Wednesday Open Thread

7 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Opinion | The Deification of Donald Trump Poses Some Interesting Questions – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

   It may be time to rethink our strategy for dealing with him.

   As some folks mentioned last year when the indictments began, charging him criminally would probably only serve to make him more popular. And what has happened since last year, he has become more popular.

   Once someone attains deifical status, his or her followers will do literally anything and everything necessary for advance the cause.

   This will probably get worse before it gets better.

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   1. If only Iowa evangelicals really read the Bible. I Samuel 10-18 remains relevant:

      "10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”"

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   2. I believe you are correct. Deification does tend to pigeonhole the defied. Let's see if he has to start doing faith healing to keep the believers believing.

      Human history is replete with God-kings. It looks like the Republicans are going to try it again. It will likely alienate more people than it will attract.

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   3. I wasn't aware that there was a strategy for "dealing with Trump". Other than following through on holding him accountable for his malfeasance, corruption, and criming, what strategy is there? All I can think of is adjusting the strategy for dealing with Trump supporters…by perhaps holding them accountable.

      There's not going to be a simple, elegant solution for mitigating fascism. Besides, I'm not convinced that prosecuting Trump itself has made him more popular. Popular among whom? Certainly not among Iowa caucus participants.

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   4. Disagree that he has gotten more popular. Maybe with the die hard MAGA base but with Independents not so much. Even in Iowa, he barely pulled over 50%. It’s a myth that he is a Teflon man where nothing sticks. The charges and indictments are sticking to him. Time to go full bore on what loser he is. Evangelicals are also losing their moral high ground. Bad times ahead for both.

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      1. I tend to agree with that, GG.

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      2. The problem is that the die-hard MAGA base will turn out in November while the non-MAGA people may turn out and vote for Biden.

         BTW, some of Nikki Haley's supporters (19% in Iowa) can probably be enticed to vote for Biden. But do you actually think that any of that 20%  who voted for DeSantis and that 7% who voted for Ramaswamy are going anywhere other than for Trump?

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