2024 GOP Presidential Race (18 Viewers)

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Many of Trump's endorsed candidates did not do well on Nov. 8th.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis DID do well.
He won convincingly.
Yet in this OP's opinion, Donald Trump is an egomaniac who is seemingly incapable of putting "Party over Self"
Trump has ZERO chance of being elected our next president.
In my opinion, if Trump would just shut up and go away (fat chance of that)...but "if" Trump did that, Gov. Ron DeSantis would have a CHANCE to be a formidable candidate for President in 2024.
Here is an interesting article on this topic...

Donald Trump warns Ron DeSantis against 2024 presidential bid as Republican rising star wins big

www.scotsman.com

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What do any of you think re. Trump vs DeSantis?

 

[Optimus Prime]

BOONE, Iowa — Vickie Farmer, 66, knows her presidential candidate of choice comes off as “abrasive, offensive and sometimes looks orange,” but she’s all-in for Donald Trump for a third time — especially in the face of what she sees as a never-ending legal witch hunt.


Randy Mitchell, 70, is tired of all the controversy surrounding Trump — he thinks the former president’s legal troubles are a farce — but he concedes that he will vote for him again if he’s the 2024 GOP nominee.


But Amy Rohe, who’s in her mid-40s, thinks the Republican Party — and the country — needs someone fresh with new ideas who isn’t pushing a personal agenda. She voted for Trump twice but doesn’t plan to support him again. Too much baggage, she says.

During a hot, sunny weekend at the Boone County Fair — where hundreds of Iowans came together to eat funnel cakes and corn dogs and to watch their children and grandchildren show off animals from their family farms — the range of Republican voters’ views on Trump, the undisputed front-runner in state and national polls, was on full display.

Interviews with GOP voters in the rural county, which Trump carried by double-digit percentage points in 2016 and 2020, show that Trump continues to have a tight grip on the party, even among those who have grown weary of his rhetoric and legal troubles.


Even with the backdrop of Trump facing another potential indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, many GOP voters wrote off the former president’s legal challenges as part of a continued liberal smear campaign and said it didn’t impact the image — positive or negative — they already have of him.

Some, however, said they were tired of all the drama surrounding Trump and are increasingly open to other candidates as they look to 2024.

In a Fox Business survey of Iowa Republicans released Sunday, Trump continued to dominate the GOP primary field, garnering support from 46 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers and leading the field by 30 percent. The same poll found that Trump is seen as the candidate with the best chance of defeating President Biden……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/24/trump-gop-voters-iowa-caucuses/

 

[Optimus Prime]

so, there was a poll question that asked "who do you trust to best fight the woke mob"?

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A new poll out of Iowa shows Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) gaining momentum on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the 2024 presidential race, though former President Trump maintains a commanding lead.

The survey, which was paid for by the Trump campaign and shared exclusively with The Hill, found 46 percent of likely GOP caucus participants in the Hawkeye State support the former president.

It found 16 percent of those surveyed said they support DeSantis, who is running in second place. And it showed Scott polling in third place with 10 percent support.

Scott entered the race the same week as DeSantis, and he has typically polled in single digits on the national level. A super PAC backing the senator announced this week it would spend $40 million on TV and digital ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this fall to further boost Scott’s White House bid.

This latest poll comes about six months before the state’s caucuses.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the conservative entrepreneur, polled at 5 percent, followed by Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Chris Christie, all of whom polled at 3 percent. Ten percent of those surveyed said they were still undecided.

The poll also found that more voters trusted Trump over DeSantis to protect Social Security and farmers as well as to “fight the woke mob” by double-digit margins. DeSantis has made combating “wokeism” a key theme of his campaign............

MSN

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

so, there was a poll question that asked "who do you trust to best fight the woke mob"?

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A new poll out of Iowa shows Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) gaining momentum on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the 2024 presidential race, though former President Trump maintains a commanding lead.

The survey, which was paid for by the Trump campaign and shared exclusively with The Hill, found 46 percent of likely GOP caucus participants in the Hawkeye State support the former president.

It found 16 percent of those surveyed said they support DeSantis, who is running in second place. And it showed Scott polling in third place with 10 percent support.

Scott entered the race the same week as DeSantis, and he has typically polled in single digits on the national level. A super PAC backing the senator announced this week it would spend $40 million on TV and digital ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this fall to further boost Scott’s White House bid.

This latest poll comes about six months before the state’s caucuses.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the conservative entrepreneur, polled at 5 percent, followed by Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Chris Christie, all of whom polled at 3 percent. Ten percent of those surveyed said they were still undecided.

The poll also found that more voters trusted Trump over DeSantis to protect Social Security and farmers as well as to “fight the woke mob” by double-digit margins. DeSantis has made combating “wokeism” a key theme of his campaign............

MSN

GO Tim Scott!
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BTW...I just saw this...
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7 Republican presidential candidates meet polling criteria for first RNC debate

Seven Republican presidential candidates have, as of Sunday, met the polling requirements to appear on the August debate stage following new polling from Fox Business in Iowa and South Carolina.

www.yahoo.com

 

[DaveXA]

GO Tim Scott!
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BTW...I just saw this...
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7 Republican presidential candidates meet polling criteria for first RNC debate

Seven Republican presidential candidates have, as of Sunday, met the polling requirements to appear on the August debate stage following new polling from Fox Business in Iowa and South Carolina.

www.yahoo.com

I guess they could do worse than Tim Scott even tho I'm not a fan.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Back when he first captured the hearts of Republicans generally and conservative evangelicals specifically, it became fashionable for Christian Right leaders to compare Donald Trump to Cyrus the Great, the pagan Persian king who unwittingly served the will of God (according to the Hebrew Scriptures) by liberating the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity.

It was a clever rationalization that enabled these holy warriors to dismiss all the evidence of Trump’s heathenish belief system and sinful behavior and make him God’s (and their) vehicle for the redemption of America. Being King Cyrus also relieved the 45th president from any inconvenient obligation to change his evil ways or beg for a forgiveness he explicitly didn’t think he needed.

After Trump thrilled many conservative Christian activists by stacking the Supreme Court in a way that produced the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the expansion of the “religious liberty” to discriminate against the wicked, some of his churchy fans began to view him not as a disposable instrument of God’s will — and thus as an replaceable ally — but as an indispensable leader of their cause.

In part that’s because they have internalized his fury over the “stolen election” of 2020 and hence the necessity of a Trump comeback to prove the divine plan cannot be thwarted. Worse yet, some conservative Christians have conflated Trump’s struggle with the eternal struggle between the heavenly hosts and their demonic enemies.

We’re witnessing a pop-culture moment exemplifying this confusion of religious and secular conservatism. Actor Jim Caviezel, best known for his portrayal of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ, made it known on Fox News that he regarded Trump as “the new Moses.” He made this pronouncement while flogging his latest flick, Sound of Freedom, which, much like The Passion of the Christ, has become a counter-Hollywood phenomenon heavily promoted by ticket-buying churches and church organizations. As Rolling Stone’s Miles Klee explains in his review, the new movie is the perfect vehicle for Caviezel, who has been flirting with QAnon-ish conspiracy theories for a good while:

Caviezel pulled Trump into his story by asserting that he’d be the leader who would “go after the traffickers.” And he also revealed that he had provided Trump with a private showing of Sound of Freedom at the former president’s Bedminster resort. Trump unsurprisingly responded with a Truth Social post vowing to administer the death penalty to human traffickers and blaming Joe Biden’s border policies for this terrible danger to children.

Now if you are a QAnon believer, this all fits together: America is controlled by the pedophile satanists of the Democratic Party. Trump will liberate their victims (presumably in chains awaiting their destruction by blood-drinking global cabalists) and with them their country. And the 45th president has never lifted a finger to disabuse these people of their dangerous and psychotic delusions.

But even among the uninitiated, the Trump-trafficking nexus can be seductive. Human trafficking has been a major preoccupation of conservative evangelicals in recent years, perhaps as an undeniably worthy target of those whose all-purpose sexual puritanism is no longer fashionable. So Trump’s identification of trafficking with lax Democratic policies and promises to save children resonate, making this cruel man a liberating “Moses” figure................

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Ron DeSantis strode onto the stage in April in front of almost 10,000 students at Liberty University, he did so with an introduction from the school’s chancellor, pastor Jonathan Falwell, son of legendary televangelist Jerry Falwell. The chancellor noted that the university took pride in inviting speakers “who have brought wisdom to this idea of what it means to be a champion for Christ.”

DeSantis took the opportunity to paraphrase Jesus’ words in the Book of John, when he promised believers they would be rewarded if they followed him.

“Yes, the truth shall set you free,” DeSantis said. “Because woke represents a war on truth, we must wage a war on woke.”

It was an evangelical performance in a deeply evangelical setting. Anyone watching it might assume DeSantis was at home among evangelicals. But here’s the thing: He’s not one himself.

Ron DeSantis is solidly Roman Catholic. A recent descendant of Italian immigrants, DeSantis counts a Catholic priest as an uncle and a nun as an aunt. He grew up going to Catholic school and attending Catholic mass every Sunday. And yet, until recently, many people weren’t sure whether he is still a practicing Catholic. When the Catholic magazine America reached out to his press team to clarify his religious denomination, for example, they got no response. Given that DeSantis makes faith integral to his political identity, it became confusing enough that the Orlando Sentinel published a story with this reveal:

After months of dodging the question, DeSantis’ staff and a priest have confirmed
that DeSantis and his family regularly attend the handful of Catholic churches in the
Tallahassee area.

So, what, exactly, is DeSantis doing here? Why was his Roman Catholicism essentially a secret? Faith can be no private matter for a Republican presidential candidate. As Politico and others noted recently, DeSantis’ presidential campaign has outlined educated white evangelicals as being his gateway to the nomination. So is this Catholic-evangelical two-step how he’s trying to court voters, and if so, is it a good strategy? What, exactly, is Ron DeSantis signaling to Republicans with how he presents his faith?

DeSantis has made it clear that Catholicism is not central to his image. Unlike President Joe Biden, who is known to pray the rosary and identifies proudly as Catholic, DeSantis keeps things generically Christian. Even the prominent Catholic masses he has attended could be justified by non-Catholics as political in nature: one at the culture war–infused Ave Maria University, and one at a “Blue Mass” for police officers who died while on duty. His fight against abortion certainly taps into a traditionally Catholic battle, but it’s a battle that Protestants co-opted decades ago.

When he speaks of his faith in interviews, he speaks of “faith”—not the church’s teachings or anything more distinctly Catholic in flavor. If this choice is a matter of identifying as—or appealing to—a generic white Christian American, it doesn’t sound that different from his recent efforts to pronounce his own name in a less European way.

But from the way he speaks at events and in interviews, it does seem that DeSantis isn’t just trying to seem less Catholic. It sounds like he’s also trying to seem more evangelical—or at least one specific kind of evangelical.

In speeches, DeSantis has a favorite line: It is time for us to “put on the full armor of God.” He has used it in reference to resisting COVID lockdowns or enacting abortion bans or just standing against leftists. This is a reference to Ephesians, in a passage about Christians staying committed in their faith, but DeSantis uses it in reference to opposing enemies. It’s a term now commonly used in allusion to “spiritual warfare,” popular among evangelicals who feel the call to win over the country...........

MSN

 

[Lapaz]

I guess they could do worse than Tim Scott even tho I'm not a fan.

Scott could win the general, but it would be shocking for him to win the primary. He’s a decent guy that would attract a lot of centrists and nearly anyone with an R next to their name will get the far right vote.

 

[Optimus Prime]

For eight years, Donald Trump has managed to secure the support of many evangelical and conservative Christians despite behavior that often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.

If some observers initially viewed this as an unsustainable alliance, it’s different now.

Certain achievements during Trump’s presidency – notably appointments that shifted the Supreme Court to the right – have solidified that support. He’s now the clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, even after he recently was found liable for sexually abusing a New York woman in 1996 and was indicted in a criminal case related to hush money payments to a porn actress.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of an evangelical megachurch in Dallas, has been a staunch supporter of Trump since his first campaign for president and is sticking by him even as rivals like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence tout their Christian faith.

“Conservative Christians continue to overwhelmingly support Donald Trump because of his biblical policies, not his personal piety,” Jeffress told The Associated Press via email. “They are smart enough to know the difference between choosing a president and choosing a pastor.”

“In many ways, Christians feel like they are in an existential cultural war between good and evil, and they want a warrior like Donald Trump who can win,” Jeffress added.

In rural southwest Missouri, pastor Mike Leake of Calvary of Neosho – a Southern Baptist church – says support for Trump within the mostly conservative congregation seems to strengthen the more he is criticized and investigated.

“It further convinces them of their rhetoric that there is a leftist plot to undermine our nation,” Leake said. “So if everybody from the Left hates Trump, well, he must be on to something.”................

Some critics see Trump's behavior as un-Christian. His conservative Christian backers see a hero

For eight years, Donald Trump has managed to secure the support of many evangelical and conservative Christians despite behavior that has often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

The criminal former president is so far ahead of his closest Republican rival that the Washington press corps is already reviving themes from the 2016 and 2020 elections. Here’s the AP on Friday: “Some critics see Trump’s behavior as un-Christian. His conservative Christian backers see a hero.”

How can a lying, thieving, philandering sadist by the likes of Donald Trump continue to gain the overwhelming approval of “conservative Christians”? Since he first ran for president, reporters have tried explaining this apparent contradiction. Given the AP’s latest, they’re going to keep trying.

But all this rests on an assumption, two assumptions, actually. Once we drop them, a greater truth stands before us in plain sight: For Donald Trump’s Christians, there’s no difference between religion and politics. They’re not pretending otherwise. The rest of us shouldn’t either.

What assumptions?

The first is that Christianity is just one thing – the teachings of Jesus in the ways of God’s universal love, let’s say. The second, predicated on the first, is that there’s a contradiction between Trump and Christianity. How could supporters believe in God’s universal love while backing a criminal former president whose campaign has become explicitly a vengeance movement?

There is no contradiction, however, if we concede the obvious – that there’s more than one kind of Christianity, that there’s always been more than one kind, and that there are opposing and competing varieties of Christianity.

Once you concede the obvious, you see that this relationship isn’t based on a contradiction at all. It’s based on one variety of Christianity finding and sticking with one kind of candidate over common political interests. They aren’t drawn to him in spite of being a lying, thieving, philandering sadist. They’re drawn to him because of being a lying, thieving, philandering sadist.

The implication here is one that very few people want to talk about, and that includes religion reporters and their religious sources. If a variety of religion makes common cause with a bad man (for instance, with a lying, thieving, philandering sadist), isn’t that religion, well, a bad religion?

Reporters don’t want to be seen as adjudicators of faith. So they pretend that politics and religion are separate. Their religious sources don’t want the reputations of their respective religions to be irreparably harmed by Trump and his Christians. So they pretend that religious faith isn’t what’s pushing them together. Instead, they say, it’s “the politics of grievance.’”................

MSN

 

[Booker]

The implication here is one that very few people want to talk about, and that includes religion reporters and their religious sources. If a variety of religion makes common cause with a bad man (for instance, with a lying, thieving, philandering sadist), isn’t that religion, well, a bad religion?

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

Wasn't Gary Johnson the "what's Aleppo?" guy?

i never understood the OMG moment from this..

 

[MT15]

I didn’t think things could get worse for DeSantis. Evidently his media people might be Nazi-adjacent:

 

[MT15]

 

[Booker]

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Slavery was actually beneficial to Black people, according to a set of new rules around how Black American history is going to be taught in Florida’s public schools.

The new curriculum also includes assertions that Black people themselves perpetrated violence during historical racial massacres like the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the 1921 Tulsa massacre.

The slavery-was-actually-a-good-thing and there-were-bad-actors-on-all-sides bits are old, racist talking points that I’m not surprised to see Ron DeSantis shamelessly dredging up now that he’s on a national crusade to make himself as appealing as possible to the worst of white America. Using school curricula to delegitimize the horrors of slavery was an obvious next step, but we still need to call it what it is – white supremacy in government.

The historical revisionism being employed here has a singular goal – to erase the horrors of America’s racist past, legitimize far-right ideology and create easier pathways for racism to thrive.

Just look at what’s happening in Italy. For years, revisionists have redirected conversation about Italy’s role in the second world war away from its fascist crimes, effectively trivializing that past – and helping legitimize the county’s new far right. The prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her ilk simply refuse to acknowledge that Nazis and fascists were the bad guys in the war, and this ridiculous glossing over of Italy’s past has been extremely helpful to Italy’s contemporary far right.

That is what DeSantis wants for America. A systematic destruction of human rights followed by a reworking of our collective memory around race, so that ultimately the country’s most vulnerable people don’t have a leg to stand on in fighting for their most basic rights.

Let’s be clear, Black people did not benefit in anyway from slavery. They were kidnapped from their motherland, trafficked to the Americas, abused, enslaved and killed – and their communities and cultural products continue to be pillaged and plundered to this day. In a way, the institutional attacks on public memory that we’re seeing help America get by without having to hold itself accountable for, well, any of it.

Slavery has always been the lightning rod for larger historical anti-Blackness, so if slavery itself isn’t that bad, then what does America truly have to make up for?

Denying the truth about the institution upon which the US was built also softens the hard and violent edges of all of slavery’s grandchildren. Jim Crow, redlining, systematic disenfranchisement, mass incarceration – none of it means that much if we can’t even agree on the very thing that spawned them.……

DeSantis’s crusade to de-legitimize the horrors of slavery is white supremacy in government | Tayo Bero

His tactics have a singular goal – erase the horrors of America’s racist past, and create easier pathways for racism to thrive

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Republican donors must persuade failing candidates for the party’s presidential nomination to drop out of the race quickly in order to stop Donald Trump winning, Senator Mitt Romney has said.

Trump leads most Republican primary polling averages by 30 points or more, despite facing 71 criminal indictments, the prospect of more over his attempted election subversion, and deeply unfavorable ratings with American voters at large.

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Romney, a Utah senator who was governor of Massachusetts before becoming the Republican nominee in 2012, said: “Despite Donald Trump’s apparent inevitability, a baker’s dozen [13] Republicans are hoping to become the party’s 2024 nominee for president.

“That is possible for any of them if the field narrows to a two-person race before Mr Trump has the nomination sewn up.

“For that to happen, Republican mega-donors and influencers – large and small – are going to have to do something they didn’t do in 2016: get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when their paths to the nomination are effectively closed.

“That decision day should be no later than, say, 26 February, the Monday following the contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.”…….

Romney urges Republican no-hopers to drop out to beat Trump in primary

Utah senator cites 90s comedy Dumb and Dumber to call on candidates to unite behind one challenger to avoid 2016 repeat

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Donald Trump’s appeal has sunk among Republicans, a new poll has found.

The former president, who faces criminal indictments in two cases and possibly a third, announced earlier this year that he is once again running for president in the 2024 election.

Pew research found that 63% of Americans of all political affiliations have an unfavorable opinion of Trump – an increase from 60% last year.

At 66%, the majority of those who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning still view the former president in a favorable light, but that is 9 percentage points lower than last July’s 75%.

Last July, about a quarter of those on the right viewed him as very or mostly unfavorably, but that figure has risen to 32%.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats’ opinion of Trump is also low, though consistent with recent years. Ninety-one percent of Democrats polled viewed Trump unfavorably. Of that, 78% viewed him as very unfavorable.

A mere 8% of Democrats view him favorably.……

Donald Trump’s popularity has fallen among Republican voters, poll suggests

Ex-president’s favorability has fallen 9 points to 66% with party supporters, while Republicans with a negative view rose to 32%

www.theguardian.com