biden is inept….America is F***ed!



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  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 15,589 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    That guy is the editor of the BabylonBee - a sort of conservative version of The Onion.



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