KevinG

So we should just give up, eh? Let the inmates run the asylum. No body is treated fairly, so let's have the front runner of a major political party say terrible, terrible things. There are idiots in every walks of life. If Trump wasn't running for president I wouldn't have an issue, but he is. He is the freaking front runner, even if he is not going to win he is getting press and media attention for his nonsense, with no repercussions. We can and should be better then to let Trump slide. Our country is not perfect we have inequality everywhere. But shouldn't at least try to make it

What I am troubled by is that by your definition he is a pace car or a litmus test. And in my mind that means he is the stick by which now measure what is acceptable discourse for a candidate of a major political party. His rhetoric is not being actively and routinely criticized and denounced, by the media and especially members of his own party. What he is saying is not ok. What he is doing is not ok. Will he be nominated? probably not. Will he be president? very unlikely. But his rhetoric will have a lasting effect on the political process, by showing that you can lie about and dis

Interesting, thanks for that.

And this is not troubling? All of his outrageous statements have stuck. 27% of the Republicans support him for president. That is not a small number. Also his statements have really have not met with a large push back from the other candidates. So the take away for whomever become the nominee is that hateful, racist, bigoted rhetoric and policies are ok and will actually bolster your support.

I think that is the consensus, however, since he got in the race everyone has been waiting for him to fail. He has routinely done things and said things that would sink other candidates. But if anything he has seen an increase in his support. I don't think people can just idly sit by and wait for him to implode. The GOP has to seriously look at Trump and what his candidacy and rhetoric says about the party.

Interesting, especially when compared to the other candidates. It appears regardless 7 to 11 % of republicans would vote for Clinton or Sanders over any of the GOP candidates. And surprisingly the number of Republicans not voting for Trump is about the same as not voting for any GOP candidate. Thanks for that.

I often wonder what "moderate" Republicans or those Republicans who see Trump as an embarrassment would do if the 2016 Election came down to Clinton v Trump? I guess there is only these options 1. Vote for Trump 2. Vote for Clinton 3. Vote for a third party candidate 4. Not vote at all It would be interesting to see where Republicans stand and how they vote.

I do not. With all of the voter suppression measures out there, the fact he has some sort of weird populist support, and a majority of voters no longer vote for a person, just the letter behind their name, he could actually win. I would not want a world where a handful of undecided voters could put him in office. As much as I disagree with the politics and the nature of the rest of the GOP field, I would rather have anyone of them instead of Trump (Carson notwithstanding). We are at a turning point in our history. The next president will probably appoint 3 supreme court justices. This w

So let's see, you can completely lie about seeing Muslims in this country cheering on 9/11; make fun of a disabled reporter; put out a racist and factually incorrect tweet and your poll numbers will go up. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/02/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-endure-as-ben-carson-recedes-poll-says/?_r=0 Again, I will say it. Not all Republicans are lying, bigoted, racist, assholes, but apparently that is who they want to run our country.

I think Hixter has plenty to say and often times it is good to get an opposing view. I like to engage him and others that disagree with me, it not only gives me perspective, but can sharpen my arguments. However on the matter guns, nothing new has been presented and it is the same relenting nonsense. By both sides, and generally devolves into name calling. BTW is real childish and actually does a disservice to the position you support.

For someone who consistently takes offense to someone inferring a larger meaning on things you say, you sure do have no problem with doing with the President. You know, Donald Trump has repeated a very similar thing on how the President is coming to take your guns away. But in fact, if you actually read his statements on the matter is untrue. of course that is not the fear based headline that the NRA and the GOP want you to believe. Any meaningful gun legislation will have to go through Congress (which means it will never happen BTW). So Obama is not going to take your guns. Stop rep

Just because you say it is true, doesn't make it true.

I understand the context, and I will keep my deeper political thoughts in the proper thread. However, I do want to say this about Trump and I think it is important (and then I will be done, I promise). This thread and this comment really exemplifies what is wrong with the way we think about Trump. To many, he is a joke candidate, out for publicity, on par with Joe Walsh in 1980, or Randy of the Redwoods in 1992 or Wakka Flakka Flame this year. But there is a large voting segment of the GOP base who see him as viable and acceptable candidate. He is filled with vile hateful rhetoric. He

Can we continue to talk about guns more? Cause it has been so successful and productive in the past. I guess we will have to wait until another GOP candidate makes up some total BS. Is there any truth to anything these guys say anymore?

Economic policy is a debate we should be having in this country. As wrong as you may think the conservative policy may be it is a substantive debate based in reality. What both Trump and Carson have done (especially in the last couple of days) have presented a fantasy (Muslims in NJ cheering the Twin Towers collapse) as reality. You can't debate that because it is so wrong and stupid. What we have here is a real lack of leadership by the GOP. Someone needs to come out and say, to these guys that what they are doing is wrong. And publicly admonish them and demand the leave the presidenti

He has already insulted Superman, by not listening to him.

Ugh. The majority of the the Republican Party now supports two candidates who have said hateful things against, Muslims, African Americans, gays, Immigrants, Latinos and many others. And this hateful rhetoric is has also been said by the other candidates as well. Really by saying something against anyone who is not a straight White American will get you cheered and probably a bump in the polls. Now, you profess your conservatism, which is fine. I don't know what side of conservatism you lie, economic (lower taxes less government, etc.), social (traditional marriage, family values, etc.

So we have one of the top two GOP candidates equating the Syrian refugees with a rabid dogs. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/11/20/ben-carson-compares-some-syrian-refugees-rabid-dogs/76094286/ And the other wants to have all Muslims registered and tracked. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34873057 But calling the GOP leadership racist bigoted is childish. If I was a conservative / Republican I would be embarrassed that these two terrible human beings represented my party and would demand they drop out immediately. But like I said before they will probably g

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/donald-trump-open-creating-muslim-american-database-requiring-special-ids Are you f'ing serious? Ladies and gentlemen one of the front runners of the GOP race for president. And he will probably get a bump in the polls for this. This is sickening.

I was thinking about this on my lunch break. The whole anti-refugee stance is a lot like the whole voter ID law that is so popular with the Right. On the surface both so pretty logical and have some merit (In Syria there are a lot of terrorists and if we let Syrians in this country we will let in terrorists; You can vote without an ID therefore people can vote several times, the integrity of elections is suspect). But if you actually look at the facts of both cases it is painfully obvious that it is untrue. The current process for refugee status makes nearly impossible for a terrorist to e

And it makes us look weak to the rest of the world. Terrorism at its core, wants us to be afraid. To no longer do what is right because of fear. After 9/11 the adage was if we don't do X the terrorists have won. It is clear with the comments and actions of these governors and the GOP leadership the terrorists are winning. And you know who is still planning to bring in 30k refugees? France. Yeah let's chew on that for awhile.

And it makes us look weak to the rest of the world. Terrorism at its core, wants us to be afraid. To no longer do what is right because of fear. After 9/11 the adage was if we don't do X the terrorists have won. It is clear with the comments and actions of these governors and the GOP leadership the terrorists are winning. And you know who is still planning to bring in 30k refugees? France. Yeah let's chew on that for awhile.

I thought we only did that after a mass shooting at a school in America. Progress I guess. It is all noise at this point.

in an effort to be all inclusive and get the naming right, I changed racist to bigot in my post. http://viachicago.org/topic/50630-politics-2015/?p=1582770 And of course we now have done a good job, as members of the board are so apt to do, changing the direction of the conversation and skirting the hard questions.

well I am glad we got that figured out then. I guess I am wrong, the GOP is perfectly in their right to exclude people based upon the God they worship. Glad we have you around Hixter.